This is one of my favorite photos of the past couple of months.  It might take a few moments to digest, but as you look you’ll see it captures an iconic CommunityViz moment.

Take it as a mini mystery.  What’s going on here?

That’s CommunityViz on the monitor in the center, of course, and a woman pointing at it with a pen, clearly emphasizing a point.   There’s a sign that says above the monitor that says, “Table 2,” and as you look around you realize the monitor is in the center of a table full of people, all studying intently.  There are water bottles and papers full of notes:  it’s a roll-up-your sleeves work session.  Everyone has a nametag:  these are people who didn’t know each other before, but they’ve clearly come together for this occasion.  And then, in the background, you realize there is a giant room full of tables just like this one:  at least 4, maybe another dozen groups like this, all working around their CommunityViz analysis, talking together, using data, building understanding.  This is the famous “informed, collaborative decision-making” of the traditional CommunityViz tagline.  This is people making decisions about the future of their community, better than they could before.

And now the real story behind the mystery.  This photo comes to us from Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) and their MetroFuture project.  MetroFuture is a remarkably large-scale project that is creating a vision for 164 cities in towns in the Boston region; over 4-1/2 million people.  The people in this photo are just some of more than 500 who participated in a CommunityViz-supported public process.  Read more about it at www.metrofuture.org.

Posted by Doug on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
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