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April 25, 2008

Crowd-sourcing a music festival

This is another one of those 'it was just a matter of time' things...

We've gone over how to crowdsource places and scenes, but not events. Well, here's a real world example in Scotland...

The Tennent's Mutual is a music festival with a quarter of a million $ budget (this can obviously be scaled smaller or larger depending on your market)... that its founders will allow music lovers to "shape, create and dictate gig provision - from selecting artists and debating locations to calling the shots on ticket prices."
 Sponsored by Tennent's Lager, the 'crowdmanaging' opportunity is free, and its advisors include the likes of the Rolling Stones' Andrew Loog Oldham, so there goes the myth that this is only for college students.

Another one of the advisors, Stewart Henderson from Chemikal Underground, comments on the rengen-like impact, "This is a total watershed time that we're living in at the moment. It will change things completely--irreversibly. What Tennent's has done is they've effectively set themselves up as patrons. It's a positive thing as it allows things to happen that may not have otherwise."

Profits from this event will fund the next one. One can just see a viral loop network forming soon...

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April 24, 2008

Portland striving to be the U.S. bike capital

Already owning bragging rights to being the greenest city in the U.S. by one measure, Portland, Oregon believes it's the most bicycle-friendly city as well. Their evidence:

- In the 1970s the state passed a bicycle bill requiring that all facilities be built with bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.

- In the 1990s, city councilor Earl Blumenauer worked to establish a bike program in the city, who has since become the leading U.S. congressman speaking on behalf of bike and pedestrian-oriented cities.

- The average vehicle miles traveled per person dropped from 23 miles/person in the early '90s to 19 today, bucking national trends. Portland ranks 25th in national population, but 12th in terms of overall transit use. It's transit use is growing faster than auto use, and the population, again contradicting national trends.

- Bike advocates (via the organization Shift) are playing a major role in organizing the first Towards Carfree Cities conference in North America.

- At the Carfree conference the City will introduce Sunday Parkways, where six miles of streets are closed to auto traffic every Sunday from 8 am to 2 pm, Portland's version of Ciclovia, an international trend originating in Bogota, Columbia.

However, it'd be tough to claim to title outright without a bike sharing program like Washington DC is getting...

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April 23, 2008

Sign of things to come: Carfree conference comes to the U.S.

What's a carfree conference? That's probably what most U.S. citizens would wonder since the first six carfree conferences occurred only in Europe**. However, as you read through the list below, you'll see that's about to change...

Towards Carfree Cities I: Lyon, France; October 1997;
Organized by EYFA (European Youth for Action) and RVV (Regroupement pour une ville sans voiture, or Group for a Carfree City, Lyon), with 60-80 primarily young participants. This led to the founding of Car Busters, the magazine and resource centre (which later became the World Carfree Network) of the global carfree movement.

Towards Carfree Cities II: Timisoara, Romania; April 2000;
Organized with Young Romanian Nature Friends, with 60-80 primarily young participants.

Towards Carfree Cities III: Prague, Czech Republic; April 2003;
Organized by Car Busters, which became the World Carfree Network at the conference, with 60 participants and consensus to host the conference annually.

Towards Carfree Cities IV: Berlin, Germany; July 2004;
Organized with Autofrei Wohnen, Autofrei Leben!, BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany), ITDP Europe, and other German organizations, with 180 participants.

Towards Carfree Cities V: Budapest, Hungary; July 2005;
Organized by the Clean Air Action Group, Hungarian Traffic Club and Hungarian Young Greens.

Towards Carfree Cities VI: Bogota, Colombia; September 2006;
Organized with Fundación Ciudad Humana, with 120 participants.

Towards Carfree Cities VII: Istanbul, Turkey, August 27-31, 2007
Organized with the Turkish Traffic Safety Association, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning, with 200 participants from 20 countries.

Towards Carfree Cities VIII: Portland, Oregon, USA June 16-20, 2008
Organized with Carfree City USA, Shift, Portland State University, the first Carfree conference in the U.S.

This entry also signals a new category for this site: Pedestrian Only/Carfree.

**Not surprising given that most carfree cities and districts are in Europe.

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April 22, 2008

Crowdsourcing + viral loop networks = natural cultural districts

At first glance this may seem like a lot of made-up words, but they're actually specific terms for solutions to what are known as cloud problems - diffuse and impossible to pin down, requiring "cultural and behavioral change that yields intangible benefits of greater trust, respect, tolerance and social capital. There are no easy answers to complex problems.

Each of these terms were defined separately: crowdsourcing (as it applies to placemaking), viral loops networks, natural cultural districts, and will be used extensively from here on out.

However, here's a concrete outline to provide the gist of what this equation is. Crowdsourcing is about creating content that people really want. Viral loop networks are the means to replicating it. Natural cultural districts are the result, a complementary collection of organically-created third places, scenes and events reflecting what people authentically want.

Image source: Cafe on La Rambla, Barcelona, Spain by avinashbhat.

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April 21, 2008

What do 'viral loops' have to do with communities worth billions?

First of all, what's a viral loop? Viral comes from viral marketing - using pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or sales. A loop occurs when a person is invited to a social network, accepts the invitation, then either:
1. invites others themselves or;
2. creates their own social network.

Pictured above is a series of these viral loops, called a viral loop network. Viral loops and their networks have long been happening in the physical world (e.g. tupperware parties), but are taking off exponentially in the virtual world (e.g. Facebook widgets)...

...and to answer the title question, here's an excerpt on this phenomenon from my favorite magazine, Fast Company,

"Viral loops have emerged as perhaps the most significant business accelerant to hit Silicon Valley since the search engine. They power many of the icons of Web 2.0, including Google, PayPal, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr. But don't confuse a viral loop with viral advertising or videos such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday or the Mentos-Diet Coke Bellagio fountain. Viral advertising can't be replicated; by definition, a viral loop must be."

This is the process by which our cities will witness an economic, social and environmental renaissance. However, it does beg the question: Because this core loop is replicated repeatedly, how can you be sure to get the first one right? More tomorrow...

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