I'm new to Cyburbia, so I hope you'll forgive me if I've put this in the wrong forum. Here's a bit about the project I'm working on:

I'm trying to create a website and mobile app that would (carto)graphically display ideas for city planning for members of the public to comment on and add to. It would be like SeeClickFix (or any number of similar web/mobile 311 services run by many cities around the country), except simpler, cleaner and -- most importantly -- not just focused on potholes and street lights but on substantial urban planning issues. I want something where users could easily drop a pin on a vacant lot, for instance, and comment on what they'd like to see done there. Or where they could quickly see all the construction projects that have filed permits within 1/2 a mile of their house and comment on them. (It would need to be moderated to promote civility and productive discussion,of course.)

I have yet to see this sort of resource in any widely usable and influential form on the net -- but I hope folks will inform me if they have. There's Candy Chang's "I wish this building was a..." stickers, which are very accessible but which result more in jokes than in substantive planning. And there are oodles of gov't-sponsored public hearings and public comment periods and so forth, which are great for gathering input but which tend to result in certain sections of urban society (partcularly those who are white, middle-aged, non-disabled, fairly well-off and/or homeowners) having a disproportionate influence on neighborhood-based planning. But young people, old people, poor people, people of color, people who rent and people who simply don't have time to attend public meetings or figure out how to submit public comments -- these are major missing groups in the standard public engagement process. So the idea is to reach some portion of those folks -- and to just provide a simple way for anyone to see what's happening in their local area and what their neighbors' ideas are.

Whew! That was a lot more than I meant to write. In any case, this idea has been brewing for a while, and I created a mock up of one idea earlier this year. It's online at http://ciity.org/ but that version is missing a number of things, most importantly a mobile version with location detection and a way to submit an idea/comment simply by clicking a spot on the map.

Any chance somebody out there in the wide world of planning would be interesting in collaborating on such a project and helping to make something truly sleek and awesome? Any leads, advice or interested compatriots gratefully accepted.

Cheers,
Linn
Portland, OR