Browse Content: Tool, project design & management

Mind Maps are non-linear organizations of ideas using keywords and images. Elements of the maps can be ‘linked’ with others to clarify relationships, obstacles, and paths. More recently, software has been developed to create Mind Maps digitally.

A number of websites and software programs offer online survey capabilities, which allow communities or organizations to collect and analyze data more efficiently and cost-effectively than is possible with mail and phone surveys.

Open Space Technology is a system for facilitating group meetings. Open Space meetings allow participants to set the agenda, facilitate and record the sessions, and move around as they please.

Wikis are now a staple tool for e-participation. These online platforms allow people to create a page of text and invite others to edit, contribute, read, and comment. Wikis are used for articles, document sharing, collaborative editing and more.

Do you ever think about building, or fixing up, a playground? The KaBOOM! Project Planner is a step by step tool that has everything you need to learn, plan, organize and build a playground or site enhancement project.

Priority Spend is web-based software to help groups of people prioritize decisions about proposed actions, spending, or other choices. It allows participants to assign weighted values to multiple choices, for more nuanced decisions than simple polls.

Youth Master Planning, a comprehensive process to plan for issues facing young people, brings together stakeholders including parents, teachers, employers, and youth. This method of community planning is taking hold in cities throughout America.

Pioneered in Snoqualmie, WA, the Character Impact Assessment process is used to assess the potential impact of development proposals on community character. The process is based on an adaptation of the Environmental Impact Statement process.

The Placemaking process involves identifying community sites that need revitalization, determining a vision for the site, and crafting a new place that will fulfill that vision. The Placemaking approach can be effective on various levels of scale.

i-Neighbors is a free online social networking service that connects residents of geographic neighborhoods. The goal of this site is to help individuals and their communities organize, share information, and work together to address local problems.