C³PO

Studio Dott worked on the ITEA research project C3PO, alongside a consortium of companies from various European countries (Finland, Turkey and Belgium).

The aim of this research project was to find out how a common, digital platform could be set up, bringing together all available tools for collaborative urban development. This includes, for example, the available (open) data sources, 3D models, visualizations but also opinions and insights from citizens and interest groups.

ITEA EU Project
2018 ITEA Award of Excellence

Looking for ...

During this process, Studio Dott focused on experimenting with new forms of interaction in large-scale participation projects. We developed and tested various forms of interaction to explore how we can involve and engage large groups of stakeholders. After all, we wanted to create alternatives for the typical online surveys and platforms, in order to arrive at tools that provide more insights, and more enriching insights based on qualitative data.

Designing the Participation Process

The first step in the C³PO project was to draw up a joint framework for the ideal urban development process. Together with the project partners, we distilled 8 steps:

framing and context definition
collecting data
analysis
ideas and alternative solutions
communication and evaluation
finalizing and agreements
implementation and construction
management.

These steps became the basis for the work of all C³PO partners.

Mapping of Stakeholders

Participation must be organized consciously. That is why it is crucial to determine which stakeholders should be involved and what their relationship is to the urban development project. Based on our service design expertise, we developed 2 instruments for this, which make it possible to get a good overview of all the parties involved, together with a municipality or city, before the project starts.

Online and Offline Tools

At the start of C³PO, we noticed that many organizations focus on digital citizen participation. This usually boils down to an online platform where questions and/or ideas can be posted. Although this is a fascinating evolution, it also became immediately clear that these new forms of participation only reach a fraction of the target audience. As a facilitator in participation processes for companies, governments and organizations, Studio Dott wants to offer new forms of participation that appeal to and reach the various target groups as widely as possible.

Experiment 1 : integrating existing online tools (Google maps, DScout) for data collection and reporting

Experiment 2 : reaching hard-to-reach target groups with printed cards that can be returned free of charge

Participation pavilion

We designed a participation pavilon that bridges the gap between digital and physical participation. The carefully designed stickers with visualizations and information immerse the participants into the subject matter for which their ideas, feedback and suggestions are needed. Furthermore, the pavilion has a telephone receiver with one large button below it. When a participant picks up the phone, he or she is asked a number of questions. After each question, the participant can record his answer and go to the next question by pressing the button. The answers are automatically captured in audio files.

During the development of this pavilion, we were able to experiment with digital, automated analysis forms of the collected 'rich' data, in collaboration with several partners (christophe.vg & Cropland). We looked into 'speech to text' and linguistic algorithms, among other things. Read more about it in this blog post.

Gent MMM

Schilde luistert

Babbelbox Hamme

Participation paths

During the C³PO project, we conducted in-depth research thanks to various cases involving participation. We summarized our experiences and insights in a series of blog posts that will be published in early 2019. Afterwards these posts will be bundled in a publication that will be available online.