The social network for crowdsourcing cool places
What about crowdsourced places in small towns?
So I've been following CoolTown Studios for quite some time now and I enjoy every single article posted. Being a professional urban planner, I enjoy the articles and discussion of crowdsourced cool places. Most of the cool places being crowdsourced or beta communities are located within large metropolitan areas with lots of people and lots of capital floating around. My question is, how can the idea of a beta community/crowdsourced place be adapted to work in a small town?
I live in the small bedroom community of Portland, MI. The population is just over 3,000 and most people commute to either Grand Rapids or Lansing for work.
Recently a former high school that had been converted to low-income apartments was condemned. The building is no longer fit for residential use, is a historic structure, and I would like to see the building turned into a community center.
Being a small community in MI, Portland is strapped for cash. The economic recession has hit our state hard so the solution to this problem will need to be creative, thus my research into crowdsourced places. However, so much of what I've seen on the subject deals with places within large metro areas; areas with a dense population. I understand the idea that crowdsourcing, by it's definition, requires the support of a large group of people to solve a problem. However, how can the idea be scaled to a much smaller community? Could someone with more knowledge on the subject than I point me in the right direction? Are there examples out there of how this has been done in small towns? Thanks for your help.
Eric
I live in the small bedroom community of Portland, MI. The population is just over 3,000 and most people commute to either Grand Rapids or Lansing for work.
Recently a former high school that had been converted to low-income apartments was condemned. The building is no longer fit for residential use, is a historic structure, and I would like to see the building turned into a community center.
Being a small community in MI, Portland is strapped for cash. The economic recession has hit our state hard so the solution to this problem will need to be creative, thus my research into crowdsourced places. However, so much of what I've seen on the subject deals with places within large metro areas; areas with a dense population. I understand the idea that crowdsourcing, by it's definition, requires the support of a large group of people to solve a problem. However, how can the idea be scaled to a much smaller community? Could someone with more knowledge on the subject than I point me in the right direction? Are there examples out there of how this has been done in small towns? Thanks for your help.
Eric
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith Ammann -
I'm trying to get something similar started in Freeport, Ill., population 26,000 (and falling). I asked Neil about it (see the CoolTown blog), and his response was that it might be necessary to begin with just 30 people or so getting together to create one really good third place, then building from there.
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