Development Forum of Espoon keskus (http://www.espoonkeskus.fi/) is a local web site which functions as a shared platform and storage facility for all kind formal and informal locally attached data in Espoon keskus, which is one of the five sub-centeres of the City of Espoo. It is a part of a research project OPUS (Urban planning and everyday life: a learning process, http://opus.tkk.fi/), in Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Architecture. The site is designed, maintained and controlled by a multi-actor body of local stakeholders like residents associations, representatives of the city of Espoo, researchers and people from various projects in the area.

The aim in Development Forum was to make it easier for all local stakeholders to find and produce information concerning their living environment. Development Forum utilizes various internet-based features in order to arrange local information in a new way. Components like discussion forums, news sections, picture galleries and advertisement boards are also used. Spatially referred data are linked to articles and discussion topics in other parts of the site. The front page of the site functions as a local portal with news topics and calendar of events as well.

In Development Forum, local knowledge can be collected and examined using features like discussion forums, picture galleries, news sections, process trees and map applications. The objective is to make planning and development issues more interesting by enlightening their contexts and backgrounds, and in this way to expand the group of participants. Easy-to-use WebGIS tools are open for everyone. Bottom-up approach is pursued in cooperation with local users. Tools for independent knowledge building and content management are offered. Anyone can add information, news, advertisements and comments.

Mapping applications

There is one mapping applications in Development Forum. A Local Knowledge Map is a map application in which local data are linked to places either as points, lines or areas. Administrators of the site can add new data into the system with in an easy point and click system: any specific GIS skills are not required. Links to official information concerning a certain area can be combined with statements of the residents' associations, news from local magazines or photographs. This information can be viewed on a map, in separate coloured layers and categories.  Users can zoom into a map, select a category (for example ongoing, archived or future zoning; statements of the associations; historical information: pieces of art etc.) and submit a search. The application then shows the results both as points or areas on the map, and in addition as a list of titles (see Figure 6). By clicking a certain point on a map or the title, the system shows the articles that have been attached to it. In most cases, these articles include links to other sites, maintained by different stakeholders. The user can then decide which links to follow further.

Also, the users can put different kinds of symbols into a map: negative comments, positive comments and ideas. A comment can be attached to each symbol. When the user saves his/hers comments at the end of a session, some background information is asked (age, sex, whether he/she lives in the area or not). Every comment has also a time label; therefore time-related spatial queries are also enabled. Everyone can survey the comments by using these variables and in this way produce simple thematic maps. Each comment can be studied separately, too.  If a comment or an idea on a map arouses arguments, those can be linked to the discussion forum. A local knowledge building process is being supported as the comments and opinions are read and commented by the others. All commentary data can be transferred into municipality's GIS if needed, and a certain "community layer" can be formed on top of the so called formal data. A planner can then view this local data on his/hers own working environment and new in-depth analyses can be made with professional GIS tools.

Development Forum was opened in October 2006. After the OPUS project is finished by the end of the year 2007, the local maintenance group will continue to govern the site independently.

• Download the the presentation slides: Development Forum (pdf)
• The home page of OPUS-project  (English material)