Geographic Spaces / Digital Places: Towards a ... - CiteSeerX

Geographic Spaces / Digital Places: Towards a Communicative Approach for Urban and Regional Planning Michele Campagna, Andrea De Montis1 Università di Cagliari - Dipartimento di Ingegneria del Territorio Sezione Urbanistica Piazza d’Armi, 16 - 09123 Cagliari. Italy Ph: +39.070.675.5203/5210 - Fax: +39.070.675.5215 email: [email protected] ; [email protected]

Abstract. In the last decade, and especially since 1995, when the Internet started its widespread diffusion, Distributed Geographic Information (DGI) technologies have a rapid exponentially developed because of the enormous growth of the “network of the networks”. Online GIS started to appear on the web, and soon they multiplied their number. Many organizations and companies started to deliver simple geographic information through Internet Web-sites, by means of basic GIS functionality, designed for everyday life needs of “non-technical” users. The need of data sharing among organizations, due to the high cost of data collection, has recently pushed software houses to produce reliable tools, in order to allow the implementation of internet based enterprise GIS. The epochal change from an economy based on the production of physical goods to a new economy based on the production of information, started in the USA and nowadays concerning also the European union, has boosted the development of new policies leading to the creation of the “e-Europe”. In this scenario of economic, social and cultural mutations, experiences of e-government have been undertaken at European, National, Regional and Local Level. In Italy, many Regional (Provinces) and Local (Communes) Authorities started to develop GIS supported Website in order to supply territorial-dimension-based online services to citizens, obtaining quite good results, from an operational point of view. Some of these experiences have reached a very high level of development offering a wide variety of services (e.g. the City of Turin Web-site) but there still is a lack of reliable tools for public involvement in planning and spatial decision-making. The issue of public participation on spatial planning and decision making becomes more relevant in such processes characterized by the special role of some economic, social, environmental or cultural issues, and by a complex system of stakeholders. The aim of this paper is the discussion of GIS oriented systems for distributed planning in the light of two research projects carried on by the authors and devoted to the development of a communicative approach to urban and regional settlements management. These cases deal with the management of the urban historic centers recovery and of the development of areas affected by the environmental tourism. The first one refers to an online GIS-based multimedia helpdesk to manage action of monitoring and promote co-operation among stakeholders in the process of redevelopment of historical district characterized by valuable cultural heritage. The second one refers to the construction of a virtual decisional arena that allows group leaders to manage a variety of 296

activities, such as group learning and interaction, with a view to regional planning. The ‘info design’ of a complex Internet interface provides an interactive spatial decision support system, through which each member of the group has the opportunity to tune on its own on the sensitivity of the procedure and, eventually, to propose modifications.

1. Introduction: towards a new digital distribution of the information Information and communication technology, also known under the acronym ITC, refers namely to the construction and the transfer of data structured into an informative framework. However, it can be considered not only as the cultural product of a certain community, but also as a crucial factor of the behavioural systems and thought modalities of that society. In a famous textbook, Marshall Mc Luhan (1997) reflects on the affinity that sometimes constitutes a coincidence between informative content and medium adopted to transmit it from a transmitting to a receiving system. The sentence “the medium is the message” is the starting point of the argumentation of Mc Luhan and provides an instrument for the interpretation of the relationship between media and society. According to the thought of Mc Luhan, the medium can be considered as an extension of the human possibilities, a tool for widening the field of action either in material or in cultural terms. The innovative process of the technological advancement is the first responsible actor of the changes of medium throughout the last millennium and, especially, throughout the last century. “The message of a medium, or of a technology, is inside of the mutation of proportion, rhythm and scheme it introduces into the human relations. The railway did introduce into the society neither the movement nor the transportation, nor the wheel, nor the street; it did speed and widen the proportions of already existent human functionality creating totally new cities with new forms of work and leisure. […] On the other side, the aeroplane, speeding up commuting time, tends to dissolve the city, the political organisations and the associative patterns proposed by the railway. This happens no matter the use of the aeroplane that can be done” (translation by the authors, from Mc Luhan, 1997, p. 16). The thought of Mc Luhan seems to be relevant, since it focuses on the relations between medium and cultural infrastructure of a society. Every time there is a change of the nature of the extension, it is associated to a perturbation of the reality perception categories and of the individual relational space. In the contemporary era, telecommunications represent the current innovation. Definable as a medium in the Mcluhanian sense, this instrument allows the definitive overcoming of the obstacle constituted by the physical distance. Telecommunications allow the contemporaneous transmission to a theoretically unlimited number of destinations. Therefore, the crucial cultural repercussion of telecommunications states in deleting the space or, simply, in eliminating the category-space in the Euclidean terms. In this sense, the “message” embodied into the telecommunications can be interpreted as the system of social, cultural and productive opportunities stemming from the enlargement of the number of users and from the contemporaneousness. The sensorial sphere of the individual widens and, theoretically, can assume the dimension of ubiquity. Virtual reality technology represents an example of the artificial extension of human capacities: through this instrument an individual becomes able to perceive sensation, such as sense of touch or smell, about realities located in remote places or, sometimes, in not real environments. 297

Currently societies are affected by a huge diffusion of information technology, whose products have become accessible to everybody and are likely becoming necessary components of the daily life. The strategic innovations can be individuated in the digitalisation and in the miniaturisation: the bit and the microprocessor are nowadays really the masters of current culture and design. These pieces associated to the development of distributed computing yield what is known as the Internet work environment. A common thesis is that Internet can be considered as the medium, which lets digital revolution explode with the same pattern of the Industrial Revolution during the eighteenth century. The second one allowed the exponential increase of industrial production mainly of goods; the first allows a similar increase of information transmission. According to recent studies about the social mutations caused by technological change (Berardi, 1994), contemporary era is affected by a painful transit to a new interpretative paradigm of reality, a “techno communicative transition” from a socio cultural system dominated by a communicative technology to a socio cultural system dominated by another communicative technology. Currently, humankind is experimenting a techno communicative transition from a system dominated by an analogical and spatial communication technology of the Industrial Era to the digital and cyber spatial technology of the Informatics Era. 2. Virtual versus actual It is possible to indicate two immediate consequences of the current mutation as they are related to a process of undermining the status of reality: the de-territorialisation and the virtualisation. The end of the geographical space allows the beginning of social eradication and the progressive waning for the sense of belonging to a certain place. Telecommunications can resolve into the absence of identity. On the other hand, virtualisation can be interpreted as an activity connected to an enlargement of the human action and to the perception of remote objects. As Stephen Spielberg has foreseen, there will be soon the possibility to have a neuronal and psychic contact with whomever in the planet. In this sense, the tele-transmission of the sensorial experience remains the end point already not attained for the virtualisation. Pierre Levy has reflected over the cultural impact of new information technologies, focussing on the concepts of virtualisation and of collective intelligence. In his book about the virtual dimension (1997), Levy defines virtualisation as “a change of identity, a displacement of the ontological gravity center of the case study object […]. The virtualisation of an entity whatsoever consist of the discovery the general problematic beyond it […] and of the redefinition of the starting actuality as an answer to a precise ask.. […] The actualisation went from a problem to its solution. The virtualisation goes from an already given solution to another problem. […] In this way, the virtualisation fluidifies the established differences, increases the degrees of freedom, turns the empty space that creates into dynamic moving power.” (Translation of the authors, from Levy, 1997, p. 8, 9). The digital advancements allow a virtualisation of the concept of geographical displacement, until the dissolution of the sense of “hic et nunc” and of the feeling of cultural belonging to a precise place. In the case of the transmission of information through the Internet, a text, an image or a form are virtually present as they are available in whatever personal computer connected to the Net: no place, no address can be indicated. Telecommunications leads to situation where digital communities can meet and express together their opinion. The deterritorialisation can be interpreted as a characteristic induced by virtualisation meant as the contemporaneous presence in many places. Without the sense of geographical location, collective intelligence is able to evolve: it can be defined as “a everywhere distributed, always 298

brought out, in real time coordinated intelligence, that leads to an effective mobilization of competencies” (Translated by the authors, from Levy, 1999a, p. 34). It is now accepted among sociologists and communication philosophers that current telecommunications technology is able to generate a very true digital culture. The interconnection seems to be the principal task of cyberculture, a new paradigm for the digital communities. The culture of the cyberspace aims to “a civilization of the generalized tele-presence” (Translated by the authors, from Levy, 1999b, p. 123).

3. The virtualization of the government: towards a digital agora? Pierre Levy reflects about the utopist scenario of the government form that could be characteristic of the cybernetic society. “How can we govern with an accelerated de-territorialisation? The invention of new forms of political and social government seems to be one of the main duties for the contemporary humanity” (Translated by the authors, from Levy, 1999b, p. 71). In particular, Levy focuses on the possibilities revealed by communication technology with respect to the problem of political participation and representation. In the past one of the main obstacle to direct democracy was the impossibility to find a unique place for a large number of people. Nowadays, a number of personal computer terminals could be used as distributed interfaces between citizens and political bodies: there could be a revolution of the style of being politicians, because of the innovative utopia constituted by dispersed decision-making. “Cyberspace is to become the place where problems are explored and pluralistic discussion will focus on complex questions, where collective decisions and evaluations will adjust to interested communities” (Translated by the authors, from Levy, 1999b, p. 73). On the other side, political institutions seem to react slowly to these suggestions. The mutation of the information reception and processing modes implies a painful abandonment of the old political procedures and the start of an innovative season. The environment of this democratic decision –making would “take place” in a digital arena dispersed throughout many terminals participating to the political debate. In this way, for a great number of people it will be possible to overcome the problem of finding the meeting place. Some signs of this mutation are already visible inside of many digital civic activities, such as social networks and online forums. But the way ahead is directed to scenarios where the contemporaneous digital expression of the political idea of each citizen will acquire an importance impossible to elude. Real time democracy needs new agoras, new places for sociality and government that “help people and groups to recognize each other, meet each other, negotiate and draw up contracts” (Levy, 1999b, p. 86). By means of Internet connections, every citizen could virtually participate to government processes. The current form of digital dialogue between governmental bodies and citizens take place inside of the civic networks. In these cases, the virtual agora means administrative processes speeding up and controls procedure simplification, since data can be transmitted to a virtually infinite number of users.

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4. The digital civitas: Internet services for remote citizens In his careful analysis on web-based GIS/Multicriteria Evaluation spatial decision support systems, Carver (1999) notices that: “the potential technological barriers to participation via digital means are […] likely to reduce with time as more and more people become familiar with the computers and their use across a broad spectrum of activities from home to the workplace” (Carver, 1999, p. 70). This process is becoming faster in Europe, thanks also to the policies boosted by European Commission within the e-Europe initiative (e-Europe, 1999). The initiative aims at building an “online ground” to develop a new economy mainly driven by the Internet. One year after its launch e-Europe has had a broad impact at European, National and Regional level as well as in the neighbouring Countries policies. The objectives of the European Commission listed in a the recent document (e-Europe 2002 Update, 2000, p. 2) under the items “bringing all Europeans into the digital age and online” and “ ensuring the process is socially inclusive […]” play an important role in fostering public participation and transparency since it could facilitate a wider diffusion of e-government actions. The European Council in Lisbon, in March 2000, required public administration at all levels to use new Technology to give public access to Information for all citizens, promoting, at the same time, online interaction among citizens and public administration. Cheaper and faster Internet connections, network security and smartcards, together with all initiatives leading to a digitally literate Europe are facilitating factors in this direction. The area of e-government, one of the ten priority areas of eEurope, has had encouraging examples in the public and the private sectors. The latter is ready to devote resources to support e-Europe also in this area. Besides, the document “Dialogue on Europe” adopted by the European Commission on February 2000, opens a public debate with Europeans on the challenge of the European institutional reform, by using new technology available on the Internet, foster the trend towards democratisation of decision-making. In a Europe where cities and their territory play the game of competitiveness among each others, spatial policy gain a growing role as well as spatial planning and spatial related services as consequence. When decision-making become spatial decision-making, the geographic component of Information needs special tools to be represented and to be analysed. On the other side, the transmission of an effective (geographic) knowledge requires that the Information can be received and understood by user/consumers. GIS has been proved to be not only able to supply effective operational support but also to be a decision aid tool in spatial planning and spatial decision-making. Internet widespread diffusion and development of sophisticated Distributed Geographic Information technologies (Plewe, 1997) allow the implementation of reliable GIS functionality for the representation and the analysis on the Web. In spite of the hard work of researchers and software houses to develop user-morefriendly interfaces, there is still the need of particular application. In the light of these “lagging behind” behaviours, in a recent report Goodchild complains that: “the use of GIS require a certain level of understanding of basic principles, and ignorance of them open the way to misuse and misinterpretation” (Goodchild, 2000, p. 8). 300

These constraints, on one hand, lead to a wide diffusion of web services referred to basic GIS functionality, such as address finding, routing and so forth, while, on the other hand, slow down the implementation of full-featured online GIS which could offer a reliable support in urban management. In Italy, many Regional (Region, Provinces) and Local (Communes) Authority started to develop GI related Website in order to supply spatial-dimension-based online services to citizens. Some of these experiences have reached a high level of development offering a wide variety of services (e.g. the City of Turin Web-site) but there still is a lack of reliable tools for public involvement in planning, and spatial decision-making. 5. Transferring the digital transition to urban and regional planning: is it the end of geographical place? The mutation described above affects society and the pattern of its evolution. The deterritorialisation, meaning the absence of the sense of belonging to a specific location, implies that the cultural identity, stemming from the geographical displacement, risks a physiological extinction. The disciplinary paradigms of urban and regional planning, its schemes of interpretation of the change seem to be too inadequate to provide correct analysis and to manage current regional complexity. Graham and Marvin (1997 and 1999) confirm this interpretative framework crisis. They complain that urban planning researchers and scholars are not interested so much in the relation between the digital field of telecommunications and the stone hardware of the city. “The remarkable neglect of telecommunications-based changes in cities demands a corresponding shift in the analysis and understanding of cities and the processes of urban development. But because these have yet to emerge fully, we argue, many urban analysts and policy makers still see cities through analytical lenses which actually have less and less to do with the real dynamics of telecommunication-based urban development. There is, in short, a threatening “paradigm crisis” (Graham e Marvin, 1997, p. 48). Batty agrees with them, observing that: “interest and insights into the impact of communications patterns on the city with respect to information flow have […] been virtually nonexistent […] understanding of the impacts of information technology on cities is still woefully inadequate” (Batty, 1990, p. 248 and 250). The specialist literature itself shows the signals of a sort of scientific inertia, since the classificatory attempts do not delve beyond the metaphorical transposition between the dual virtual/actual fields, and avoid describing the real changes induced by digital telecommunication into the city. Some examples can be remembered, as Graham and Marvin (1997) quote them: “invisible city” (Batty, 1990); “informational city” (Castells, 1989); “weak metropolis” (Dematteis, 1988); “wired city” (Dutton et al., 1987); “telecity” (Fathy, 1991); “city in the electronic age” (Harris, 1987); “information city” (Hepworth, 1987); “knowledge-based city” (Knight, 1989); “intelligent city” (Latterasse, 1992); “virtual city” (Martin, 1978); “electronic communities” (Poster, 1990); “communities without boundaries” (Pool, 1980); “electronic 301

cottage” (Toffler, 1981); “electronic spaces” (Robins and Hepworth, 1988); “overexposed city” (Virilio, 1987); “flexicity” (Hillman, 1983); “virtual community” (Rheingold, 1994); “non-place urban realm” (Webber, 1964); “teleutopia” (Piorinski, 1991). However, the dichotomy urban places/electronic spaces seems to leave many research directions open: the question relies on the correct interpretation of the relational material and immaterial flows between city and hipercity. These are characterised by synergy and not only by simple duplication of social fields. On the silent background of this querelle, it is possible to discern the need of new paradigms for urban and regional planning. In this transition, planners have to seek on the demand of new spatial settlements and infrastructure, listening to both the displaced and the digital communities. Digitalisation boosts the change of the mode of planning tools through the introduction of digital formats and of negotiate digital draft procedures. The imperative seems really to be seeking over the innovated sense of the places displayed by the “collective intelligence”. Nevertheless planning seems to have to do still with geographic systems of real displacements, even if telecommunications allow people to work without moving, to vote without going to the ballot-box or to watch movies without entering any cinema. The interconnection, as virtualisation of the presence, determines a dilatation of opportunities and also of the need of moving, acting, travelling and imaging. A crucial aspect of current mutations is the change of the concept of built space. Jameson (1984), quoted by Graham and Marvin (1997, p. 66), has pointed out that: “We are in presence of something like a mutation in built space itself. […] We ourselves, the human subjects who happen to inhabit this new space, have not kept pace with that evolution […] We do not yet possess the perceptual equipment to match this new hyperspace. [It] has finally succeeded in transcending the capabilities of the human body to locate itself, to organize its immediate surroundings perceptually, and cognitively map its position on a mappable external world. […] This alarming disjunction point between the body and its built environment […] can itself stand as the symbol and analogue of that even sharper dilemma which is the incapacity of our minds, at least at present, to map the great global multinational and decentred network in which we find ourselves caught as individual subjects”. The rise of the Internet mode of exchanging information opens really a-spatial patterns to relate with others. Even without the indication of addresses and displacements, Internet is configured as a “place”, where it is possible to meet people, to work and to live an associative life. With this respect, William Mitchell describes the place Internet: “[Internet] subverts, displaces, and radically redefines our perceived conceptions of gathering place, community, and urban life. The Net has a fundamentally different physical structure, and it operates under quite different rules from those that organize the action in the public places in traditional cities. […] The Net negates geometry. While it does have a definite topology of computational nodes and radiating boulevards for bits […] it is fundamentally and profoundly aspatial […] You cannot say where it is or describe its memorable shape and proportions or tell a stranger how to get there. But you can find things in it without knowing where they are. The Net is ambient – nowhere in particular but everywhere at 302

once. You do not go to it; you log in from whenever you physically happen to be” (Mitchell, 1995, p. 8). Contemporaneousness admits the existence of a third dimension, the “real time”, beyond the space and the time. Is it easy to understand how the system of geographic spaces implies different relations among its points, with respect to the relations linking the points of the virtual spaces. These fields show different topologies. Planners are engaged in reading the evolution affecting the topology of the urban places, taking into account that important interactions leak out, sometimes in an invisible way from electronic spaces. Telecommunications modify the sense of habiting and the related architectural design; they modify regional relations and the planning process referred to them. Virtual locations dominate real displacements, as in the case of tele-commanded houses or of telesecured offices. In this “digital era” (Batty, 1998), professional have to reflect over their working instruments and disciplinary paradigm. Their curricula are going to be changed and complemented with elements coming from different subjects, such as geomatic, geographic information science, remote sensing and fractal and cellular modelling. This era seems to be characterized by the use of network co-operation between remote professionals and scientists. Graham and Marvin stress the contribution of Howkins and Machart that describe the transition to a new style for planning. “The old style planner talked about physical zoning, the balance of employment, housing and open space and traffic flows. The new style planner has to consider the configuration of electronic systems and Local Area Networks (LAN) and the provision of bandwidth to each urban area. The town planner dealt with the stock and flows of vehicles. Today’s public authorities have to face the stock and flows of information” (Howkins, 1987, p. 427). “Telecommunication are becoming a new component in urban and regional development planning. [The] desire is to use telecommunication as a structuring element in cities and regions and to incorporate telecommunications in economic and social development” (Machart, 1994). The actual challenge is the interpretation of the suggestions of hi-tech solution for communication to design new relational and cultural geographic spaces. According to Mitchell, the physical integration of electronic devices will characterized future planning and design practice. “In the 21st century […] architects and urban designers must gracefully integrate the emerging activity patterns created by pervasive digital telecommunication into the urban forms and textures inherited from the past. The path from our present systems to those of the future need not be one cataclysm change; it can be one of mostly soft, subtle, incremental transformation” (Mitchell, 1999, p. 35). 6. From theory to practice: two real case studies of virtual environments In the paragraph above, the mutation of social and cultural behaviour induced by the digital revolution has been described. In this section, two experiences are illustrated, as they are designed to allow new digital 303

forms of collaborative planning. In this environment, Internet distributed computing is applied in the light of negotiative processes where decision-making is coupled to group learning and distributed knowledge. 6.1 Gis-based Virtual info-desk for the re-development in the Historical Center of Cagliari The extremely valuable cultural heritage stored within urban areas of many European town and cities requires paying attention in redevelopment action management in historic quarters in order to avoid processes of deterioration and loss. Redevelopment policy options should deal with individual historic building of artistic value and archaeological sites safeguard, and, on the other side, with the whole historic neighbourhoods in which real estate, after a slow evolution through time, reflects the history, the culture and the lifestyles of inhabitants, and it is a fundamental component of the identity of the place. The case study deals with the use of a GIS-based online info-desk as support in re-development action management of historical city centres. The area of interest is the historic centre of the City of Cagliari, Italy. Urban re-development policy is accepted among practitioners as dynamic process involving multiple stakeholders. According to recent research trends this process could be supported by supplying structured and filtered Information to stakeholders to build shared format knowledge. According to a multidisciplinary approach, urban redevelopment process could be supported by constructing a knowledge base about cultural, historic, artistic, historic, social, economic and real estate scenery as support in policy development and decision-making. An augmented number of stakeholders takes part to the re-development process and citizens themselves plays an important role. On the one hand, after decades of public housing policies, private investments are required, while on the other hand, citizens who live the historic neighbourhood have to be involved; the role of inhabitants as active actor in the re-development process within a district and a community is fundamental for the preservation of cultural heritage stored within the built environment. Moreover, a strong sense of belonging of the community could help to stem the forces of commercialisation, cultural uniformity and real estate speculation on historic district. Geographic Information System has proved to be an effective tool in spatially referenced knowledge base management and reliable strategic support tools in planning and action.

Figure 1 SRCS: Spatial Data and Multimedia Information Scheme

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Within the framework of the Regional Law 45/89, the Local Government of the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (RAS), responsible for spatial planning regional policies, instituted the Historical Cities Development Laboratory (LRCS) with the aim to promote sustainable redevelopment actions in Sardinian historic centres. The setting up of the LRCS can be considered as an innovative approach in urban redevelopment management. Within the historic urban centres, LRCS activity concerns the three main searching topics of cultural and environmental heritage, social and economic framework and operational legal tools for actions. These broad concerns lead to a series of task such as classifying building technologies to get constructions techniques ready in the physical renewal; searching models, sectional projects and action routines regarding architectural typology, materials, street furniture; investigating social and economical conditions; typological and functional research about buildings with respect to transformations occurred and admitted for the future; defining environmental, infrastructure and lay-out requirement; verifying action proposals as a base for urban planning; standardising actions typologies; assessing a GIS based program to evaluate and manage re-development actions . The RAS entered into agreement with the DIT in order to carry out a research program with the main task of creating a complete cognitive support that can constitute the starting point for all the phases of planning and performance, in order to activate an help desk for advising users, to develop actions to promote the cultural increase of all the operating involved actors, and to foster actions of monitoring and control. Behind the searching activity the SIRCS GISpilot project started to supply a support to the co-operation of all actors involved in the development process such as professionals, administrators, municipalities, local governments, contractors and inhabitants. One important task in the implementation was to give access to the knowledge base developed within the LRCS activity to stakeholders who have different interests, different skills and background, different way to represent the real world or its part they are concerned with. In the recovery process, we can identify the main actors in Local Agencies, professionals, inhabitants and contractors.

Figure 2 SIRCS: a virtual info-desk as a support for re-development actions management The first phase of the study for the design of the LRCS GIS pilot project ended with the implementation of the SIRCS prototype enabling, on the one hand, to manage the wide amount of data collected during the first years of monitoring and searching activity of the LRCS and, on the other one, to supply the related knowledge in a structured way according to a model of 305

representations suitable for one or another actor of the redevelopment process In the first case, the SIRCS gives a merely operational support to the everyday monitoring and action management activities of the LRCS. Indeed, the construction of a digital archive according sharable formats could be already considered a satisfactory issue and a first step towards the awaited computerisation and reorganisation of Public Administration. In the second case, the SIRCS is an analytical tool for knowledge communication and sharing oriented to strategically support decision making in recovery planning.

Figure 3 SIRCS: knowledge sharing of the social system in the Historical Center of Cagliari After the first stage of SIRCS development a second research challenge has been undertaken in order to find new way to use the collected database. In fact, data is the first matter to produce the precious resource of Information. A strong will spring then to find new different ways to use the collected database for both the aims for which it has been collected and others. The first extension thought for SIRCS was its on-line implementation via Internet. The subsequent and most challenging step has been the one to find a different way to use the database although aiming at the same issue of recovery management support. Thus the idea has been developed to use collected database with the necessary integration in a new kind of system capable to support collaborative decision-making and to foster participation in spatial problems. 6.2 The digital decision-making in the distributional Lab “Evaluating Tourism” In the second case, an application is developed on the basis of the research findings about multicriteria methodology and refers to a hypothetical situation, where an institutional body shows interest in developing an evaluation procedure of the vocation to sustainable tourist development displayed by seven territories in southern Sardinia. The methodology, based on the Regime method combined with the AHP approach, is inserted in a communicative process designed for seeking consensus among a community of privileged actors. The aim of this procedure is the “measurement” of the tendency to integrative tourist development in qualitative terms. In view of these concerns for communication inside the process, the paper explores the design of an Internet application that allows an “on-line evaluation” process, grounded on a remote access debate among the stakeholders. The complexity of the process management, where many actors have the opportunity to communicate, leads to the integration of multicriteria analysis with information and communication “on-line” technology. The experimentation consists of the design of a system-user interface, with reference to techniques for the con-

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struction of multi-media communication of the virtual reality engineering. The design of the functions leads to the construction of a communication management system that is available either in public remote access (Internet pattern) or in password protected remote access (Intranet pattern). An integrative part of the dissertation is the simulation of this communication instrument, accessible through the experimental site “Evaluating Tourism”, based on distributed multicriteria analysis applications (Carver, 1999). This application allows scheduling direct meetings between the actors of the process and a parallel system of personalised appointments. Each stakeholder is able to become an active component of the process and by use of the site “Evaluating Tourism” s/he has an opportunity to obtain information about the progress of the procedure by checking schedules and documents. Moreover, each actor is able to retrieve pieces of information from the geographic information system “on-line”, to experience the sensitivity of the particular evaluation method adopted, and to verify the output that derives from his/her own judgements. Therefore “Evaluating Tourism” consists of a network co-ordinate and information system, as far as it supports the management of the interaction and communication between the analyst and the other actors of the evaluation process. In this communicative perspective, it is a useful tool not simply because it is thought to lead to a reliable set of results, but also because it is able to foster a lively debate among stakeholders. The deliberate reconstruction of the local development model is the basis for a shared process of decision-making. These remarks reveal new “agoras” for planning, where the “cyber process” has the opportunity to evolve. The experimentation of the virtual decisional lab “Evaluating Tourism” is designed to allow faster interactions and smarter personalised evaluation paths in the very real decisional Hall. The Internet site designed proposes two main areas of services: a public and a private domain. This choice corresponds to the requirement of allowing the access to the community as a whole and of opening virtual laboratories dedicated to the activities of the decision-making group. The Home Page presents the available fields for action: an activity for geographic information retrieval, a public forum and a private consultant area. The information about the nature of the site, meant as the general “message” of it, is formulated so that a common user can understand the main concepts and scopes of the procedure, without being acquainted about its technicalities.

Figure 4 The design of the Home Page indicates the meaning and the use of the available services

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The public domain of the site presents to users a discussion Forum with the possibility of retrieving simple geographic information accessible through the area “GIS on-line”. In this area it is possible to examine geographic maps navigating through them with zoom and pan commands. These features are projected to allow an easy consultation also to not experts.

Figure 5 An example of “zoom” into a geographic area in Southern Sardinia through the GIS on-line functionality The domain of the public Forum is regulated by characteristics that are common to other Internet discussion groups: free access allows the users to choose the debate fields and to express their opinion. The virtual agora takes shape spontaneously and collective intelligence emerges from a variety of judgements stimulated by the society as a whole. In this Forum, it is possible to gather useful information about the images citizens associate to local tourist development. The implementation of this system could suggest an elaboration of further debate mechanism to stimulate the exchange of opinion. In the light of this strategy, some topics could be proposed, while citizens could be stimulated to debate other concerns in a multiplicity of “virtual living rooms”. Private domain of this site is directly accessible through the Home page only for the decisionmakers who are given an account from the process administrator. In this case the leader of the decisional group can be individuated as the person who is in charge of the account maintenance. In this case, the persons who are given the account are individuated as the privileged actors of the evaluation process. They are able to access inputting their login and password directly in the Home page: this is a characteristic that is frequent in Internet sites.

Figure 6 The architecture of the site is designed to allow the input of login and password directly from the Home page

Figure 7 The welcome page of the private domain: in the left part of the screen a list of virtual activities is shown

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The system of virtual activities is accessible through the list of links in the welcome page. The link “Il Progetto” (The project) allows the access to information about the strategic objectives of the evaluation process of the tourist development of southern Sardinia. In this electronic environment, many activities can be co-ordinated: knowledge construction, evaluation procedure, and meeting schedule. Knowledge construction is supported by a series of links. Useful sources display in different patterns: information from public debate, journalistic reports, public forum debate, Internet links and an ad hoc GIS on-line. Through the link “rassegna stampa” (Journal review) it is possible to read materials contained in electronic journals related to the issue of tourism. In the private domain each participant is enabled to retrieve information from the public Forum joining the link “osservare il forum” (Watching the forum) and to verify the opinions expressed by the citizens. This is a sort of window on the public arena: community concerns enrich the elements of the decision-making process. The link “sistema informativo” (Information system) allows the user to access to a virtual laboratory, where it is possible to retrieve geographic information through GIS on-line features about spatial data and through digital texts. In the GIS on-line environment, each member of the decisional group may retrieve maps and cartographic materials useful for the process as a whole. The functionality of this area is advanced, with respect to those of the public GIS on-line described above. The link “query” allows performing advanced spatial analysis, by means of database and geographic filters. Knowledge is constructed in order to be available for any verification.

Figure 8 A simulation of spatial query: from the input of the data demand ...

Figure 9 ... to the display of the results about the evaluated areas.

The section related to the link “la valutazione” (The evaluation) consists of an electronic environment where the actors of the process may be guided throughout the variety of phases implied in the multicriteria procedure. In this case, a great effort has been made to make communicable the logic underlying a highly specific technique, such as the Regime-AHP multicriteria approach. According to this philosophy, the systems available in this virtual laboratory are devoted to make easier to understand the mechanism of the technique. Continuous interactions actors can have with each other and with the system contributes to the group syntonisation process on conceptual meaning of all the evaluation steps, such as criteria system building and result debating. The link “I criteri” (The criteria) introduced into a virtual lab where evaluation criteria are presented and confronted with the system of objective and values associated. Each actor is enabled to visualize in every moment the hierarchy of the criteria and eventually to propose corrections.

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Figure 11 ... and of the meaning of the criteria

Figure 10 Display of criteria hierarchy …

The links “I pesi” (The weights) and “Come compilare la matrice” (How to fill in the matrix”) explain the calculation procedure and introduce a guided filling process for the criteria matrices. This process evolves by means of electronic delivery of digital filled in forms to the system administrator. The system elaborates these data and sends the results back to each actor that can realize how the multicriteria evaluation algorithm works and eventually propose ameliorations. Again, these interactions are designed to increase the syntonisation of the group onto the evaluated concerns.

Figure 12 The activity of filling in the matrix is guided by the indications displayed The link “I risultati” (The results) opens a sort of virtual scrutiny hall, where each actor is given the opportunity to check his own results system and only the administrator is allowed screening the results set of every actor. The last feature could be extended to all the actors, in order to test the sensitivity of the system to interferences among a variety of resulting systems.

Figure 13 The display of the results only for each stakeholder ...

Figure 14 ... and for the evaluation administrator

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The virtual spaces described and not simply a duplication of the traditional decision-making arena: they have to be interpreted as strengthening of it. The activities that take “place” in these virtual labs devoted to the evaluation contribute greatly to stimulate participation, since they allow to each actor an intense cognitive and visioning process. Therefore, it is possible to individuate two domains of activities in the same evaluation process. The first consists of a discrete number of face-to-face meetings with a 15 days schedule, where a “contact” confrontation evolves in a traditional pattern. The second consists of continuous meeting in the digital space, where interactions and learning evolve in a tele-mediated pattern. These fields can actually be considered as complementary faces of a unique communicative planning process. Virtualisation is essential to foster learning and negotiation; these background continuous activities prepare an environment suitable for shared decision-making paths. 7. Conclusions: towards future research fields. In this paper, an effort to interpret the suggestions coming from the digital era of information technology has been applied to planning procedures. Two levels of the plan have been concerned: a recovery plan for an urban historical centre and a strategic plan for tourism development. The ideal environment for these applications should be a suitable community disposition to joining planning processes. In this sense, an essential pre-requisite seems to be the active role of citizens. A passive environment is not going to contribute to establish negotiative planning processes. Human beings produce computers, which, in turn, end up to “produce” human societies. As William Mitchell has pointed out, digiphiles and digiphobes parties debate about the opportunities and the shortcomings of computers produced processes, but do not produce a coherent line for action. In the meantime, a new style of planning has been opened in the logic of high communication technology and distributed computing. Research studies should delve on the interpretation of cyberplanning in the perspective of future professional patterns. In this view, one could agree with the optimistic point of view recently expressed by Mitchell: “Since new technological systems are complex social constructions, we must understand our emerging options, choose our ends carefully, and build well. Our job is to design the future we want, not to predict its predetermined path” (Mitchell, 2000, p. 12). References BATTY, M., 1990. Invisible cities, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 17, 127-130 BATTY, M., 1998. Evaluation in the digital age, in LICHFIELD, N., BARBANENTE, A., BORRI, D., KHAKEE, A. e PRATT, A., Evaluation in Planning, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht BERARDI, F., 1994. Mutazione e cyberpunk. Immaginario e tecnologia negli scenari di fine millennio, Costa & Nolan, Genova CARVER, S., 1999. Developing Web-based GIS/MCE: improving Access to Data and Spatial Decision Support Tools, in THILL, J.C. (eds), Spatial Multicriteria Decision Making and Analysis. A geographic information sciences approach, Aldershot, USA, 49-75 CASTELLS, M., 1989. The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restructuring and the Urban-Regional process, Blackwell, Oxford

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DEMATTEIS, G., 1988. The Weak Metropolis, in MAZZA, L., World Cities and the Future of the Metropolis, Electa, Milano DUTTON, W., BLUMLER, J. e KRAMER, K. (eds), 1987. Wired Cities: Shaping the Future of Communications, Communications Library, Washington e-Europe 2002 Update (2000) Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - prepared by the European Commission for the European Council in Nice, 7th and 8th December 2000. http://europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/eeurope/documentation/update/index_en.htm e-Europe. An Information Society For All (2000). Communication on a Commission Initiative for the Special European Council of Lisbon, 23 and 24 March 2000 FATHY, T., 1991. Telecity: Information Technology and its Impacts on City Form, Praeger, London GOODCHILD, M.F. (2000) “The Current Status of GIS and Spatial Analysis” Journal of Geographical Systems 2: 5-10 Springer – Verlag 2000 GRAHAM, S. e MARVIN, S., 1997. Telecommunications and the city. Electronic spaces, urban places, Routledge, London GRAHAM, S. e MARVIN, S., 1999. Planning cybercities: integrating telecomunications into urban planning, Town Planning Review, vol. 70, n. 1, 89-114 HARRIS, B., 1987. Cities and Regions in the electronic age, in BROTCHIE, J. et al., The spatial implication of technnological change, Croom Helm, London HEPWORTH, M., 1986. The information city, Cities, August, 253-262 HILLMAN, J., 1993. Telelifestyles and the Flexicity: A European Study. European Foundation for the Improvement Of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin HOWKINS, J., 1987. Putting wires in their social place, in DUTTON, W., Wired Cities: Shaping the Future of Communications, Communication Library, Washington JAMESON, F., 1984. Postmodernism of the cultural logic of late capitalism, New Left Review, n. 146, 53-92 KNIGHT, R., 1989. City development and urbanization: building a knowledge based city, in KNIGHT, R. e GAPPERT, G. (eds), Cities in a Global Society, Sage, London, 223-242 LATERASSE, J., 1992. The intelligent city: utopia or tomorrow’s reality? in ROWE, F. e VELTZ, (eds), Telecom, Companies, Territories, Presses DE L’ENPC, Paris LEVY, P., 1997. Il virtuale, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milano, titolo originale dell’opera: Qu’est-ce que le virtuel? Éditions La Découverte, Parigi, 1995 LEVY, P., 1999a. L’intelligenza collettiva. Per un’antropologia del cyberspazio, Feltrinelli, Milano, titolo originale dell’opera: L’intelligence collective. Pour une anthropologie du cyberspace. Éditions La Découverte, Parigi, 1994 LEVY, P., 1999b. Cybercultura. Gli usi sociali delle nuove tecnologie, Feltrinelli, Milano, titolo originale dell’opera: Cyberculture. Rapport au Conseil de l’Europe. Éditions Odile Jacob, Parigi, 1997 MACHART, J., 1994. “Roubaix Euroteleport”, Technopolis International, March MARTIN, S., 1978. The Wired Society, Prentice Hall, London MC LUHAN, M., 1997. Gli strumenti del comunicare, EST, Milano MITCHELL, W.J., 1995. City of Bits, Space, Time and the Infobahn. MIT, Boston, USA

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1

This paper stems from the shared research work of the authors. In particular, Andrea De Montis has taken care of paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6.2 and 7, and Michele Campagna of paragraphs 4 and 6.1.

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