Participate in OpenPlans’ Community Boards research project

Dear ___________,

At OpenPlans we are working on a research project focusing on Community Boards and public participation. We are in the process of meeting with Community Boards throughout the city to hear about needs and challenges related to citizen engagement. The outcome from this research will be a short ‘white paper’ on Community Boards and technology, which I will happily share with you.

To assist in this research, are you available for a short interview?

Below, I have included some background on OpenPlans – who we are, what we do, and why we are interested in Community Boards.

Thanks for your assistance.

OpenPlans is a non-profit technology organization working on software for community engagement in urban planning issues. We work on this important problem through the creation of websites and open source software tools, in partnership with cities and community groups.

For example, you may have seen the website we created for DOT’s bike share program – where anyone can suggest a location for a bike share station. The website has been extremely successful, with thousands of suggestions from the public citywide.

We believe that the city’s Community Boards are extremely well-placed to be exemplary technology users for public participation. We’re interested in exploring similar tools for Community Boards, in their effort to engage the public in streetscape, planning and design issues.