[liberationtech] Call for Digital Community Engagement, Urban Planning, and Collaboration Tools

[Yosem Companys]

From: Christian Brandt  <christian.w.brandt.12 at gmail.com>

If you're like me, you're in the middle of adapting to our new reality (or
trying to, at least).  I'm lucky enough to work for a public agency that is
willing to lean into the new digital world.  But, as we do that, it's hard to
tell what tools and platforms are out there and which ones are worth using (and
compatible with public records!).  So, I'm hoping to draw on your collective
wisdom to help me move some of my work online!
I currently work as a Community Engagement Coordinator for the Metropolitan Area
Planning Council (www.mapc.org), a regional planning agency covering the Greater
Boston Area (101 towns and cities).  My role is to design, implement, and
facilitate community engagement strategies for the planning projects our agency
is working on.  Unsurprisingly, the ongoing pandemic has shifted a lot of our
work online, which presents an interesting challenge from a community engagement
perspective!  The Community Engagement team and I have been exploring different
online tools/platforms that we can use to do the following: 1. Accomplish some
    of the same interactive engagement goals as during a typica; public
    engagement process; and,
 2. Collect feedback
    from stakeholders and community members.

Do you have any suggestions for online tools/platforms that we could use to help
us do engagement online?
Extra bonus if it's free to use!
I've included some specific questions that I'm looking to answer and some tools
that I already have explored, in case you're looking for similar things.
If you have experience using any of these tools, I'd love to hear your thoughts. * 
   Create virtual tours of neighborhoods, towns, and other physical places
 * 
   I've looked in to: Google Tour Creator, Google Earth Web, StoryMap (both
   ArcGIS and KnightLab), and CoUrbanize  (too expensive!)So far, CoUrbanize is
   the only one that really offers native seamless feedback gathering.  I know
   ArcGIS is compatible with Survey123 but we've had difficulty using that
   effectively/extensively.

 * Create opportunities for online participatory mapping
 * I've looked in to  CoUrbanize  and HistorypinI also know you can do this with
   Google MyMaps but it's always struck me as kind of clunky

 * Facilitate live Q-and-As and voting during webinars or online public meetings
 * I currently use Poll Everywhere  and have used the polling feature in Zoom.
   I've looked in to  the Berkman Center Online Question Tool, andPadlet.  I
   know there are a lot of other options (RIP Google Moderator), but they almost
   all require subscriptions that are too expensive for us to consider.

 * Create online tutorials for partners and the public to help them understand
   how to use the new tools we're offering
 * I've looked in to Loom

 * Collaborate visually with partners while on a video conference
 * I've looked in to Miro,Mural, and Conceptboard

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Best,Christian Brandt
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