A Few Ideas for Planning and Governance in the Digital Age

"The increase in the number of digital natives in governments not only brings in different skills, it also enthuses the rest of the workforce, and opens their eyes to more unusual ideas," according to an article by Rebecca Hill.

After detailing a few examples of citizen science and crowdsourcing innovations, Hill examines examples of how digital technology-enabled bureaucrats are changing the practice of planning.

Take Block by Block, which uses the game Minecraft to help young people show city planners how urban spaces could work better for them.

A decade ago it would have been hard to imagine a UN agency encouraging local governments to use a game to re-design their cities. Now UN-Habitat, which works with governments to promote more sustainable urban environments, is doing just that.

There are more examples of useful apps related to planning (and a few that are a little further afield in the governance universe) included in the article.