FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME THAT LOVE STATISTICS, THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS (ABS) DATA IS FASCINATING BUT NOT NECESSARILY FUN. ALL OF THAT CHANGED WITH THE RELEASE OF THE “RUN THAT TOWN” APP.
The “Run that Town” app is a strategy game, a bit like Sim City, but using real data from any town in Australia, you simply enter your post code. Best of all it is free!
You can consider lots of different projects from the “practical to the preposterous” but you need to consult with the community and watch the virtual local paper to see how the community is reacting. As the game blurb says, will you be showered with praise, or chased out of town by an angry mob?
Whilst fun and slightly addictive, the game provides a very important link in educating the community about decision making and how regional outcomes can vary.
The way communities participate in decision making is continuing to evolve and this app is a great tool to educate people, especially for school students, to think beyond their immediate needs. Working out what is good at the local, regional and state level, without unduly penalising individual interests is one of the dilemmas of modern planning, especially as those that are concerned about the change make their views known more effectively than those not directly impacted.
Worldwide there is a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ with the United Nations arguing that governments should proactively engage their citizens in developing policy in order to address ongoing problems of social exclusion. Technology is now making engagement about how we want our communities to develop practical and the explosion of “apps” could be a key to unlocking the views of the “silent majority.”
Importantly it will become easier to educate people of the broad range of considerations that go into development decisions through a medium which is familiar to a growing number of people.
Apathy is the killer of community engagement so we need to make it easy and assessable. The “Run that Town” app could become the forerunner of real community education and engagement. Imagine walking past a proposed development site, scanning a QR with your mobile phone, and up pops an app with the project information, benefits and the considerations for the proposed development. You can get the information instantly and provide feedback on the spot. You can’t get much easier than that!
Access the new game here: http://runthattown.abs.gov.au/