ISI Report

Technological change has greatly impacted everyday life. In Finland, for example, Nokia and the mobile phone technology have enjoyed a similar position as a national vehicle for economic and social change, as the tractor in the Soviet Union, in the 1950 ́s. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have transformed the way people communicate and interact with one another. It has brought, not only new ways of socializing, consuming and producing services and experiencing places, but also new forms of citizenship, activism and political sense making. Everyday life has become increasingly global, due to the availability of the Internet and other digital tools that enable local people to communicate with the rest of the world both individually and as a community Consequently, urban planning and the methods for citizen participation in complex urban issues should also be changing. Digital tools invite people to experience urban space in new ways. The massive invasion of IPhone, web 2.0, navigation and digital mapping tools, such as Google Earth, GIS and 3D-modelling, have expanded the limits of our understanding and deploying space. The new extensions of comprehension are, for instance, the augmentation of reality with context-aware information and the virtual exploration of environments and communities The use and deployment of urban informatics is part of everyday life, for example, when we navigate during the rush hour with context-aware traffic information. The massive movement of digitalization has augmented the role of the user, and left government and civil servants gasping their breath. Previously, planners and professionals were the producers and users of urban information. Currently, the users are also co-producers of urban information. The talent and the mass of user groups create the value of digital applications. The most sophisticated applications have so far had little to do with urban planning. On the contrary, most applications have been made for leisure purposes, such as playing games, tourism, entertainment or shopping. However, urban planning should find a niche in this evolution. It should be concerned with, how to take advantage of urban and community informatics, how to use them in agile analyses or forecasts of urban issues. New methods should also be created which can enhance the application of the gadgets in urban planning, public participation and decision- making. Then, urban planning could step out and make a statement, why it is relevant in the digital era. In practice, the development and use of ICTs reflect a dispersed field of interests and capabilities. Some users are better equipped and they have better skills in technology. In the countries of high technology, the use of ICTs is more often a matter of the chosen perspective, objective and social values. It has become a self- evident part of everyday life, although the technologies are used varyingly in different walks of life. Applications of different ICTs seem to be inaccessible, difficult to use and sometimes even overlapping, when the knowledge of the mutual benefits and overall purpose are missing. This is familiar to the endeavours of academics too. Digital tools and urban informatics provide a playground for research and development within several different disciplines, such as geography, computing sciences, engineering, social sciences, architecture and environmental psychology, just to name a few. Each discipline is developing software programs and applications of its own. Even within an interdisciplinary approach, professionals solely tend to produce targeted knowledge and tools in a certain field of interest. Consequently, extensive understanding of the digital tools and methodology in urban planning has not yet emerged.