Using Participatory Mapping Methods to Visualize the Cultural Resources by Saad Alzarooni

VISUALIZING THE CULTURAL ASSETS OF THE PLACE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF USING PARTICIPATORY CULTURAL MAPPING METHODS IN DALTON, GEORGIA Saad Aqeel Alzrooni || MFA Design Management || SCAD

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge all the different people in the city of Dalton who have made this project possible. I begin by thanking Mr. Ty Ross, Dalton City Administrator for his collaborative efforts and support throughout the entire process. I would also like to thank all of the key informant interviewees for taking the time to speak with me. Finally, I would like to thank the people who participated in the online survey and the mini-focus group session for providing me with valuable insights about the cultural atmosphere in the community. Saad Aqeel Summer 2011

Table of Contents ABSTRACT PREFACE Background to the Project The Motivation PURPOSE OF CULTURAL MAPPING Goals and Objectives Tasks and Activities Undertaken in this Project Project Phases KEY CONCEPTS Culture Cultural Panning Approach Cultural Mapping Method FRAMEWORK USED IN CURRENT PROJECT Overview of Cultural Resources Framework (CRF) Information Baseline for CRF Using the Information Baseline DATA COLLECTION METHODS Face-to-Face Interview Focus group Document Review and Site Visits QUANTITATIVE PORTRAIT OF THE CULTURAL INVENTORY Cultural Inventory of Dalton Dalton Racial Profile

DIGITAL MAP-MAKING Overview of Digital Cultural Maps Map-Making Process Samples of Generated Maps COMMUNITY IDENTITY MAPPING RESULTS Overview Response Summary Survey Highlights SUGGESTIONS FOR DATA COLLABORATION AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Initiating Data Collaboration Basic Guidelines for Data Partnership Web-Portal Design for Public Participation Purpose of the Design Concept Screen Shots of the Web Platform Value Proposition of the Design Concept CONCLUSION Summary Research Limitations Future Research Directions WORKS CITED GLOSSARY OF TERMS ABOUT THE DESIGNER

ABSTRACT This exploratory research aimed to introduce a unified cultural resources framework for capturing local perspectives on the cultural landscape. The main question asked in the study was in what ways does participatory map making contribute to better understanding of the cultural resources in local community? To address this inquiry, mixed methods approaches were used, including series of in-depth interviews, site visits, documents analysis, and mini focus group session. The research also analyzed data obtained from online survey to capture the community identity and sense of place. The outputs from the research resulted in the production of cultural inventory and a number of digital maps of perceived cultural assets. As part of a strategy for increasing the public participation in planning, a suggested framework for data partnership, and a concept design for developing web-based platform for participatory cultural mapping were also proposed.

PREFACE

Background to the Project Culture, creativity, and quality of place are progressively more significant economic drivers in communities. As suggested by previous cultural planning and mapping projects (Greg Baeker, 2010; Karolina Ociepka, 2011; Municipal Cultural Planning Inc., 2010; Patricia Peters, 2007), building a strong foundation of cultural assets is the crucial first step in economic and broader community development strategies. The current project introduces key principles and concepts of participatory cultural planning and mapping, and demonstrates the different digital maps of the cultural resources in the local community. The project was guided by the principle that any participatory design or plan created with support from community stakeholders is more likely to get implemented into action Richard A. Mittenthal (2002). Setting up the foundation for participatory design and planning requires having a framework for collaboration between the different stakeholders in the community. The current project looks at this framework, discusses results from the cultural mapping focus group and proposes a visionary framework for future development. By integrating design management approach, knowledge visualization methods, and best practices in PCM, the project aimed toward setting up the foundation for data partnership and organizational engagement for future cultural mapping initiatives.

The Motivation The motivation for carrying out this project was primarily an interest in putting cultural mapping method into practice. My interest in participatory design and planning has inspired me to explore the benefits of cultural mapping as innovative tool to holistically understand the cultural assets of the place. My first step toward putting this research idea into practice is to conduct a cultural mapping focus group with the intention to capture peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the local cultural assets while providing opportunities for public participation. The research was guided by the following questions: How do we get to the core of what is distinctive about a place? What are the tools that will help us identify the unique assets and resources in the community? Answering these questions will help capture how people define and identify their cultural assets in the community, thus, generate information that can be used to create a visionary framework for future cultural mapping projects.

PURPOSE OF CULTURAL MAPPING PROJECT 8

Project Objectives The method of participatory cultural mapping refers to a research tool to holistically understand the cultural assets of a place based on the local knowledge of the people, (Creativity Network of Canada, 2008). Cultural mapping is getting more acceptance as an essential planning and economic development tool that helps planners rediscover the wealth of places. A number of cultural mapping projects suggested that there is a general misperception among planners that they do not have enough information, however, the reality is that we have loads of information but it is a set of data that have been collected by different people and different organizations for different reasons (Municipal Cultural Planning Inc., 2010; Greg Baeker, 2010). Cultural mapping is about consolidating information from various sources, for example, city and state statistics, local art and cultural directories, and yellow pages. This research was a demonstration of drawing data from different sources that are available in the local knowledge about the community, and reinterpreted into visual representations and digital map making.

The project was guided by the following objectives: 1. To establish baseline of information on cultural resources in the city of Dalton and to complete initial analysis of these findings; 2. To establish recommendations for building capacity for further cultural mapping efforts in Dalton. 3. To develop a framework for further cultural mapping efforts in Dalton.

Developing baseline for cultural mapping system requires consolidating data from different sources.

Tasks and Activities

10.

A number of key research tasks and activities were undertaken throughout the course of this project. These included: A review of literature and cultural mapping practices Meeting with the Dalton’s City Administrator Face-to-face interviews with representatives of the various cultural and community development in the community Mini focus group session and creating cultural inventory Site visits to specific scenes and locations in the community Presentation on the application of cultural mapping during the city council meeting Attending public hearings and meetings with city officials Production of specific maps of cultural assets Compiling data from online survey of community identity mapping Production of a final report

1. 2. 3.

A listing of the individuals consulted though the course of this project are: Ty Ross, Dalton City Administrator Kathryn D. Sellers Terry Tomasello

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Pam Partain Veronica French David Aft Berrien Long Brian D. Anderson Sr. Linda T. Blackman Kellie Smith And other ninety five people from the community who participated in the online survey. Field Research’s Tasks and Activities

Community Exploration

Cultural Mapping

May 1st

May 2nd

May 3rd

•Meet with Ty Ross to discuss the agenda for the next couple of days

•Attend Council Meeting with Ty Ross •Participants observation •One-on-one Interviews

•Cultural Mapping Workshop •Discussion and reflection

Community Exploration May 4th •Site visit for selected places in the community

Figure 1. A detailed research tasks undertaken during the field research.

Project Phases The table shows the different phases of conducting the research project. Each stage is designed to inform the direction and the content of the subsequent stages. The sequence of the project stages and task 1. Planning: •Obtaining buy-in •Determining objectives 2. Project design: •Designing mapping exercise •Drafting interview questions 3. Implementation: •Conducting participatory mapping workshop •Carrying out targeted interviews 4. Synthesis: •Roughing out the map •Analyzing and interpreting the results 5. Going public: •Checking with the community •Presenting the results to the target audience

Culture

Cultural Planning

Cultural Mapping

KEY CONCEPTS

Culture Conceptually, there are three crucial questions that need to be raised at the beginning of any PCM initiatives: first, what aspects of culture we want to capture in the map? second, how cultural planning approach can capture the cultural sensitivity of the place or the community under study?, and third what types of cultural mapping methods are appropriate for the project? These are fundamental inquires that must be cleared at the beginning to ensure a common understanding among the different stakeholders who participate in the mapping process. What do we mean by “culture?” Culture is an inclusive concept that embraces a wide variety of activities, places, values and beliefs that contribute to a sense of identity and well-being for everyone in our communities. “Culture includes all the institutionalized ways and the implicit cultural beliefs, norms, values and premises which underline and govern conduct.” (Kresch et at. 1962, p.389). Culture has intangible dimension and is all about relationships between individuals and groups, shared memories, experience and identity, and what we consider valuable to pass on to future generations. Culture also refers to our way of life and our quality of life – it is about what people choose to do - cultural services and activities are the ones people opt for rather than have imposed on them (Ghilardi, Lia.,2004; Creativity Network of Canada, 2008) .

– – – – – – – – – –

As suggested by Mercer et al. (1995), culture is seen as having a material dimension encompassing the following types of activities - an illustrative, rather than exhaustive, listing. It includes: the performing and visual arts, craft and fashion media, film, television, video and language museums, artifacts, archives and design the built heritage, architecture, landscape sports events, facilities and development parks, open spaces, and countryside recreation children’s play, playgrounds and play activities tourism, festival and attractions informal leisure pursuits libraries, literature, writing and publishing The project described herein considers “culture” to cover all these aspects. However, at this first stage in the development of a baseline for cultural mapping process, not all cultural assets of this inclusive definition can be captured. I expect that the mapping results developed here will evolve over time, eventually becoming ever-broader in its representation of the different elements in the concept of culture.

Cultural Planning Approach There has been an increased recognition of the importance of cultural capital for the economy of cities and the ways in which culture brings extensive benefits, especially enhancing the image of places. But why planners need to pay attention to the culture of place? The answer is the growing attention of the role creativity and culture play in economic restructuring and wealth generation. The economic reality of today is that the economic wealth, as suggested by Greg Baeker (2011), is less generated by the exploitation of natural resources or the efficiency of manufacturing processes and more by exploitation of our ideas and imagination. From the perspective of cultural planning, the loss of place identity is often a by-product of narrow minded planning. Planners need to find creative ways that allow linking place, community development, and economic competitiveness. Cultural planning is one such tool. It promotes us to think about place from different perspectives and points of view. It is a culturally sensitive approach to community development. Cultural planning as Lia Ghilardi (2004), puts it: is a method that implies an understanding of the local cultural ecology and resources. It is about identifying the distinctiveness of urban and cultural DNA of the place, managing cultural resources, and matching them to local needs and contexts. Cultural planning then, as it has been used in the current project, is not about developing and implementing a cultural policy for a city, it is instead, a creative approach of

identifying the distinctive characteristics and uniqueness of a place and integrating them in the cultural local development plan (Franco Bianchini, 2004). The diagram below represents the three elements collectively they set the foundation for creative cultural planning. We can notice the different design and planning opportunities for creating an authentic urban environments that attract and retain creative people. This creative workforce in turn can generate wealth in an expanding knowledge based-economy (Florida, 2002). Authentic Environments

Place

Place Competitiveness

Culture

Economy

Cultural Industries and Creative Workforce

Figure 2. Interrelatedness between place, culture, and economy

Cultural Mapping

2. 3.

Cultural mapping is a tool to systematically identify, document and make better known a wide range of local cultural assets (Greg Baeker, 2010). Three main components constitutes the process of mapping. These are, as defined by the Cultural Mapping Toolkit designed by the Creative City Canada in 2008: Cultural mapping — A process of collecting, recording, analyzing and synthesizing information in order to describe the cultural resources, networks, links and patterns of usage of a given community or group. Cultural inventory — A list or database of information about cultural resources and assets. Cultural map — A report on the findings and conclusions of a cultural mapping process; the cultural map can take many forms.

The notion of tangible and intangible culture is also built upon in the best practices involved in cultural mapping. This broader understanding of culture classifies two main types of mapping as defined by Ontario’s Municipality Cultural Planning (2010): 1. Asset Mapping – identifying and recording tangible cultural resources like art and cultural organizations, festivals, historical sites, museums. 2. Community Identity Mapping – exploring ‘intangible cultural resources’ – the unique stories and traditions that define a community’s identity and sense of place.

Cultural Mapping

Resource Mapping “Tangibles” Quantitative Method

Identity Mapping “Intangibles” Qualitative Method

Figure 3. Main types of Cultural Mapping

FRAMEWORK USED IN CURRENT PROJECT 16

Overview of Cultural Resources Framework (CRF) While the broad understanding of culture is important in carrying out any cultural mapping practices, the focus of the current project was more on a specific set of cultural resources. Building upon the concepts articulated earlier, I used a similar framework outlined in the Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics (2008) to develop a related approach to conceptualizing and identifying the cultural resources of Dalton. The intention of having a framework was never meant to be a rigid classification system, but more of a general guide to ensure that abroad range activities is included in the cultural mapping project. The structure that I have used for the project was built around a total of 110 cultural asset types grouped into seven clusters. The breakdown of the total quantity of the cultural resources are described later in the cultural inventory section of this report.

Creative Cultural Industries Community Cultural Organizations

Other Related Resources

CRF Festivals and Events

Spaces and Facilities

Natural Heritage

Cultural Heritage

Figure 4 . A Radial Venn diagram of different asset categories of cultural resources framework. Adapted from: Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics (2008).

Information Baseline for CRF 1.

5. 6.

As described by the Ontarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Municipality Cultural Planning (2010), the used framework in the current project suggests seven main categories as defined below: Creative Cultural Industries: these are the categories of cultural industries like performing arts companies, theatres, and promoters of performing arts, sports and similar events. Community Cultural Organizations: this category represents community cultural organizations involved in arts, cultural and heritage activities. Spaces and Facilities: these are places designed to host cultural activity. Based on the CRF, categories include spaces and facilities in the not-for-profit, public and private domain. Cultural Heritage: this category includes establishments involved the preservation and exhibition of objects and sites of historical, cultural and educational value. Natural Heritage: this category includes natural wonders and areas of natural heritage and environmental significance. Festival and Events: this category represents festivals and events that occurs on an annual or regular and predictable basis. Other Related Resources: these are organizations or sectors that have important relationships to these cultural resources but are not considered part of the core, such as education organizations, religious groups and places of worship.

The information baseline consists of a spreadsheet that addresses the following elements for each dataset. The table below shows the core data set for developing the cultural inventory for the City of Dalton. The table also indicates the underlying rational for each set. Data Field

Sub-field

Justification

Asset type

Creative Industries Community Organizations Spaces and Facilities Cultural Heritage Natural Heritage Festivals and Events Other Related Resources

Identifies the type of cultural asset

Formal name

Brief overview

Identifies the asset by its official name

Asset location

Street number Street name Zip code

Enables physical mapping by determining a geographic location

Contact Information

Website address Telephone number Email address

Enables contact with the resource

Source: Municipal Cultural Planning (2010). Cultural Resource Mapping: A Guide for Municipalities

Using the Information Baseline Considering the lengthy processes involved in carrying out a participatory cultural mapping project, It was important that I narrow the scope of the project to communicate specific purpose. The table below summarizes the approach that I used for cultural mapping data. I divided the potential use into two main categories: first, the resource mapping level, where the data is used to make products such as maps—both ground and digital maps—and directories.

At this level, the information is basically used to capture the existence and the spatial dimension of different kinds of tangible cultural assets in the community. The second row in the table is the community identity mapping level. Here this kind of data was used in a more strategic way to identify stories and themes that could be useful in capturing the intangible dimension of cultural assets in the community. The table also outlines the data products that can be created from the database both hard and soft products.

Strategic Intent

Data Resulting from the Inventory

Hard Products

Soft Products ”Benefits”

Cultural Asset Mapping

1. Listing of facilities and organizations 2. Listing of locations and addresses

1. Maps (digital) 2. Directory of arts and cultural resources and facilities

1. Identification of gaps in the community for cultural activities and programs 2. Facilitation of greater networking within arts organizations, groups, and individuals

Community Identity Mapping

1. Recognition of unique cultural assets 2. Identification of themes and storyline “community narrative”

1. Tourism promotion tools: listing of unique assets on city web site, brochures, etc. 2. Potential incorporation into city brand identity

1. Greater understanding of unique strengths of community 2. Greater community pride

Adapted from: Ontario’s Municipality Cultural Planning (2010).

DATA COLLECTION METHODS

Face-to-Face Interview On May 2nd and 3rd I interviewed ten persons who have a great interest in the future cultural development of Dalton. The purpose of these interview sessions was to have a better understanding of the cultural atmosphere in the community. Those interviewed included: Kellie Smith, Linda T. Blackman, Brian D. Anderson Sr., Berrien Long, David Aft, Veronica French, Pam Partain, Terry Tomasello, Kathryn D. Sellers, and finally Ty Ross, Dalton’s City Administrator. The participants were extremely informational and generous with their time. Not only did all of them have the interest in the cultural development of the community, but also they were eager for the potential of participatory cultural planning and mapping to be realized. This section summarizes their impressions about the arts and cultural issues, vision, and concerns. The outline of questions that were asked include: 1. What does culture in our community mean to you? 2. What are the key strengths of our community’s cultural activities? 3. What are the major issues and challenges relating to culture in our community (good and bad)? 4. Are you interested in attending a cultural mapping workshop? And can you suggest other individuals we should contact or include in the workshop?

Each interview lasted approximately one hour and thirty minutes. Before each interview session, the objectives and scope of the project were briefed to all participants that were interviewed and consent forms were singed that authorized the use of the names of the individuals. The informed consent form along with the interview protocol sheet is included in the appendices section. The interviewees identified the following themes that could and should be incorporated in future cultural planning of the city: – Evening venues – Children Fine Arts Museum – Arts & Culture Consortium – Expanded Public Arts Program – Organized and regular tours of carpet facilities – A carpet museum – Effort to preserve heritage tourism sites

1. 2. 3.

The group also identified three major challenges facing cultural development in their community: lack of suitable venues lack of coordination among arts and cultural groups in the community Insufficient funding support to local artists

Interview Synopsis •

The Following summaries participant's responses to the questions asked during the interviews. What does culture in our community mean to you? All interviewees acknowledged culture as sort of the identity and the character of the community. For them, Dalton’s culture represents pride, historic preservation, carpet culture, and wealth. Interviewees also spoke of the family oriented culture, small town feel, and community bonds. Half of the group identified family values and child raising as major element contributes to Dalton’s culture: “It is about sense of belonging and supportive family network”. “Culture represents family, friends, and people that I associated with. It is about people engaging with people”. “Dalton offers a good place to belong and share family values. It is a good place to raise children and to live” Interviewees believed that arts and cultural initiatives are important for the community and as vital asset on many levels . The majority of the interviewees, for instance, thought of cultural diversity as positive source for the community. They also recognized arts and culture to be an essential component of quality of life in the community. Moreover, they linked cultural diversity and creativity to the economic development and wealth generation.

On the other hand, other interviewees also spoke of the domination of white male culture, experiences of sexism, racial profiling and stereotyping. Few interviewees talked about the leadership’s lack of appreciation to beauty and creativity in general: “Our leadership don’t see the importance of beauty and recognizing it. They consider it extra expense. They don’t see it as a long-term investment” The diagram below shows equal emphasis on the reasons as to why arts and culture is important for the community.

17%

is fun and entertaining

16%

is educational 17%

16%

17%

provides activities for families to do together is good for business and the economy

Interview Synopsis •

What are the key strengths of our community’s cultural activities? Five interviewees acknowledged cultural spaces and venues available for cultural activities as key strength for the community. The majority recognized that there are lots of spaces in Dalton for arts and cultural activities but there no centralized communication between the different agencies and organizations. In other words, there is no unified platform for communication. Moreover, all participants perceived cultural diversity as strength that adds to the uniqueness of the community’s cultural fabric: “ We have lots of Hispanic and Asian and Middle East particularly with the Capet Industry. I consider this as strength that can teaches the local people the value of diversity but unfortunately we haven't taking advantage of it. We haven't exactly embraced Latino community”.

Despite the lack of cultural events that celebrate diversity in the community, Interviewees agreed that arts and cultural programs require new ideas and new attitudes. Some participants identified cultural diversity in the community as very divided and that there is a stigma of other cultures especially in the case of Latino population. “There is a stigma of other cultures here. The Latino are segregated from the mainstream society..they are not recognized as far as what they can bring to the community” The pie diagram below describes the different views in which the respondents perceived arts and culture. Thirty percent of the respondents see that culture as one way to build bridges among diverse people in the community. Further, a quarter of the responses agrees that vibrant cultural environment is a positive way to learn about other cultures and a good way to express ethnic identity.

Interviewees also spoke of the value of cultural diversity to development and growth as one of the strength points in the community. “We have a lot of international people from all over the world..we like to bring new people, new ideas, and new attitudes.”

21% 24%

25% 30%

a good way to learn about other cultures a way to build bridges among diverse peoples a positive way to express ethnic identity

a way to help me better understands my culture and heritage

Interview Synopsis •

What are the major issues and challenges relating to culture in our community? Several respondents discussed the decrease in funding support and its effects on arts and cultural panorama in the community: “Funding is a problem especially for small organizations. They try very hard to raise money but this is not enough. I think local government should feel comfortable adding in the arts and cultural development as part of the government expense” “ From quality of life standpoint, the city is doing good in taking advantage of the natural resources and turn it to nice parks, but the city also needs to consider arts and culture as vital resources that enhance and contribute to the overall quality of life of the people in the community.” Entertainment and recreational facilities were also a concern for many respondents. Escaping town was again cited as a major concern, stating that occurring because Dalton does not offer enough options for the younger generations and creative people. Many felt that Chattanooga, the neighbor city, is a place to go and hang out. The geographic proximity and easy access to Chattanooga enables people to travel outside of Dalton for shopping, dining, and entertainment. “They are cool, we are not because there is tons of stuff to do there”

•

I think the major challenges related to arts and cultures in our community are… The pie diagram below points to the lack of coordination as challenge related to arts and cultures in Dalton, followed by insufficient funding and support to local artists. Other challenges were identified by the interviewees as the lack of art education and general lack of arts and cultural activities that target different cultural groups and communities in the city.

lack of coordination

44% 56%

Insufficient funding support

Interview InterviewSynopsis Synopsis •

I think the most needed kinds of arts and cultural activities are… The column diagram below shows that the most needed types of arts and culture activities, as stated by the participants were performing arts events such as concerts, dance, and theater, followed by festival events and ethnic celebrations. Improving recreational opportunitiess was also a common theme for the majority of the interviewees as an important need for quality of life. “We in Dalton don’t have enough to offer to make people always stay in town but I think what we do have is not well supported either”. 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Rank 1 Rank 2

Interview Participants:

From left to right: Kellie Smith, Brian D. Anderson Sr. and Linda T. Blackman

From left to right: David Aft, Veronica French, and Berrien Long

Rank 3

From left to right: Kathryn D. Sellers, Ty Ross, Pam Partain and Terry Tomasello 25

Focus Group Session This section summarized insights gained from mini focusgroup session that took place in Dalton City Hall on May 3rd, 2011. The focus group session aimed at bringing together different stakeholders in one setting to discuss and develop a cultural inventory of the city. The participants were selected purposefully for their knowledge and experience with cultural and community development. Those include Ty Ross, Linda T. Blackman, Berrien Long, Pam Partain, and Kathryn D. Sellers. The focus group session began by a presentation which covers the project’s scope and objectives and the different applications for participatory cultural mapping. During the session I used various materials to stimulate and encourage discussion on the topic (e.g. presentation materials, maps, local yellow book directory). keeping in mind that every community makes it own decisions regarding the priority given to the cultural resources for carrying our any participatory cultural mapping, the intention of designing the focus-group session was to introduce a consistent and unified way of categorizing information about the available cultural resources in Dalton.

Participants worked together and inventoried the existing arts and cultural resources in the local community. The inventory provided an outline of the community’s facilities, venues and programs related to fine arts, performing arts, festivals and special events, historic, shopping and other related assets. A key deliverable of the session was the creation of the cultural inventory of cultural assets in Dalton. Part of the mapping strategy was also to consolidate the existing information in a consistent way. This included information on festivals and events held by local tourism agencies, information on natural and cultural heritage assets maintained by municipalities, database of local arts and heritage groups. All these sources were combined to create baseline of information of cultural assets in the community. After all the data were collected, I used the quantitative results generated from the inventory and translated them into visual representations by adding the spatial dimension to the data. These generated cultural assets maps are presented later in the “digital map making” section of this document.

Document Review and Site Visits Number of documents were part of the reviewed. These included city official documents, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and consolidated plan for 2009-2014. The document review also included the official city website (www.cityofdalton-ga.gov/) to look for statistics related to economic development opportunities, city records, and tourism data. Gathering other forms of artifacts like posters and advertisements about historical and cultural attractions in the city was also part of the review process.

To better understand the contextual conditions of the project I have also carried out, with the support from the Dalton City Hall, a number of site visits to cultural and historical attraction around the city. These places included the downtown area, the museum at the Tunnel Hill Heritage Center, The Emery Center museum and others. Further, I have attended city council meeting and a community forum at the Economic Development of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce.

VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF CULTURAL ASSETS IN DALTON 28

Cultural Inventory The following section presents the outputs from the carrying out the cultural inventory session. The first deliverable emerged out of the process was the cultural inventory of Dalton. The inventory produced a total of 105 resources within the cultural planning realm. These assets were separated into different seven groups to better represent the make-up of the cultural landscape in the community. The categories included creative cultural industries; community cultural organizations, spaces and facilities, cultural heritage, festivals and events, natural heritage, and other elated resources like worship places and educational institutions. The chart blow illustrates the quantity of these resources in the community.

Cultural Assets Category Number 24 4 44 8 4 18 8 110

1. Creative Cultural Industries 2. Community Cultural Organizations 3. . Spaces and Facilities 4. Cultural Heritage 5. Natural Heritage 6. Festivals and Events 7. Related Resources Total Daltonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cultural Inventory

Related Resources Festivals and Events Cultural Heritage Spaces and Facilities Community Cultural Organizations

Creative Cultural Industries

Number of Asset 29

Quantitative Description of Cultural Inventory This baseline information included in the cultural inventory does not necessarily capture all cultural resources or activities in Dalton. The generated information in the inventory is only intended to provide a representative sample or as an indication to these cultural assets as expressed by the members participated in the focus group session (Ontarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Municipality Cultural Planning, 2010).

The asset value pie chart illustrated here shows a quantitative representation of cultural assets in Dalton. The diagram shows that spaces and facilities dominate the majority type of assets available in Dalton while there is significantly a small number of community cultural organizations which represented on in three percent of the total cultural resources in the city.

Related Resources 7%

Number of Asset

Festivals and Events 17% Cultural Heritage 8%

Creative Cultural Industries 23%

Community Cultural Organizations 3%

Spaces and Facilities 42%

Dalton Racial Profile To make a better use of the cultural inventory it was important to have some basic understanding of the racial profile of the city. This set of data contributes toward gaining more holistic understanding of the community under study. To accomplish this research task I rely on U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009 to capture the city profile. The following statistical descriptions of Dalton highlight the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s racial composition.

White African American

25%

White African American American Indian and Alaska Native Asian Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

Number Percent

Georgia Avg.

Nationa l Avg.

50,144 77.00 % 65.23 % 75.21 % 2,930

4.50 % 28.49 % 12.26 %

250

0.38 %

0.26 %

0.87 %

697

1.07 %

2.14 %

3.59 %

0.04 %

0.05 %

0.14 %

17,834 27.38 %

5.35 % 13.70 %

American Indian and Alaska Native

0% 1%

Race

Asian

4% 70%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

According to the 2005-2009 U.S. Census, the largest single group, at seventy percent (70%) reported White followed by Hispanic or Latino community who accounted for 27.38% of the total population. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009 American Community Survey

Percentage of Whites by Zip Code The following presents the geographical concentration of the two highest race groups in Dalton: the White and the Hispanic community. According to Census 2000 Brief, the term “White” refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who reported “White” or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish. Zip Code

Population

% Whites

79.69 %

National Rank

30720

24,892

79.69 %

#24,269

30721

40,233

75.32 %

#25,448

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009 American Community Survey

75.32 % Source: Elizabeth M. Grieco and Rachel C. Cassidy (2001). Census 32 2000 Brief. http://zipatlas.com

Percentage of Hispanic by Zip Code The census defines Hispanic or Latino as “a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” In data collection and presentation, federal agencies are required to use a minimum of two ethnicities: “Hispanic or Latino” and “Not Hispanic or Latino.”

Zip Code

Population

30721

40,233

30720

24,892

% Mexicans

26.31 %

National Rank

26.31 %

#1,193

18.68 %

#1,750

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009 American Community Survey

18.68 % Source: Elizabeth M. Grieco and Rachel C. Cassidy (2001). Census 33 2000 Brief. http://zipatlas.com

DIGITAL MAP MAKING

Overview of Digital Cultural Maps Cultural digital maps as described by UNESCO is a dynamic map with multiple layers of spatial information with associated cultural information Karolina Ociepka (2011). Layering cultural data on a physical map gives geographical context to the quantitative data collected on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural assets. The advantages of making a digital cultural map is unlike paper map which is static, digital maps are dynamic when it come to manipulating the data set used in the mapping. It allows different layers to be added or combined and also allows panning and zooming. These places marked in these maps denote the approximate geographical point of reference of cultural assets identified in the cultural inventory. The interactive maps also provide basic information about each icon. By clicking on icons, an information bubble will pop up with the name of the place, a link to more information and its location in Dalton. The generated digital maps can be viewed in Google Map. To interact with the maps the access code to these maps were shared with the participants:

In this section I illustrated a number of mapping samples and visual representations as a demonstration of how technology and knowledge visualization can help us rethink and reuse same cultural data in a different way. 1. Point data maps 2. Concentration of cultural resources map 3. Clustering maps of cultural assets for each category 4. Ground view of cultural resources 5. Street view and direction map

Map Making Process “Maps are what give Cultural Resource Mapping its name: they are the geographic representation of information. An effective map will be able to visually communicate findings from database in a compelling way. As such, it can make the invisible visible.” (Ontario’s Municipality Cultural Planning, 2010). A key deliverable output from the current project was the production of several digital maps that visually display the data collected during the focus group session. The purpose of these maps was not to provide an list of all possible geographical representations that could be created, but rather to demonstrate the potential usefulness to those maps. In making the maps, I used Google map application to create digital maps of the cultural assets in Dalton. These maps contain different context layers including the city boundaries, streets, and cultural resource data on top of each other to provide points of reference for each category of the cultural resource framework. The following section presents sample of generated maps based on the identified assets in the inventory discussed earlier. Throughout this section I attempt to demonstrate different ways in which cultural resources inventory can be illustrated visually. For each map I indicated how these geographical representations can be used for planning and decision making purposes.

City’s Boundaries Topographical details Streets

Top: Data Architecture of Mapping Layers Bottom: Screen Snapshot of cultural assets network

Samples of Generated Maps: Point Data Maps This map illustrates the size of cultural resources city wide. The map color coded each resources with minimal context layer to emphasize point data of cultural assets. These point data show the connections between resources. The first map on the top points the geographical locations of the quantifying cultural inventory. The second map is same as the first sample but with Google earth view. Each category of cultural assets is color coded as described in the legend: Cultural Asset Category Creative Cultural Industries Community Cultural Organizations Spaces and Facilities Cultural Heritage Natural Heritage Festivals and Events

Clustering of Cultural Resources

Clustering has long been understood as a central part of economic development. The concentration of industry (and related industries) has the potential to produce, what Castells and Hall (1994) call, â&#x20AC;&#x153;perpetual innovationâ&#x20AC;?, resulting in new divisions of labor and increased productivity. These two maps show the geographic concentration of cultural resources across the city. Here these map show that the density is located in the center of the city, with few resources located outside the center.

Clustering MapsCommunity Cultural Organizations The following are maps results of specific group of cultural resources in Dalton. To illustrate the mapping capabilities of the cultural inventory I used Google earth application to emphasize on specific profile of assets and where they are concentrated spatially. The clustering of each asset group is demonstrated in two types of snap shots: on the left it shows the map with satellite view and on the right it presents the same map with street view. These two maps show the location of four community cultural organizations across the city.

•Creative Arts Guild - beat the Winter Blues Series •Creative Arts Guild - Recitals (periodic) •Creative Arts Guild - Noon Arts Series •Dalton Little Theater •Woodsongs Coffee House •Artistic Civic Theater and Cabaret Studio

Clustering MapsCultural Heritage These two maps show the geographical points of reference to cultural heritage assets throughout the city of Dalton.

• • • • • • • • • •

Whitfield Murry History Center Emery Center - African American Cultural Center and Black History Museum Dalton Cemetary Ghost Tours Hamilton House Furnished home/office from 1840s Blunt House, 506 S. Thornton Avenue, Federal architecture from 1847 Dug Gap Battle Park, 2211 Dug Gap Battle Road. Tunnel Hill Heritage Center Praters Mill, Historic Site, mid-1800s West Hill Cemetery Tour of Features and of Historic People Buried There War Comes to Dalton -- Civil War Driving Tour of Whitfield County,

Clustering MapsNatural Heritage

These two maps show the natural heritage category which includes parks and recreation areas in the city. The map shows four locations: Crown Mill Historic District, Lake shore Park, Harmon Field, and Dalton Civic Park. The second map shows the geographical point of reference to the golf course.

Clustering MapsCreative Cultural Industries These maps show the clustering of Creative Cultural Industries throughout the city.

•Artisitic Civic Theatre and Cabaret Studio •Dalton Little Theatre •Dalton Public Schools Dramatic and Stage Performances •Whitfield County Public Schools Dramatic and Stage Performances •NorthWest Georgia Trade and Convention Center •Creative Arts Guild - Gallery 111 Dance Programs •Tunnel Hill Heritage Center •Woodsongs Coffee House •Whitfield Murry History Center •Dalton Cemetery Ghost Tours

•Kindermusik - Dalton Christian Church •Acting Workshops •Creative Arts Guild - Fine Arts & Painting Classes •Children's Art Network - Painting Classes •Dalton Recreation Dept. - Ceramics Classes •Creative Arts Guild Studio 111 - Dance Classes for a Variety of Ages •Dancers' Workshop •Photography Clubs/Classes •Woodworker Classes •Northwest Georgia Gymnastics and Fitness Studio 42 •Dalton Arts Project

Clustering MapsFestivals and Events The two maps show the geographical distributions of festivals and events available in the city with clear clustering in the center.

•Dalton State College – Brandy Heritage Center •The Book Nook •Creative Arts Guild Celtic Music Series. •Concert on Campus (DSC) •Dalton Public Schools Seasonal Band and Choral Performances •Whitfield County Public Schools Seasonal Band Performances •Artistic Civic Theater Studio Caberet Night •Dalton Arts Project's Chorus Periginus •Dalton Library - Periodic Presentations and Workshops •Dalton State College--Derrell C. Roberts Library •Fall Festival - Creative Arts Guild

•Praters Mill Country Fair •Downtown Market •Libertry Tree Festival •Dalton Little Theater Firehouse Film Festival •Annual Fourth of July Celebration •Classic Car Show in Varnell •Dalton Public Schools - Visiting Author Events •Wars comes to Dalton p Civil War Driving Tour •Creative Arts Guild The winter Blues Series •Creative Arts Guild –Noon Arts Series

Clustering MapsSpaces and Facilities These two sample maps show the clustered location of cultural spaces and facilitates across the city. Here, clear clusters are evident in the city center area. A complete list of spaces and facilities dedicated for cultural activities are included in appendix 5 (a) and 5 (b).

•Creative Arts Guild •Southern Freight Depot •Dalton State College - James Brown Center •Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center •Georgia State Fairgrounds •Robert Webb Outdoor Sculpture Garden at the arts Guild •Emery Center - African American Cultural Center •Bandy Heritage Center at Dalton State College •Kelli Smith Design Studios

•Courtney Meyers Design studio •Michael's Fine Arts and Framing •Dance Theatre of Dalton (Dalton Arts) •Yarn Shop - Classes on Spinning, Weaving & Knitting •Dalton Arts Project •City Hall - City of Dalton Periodic Exhibits •Dalton State College - Shaheen Rock and Mineral Collection •Georgia Coaches Hall of Fame •Amphitheatre at Heritage Pointe •Paula Plott Gregg Art Studio

Clustering MapsOther Related Resources These two sample maps show the clustered location of other related resources across the city. Here, clear clusters are evident in places dedicated for worship followed by dining and lodging on I-75. The second map represents the distribution of schools buildings and districts in the city.

Ground View of Cultural Resources The digital map allows much more exploratory experience by using zooming in and out feature. By clicking on icon of each cultural asset category, the user can find out about a particular cluster or group cultural asset in the community. These two snapshots represent the ground view of cultural resources across the city. This feature can be used in Google map application to view the collective concentration of assets or can be used to view specific category of resources as shown in the second map for spaces and facilities.

Street View Map The making of digital maps by using Google earth also allow the users to get street views and directions to cultural assets located in the map. For example, the user can enter address or location in the location information into the top-left search panel. The digital map also gives the user an option to enable the roads, 3D buildings. Depending on what purposes the digital cultural map, the user can have the option to enable the places of interest layer.

Direction Map Search Panel

Layers Panel

Finally, the digital map allows to zoom out and zoom in . By clicking on icon of each cultural asset category, the user can find out about a particular in the community. These two snapshots represent the ground view of cultural resources across the city of Dalton. This feature can be used to view the collective concentration of assets or can be used to explore specific category.

COMMUNITY IDENTITY MAPPING RESULTS 49

Overview of the Community Identity Mapping As part of carrying out a participatory cultural mapping was to capture the collective identity and sense of place in the community under study. This section provides information to the second type of cultural mapping that is to map out the intangible elements of culture. With the purpose of mapping out those intangible culture and as an attempt to facilitate public participation in the process, I have designed an online survey and invited people from the community to identify the symbols, images and stories that indicate something important about what makes their community unique. The survey was circulated through the distribution networks of organizations in the city of Dalton.

The online survey posed five questions: 1.What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of Dalton? 2.What three places come to mind first? 3.What is it about our quality of life that makes Dalton unique? 4.Every community has stories â&#x20AC;&#x201C;about people, place, activities, achievements, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x201C;that express something important about its identity? What two or three stories do that for you? 5.When you are hosting a guest who has never visited Dalton before, what tourism attraction(s) do you most want them to see?

Screenshots of the online survey used in the project

Survey Highlights 1. What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of Dalton, GA? A total of 95 responses to the survey were received with 100% completion rate. The duration of the survey were from June 7-July 7, 2011. Responses indicated a variety of ideas and images, both positive and negative. The following tables represent the response count summary of the online survey questionnaire. The following section provides details analysis of the most frequently cited symbols, images and stories about Dalton. The most cited symbols were carpet culture, small southern town, family oriented, the cultural heritage points of interests in the city especially downtown, and frequently the mountain. The vast majority of the responses described the atmosphere in Dalton community as “small-town life with wonderful and caring people”. “It is a welcoming community full or possibilities and potential”. Paralleling responses to images of culture, the natural landscape specifically represented in North Georgia mountain, was also frequent. To provide a visual illustration to those symbols I used Wordle, an application for generating “word clouds” from text. I also used Textalyser, a text content analysis tool that provides detailed statistics of the text. Using this tool helped me show the keyword density and analyze the prominence of word.

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

carpet

20.3%

town

4.9%

small

4.2%

mountains

3.5%

southern

1.4%

family

1.4%

downtown

1.4%

Frequency and top words of symbols and images cited in question 1.

Survey Highlights 2. What three places come to mind first? The most cited places that were associated with peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense of place in the community were: Downtown, Walnut Ave, Walnut Square, Dalton State College, Rocky Face, Ridge Brookwood Park. The following table shows the summary of frequency and top words of places cited in this question.

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

Dalton

6.7%

walnut

6.1%

downtown

5.8%

Shaw

2.6%

college

Frequency and top words of symbols and images cited in question 2.

Survey Highlights 3. What is it about our quality of life that makes Dalton unique? The following summarizes the aspects of what makes Dalton unique according to participants responses:

Aspect of Quality of Life

Summary of Findings

Response Remarks

Small town atmosphere

Participates identified Dalton as place capable of offering the feeling of family and community bonds. Respondents also noted other characteristics such as the feeling of safety in the community, low density, and affordability.

“Still has a small town "feel" for such a diverse community, not cosmopolitan”. “small town atmosphere with big city dreams”. “Peaceful”. “Dalton is a community dedicated to caring for its people”. “We remain a somewhat small town with small town ethics”. “Daltonians are perhaps the most friendliest people in the world and Dallton is a great place to raise a family”. “Small enough to know people's names and faces when you go places and do business”. “Small town atmosphere in a medium/large town. Still able to get a sense of community and belonging though the population has grown.” “The community takes care of its people who are in need. Dalton possesses a rare quality: the sense of unity and family.”

Diversity

Respondents commented on the diversity the city has for its small size.

“It is unusually diverse for a town its size, and it has a more active arts scene than most towns its size”. “multicultural”. “It is a very diverse community, and very green”. “The folks who make up the community, multi cultural”.

Education opportunities

Respondents acknowledged the quality of education system in the city.

“If there is a desire, all things are possible in our public education system. This community reaches out to her own in need”. “Good schools”. “Great college.” “We have a very good local college”.

Survey Highlights 3. What is it about our quality of life that makes Dalton unique? Aspect of Quality of Life

Summary of Findings

Response Remarks

Economic aspect

Respondents identified Dalton as place with potential for businesses and growth by describing it as small town facility with access to large town amenities. These comments also highlighted Dalton’s proximity to bigger cities.

“Dalton acts like it is bigger than it is. People are highly competitive. Having a large industrial base located within the City limits has been great benefit”. “It has lots of industry for people seeking employment”. “There are many millionaires. Many communities are either rich or poor, but few actually have all economic levels”. “Dalton's reputation for political bickering, power-mongering and behind-the-scenes control that inhibits growth and innovation”. “Very short commutes a world recognized industry proximity to major cities demographic composition”. “Small town feel with Big City Resources”. “Large business / industry with a small town feeling”. “The low cost of living relative to the rest of the country”. “Easy to get around, very little traffic, low cost of living”.

Community facilities and city layout

Many participants commented on the green environment in the city and the opportunities for outdoor adventures in the mountains

“I love the layout of Dalton. It is great for people who want to exercise. Stores are close and accessible even to people living in more country areas”. “Clean and safe”. “Mountains and small town life only 1 hour from two metro areas”. “Beautiful landscaping with lots of trees, and rolling hills”. “Dalton has beautiful old trees that create a beautiful environment to live in”. “Easy access to wonderful natural areas - streams, forests, river”. “Beautiful natural scenery. Lot of arts for a town our size - Creative Arts Guild, two community theatres, Nutcracker, etc. “. “The cultural avenues; a building designed expressly for the arts (CAG), and two active amateur theatres”. “Valley or city views from the top of a mountain are unique and breathtaking!” “Dalton offers outdoor opportunities in mountain biking, hiking, kayaking.”

Survey Highlights 4. What stories that express something important about Dalton? The following summarizes the aspects of what makes Dalton unique according to participants responses; Nature of the Story

Summary of Findings

Response Remarks

Economic and entrepreneurship

Themes generated from the respondents recognized the City of Dalton as the Carpet Capital of the World and entrepreneurial stories about the early history of the carpet industry.

“The development from the chenille fabric businesses into the carpet (tufted) industry and production was established here in Dalton is this area's best known accomplishment. As Dalton later became know as the "carpet capitol of the world" because of the original, and later the high volume of carpet and tufted rugs production.” “The development of the railroad, the maturity and evolution of the carpet industry.” “The birth, growth, and development of the floor-covering industry.” “The start and growth of major flooring manufacturing through the decline of chenille bedspread makers.”

People and Citizens

Respondents acknowledged historical figures, local leaders and people who played significant role in the development of the community.

“The martyrdom of Mormon missionary Joseph Standing. The death of Juliet Derricotte. These probably aren't well known locally, but each national significance.” “Bob Shaw, for the carpet industry; Norman Burkett, for Hamilton Medical; V.D. Parrott at Dalton Utilities; Charlie Bowen, for the local schools; Dr. Roberts at Dalton State.”.“Robert Loveman, the railroad stories, the founding of Dalton State College.” “Catherine Evans starting with her piece meal chenille business and growing it into a huge industry.”. “Shaw Industries History, Tunnel Hill ( the tunnel) Praters Mill.” “The "Great Train Chase" coming through Dalton during the Civil War is exciting.” “Stories about Dalton as Peacock Alley Stories about Civil War.”

Survey Highlights 4. What stories that express something important about Dalton? Nature of the Story

Summary of Findings

Response Remarks

Community’s Accomplishments and Pride

Respondents recognized stories about the community as place that values the entrepreneurial spirit of America as well as stories about sharing and caring about the local community and its people especially needy families.

“Mr. Willis of Willis Funeral Home telling me that he hopped off the train at Dalton and stayed. How men starting in the carpet business would come out of their factories and sit on the curb and talk about how they were making their carpet and sharing information and success.” “The support offered the victims of the recent storms and another could be the enormous support of our community to the United Way organization”. “The effort to raise the general educational and economic level of foothill people “Community Leaders. Historic Revival. Current investment in future.” “The generosity of local business leaders in giving back to the community to make it a better place to live.” “How State College came to be in the beginning and how it got to where it is now.” “The theater stories from the late 1800s to now. Lesche Women's club.” “The clients at Doc-Up who are assisted by donations from Dalton people.”

Cultural Diversity

Respondents identified different cultural groups that contributed to the cultural diversity in the City of Dalton like Cherokee Indian, Hispanic community, African American and Appalachian heritage.

“The remarkable diversity of life in the Conasauga River and the growth and evolution of Dalton State.” “Cherokee Indian heritage.” “Embracing the Hispanic community.” “Appalachian heritage that still drives our independence.” “The various immigration debacles and the racial tensions of the mid 90s-early 2000s.” “As a African American born and raised on the Eastside of Dalton, there are no places left that are important. As a people we have lost our identity in this city as well as our communities. Most of our stories are buried in the past.”

Survey Highlights 5. When you are hosting a what tourism attraction(s) do you most want them to see?

The following highlights the summary of frequency and top places cited in this question. Downtown - was the most highly ranked places. This finding was consistent with previous answers a places and stories, these were the most regularly mentioned attractions in Dalton. Cultural attraction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; many historical attractions in the city were identified such as Historic Train Depot, civil war stops, and Old Railroad Tunnel at Tunnel Hill Natural attraction- the most mentioned here the parks like Heritage Point Park.

Word

Occurrences

Frequency

Rank

downtown

Dalton

2.9%

tunnel

2.6%

depot

2.6%

mill

2.4%

hill

2.1%

park

2.1%

Civil war

2.1%

SUGGESTIONS FOR DATA PARTNERSHIP AND ONLINE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 58

Initiating Data Collaboration Having appropriate up-to-date information about the cultural resources is critical to good cultural planning and management. As suggested by the Canadian Municipal Cultural Planning Inc. (2010), the underlying principle of any partnership framework for PCM is that the responsibility for collecting, updating and enriching mapping information must rest with those organizations most familiar to the content of that data. Before discussing these recommendations, it is important for those organization to understand the commitments involved in the cultural mapping partnership framework from having a unified way of grouping cultural information, to having a shared technology platform as well as a dedication to contribute to shaping future projects related to mapping cultural assets in the community.

While setting the foundation of a cultural mapping information baseline requires drawing and consolidating data from different sources, the question that needs to be asked is whether the data can be easily obtained and at affordable cost? And does it come from reliable source? This important task in designing a cultural mapping project suggests the need of a unified framework for information partnership among different people and organizations involved in cultural development in the community (Creativity Network of Canada, 2008; Colin, 2005; Baeker, 2010). Equally important, the partner organizations should have a sense of why they are involved. Potential partners in cultural mapping may include municipal partners, community partners as well as private partners (Ontario Municipal Cultural Planning, 2010). The diagram below illustrates these potential partners.

Planning Services Public Library Municipal Partners

Cultural Services

Parks & Recreational Tourism Services

Facilities & Real Estate Services Economic Development

Data Management Company PCM Data Partnership

Historical Society School Boards Museums and Archives

Community/ Private Partners

Local Arts

Basic Guideline for Data Partnership Participatory cultural mapping projects pay attention to the fact that equity should be a guiding principle in building a data partnership between organizations in the community. Political, human and financial resources are also needed as part of the collaboration process. One critical step in any partnership attempt is to ensure that the different people and the agencies involved know what the partnership is about, what are the common objective, who is doing what, and which outcomes are expected (Jana Machačová et al. , 2006; Creative City Canada, 2008). Therefore, initial communications with potential partners should revolve around building the basic understanding of what can be achieved through PCM. Generally, building a successful data collaboration requires agreement on the following elements:

Project overview

Project contacts

Purpose of the project and benefits

Critical success factors

Project scope

Project phasing and timelines

Budget

Terms of data use/data privacy

Project committees

As suggested by the Municipal Cultural Planning Inc. (2010), the initial momentum can be either locally driven, or bottomup, where the need for better collaboration is recognized; or policy driven, or top-down, when someone at the central level considers the partnership approach to be the right one for the solution to a certain type of problem. Whatever the motive to initiative a partnership for mapping and planning the cultural assets in the community, there are key factors to bear in mind. First, it is important to get all the relevant actors to join in the partnership. Failure to invite or attract some of these key actors might turn out to be an ongoing weakness limiting options (Jana Machačová et al. , 2006). Once all potential partners agreed on the principles, it is important to obtain formal commitment though “data sharing agreement” which sets out the terms for all parties involved in data partnership, including what information can be shared, for how long, and what it can be used for”. To have an agreement on these elements, partners have to share a vision and they also have to participate in articulating a strategy to realize that vision. This is an essential component to establishing a commitment to action from the different partners involved in the partnership (Ontario Municipal Cultural Planning Inc., 2010).

Web-Portal Design for Increasing Public Participation The final outcome of the current project was a design concept of a web portal for the purpose of encouraging the public to participate in defining the different elements contributes to their cultural landscape. The intention behind the concept was to demonstrate an innovative way that can help us visualize the invisible landscape of a place. During the conceptualizing of the design idea, my approach was guided by the question: Is there a way to mobilize communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement in planning their cultural assets and how can we provide equal opportunities to all members of the public to become involved? Another guiding principle in approaching the design concept was that the data generated from the public participation through the platform should be functional for cultural planning. Therefore, the remaining question is how can cultural planners extract ongoing qualitative information from various sources to support the ongoing mapping process?

At the present time, there are thousands of Application Programming Interfaces (API) that would allow designers and cultural planners to use the rich data that are generated from the participatory cultural mapping application platform. Applications such as Twitter and Flicker offer comprehensive APIs that enable different user interfaces form the actual sites. New applications, such as Infochimps and Factual, also initiated lately and were exclusively designed to provide structured data (Nathan Yau , 2011). At the individual level, the user can update friends on Facebook, share his or her location on Foursquare, or tweet about it on Twitter. The diagram below shows the different social media tool and digital mapping are integral parts of designing a web-based platform for community identity mapping.

A webbased platform for PCM

Purpose of the Design Concept Any PCM initiatives has a proactive public involvement component. Therefore, the design concept for the current project was built around increasing public participation and encouraging diverse user groups to share information on their cultural assets, identities, and stories about their communities by using social media tools and interactive map applications. Based on this, the purpose was to design an empowering tool that enables the public to express their opinion on what they like about a place and why and what would make it better. The purpose was also to make information broadly available, in which visitors, local residents and organizations can discover the range of resources in the community. It can also function as an effective search tool for people to finds specific information about cultural resources they know.

Collectively, the generated data can provide a wealth of information to help improve decision making and communicate different options more effectively. The data can also serve an archival function where information about cultural resources is captured for future generations.

Augmented reality. Live Streaming. What do you see? 62

Screen Shots of the Web Platform The proposed design concept of the platform provides a dynamic web application that operates as window for local cultural knowledge of people to be diffused and shared with other by using social media tool. It can be viewed as a channel for public participation. For example the user can post his/her thought about cultural map to facebook wall or can twitte about his or her feeling and sense of place or something unique about the place. Users can also post video by using YouTube or post images on Flicker.

The details for the proposed design concept is included in a separate document. It consists of eight parts as follow: the purpose, practical applications, user description, prototype, features and functionality, benefits, shortcoming of the proposed design, and next step in design process. The document also provides an evaluation form to get a sense of how well does the design concept fit into the realm of participatory planning.

These snap shots of the proposed concept design illustrates maps created by users. These maps reflect their personal view of what they perceived as cultural to them.

Value Proposition of the Design Concept The concept design for an online mapping platform was developed for those who are involved with or interested in promoting the cultural development in the community. It will therefore be of primary interest to planning professionals and cultural workers. The design idea offers the opportunity to develop visual representations of the tangible and intangible benefits of cultural resources. This will be accomplished through considering an open-source model that would allow the public to access and contribute to parts of the cultural inventory database online. Unlike the centralized model where the city municipality is responsible for providing the data and entering it into the system, the proposed concept is based on an open-source model which allows community members to be involved in the mapping and planning process, which in turn offer a deeper insight into diversity, history and identity of the community.

Centralized Model

Open-Source Model

CONCLUSION

Conclusion, Limitations and Future Research This project was a systematic attempt to demonstrate a practical application of an ethnographic research tool known as Participatory Cultural Mapping (PCM). The project was conceived upon the idea of viewing a community from its assets, rather than its deficits, coupled with the interest in integrating knowledge visualization tools to highlight the spatial dimension to the cultural assets.

The project explored the process of building the capacity for data collaboration and increasing public participation in planning and mapping. The method of PCM has been described as a strategy building tool that hopes to bring longterm benefits to the community’s cultural sector and improve cultural services for the people in the community (Greg Baeker 2011). Within this framework, the current research illustrated the benefits of participatory cultural mapping to holistically understand the cultural assets of the place. The quantitative results generated from the research were categorized then complied by using Google map application. Such application allows open access and interaction with cultural information that will further increase culture’s role in knowledge-based economy (Patricia Peters, 2007). The findings described in the project was based on an exploratory pilot study therefore it is hoped that this effort will stimulate constructive dialogue as I move forward with the design concept for a web-based participatory mapping tool.

The most key limitation of the current project was that findings cannot be directly generalized to the larger population being studied. This constraint was due to the fact that the number of participants in the research was too small to be representative of arts and cultural organizations in the city. Further, because qualitative research does not collect numeric data from a representative sample of the target audience, this type of research cannot be subjected to statistical analysis to estimate to what extent opinions expressed by participants reflect the opinions of the population studies(Patton, 2002). Other limitation was related to data collection techniques used in this research. For example, focus group participants were selected without using probability-sampling methods which limits the generalizability of the findings(Rubin, 1997). While this learning experience offered insights for the potential applications of using PCM, further research on enhancing awareness of cultural strengths and increasing public and citizens participation is needed. To further maintain the foundation for cultural mapping, data partnership need to take place in order to continue facilitating information sharing opportunities. Additional exploration on how to optimize the platform for “cultural networking” is also necessary for designing comprehensive system for future PCM process.

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Patton, Michael (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. London: Sega Publication Inc. Richard A. Mittenthal (2002). Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofit and Foundation Leaders. TCC Group http://www.tccgrp.com/pdfs/per_brief_tenkeys.pdf Richard Florida (2002). The Rise Of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life. Basic Books, US. Rubin, A. and Babbie E. et al (1997). Research Methods for Social Work. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole. Soini, Katriina. "Exploring human dimensions of multifunctional landscapes through mapping and map-making." Landscape and urban planning 57 (2001): 225-239. Thomas C Borrup. Creative Community Builder's Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture Fieldstone Alliance. 2006 U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009 American Community Survey. http://www.census.gov

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

List of Terms Used in the Project •

Cultural mapping – a process of collecting, recording, analyzing and synthesizing information in order to describe cultural resources, networks, links and patterns of usage of a given community or group/

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Cultural inventory – a list or database of information about cultural resources and assets of a community.

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Cultural map – a report on the findings and conclusions of a cultural mapping process; the cultural map can take many forms.

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Graphic map – a visually based, topographical map that is either drawn by an artist or generated by a computer using geographical

information system. •

Web-based map – a website dedicated to describing and representing eh cultural resources and assets of a community.

•

Resources and assets – in this context, the various elements that contribute to culture, whether human, natural, social, economic.

•

Target population – the sector or community being studied.

•

Target audience – the group to which you intended to present your findings and recommendations.

About the Designer Saad Aqeel is the Co-Founder and Design Partner of TRI-O CONSULTING LLC, a system innovation consulting group with a mission to strengthen participatory planning and mapping by providing strategic guidance and implementation resources to community stakeholders, while providing opportunities for engagement and collaboration.

Saad is very passionate about turning soft data into strategic insights for the purpose of organizing spatial collective action, and as he continues his educational journey, he is striving to explore more in-depth understanding of the dynamic social, cultural and economic forces that shape our local and regional spaces.

Saad previously served as senior manager of career development research and strategy in a telecommunication company in Dubai. There he played key role in the start-up of development initiatives targeted toward fostering the culture of organizational learning and inter-departmental collaboration. Prior to that, he worked as research analyst at The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.

He received B.A in Community and Social Development, M.S. degree in Social Administration, MFA in Design Management, and is presently preparing for PhD in Planning, Institutions and Transforming Spaces. Saad has also studies urban ethnography, social network analysis, knowledge visualization tools and, for the past few years, he has been creatively integrating user experience and participatory design into everything he does.

Contact E | saqeel20@gmail.com http://saadaqeeldesign.wordpress.com/ http://saadaqeelalzarooni.wordpress.com/