MIT e-Planning Seminar

We will begin the Series with an informal presentation of the Seminar goals and structure, followed by a discussion with DUSP faculty and students. The focus of this discussion will be to identify valuable links between the Seminar topic and the agenda of each DUSP research cluster and, by doing so, to pave the way to optimize the usefulness of the guest sessions and provide a framework for the discussions with them, as well for the book that will emerge from this Seminar.

"e-Planning" Seminar

DUSP Seminars on Technology and the City have contributed to understanding the urban planning implications of modern information and communication technologies (ICT). The new Seminar / Speaker Series on "e-Planning" builds on this experience and focuses on the new challenges and opportunities for 'e-planning' as the reach of ICT extends far beyond the automation of traditional tasks. This Seminar is a "department wide" endeavor, intended for faculty and students of all DUSP research clusters and specialization areas.

The MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning has been at the forefront of the new thinking concerning the use of technology by planners and the impacts of technology on planning. Examples include our research on GIS web services, neighborhood information systems, and collaborative planning tools, and our use of these technologies to study urban spatial structure, community development, social capital formation, digital divide issues, and urban design methods. We must continue to provide leadership by fostering a research agenda on the next generation of problems facing "e-Planning".

One goal for this Speaker Series Seminar is to advance the research on Planning and ICT at DUSP. The topic has long been the focus of the Planning Support Systems research cluster. But the expanded ICT use and the far reaching implications of ICT choices and strategies have brought one or another aspect of ICT onto the agenda of all groups across DUSP. The seminars are intended to facilitate dialogue across a broad cross-section of the department about some of the shared issues, methods, and implications of "e-planning". By doing so, we also hope to stimulate debate about an e-planning research agenda among an international community of our peers, not only in Planning but also in closely-associated fields. Hence the planned Book as a result of the Series, incorporating MIT-DUSP contribution to the new intellectual challenges we face today, and the International Conference (ICPPIT03) complementing the Speaker Series.