In 2095 when everyone in this world will be prosperous enough they will realise money wasn't the cure mankind was looking for.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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So whats this pursuit today for?

We have vision and plans for cities, organisations and society for another 30, 50 and 60 odd years and we are bullish and content about that, but that's still myopic considering its been thousands of years since we emerged as human from monkey and we are yet capable of seeing just this deep into the future. Mankind's wit, confidence and reliability of calculations can only be judged with this fact that while most of us know what happened 300 years ago in world event, almost none of us know neither care to know who were our forefathers 300 years ago down the family tree. So our judgement, planning and projections are just limited to more or less couple of decades beyond today since only that's how far we are able to gaze and comprehend thinking that's what we will be able to control and we keep planning and improving our and world's living standards.

All this socioeconomic efforts currently points and culminates towards single point solution and agenda - "Money", as we think money is the only ultimate cure and panacea for human misery. So consider a hypothetical future year when everyone in this world will have enough money to get a good and convenient life, then what? Will we simply keep improving lifestyle and comfort of mankind to say we are evolving and in business as usual we might evolve and mutate into something biologically like we became human from monkey. Is that all? Its hard to accept that purpose of human life is just to strive and adjust to better lifestyle, better food and better comfort, Is that what we are targeting and moving towards or is it a futile chase. Can we give our kids a better larger purpose to target and approximate than spoon feeding them to simply accumulate wealth throughout life and perish. Does anyone see convergence and culmination of future social planning and spiritualism for instance?  Does anyone think about satisfying poor man's intellectual hunger or our thoughts are only limited to giving him a piece of bread thinking we have done our bit? 

Its good to be skeptical.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Why individual and society has to be receptive and resilient. 

So how these individual idiosyncrasies which is sometimes projected as values and sometimes quoted as part of tradition, takes shape and gets reinforced forming an inseparable character of individual? 

Its a complete self gratification cycle backed by pseudo-scientific assertion as a social proof, which permits an individual to act in same way time and again and ultimately end up being an integral part of its persona, which neither they themselves question ever in their life, nor they allow others to do so, and when bitter life sometimes put them in a situation when their such idiosyncrasies are questioned they end up being emotionally sore and fragile and sometimes intellectually paralysed. 

In the process of evolution of mankind they seem to forget what differentiate them from animals, they forgot to pose questions to themselves and to situations before acting or concluding. They forgot that being skeptical and questioning was the only thing which differentiated them from primates and wild beasts. 

An individual and a society which shows the mindset to listen to new ideas and opinions and mobilises the courage to question their own opinions and idiosyncrasies grows by leaps and bound those who cant gets hurt and get perished. So how these individual idiosyncrasies which is sometimes projected as values and sometimes quoted as part of tradition, takes shape and gets reinforced forming an inseparable character of individual?

The misunderstood, misinterpreted and misconstrued missing link of education.

In the realm of monopolistic education lobby!

The education system which taught us “c for cat” when we were kid and thanks to animal planet which taught us reproduction affair of cat community large or small when one was grown enough to grasp it and teaching nothing in between about the subject, what else has been real contribution of supposedly highly evolved, thoughtfully articulated education system towards educating masses about numerous such small elements of life, environment and beyond as in example? Where is the missing link, do we even feel that there is some missing link, do we even feel that we needed to learn more about subject for example or are we already numb? One might not be thoroughly updated on latest content or programs of curriculum but essentially that’s all most of us will be able to recollect about such subjects through that long guided journey of education. Rest what we learned about subject was either from Tom & Jerry cartoon series or Catwoman from Hollywood, i.e., TV & Movie, both of which has been declared profane or useless by education system when it come to their jurisdiction, we haven’t even talked about internet yet, which is the actual missing link!  

Does this system of education, either imposed directly through curated structure or implied indirectly through cultivated social wisdom has right to set boundaries of education, or does it has right to dictate handful of acceptable credible streams of knowledge, does it has right to limit student’s optimum exposure towards any particular subject?

In this highly evolved world of technology which is constantly in progressive flux, it’s apt and high time for education system to realize its unprecedented role and grave responsibility towards shaping individuals, nations, world and future civilization at large. Things are different than decade ago, so has to be the thinking and approach. System has to cope up with the flux where by the time syllabus is framed the subject content becomes obsolete, in a world where by the time bestseller books are being edited, subjects discussed in book become outdated on internet discussion forums. Education system has to rebuild its structure, with stable core of moral principles and with dynamic mutating envelop which constantly mimic the societal and technological changes.  

Yes Internet and everything tech has to be introduced at the earliest ladder of education. How we filter the content is education system’s burden not kid’s. But just because they are unable to filter the bad content of internet they can’t simply deprive the bright young kids from whole potential and knowledge of internet which they would have used otherwise to understand the subject. Why it is that a students still have to resort to a tiny textbook to know about a cat for example when even an elementary or secondary students can have access to information about cat at their desk in as much detail and depth as a PHD student can enjoy. Majority of which content might appear to be useless for that kid, but that cannot be an excuse not to give him access to whole depth of knowledge, you never know one of them choose to go deeper picking up fast, ending up making millions of dollars by the age 13 writing blog about cats. Go to retire@21 website and you will find numerous such examples.

It’s true from all across schools to colleges. Does existing education system hesitate to reinvent itself in this fear that what if students become more knowledgeable than educators, what if laced with constant stream of information students ask smarter questions than ever which they might find difficult to answer. Meanwhile producing millions of mediocre tools seems to be an easy escape for education system. 

Whether they will allow them that exposure or not kids will still learn on their own when they will have access to internet after some idiosyncratic prescribed age limit, but the only fear is that by then their most productive learning age period will be over. It’s time to ponder and rethink Education!

By - Anoop Jha

Scaling of opportunities, a bigger challenge than scaling up urban infrastructure!

Tackling immediate soft urban challenges through resource prioritization!

Infrastructure expansion is where the money and interest is and is a never ending process as well, so it will keep scaling up in background anyway and will be taken care of diligently, with or without much intervention. Public sector has more of a catalytic and mentoring role to play in that direction. Skill is what we need to focus on today.

Like they say “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to catch a fish and he will eat for his lifetime”.  Scaled opportunity is what an urban dweller needs irrespective of which Socio-economic strata they belong. More opportunity to masses means more involvement in the urban dynamics, and hence being more engaged in the process of building the very city which provided the new scale and dimensions of opportunities. Scaling of opportunity are less resource intensive and has higher ROR than scaling or urban infrastructure and might be more sustainable an approach!

Further scientific modelling and analysis will be required to validate and assert the idea.  

Join Anoop on Linkedin  

or follow on Twitter @urbanoregional

Decoding secrets of good visuals - What makes some images and photographs stand out from the crowd

Some tips, tricks and subjects of images, graphics and photographs which is bound to cast a spell

1)     B&W background subject with semi-transparent bright techno/pop color in      foreground

2)     Picture with range of depth and focus

3)     Green appeal in innovative way

4)     Lush rainy/moist green landscape in terra incognita

5)     Realistic corporate affair capturing the mood of subject and vibes of business  minus ( - ) plastic smiles

6)     Simple things in perspective view

7)     Pattern or geometry unseen before

8)     A well framed shot of pets or wildlife with serious engaging looks

9)     Capturing Interactive and playful pets

10)  Green appeal in innovative way

11)  Bird’s eye view of Rooftop innovation

12)  Well framed commercial subject

13)  Black & Yellow Composition

14)  A well framed worm’s eye view of skyscraper or anything towering

15)  Caves or any undulating interior, lit with bright morning sun displaying    excellent interplay of light and shadow

16)  Translucent colored containers

17)  Hand drawn-water color effect in this era of 3D Simulation

18)  Morning sun rays filtered through simply anything

19)  Innumerable colorful interplay of sunlight and cloud at dawn, dusk further  accentuated if captured in hills

20)  Laughing giggling girls

21)  Asymmetrically captured frame of symmetrical building or symmetrical  something

22)  Translucent building glowing from inside - filtered hint of colors further acts  as charm

23)  White doodle on black background, call it old school blackboard nostalgia or  whatever!

24)  Futuristic ambiance and setting seemingly within reach in near future, not  just another fancy unreachable idiosyncrasy

25)  Anything overwhelmingly luxurious and classic specially interiors

More to come….

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15 things I learned in 10 minutes about photography - Flipping through a reputed travel guide book

Check out new Blog Page dedicated to World Education

Educ@ti.ON  - Rethinking Education for a "lightened up world"!! 

Click on image to go to page-

Visit Page at following Link: http://planningurbanoregional.blogspot.in/p/eduction.html

More Coming....

Architecture Satellitexted

Satellite view of architectural alphabet 

The only sustainable retrofit whether it’s a product or city environment

To leave scope for future retrofits in the moment you conceive the idea of product or vision of a city.

Today you realize after 5 or 20 or 30 years that this product or system or infrastructure which you had planned back then with the most sophisticated tools and technology available at that time, with the best brains at disposal and the best hands available, that robust system of past desperately needs a technology overhaul and efficiency retrofit today, just to validate its contemporary relevance and to drag itself for few more miles in the tomorrow, but it would have been quite difficult for you to confront and accept this apparently unpleasant fact that this product, infrastructure, system or even strategy which you claim to be the most advanced and avant-garde today is very soon going to be outdated, very soon indeed!! Acknowledge it or not, that’s how it works, especially when technology, planning and policy is concerned only thing which remains eternal is aesthetics and nostalgia associated with such technology, possibly that’s why many people still prefer analog watch over digital one, that’s totally a personal choice.

Change is not only an integral law of nature but equally a law of technology, inevitable like growth of humanity, because humanity is curious and that’s why innovation and hence need to replace and retrofit old technology. Problem with the contemporary approach of planning and product design is that we tend to conceive and create a system or product which is 100% complete in its form and design “today” leaving no scope for future integration except few exceptions, even knowing that need for retrofit is waiting only at the next turn of system or product life-cycle  You see those overly stuffed embedded products, jam packed conduits, circuits and channels, overcrowded service corridors, saturated underground utility trench, suffocating right of ways (ROW), chaotic narrow streets, thousands of unventilated unlit city rooms and residences, all of this have two things in common, one, is the shear lack of vision and second, ignorance to change. Change which is inevitable, but we are happy and content with what we have planned today, who cares for tomorrow? Meanwhile, you enjoy all the attention and praise because of your new product and system. They might even have bagged few awards for best innovation and work in the field, but it all doesn't really matter if that product or vision fails in next couple of years. The single largest criteria of product or planning judgment and evaluation has to be sustainability, which means your product or system or vision have to have an inbuilt scope for absorption of future technology and efficiency integration for sustainability, to keep up with future pace of life and lifestyle.

Lets talk something about "sustainability" here. The word "sustainability" has been exploited much in recent years  increasingly assuming a very narrow meaning just revolving around "anything green". Lets keep in mind that being or doing green is just a piece of sustainability. Sustainability is much more, it is vastly inclusive a phenomenon, it is about the whole life cycle of product or system or plan. if you make a greenest product on earth which has a life span or tech-viability span or people-acceptance span of one or two year that is not sustainable when compared to a product which is though not so green in its DNA but which has a larger life span or acceptance span of may be half a decade or so or more. All the resources  which has gone into making of that short lived green product goes to vain at the end of its functional or acceptance span but the similar resources  which has been consumed in making that not so green product with a much longer life span seems more sustainable an option.  Using 5 most "greenest" products of same use one after another in just five years is much less sustainable than using 1 single "not so green" product for 5 years.

Now today you realize that environmental laws have become more stringent, people have become more educated, aware and choosy  technology has become more and more complex and sophisticated, every coming tomorrow product or system of yesterday is becoming obsolete, what to do. We can’t really plan for something which has not been invented yet, but we can always try to leave some scope for future integration, for the time when it is invented. It might add to few percent of capital or man hour but it’s worth giving a thought. Acknowledging the need for future retrofit and leaving some scope for it today will make our life easy tomorrow, products more relevant and cities more sustainable.   

Absolut city...

When “Traffic Merging Ahead” on every alternate road, clashes are bound to happen

Bad transport infrastructure and poor road designs leading to conflicts on road.

No one wants to get into argument or fight on the fine morning office hour or while on the way back home, really!! Everyone has some plan for the day ahead, and they really can’t afford to waste time here on road arguing for nothing. But what to do with these urban roads that make these people susceptible to conflict and road rage due to design which lack consistency and continuity. It’s ironical that in the same alignment of road where mile long vehicle queue is witnessed also has a part of stretch like super smooth expressway, either right in the middle of metropolis or connecting neighboring cities, districts and states leading to gridlock. It’s like speedy route to gridlock. So 70-90 % of the whole journey stretch you can cover in 20-30% of journey time, spending rest of the journey in gridlocked section travelling in snail’s speed. Journey on that reaming 10-30% stretch becomes more frustrating because you have just witnessed a test of speed on the expressway like road stretch back on the journey.

Things become worse when variety of vehicles start competing for the lanes with suddenly reduced carriageway near bottlenecks at every few hundred meter due to variety of reasons like poor road design, bad road geometry, old narrow bridge, recent construction and maintenance works, frequent vehicle breakdown, faulty or unrealistic traffic signals (it’s unbelievable that there are also around less than 10 seconds of green signal assigned for some stretches at some busy road junctions) etc. at least similar is the case in many developing countries.

This induced conflict is result of lack of cohesiveness and isolated accountability among different agencies and consultations hired at different point of time, for revamping urban transit stretches and systems. In Urban scenarios, Road stretches cannot planned and designed in isolation, hence no question of isolated accountability, like trunk routes cannot be designed in isolation without  considering feeder traffic flow. What is happening here in bottleneck situations is that vehicles are allowed to reach the bottleneck at high speed which encourages quickly accumulated high volume traffic at bottleneck, and then the real struggle begins, people ruthlessly competing for limited lanes!! It’s a painful experience of struggle for daily commuters, not because of slow speed but due to immense psychological pressure and tiresome drive to negotiate that rude, ruthless competing traffic while trying to protect their asset and peace of mind. No wonder it also leads to frequent road rage incidents. Even if bottleneck situation is unavoidable there has to be smooth transition from high speed stretch to the bottleneck point, which can only be done through proper road design, sensible signage and its highly visible locations, commuter education, manual or automatic traffic assistance and guidance, strengthening alternate route, staggered office timing, land use restructuring, etc.

Why such vast gap exists in statistical interpretation of a single fact?

Statistics considers raw data while people tend to value associated sentiments.

If you are going for a primary survey with a standard template of closed ended questionnaires or some kind of table to be filled with numbers you might not be doing real justice to the survey. You might have a reasonable amount of data at end of the day to conclude your assignment or research, but you won’t be able to do the realistic assessment of the situation. You might fulfill the acceptable standards of data gathering; you might even publish the result and can even bag an award or two, but if the very people who got surveyed are not being able to relate to the statistical conclusion, or if they do not validate it, all the efforts of data collection and analysis goes to vain.

You will be surprised to realize that still at many instances the situation shown of paper and the actual situation experienced by the population is drastically different, though data for situation analysis was gathered from the same population or community. Then why this vast gap of interpreted and locally experienced situation exists? Why this constant apparent difference of opinion between government’s point of view and what media and NGO’s showcase about the city, region or community etc. There are few possible reasons, first is that statistics is very flexible domain, though outcome seems very impactful there is enough scope to mould or influence the direction of outcome, still staying within legally of intellectually acceptable limit. The kind of data you select to gather, variety of assumptions you take into consideration, mode and tool of statistical analysis you choose to go with, time span considered for analysis, selection and heterogeneity of sample itself, there are so many such variables that one can interpret and influence the outcome in any possible direction depending on the purpose or intention. Larger the data set, greater the flexibility of interpretation.

Government being a powerful entity with ample manpower and resources has generally upper hand when it comes to data collection and interpretation and usually less probability of misrepresentation, but again it depends on what they want to prove or convey. Media and NGO who generally lack enough data due to manpower constraint to prove a fact applicable to a larger domain generally tend to rely on emotional values attached to the subject or region and sentiments of population or communities to prove their point. They generally choose small set of data though having high perceived or emotional value and exploit the associated sentiments. On one hand there is ample scope of playing with data and on the other hand equally or more or less scope to play with people’s emotions and sentiments but ultimately both leads to distortion of fact. And this show of constant blame and justification goes on and on. Actual fact seems to lose the significance while this argument is on, later no one really bothers to reach to the actual fact.

Unless statistics as a knowledge stream would device a method and make it a mandate to consider or quantify and incorporate the emotional and sentimental values attached to the subject of research and aspirations of communities to the extent possible along with some kind of post analytic appraisal and indigenous validation method, data representation would remain deceptive and at the mercy of decision making individuals or groups. Meanwhile we as a layman can mitigate this doubt of data misrepresentation by keeping a questioning, skeptical or neutral attitude towards impactful data being presented day to day from both government end as well as media and social welfare representative’s end, without being panicked, without arriving at immediate conclusion, cross verifying the fact from different sources, applying our own head and intuition, knowing and reminding them that their job is to inform us not to instigate or incite us. You are capable enough to judge yourself; all you need is a fair amount of fair data and statistics or simply a fair representation.

By : Anoop Jha

How Facebook incited design sense in layman.

Do you see cropped family photograph mounted on living room wall? Usually not!!

The only fundamental difference between a designer and a layman in context of design is the way they see all things intangible or concrete. When graphic designers look at something, they see it as a building block for their design subject exploring possibilities to infuse their creativity, but laymen see things as it is. Graphic Designers usually pick up a subject or a set of elements then break them into pieces only to rearrange them again making it a little abstract and hence interesting. It’s too tricky a job for a layman, so they simply leave this design work to designers.

It you try to recall a classic family photograph of your grandparents in black & white or your parent’s photograph in sepia or your own picture with your wife or friends in full blown HD colors, you will find one common thing in all these, no matter what the age of photograph is, all these photographs have been clicked with a wide field of view to capture all the subjects “in totality” with slight “margin” on all the sides. When we take a photograph especially a family one, we not only want to capture the individuals but we also want to capture that beautiful moment, that ambiance and that environment, so we tend to shoot a photograph with larger frame capturing surrounding environment of the person or subject as well.  

   

When Facebook introduced Timeline feature, it empowered a common man to be a designer knowingly or unknowingly with a tool called Cover photograph, most of you have used this feature. What is interesting here is that this linear space allocated for the cover photograph is pre-decided and has been freezed only with a little flexibility in terms of adjustment of photographs. Now all one has to do is to upload a picture here, adjust it vertically and job is done. Now when you upload your family photograph here, that initial carefully captured photograph with extra margin around the subjects and surrounding ambiance and so on is all gone and you will see a new cropped version of the same photograph in the cover photograph section of your facebook. And surprisingly you will start liking this new cropped version of the photograph even more now. Ever wondered why? Because you have applied a basic thumbrule of graphic design here knowingly or unknowingly, thanks to facefook feature i.e. to crop the image to an extent so that it start gaining abstractness and hence making it more interesting. Fortunately that space provided for cover picture is such that it allows you to crop the image only from two sides which makes the image more abstract and dynamic. See everyone is designer now!! No wonder why you are spending more time on facebook since the timeline was introduced!! 

World Agro Market Information Resources

Global Agro Market Information

AMIS  : Agricultural Market Information System

A G20 initiative.

Global agricultural market information system

     http://statistics.amis-outlook.org/data/index.html

     http://www.amis-outlook.org/

AMIS Aims to -

Enhance food market outlook information

Improve agricultural market information, analyses and forecasts

Report on abnormal international market conditions

Collect and analyse policy information,

Promote dialogue and responses, and international policy coordination;

Build data collection capacity in participating countries.

Indian Agro Market Information

National Agricultural Market Atlas

http://gisserver.nic.in/agmarknet/Default.asp?stat=1024&hitcnt=%22%20&%20hit%20&%20%22

Check Agricultural Market Prices Online, India

http://agmarknet.nic.in/

Do we need structural reform in education system?

One education does not suit all.

We have created a template of education system based on our own idea of what an ideal educational curriculum and growth path should be and we want everyone belonging to different economic strata of society to follow the same path. Whether they are kids of millionaires or underprivileged children they are supposed to go through the same education structure. This phenomenon of standardization is more visible at elementary and secondary education level. Sheer number of children to be educated makes an excuse for standardization of education.

What makes us think that educational needs of poor underprivileged segment is same as prosperous segment of society, while their priorities and their skill needs are way different from each other. Their average educational lifespan might significantly differ; they might need a different curriculum, different educational structure and different style of teaching. Are we trying to pave a path for children of a incredibly poor migrated family living in squatter of city up to the graduation and post graduation and doctorate level, can he or she afford to invest so much of their life time earning education while their parents are struggling for their livelihood throughout their life and searching for a descent place which they can call home? Isn’t it that the educational needs of these special kids are way different from the middle and higher income segment of society? Don’t they need a kind of education which will allow and help them earn some money to fulfill their personal needs and help sustain and support their family while they are getting educated? This is something which standard education system fails to provide. School’s prime focus has remained on providing knowledge while what these marginalized kids need is skills which they can immediately put into practice and help uplift their socio-economic profile, they can’t wait to get a job or start their own business till they graduate from an engineering college. They have to act now to get out of that mess; they can peruse their education at any point later in life in their area of interest to further enhance their skills.

Talking of middle class segment, look at the majority of first-generation entrepreneurs who choose to become an entrepreneur due to increasingly tempting business opportunities of modern world and technological advancements in-spite of any family history of business or entrepreneurship, but majority of them are apparently lost or clueless about how to move forward. What an irony, throughout the education ladder these kids were prepared for corporate job and they choose to become entrepreneur and found themselves struggling and lost in the big business world, dominated by family business houses, whether a business house of a small shopkeeper or  empire of well known business family. Take a case of any city in India, majority of middle segment business owners have only basic elementary education from generations to generations, and they are surprisingly doing well, they didn’t feel the need of further formal education so they voluntarily dropped out from the school, their parents taught them the skills they needed to run the business, they inherited the knowledge which was needed to run the show. They would have never learned these skills in the schools with present education structure, because present education system doesn’t treat them as a special niche group at elementary and secondary education level who need customized education. Hence the first generation entrepreneurs feel lost while business houses run their business smoothly.

Imagine the growth potential of individual and communities with the targeted education, imaging the growth potential of a kid who gets targeted training in his family business (whether its pottery, metal works, furnishing or anything else, at elementary to secondary education level which he is witnessing through generations, and compare it with the collective loss of potential due to flat “good for all” education structure. Loss seems to be monumental. It’s time that the fundamental structure of education need to be revived and should become increasingly skill oriented starting right from the elementary level. 

There is no shortcut to Good Architecture or Urban Design

Losing purity of form in contemporary architecture

You must have seen bizarre buildings, distorted mega sculptural elements in public places scattered all over the urban fabric. This entire gimmick in the name of creativity and uniqueness!! It’s like; short term YouTube or social media fame. It may grab attention of public for sometime but such architecture or urban design or public landscape elements are not going to sustain for long.

Though different era of history has witnessed different architectural styles, elements and treatments but fundamentally, beauty of architectural forms have remained timeless and it is timeless indeed. Timeless architectural aesthetics can’t be confined in any time-span or region. Architecture demands a fair representation through lucidity of form with innocence and tenderness of its complex but aesthetic attributes, which is getting lost somewhere in the race of success, uniqueness and technological race. Suddenly so much advancement has taken place in building materials and construction techniques and it appears that architecture has become an experimental ground to execute hidden bizarre instincts of architects who seem to be unable to handle this outburst of Techno-architectural possibilities. 

Art of Urban exploration

By - Anoop Jha,

Then, Now and What Next

Historically cities have provided great inspirations to writers, artists and likeminded people,  reason being, cities have very rich, eventful and intricate interaction patterns when it comes to life experiences and have rich interspatial fabric with dynamic interplay of light and shadow. Different cities at different time periods have lacked at different  fronts and same with the contemporary cities, but ever wondered why, the focus of literature and art has shifted from aesthetics to state of city amenities? Of late people have started approaching the cities very critically, finding loopholes, pointing responsibilities, and so on.



Of course these are necessary for the well being of citizens and development of cities, though understanding the constraints of contemporary cities, but cities still provide ample opportunities and inspirations for enthusiast with artistic inclination like writers, artists, photographers etc. to appreciate and document the beauty and existing state of cities from aesthetic point of view for the generations to come.    

Induced Eureka moments

By - Anoop Jha

Using knowledge to validate the creativity

If you are one of those creative souls like writers, director, fashion or product designers, architects, interior designers or planners, you must have, at random times experienced those intentional or uninvited eureka moments of creativity when you think you have cracked the code. In that moment you are absolutely sure what you are up to and sure about where you are going.  One might think it’s just a matter of chance, a coincident. Think again, it might be subconscious mind working unconsciously on the project you got last fortnight but couldn’t get time to sit and draft a blueprint. It might be your active eyes looking for inspiration into the hidden recesses of surrounding or on the bright facades’ of city streets, without you noticing it and it suddenly manifests itself in form of idea or solution which you were looking for.

Apparently it’s possible to increase the frequency of occurrence of those creative eureka moments by remaining consciously vigilant to surrounding environment while identifying existing problems and possible solutions and getting inspired by the dynamics of environment at the same time.

One can increase the probability of finding right solution by conscious and frequent encounter with ever increasing and freely available creative resources like online data repository. The more you explore more you become confident about what you are aiming for and at the same time you open the door for creativity surge. You got to find out and see every existing or proposed green skyscraper and sustainable development project first, if you are set to create a green architectural or planning masterpiece for example.  

Social media and its ignored role in planning process

By- Anoop Jha

Utilising Background noise of social media for better planning

There is always a resistance and hesitance to change, resistance to adapt to new technology, new methods, new thoughts. Same is the case of age old planning procedure. Take for example surveys and participatory planning. Surveys both primary and secondary play a very important role in any Urban and regional planning endeavor and project of any scale and nature, implemented through any agency whether private or Govt. or PPP. Also due to rigidity and shortsightedness of planning process we forgot to include the recently emerged but powerful segment of social structure called Social Media whose feedback and opinion matters a lot. Tech savvy active segment of population who emerged in recent past feel responsible as a citizen to express their feeling towards variety of issues including any particular development and planning issues and projects, some of these collective thoughts out of the massive online “junk opinions” can prove to be a very valuable asset if filtered, tracked, interpreted and incorporated in the project being discussed or for any planning issue in general.  

Social Media feedbacks for planning process and projects are either underestimated due to pre-determined age old procedural guidelines for planning process including, surveys, community participation and feedback, or are untapped due to shear abundance of it. Current situation is that a substantial number of people give their opinion and feedback and willing to share more on some ongoing project as well as project under pipeline, but planners and responsible authorities do not feel responsible even to listen to these valuable inputs coming from background noise of the social media. All these efforts of individuals and groups go into the vain in most of the cases.    

Enabling and channelizing the online focused planning communities like dedicated discussion forums, blogs, social networking sites and online professional communities in the positive direction to get a feedback on a particular project can radically alter the way projects being planned and implemented.