Data mining of local print Media for contextual urban planning

By - Anoop Jha

Analyzing vast database of local and regional newspapers

Media is called the mirror of society and it tells the stories of any region and its people as seen and gathered with continuous efforts.  Imagine the amount of data and information media might have gathered collectively in course of decades of exploration, about any particular region, its people, community and their behavior, their needs and aspirations, their strengths and their opportunities, their social and economic dynamics and potentials. 


[Handpicked Books] 




This huge amount of data can be of tremendous importance for planners and policy makers, if filtered and analysed properly. Let’s take print media for the purpose of data mining since it would be easier to dig from the decades of archive, of national, regional and local newspapers.

Collage of print media

What’s the standard way of research for different planning projects? Planners are generally dependent on secondary data in elementary stage and primary data at later stage to arrive at a conclusion in term of what could be the best suitable plan for a city or region. 


When it comes to secondary data collection, most of the time it’s either published reports or online database which is user uploaded content on which they rely. This relevant information may be authentic, may be half baked, may be partially relevant, may be totally wrong or may not be available even.

Local & regional newspapers

What about local print media? Have we forgot to explore the rich and authentic information which the local newspares have generated across a large time span. Though its little tiresome to filter all those relevant information about the particular region or issue from the thousands of chronological issues of dozens of national and regional newspapers and magazines. But no information can be as authentic, precise and relevant as the collective database of this vast landscape of print media not even primary data. Need is to encourage and formalize a methodology to utilize this untapped knowledge of print media for the planning process.

Thin line between development works, social service and exploitation

By - Anoop Jha

A case of tribal communities and regions

We need to question our own intention of doing right and doing good thing to others. May be what we think is right for someone or some community might not be that good for them as we assume.

Who is to decide what is good for whom? Is it the job of government? or maybe the Highbrow society? Or socially, politically and intellectually established individuals with their idiosyncratic ideology and philosophy having their own idea of utopian society? Is it the job of little advanced segment of society to decide what is good for not so advanced segment of society?


[Handpicked Books]

What could be the hidden intention behind doing good to others or some community or some region, which we call development work or at times social service?  Let’s take the example of tribal community and tribal region. Is it the shear innocent intention of sharing existing wealth and knowledge to unprivileged or unexplored segment of society or is it to exploit the untapped potential of the previously unexplored tribal region for our own advantage, is it a sincere effort to understand and document the needs and social pattern of these tribal communities or is it just to get commercial advantage by exposing these hidden communities to mainstream society, is it to help them learn utilize their own resources more efficiently or the hidden intention to exploit rich tangible and intangible tribal resources.  Is it to provide them better health, better opportunities and better lifestyle or is it  just shear gratification of doing social service.  Has that road been built to connect those hidden tribal communities to the mainstream society and to provide them new age opportunities and facilities or the intention is to extract the tribal wealth of region and exploit the heritage and culture value in form of tourism and all. 

Shy and conservative tribal communities throughout the world need very little for their living; they are an autonomous society in themselves.  They have been adapted to their environment in course of evolution and their local environment usually provides them all they need- food, shelter, social interaction, entertainment, spiritual satisfaction. Now there are few choices to make. One is to let this situation of apparent equilibrium of autonomous tribal community go ahead as usual and second to interfere and change the equilibrium either for their good or for own advantage which seems to be the case most of the time. This is a sensitive and tender issue has to be dealt with much thought and compassion. Social behaviors, norms and needs of tribal communities are mostly way different then the mainstream, so simply imposing the rules of mainstream society on the said communities might not do justice to them. For example the concept of formal education might be something totally alien to many tribal communities, so simply introducing the primary and secondary education system to those communities might not be a good idea just because we want everyone in the country to be literate, may be they simply don’t need a formal education, may be they need a different kind of skill orientated education, may be they need an education system totally different from mainstream society.  There are many such issues to address and subject of discussion.

Until they all arrive at a consensus, role of government in the mean time can be to protect the tribal communities and regions from external commercial invaders,  and provide them the health infrastructure with emergency facilities.   

Rx Design Capsule !!!

By - Anoop Jha

For  better Product and Project Health

Design Architecture Planning

[Handpicked Books]

Seems they love to waste fuel

By - Anoop Jha

Road junctions need smarter user interactive signal system..

And people need education!! When they know it’s going to be at least 3 to 6 minutes wait at road junction of their busy city and when it’s not extreme summer then why don’t they turn off the engine of their car for a while? This little act of saving petrol or diesel might not save them a lot of money today but if counted over a year the sum of this effort might add few thousand additional bucks in their bank balance. Imagine the gallons of fuel saved over the period by the collective efforts of citizens in a city.

Let’s dig into the psychology of car owners and possible reasons to waste the fuel at road junctions which could have been avoided. Is it because they are ultra rich people and don’t mind burning some fuel at junction, is it that car owners never thought about this as an option, is it that they are so much in hurry and preoccupied that they don’t want to think about it, is it that they want to avoid those beggars and casual vendors selling toys at junctions hence depending on air-conditioning system of car rather than opening window for few moments, is it that there is no one to educate them about how much fuel can be saved over the year by such practices, does it even really save some fuel or just a vague assumption? May be, may be not? But may be traffic signal itself has to play an important role in this regard.


[Handpicked Books]

 

Current traffic signals are not smart enough to cope with the growing vehicle population and complexity. Need some proof? It can’t be called smart if signals are out of sight for majority of vehicles of quarter mile long queue. It can’t be smart if one doesn’t really know that how long they have to wait which is the case for majority of junctions. It can’t be smart if traffic signals of adjacent road junctions are not synchronized with each other for most efficiency, and it they are not flexible enough to adjust its signal timing as per fluctuating traffic volume at different hours of the day. It can’t be smart if it fails to convince or persuade people to follow the rule or to remind them the cost to neglecting the traffic rules.

Smart signals need to communicate with commuters in every possible way. They have to be more informative, strategically placed, built on flexible software platform, logic based traffic signals which should appear to have presence of mind, and they should be integrated with the installed cameras to gather information, derive inferences and act accordingly. They should be able to convey to commuters, what is the best time to turn off and on the vehicle engine for maximum fuel efficiency on a junction. What about an intricate pattern of parking size grid marked on roads approaching junction, assigning a dedicated waiting space for vehicles for maximum efficiency, safety and visibility? And so on!!

We plan new transportation systems, but with old tools!! We need to sharpen the old tools to make than smarter and to make the whole system efficient. 

McCormick Place to showcase 2012 AHR Expo

McCormick Place, Chicago

McCormick Place is one of the largest convention complexes in the world, located close to downtown Chicago, Illinois. It attracts around 3 million visitors every year.

AHR EXPO 2012, which showcases HVAC and ancillary industry products and services is scheduled in January (23 -25) and poised to be the largest AHR Expo ever. 


[Handpicked Books] 

Walkability demands flexibility : new approach to neighborhood planning

By - Anoop Jha

Number of available choices defines quality of urban environment and experience

Walking and jogging  trail

Image shows actual walking trail around a lagoon in some part of Santa Barbara, with different route options for people to choose from, one shorter complete loop around waterbody and other longer route which also includes dotted segment. Close view  of lagoon is an incentive to walk extra length of dotted route otherwise people can take shorter route if they are in hurry or tiered. There has be different available exit choices for people, to make any pedestrian or walkable plan successful whether its planning of park or commercial complex or mega exhibition pavilion.

[Handpicked Books]