Community Engagement Blog

Maptionnaire’s blog is a collection of stories about community engagement. Discover insights and best practices about public participation, latest Maptionnaire tech developments & news, and tips for using Maptionnaire.

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News
Maptionnaire Connecting Community 2024 brought community engagement and participation experts together

On January 18th, 2024, Maptionnaire organized its annual event for community engagement experts in Helsinki, Finland.

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Research into Practice
6 best practices for organizing digital community engagement

An analysis on how Finnish municipalities, the forerunners in citizen engagement digitalization, are organizing impactful participation in the planning process.

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Finland
Survey Tips
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Advice
Participatory Mapping: Best Practices, Tools, and Examples

Participatory mapping is superb for engaging communities in the planning process. Discover the best practices, tools, and examples of mapping inside.

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Research into Practice
Digital Stakeholder Engagement Proves Crucial for Deciding on a Hunting Concession in Nuuk

Learn how PPGIS affects policymaking and engagement culture in Nuuk within the ArcticHubs project. 

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ArcticHubs
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Advice
Unlocking GIS in Urban Planning: Benefits, Application & Examples

GIS in urban planning enhances data integration, improves communications, and makes citizen engagement more actionable. More insights inside!

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Tech Developments
Tech News: Map-Based Discussions, List View, and Word Clouds

These Maptionnaire updates enable you to engage residents in localized discussions, view your items as a list, and explore answers with Word Clouds.

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Advice
10 Guidelines for Inclusive Community Engagement

Grab these 10 guidelines for inclusive community engagement crafted by industry professionals, planners, and academics.

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Advice
10 Best Urban Planning Podcasts to Tune in to in 2023

Find an urban planning podcast from our top 10 list for 2023! Insider tips, best practices, and failures from the industry practitioners.

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Podcast
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News
Children’s Independent Mobility and Active Transportation: Anna Broberg at Urbanistica Podcast

Anna Broberg of Maptionnaire joins the Urbanistica Podcast to discuss how planners can make cities more suitable for children and teenagers.

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Podcast
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Advice
Benefits and Challenges of Citizen Engagement in Rural Planning

Find out why rural planning needs citizen engagement, what the main challenges are, and how to overcome them. Project examples inside!

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RUSTIK
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News
Communication with Residents is Key in Solving Urban Challenges: Maarit Kahila at the ISOCARP Spotlight Podcast

Maarit Kahila, CEO and co-founder of Maptionnaire, joins the ISOCARP Spotlight podcast to discuss citizen engagement in urban planning.

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Podcast
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Research into Practice
A Collaborative Approach to Sustainable Rural Development: Maptionnaire & RUSTIK

How can we collaboratively understand and accelerate sustainable rural development? The RUSTIK project, funded by the EU, paves the way.

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RUSTIK
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News
Maptionnaire is the Geospatial Innovator of the Year

Maptionnaire has been awarded the Geospatial Innovator of the Year 2023 by Geospatial World! Read on about our way to this milestone.

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How to Measure Community Engagement and Its Impact

Grab these community engagement metrics (aka KPIs) to track the quality and impact of participation and improve related processes.

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Advice
Impactful Community Engagement: From Sharing Opinions to Producing Place-Based Knowledge with Citizens

Discover how Finnish planners produce place-based knowledge with citizens for impactful community engagement. What are the key factors for their success?

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PPGIS
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Advice
How to Organize Citizen Engagement in a Master Planning Process? Our Learnings from the Webinar

Here is a quick summary of the webinar: explore tips and action points on outreach planning, reporting, and analysis for citizen engagement in master planning.

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Webinar
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Advice
A Comprehensive Guide to Community Mapping for Planning Professionals

Community mapping helps planners gather local knowledge — and design better solutions that serve that community. But how do you organize it effectively?

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Research into Practice
3 Solutions for Better Integrating the Results of Public Participation in Urban Planning

Read about three solutions that help planners to get relevant input from residents and better integrate the results of public participation in urban planning.

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PPGIS
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Community Engagement Trends
7 Community Engagement Trends in 2023

Get to know what public engagement experts think of engagement trends in 2023: from climate change mitigation to early engagement and youth involvement.

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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
What is Gamification? Explore The Basics

Understand the basics of gamification and apply this strategy for increasing user engagement, retention, and loyalty from eCommerce to urban planning.

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Gamification
Guest post
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Research into Practice
Increasing the Impact of Public Participation in Planning: 6 Examples from Urban Planning Projects

How to increase the impact of public participation in planning? Read about Finnish municipalities increasing the influence of engagement with a PPGIS platform.

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Finland
PPGIS
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Research into Practice
Different Angling: Measuring Public Opinion on Fishing, Aquaculture, and Tourism with PPGIS in Varangerfjord, Norway

PPGIS tools are used in Varangerfjord to measure public opinion on aquaculture, fish farming, and tourism and the environmental effects of these industries.

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ArcticHubs
PPGIS
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Research into Practice
Faroe Islands Get Local Perspectives on Land Use Conflicts with PPGIS

A PPGIS study on the Faroe Islands explores economic, social, and environmental conflicts brought around by global industries such as fish farming and tourism.

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ArcticHubs
PPGIS
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News
The Best Experts are the Citizens Themselves: Listen to Maptionnaire on a Smart in the City Podcast

Maarit Kahila of Maptionnaire and Johanna Palomäki of Lahti joined Smart in The City Podcast. Learn more about what community engagement in a smart city is like!

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Podcast
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Advice
Conducting A Community Needs Assessment: Steps, Tools, and Examples

A community needs assessment helps you identify problems and service gaps in a community. Grab these tips on assessment steps and tools, as well as a few examples.

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Research into Practice
Using PPGIS for Stakeholder Engagement in the Arctic: Maptionnaire & ArcticHubs

ArcticHubs aims at co-creating successful policies around resource use. Maptionnaire’s PPGIS solution is used in the project as a data collection and stakeholder engagement tool.

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ArcticHubs
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
How to Design Community Engagement Survey Questions

Read about the principles of designing community engagement survey questions for getting excellent data and high response rates.

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News
Parempia kaupunkeja rakentamassa: Kokemuksia tehokkaasta asukasosallisuustyöstä | Maptionnaire Breakfast 13.10.2022

Maptionnairen aamiaistapahtuma kokosi yhteen kaupunkisuunnittelun ja -tutkimuksen ammattilaisia keskustelemaan asukasosallisuudesta.

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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
How to Make a GDPR Compliant Survey: Best Practices and Examples

Find out about the best practices for making GDPR compliant surveys. Here are tips on how to structure your questionnaire and what you should do as a survey-owner.

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GDPR
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Research into Practice
Three Types of Community Engagement in Urban Planning Projects

What are the types of community engagement? Learn about informative, preparatory, and decision-making participation — examples of engagement projects inside.

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Public Participation
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Advice
Pros and Cons of Community Engagement Platforms: Self-built vs. Open-Source vs. SaaS

Explore the pros and cons of self-made, open-source, and proprietary SaaS community engagement platforms to make an informed choice.

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Smart City
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What is a Community Engagement Platform and How to Choose One

A community engagement platform is software that enables you to run public participation processes. Follow our guide on choosing one!

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Smart City
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
How to Engage Stakeholders with a Survey: 6 Winning Methods

Struggling with getting stakeholders on board (who doesn't, right)? Grab these 6 winning methods for stakeholder engagement with surveys.

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Survey Outreach
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
12 Best Practices in Survey Design to Boost Response Rates and Get Quality Data

Implement these 12 best practices in survey design to get high response rates and quality data (and not to bore your respondents to death).

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Survey Tips
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Community Engagement Trends
5 Participatory Budgeting Examples And Their Successful Outcomes

Learn from these five participatory budgeting examples from all around the globe: Porto Alegre, Espoo, Chicago, Lahti, and Warsaw.

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Participatory Budgeting
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Community Engagement Trends
What is Participatory Budgeting: Definition, Benefits, and Implementation

Participatory budgeting is a process where the public directly decides on how a budget is spent. Read how PB helps you involve residents in shaping their cities.

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Participatory Budgeting
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Community Engagement Trends
Re-thinking the Idea of Representative Democracy – Technology is Not the Silver Bullet

Read Maarit Kahila's take on representative democracy and the role of technology in it. Maarit is CEO and co-founder of Maptionniare Citizen Engagement Platform.

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Local Democracy
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Tech Developments
Tech News: Maptionnaire Now Fills All Accessibility Requirements & Other Updates

Read about Maptionnaire's latest improvements: the platform now fills all the requirements of A-level as well as AA-level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1.).

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Tech News
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People at Maptionnaire
Q&A with the Maptionnaire Team – Gaurab

To celebrate Maptionnaire’s 10th anniversary, we asked our staff ten questions. Read Gaurab’s Q&A!

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Maptionnaire 10 years
Staff QA
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Tech Developments
Tech News: Accessibility in Maptionnaire

Maptionnaire always strives to ensure that our platform follows the highest accessibility standards and best practices. Discover how we achieve it here.

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Accessibillity
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Tech Developments
Tech News: Saavutettavuus Maptionnairessa

Pyrimme siihen, että Maptionnaire-palvelu ja sen toiminnallisuudet vastaavat parhaita saavutettavuuskäytänteitä ja noudattavat säädöksiä. Lue lisää täältä!

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Finland
Accessibillity
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Community Engagement Trends
Using 3D Participatory Planning to Enrich Community Engagement: Lessons From a City Planning Project in Turku, Finland

Learn how the City of Turku ran a pilot 3D participatory planning project that tested the use of 3D maps in community engagement for urban planning.

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3D
Finland
Turku
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News
Mapita Gets New Board Members – Introducing Leila-Mari and Vesa

Leila-Mari Ryynänen and Vesa Sironen have been appointed as the new board members of Mapita, the company behind Maptionnaire Citizen Engagement Platform.

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Mapita Board of Directors
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People at Maptionnaire
Q&A with the Maptionnaire Team – Anna

To celebrate Maptionnaire’s 10th anniversary, we asked our staff ten questions. Read Anna’s Q&A

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Maptionnaire 10 years
Staff QA
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People at Maptionnaire
Q&A with the Maptionnaire Team – Asta

To celebrate Maptionnaire’s 10th anniversary, we asked our staff ten questions. Read Asta’s Q&A!

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Maptionnaire 10 years
Staff QA
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People at Maptionnaire
Q&A with the Maptionnaire Team – Krista

To celebrate Maptionnaire’s 10th anniversary, we asked our staff ten questions. Read Krista’s Q&A!

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Maptionnaire 10 years
Staff QA
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People at Maptionnaire
Q&A with the Maptionnaire Team – Jenna

To celebrate Maptionnaire’s 10th anniversary, we asked our staff ten questions. Read Jenna’s Q&A!

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Maptionnaire 10 years
Staff QA
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Community Engagement Trends
Top 5 Community Engagement Webinars

Watch these community engagement webinars to learn about the best participation tools, methods, and practices. All are available on demand!

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Webinar
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Tech Developments
Tech News: Download of Shapefiles, Hand-drawn Layers, Copying of Elements and Pages (& Other Updates)

Read about Maptionnaire's latest updates: hand drawn layers and shapefile download.

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Research into Practice
The Importance of Communication in Urban Planning

Explore how public participation enhances communication for urban development among diverse stakeholders and residents.

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Maptionnaire 10 years
Research
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Community Engagement Trends
Top-3 Community Engagement Trends in 2021

Systemic change, gamification & storytelling, and representation & inclusion — these are the top-3 trends of community engagement in 2021. More in this blog.

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Community Engagement 2021
New Maptionnaire Community Engagement Platform
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News
A Decade of Community Engagement

Maptionnaire turns 10! Learn about community engagement and urban planning best practices from the leading experts.

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Events
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Tech Developments
Tech News: Maptionnaire Now Available in 27 Languages (& Other Updates)

Maptionnaire is now available alltogether in 27 languages. Our latest additions are Czech and Armenian — learn more from this article.

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Research into Practice
Pros & Cons of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) in Urban Planning

What is PPGIS? Read on to explore the pros and cons of PPGIS and how you can improve your public participation activities with PPGIS tools.

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Maptionnaire 10 years
PPGIS
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News
Maptionnaire among the Top-50 Teams in the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition

Maptionnaire was chosen for the top-50 teams in the 10th Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition among over 850 contestants.

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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
5 Tips for Creating a Visual Survey for Urban Planning (Examples Inside)

What makes a great visual survey? Follow these simple tips to make participation fun and overcome language and literacy barriers.

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Survey Tips
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Community Engagement Trends
The New Maptionnaire Community Engagement Platform — Introducing the Three Essential Modules

Find out about three new modules in Maptionnaire Citizen Engagement Platform: Design, Collect & Analyze, Gamified Decision Making, and Webpage Builder.

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News
Entering the New Era of Public Participation — What Motivated Us to Develop the New Maptionnaire Service

Find out what moved us when designing the new Maptionnaire Citizen Engagement Platform.

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Advice
Benefits of Online Community Engagement: Economic and Social ROI Analyzed

What are the benefits of online community engagement? Read more about the economic and social ROI of digitizing participation.

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Community Engagement Trends
3 Principles of Public Participation You Should Act on Right Now

Discover three principles of public participation together with action points for stepping up your community engaging activities.

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Tech Developments
Maptionnaire Tech News: Goodbye Leaflet, Welcome OpenLayers

Maptonnaire moves from Leaflet to OpenLayers. This will allow us to add features into Maptionnaire that wouldn't have been otherwise feasible.

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Community Engagement Trends
Q&A on Digital Public Engagement and Maptionnaire

What is digital public engagement, how does GIS come into the picture, and how can 3D models be used? All answers in our digital public engagement Q&A.

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Q&A
Webinar
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Advice
Engaging the Community in Times of Quarantine with Online Tools

Learn effective online community engagement tips for sustaining work during remote times, including tools, methods, and enhancing virtual meetings.

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Advice
4 Benefits of Using Public Participation GIS in Transportation Planning

Learn about the benefits of using Public Participation GIS in transportation planning for gathering valuable data and insights.

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PPGIS
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Advice
City Planning for Kids: Bringing Public Participation to Schools

How can you increase possibilities of influencing city planning for kids? Read more about workshops for children and youth participation.

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Children
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Advice
Maptionnaire in Transportation Planning: Researching Cycling Safety in Zurich

Maptionnaire is used for locating bicycle accidents sites via a map-based survey in Zurich. These insights are then used in transportation planning.

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Transportation Planning
Cycling
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
5 Ideas for Enriching a Community Engagement Workshop with Digital Participation Tools

What is a community engagement workshop? And how can digital participation tools make it more fun and insightful? Discover 5 ideas inside!

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Workshops
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News
It Was a Full House at Our Yearly Get-Together – Maptionnaire Summer Meetup 2019 Recap

We got together with our customers and share our experiences, best practices, and even war stories with Maptionnaire. Here are some fun memories from our June event.

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Events
ISPM Conference
Summer Meetup
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News
Maptionnaire palkittiin kansainvälisestä osaamisesta ja vahvoista referensseistä kasvuyritysten Smart City -sarjassa

Tuomaristo arvosti erityisesti Maptionnairen innovativiista tuotetta ja substanssiosaamista kaupunkisuunnittelussa ja vahvaa kasvua.

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Accolades
KasvuOpen
Smart City
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News
Helpotusta asukaspalautteen hallintaan Maptionnairen kaavapalautejärjestelmän avulla

Kaavapalautejärjestelmämme suoraviivaistaa kaavoitukseen liittyvän asukaspalautteen keräämistä, tallentamista ja hallintaa kaupunkisuunnitteluhankkeissa. Lue lisää!

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Automized Public Hearing
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The Automized Public Hearing Process: Slash Time Spent Managing and Responding to Resident Input

Learn about the Automized Public Hearing Process that streamlines the flow of gathering, transcribing, and storing resident input in planning projects.

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Community Engagement Trends
Map-Based Surveys Valuable for Engaging with the Public in Urban Planning, A New Study Finds

Why is map-based collaboration integral to urban planning? Read a summary of a recent study about map-based surveys and public participation.

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Research
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Community Engagement Trends
Tutkimuksen mukaan karttapohjaiset osallistumismenetelmät tarjoavat loistavan tavan saada asukkaita mukaan suunnitteluprosessiin

Tutustu tekemämme tutkimuksen löydöksiin karttapohjaisten osallistumismenetelmien roolista nykypäivän suunnittelussa. Lue tästä!

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Maankäyttö
Map-Based Engagement
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News
Maptionnaire Chosen among Key Nordic Sustainable Urban Development Solutions

Maptionnaire is a part of Nordregio’s catalog of cases that embody the values of environment, equality, openness, and efficiency. Read it here!

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Accolades
Nordics
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Advice
What is Participatory Planning and PPGIS in a Nutshell

What is participatory planning and why do PPGIS tools help engage residents in urban planning? Read more!

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PPGIS
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News
The Importance of Getting Together: Summer Day 2018 Recap

As of 2014, we have annually held a get together with the Maptionnaire Community. Get a recap of project experiences, ideas, and many stories and laughs.

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Events
Summer Meetup
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Tech Developments
Embracing the GDPR – 3 Maptionnaire Privacy Updates You Should Be Aware Of

Maptionnaire is a GDPR-compliant citizen engagement platform that provides you with tools for designing secure and accessible surveys and webpages.

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GDPR
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
Heritage Is Ours – Crowdsourcing Place-Based Memories

Discover how community participation impacts decision-making in built-heritage conservation, showcasing European crowdsourcing examples.

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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
Participatory Mapping for Improving Disadvantaged Communities: Examples from São Paulo

Discover how participatory mapping engages the community of São Paulo in urban planning, creating inclusive and sustainable spaces.

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Brazil
Urban Planning
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
How to Get People to Take a Survey Through Social Sharing

Don’t know how to get people to take a survey? Read these tips on using social sharing to get valid data and increase response rates.

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Using Citizen Participation Platforms in Different Phases of the Urban Planning Process

Find out the versatile functions of the citizen participation platform for engaging residents at different phases of the urban planning process.

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How to Get Pedestrian Movement Data with a Map-based Survey?

Getting relevant pedestrian movement data is a key to planning walkable and liveable cities. Discover digital tools that help source walkability data.

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PPGIS
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Advice
How to Make an Interactive Map Survey for Smooth Participatory Planning

Learn how to make an interactive map survey in four steps. Such a map-based questionnaire will support your community engagement and participatory planning process.

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Urban Planning
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Survey Design & Outreach Tips
How to Make An Interactive Map: Bring Spatial Data to Life

Geospatial visualizations are used in town planning and community engagement. Learn how to make an interactive map to visualize your spatial data with Carto.

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Map-Based Engagement
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How to Design a Public Participation Plan for the Early Phases of the Urban Planning Project

Urban planning projects need to include a public participation plan. Learn how to design and implement community engagement with PPGIS tools.

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Early Participation
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Advice
How to Get People to Participate in Community Engagement: 7 Steps

Here are 7 proven steps to getting people to participate in community engagement activities. Start involving more people in your projects!

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Community Engagement Trends
The Advantages of Digital Community Engagement Methods

Discover the advantages of digital community engagement methods for getting people involved in the future development of their surroundings.

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