5. Public Response
Widespread use of the Internet and the World Wide Web is still some time away although the speed at which business, government and to a certain extent the public have adapted to using the technology is arguably faster than any other technology before it. As computers become more widespread especially in schools and the workplace the ability of the general public to use and feel comfortable with computers and technology will increase. Computer software for drawing and manipulating map based software has over the past decade become much easier to understand and operate.
The use of a map as the central theme of the web based system should provide instant familiarity of the location in which the public participation process is taking place. Several pieces of research in the past have questioned the publics ability to understand a map which is essentially a 'birds-eye' view of a place. Many people do not instantly recognise a place when it is presented to them as an areal view although this did not seem to be a problem with our on-line system. One explanation for this is the ability of the user to click on a feature on the map and be interactively informed what that feature is such as a road, restaurant or community building. This capability in the system helps the user to familiarise themselves with the map.
Figure 3: On-Line Public Comments
Source: http://www.ccg.leeds.ac.uk/slaithwaite/
Using a dynamic map, i.e. one which is interactive and provides endless information about features on it, allows the user to elicit greater detail about issues and problems in hand. This type of information is impossible to provide on a traditional paper map and allows a much richer environment for the user to interact with. A feature which was not included in the Slaithwaite system but would have provided improved understanding on the public part would have been visual images such as photographs and even video footage of parts of the village to improve the familiarity of locations within the village. For example, photographs or artists impressions of the new canal through the car park could have been provided allowing the public to gain a better understanding of how the new canal will look in the village centre. The noise from traffic along particular roads could also be incorporated into any future systems.
As the Internet and more specifically the WWW develops and becomes a more widespread and accepted technology its use in public consultation exercises is likely to increase. The use of animation and 'real-world' images incorporated into such a system will breed familiarity and overcome some of the problems highlighted earlier in relation to map cognition. One encouraging aspect gleaned from this case study was the relative ease with which the people of Slaithwaite seemed to grasp the concept of using the WWW which appeared to go against some of the work done by others in the past on public interpretation of maps. One noticeable feature was the way parents and their children used the system. There were many cases where the children would operate the mouse and use the keyboard while parents and grandparents would direct them around the map getting them to click on particular features and tell them what to type in. This helps to account for the skewness in the user profile which is dominated by under 16 year olds.
On the whole it appears that the public response to the system was positive particularly with the ability to type in comments at great length as opposed to being restricted to a short sentence. Figure 3 above shows the location on the map of public comments, represented as dots. The darker dot represents a comment made which has been selected and can be read on the left part of the screen. The ability to provide feedback and read other peoples' comments could potentially be used for conflict resolution or on-line debate and discussion about particular issues. Many comments were made regarding the reduction in the size of the car park as a result of the canal being re-opened which can be identified on the comments map by the clustering of yellow dots.
