Spark & Anvil Privacy

Progress report

For grown-ups — a private snapshot of how it's going, mapped to the skill areas practiced. It lives only on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.

Where this idea comes from· Lewin 1946 · Whyte 1980

Asking the people it affects

In 1946 the psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote about "action research": study a problem together with the people who live with it, act, look at what happened, and go round again. In 1980 William H. Whyte filmed people in New York plazas and showed that the places people use are the places built around how they really sit, stand and meet.

One thing to hold: Since 2012 the Block by Block programme (UN-Habitat with Mojang, the makers of Minecraft) has let neighbours build their own public space in Minecraft first, so the plan starts with them.

Why it matters: A plan for a place works better when the people who use the place help make it. That is the whole idea of this clone.

Two words:

  • Stakeholder First the person who held the money for a bet; now anyone with something at stake. Who has a stake in your project? (Merriam-Webster, "stakeholder")
  • Charrette French for a little cart. Paris architecture students raced to finish drawings as the cart came to collect them; now it means a short, intense planning meeting. What would yours need? (Merriam-Webster, "charrette")

Sources: Kurt Lewin, "Action Research and Minority Problems", Journal of Social Issues (1946) · William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980) · UN-Habitat, Using Minecraft for Community Participation (manual)