ABSTRACT
Planning is often taken for granted. It is easy for the public to assume that “someone” is taking care of the needs for visioning, organizing and managing the built environment and community well-being. With a century of practice and many positive experiences with effective planning in the past, the public should see the planning process as a fundamental element of urban and regional life. At the same time, the process of planning is often invisible, even if the end results are not. This is especially relevant for planning information and communication technologies applications, which Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin (1996) note as a challenge because the elements of ICT are often intangible and absent from the landscape. The invisibility of the process carries with it a need for trust by the public in planning as an institution, and public vigilance that community needs are being addressed.
