City In Georgia Planning Virtual World For Civic Interaction

GamePolitics reports that Decatur, Georgia is looking into the development of a virtual environment to "encourage community networking, improve civic engagement, and promote economic development in the city." They've put out a request for ideas (PDF) on how to adapt a blending of MMOs and social networking to suit a city's civic needs. "The virtual environment should mimic, though not necessarily mirror, the layout and visual aspects of the City within the defined geographic area." They also want it to be avatar-based, friendly to businesses, and have a "fun and intuitive interface."

I'm feeling this one!

[ILuvRamen]

I've got it! Make it like America's Army Ops meets GTA. It's a first person shooter MMORPG that takes place in a virtual version of the town. Then you can find your n00b mailman and show him what you think of him forgetting to put the flag down on your mailbox. Did you just get overcharged at Walmart? Go home, log in, pick up a rocket launcher, and blow that place the hell up! It'd be a great stress reliever and creative way to let others in the town know you have complaints about them. I bet if people could speed through town at 120MPH in a hijacked corvette in the game, when it gets to reality it'd be all out of their system and they'd even drive under the speed limit. It's genius i tell you!

Good luck with that.

[DanTheManMS]

Possible features of the proposed Virtual Decatur might include:

• Opportunities to gather citizen input on policies, topics of interest, city services, and happenings
• A Virtual City Hall Tour with multimedia capabilities.
• Opportunities to earn coupons for use in real stores/retail establishments.
• Streaming video of public meetings, ideally with a chat room feature that allows viewers to comment.
• Access to visitors information (store hours, directions, weather, etc.)

This all assumes that the citizens in the community are anxiously and zealously awaiting the chance to partake in this experiment. From my perspective, most of the people who actually concern themselves with community matters are the ones who will view this project as a mere gimmick to be avoided. I understand the idea is to encourage more community involvement by appealing to the more tech-savvy generation, but I truly do not believe this will be the stunning success that the article seems to imply they want it to be.

Coupons can be obtained from a plethora of other sources (newspaper anyone?). Visitor's information would be best served on a standard web page. And streaming video? Nobody watches C-SPAN, and that's nation-wide. How many viewers are they expecting from a town of 20,000?