Abstract
The Web 2.0 represents a new way to communicate, collect data and access all types of data and information online. It places full value in the 'wisdom of the crowd', recognizing the real-time contributions and knowledge individual users of the Web can contribute. To contrast this, formal planning is incremental and methodological. The actualized and potential application of emerging Web 2.0 tools and technologies in the food and agricultural planning context in southern Ontario forms the basis for this major research paper. Through qualitative analysis of several online initiatives, I seek to determine how and where user-generated data and information (collected and distributed by agricultural producers and consumers and not just by planners, other government officials) can fit into the formal planning process through new ways of collaboration and online engagement. Ultimately, much of the leadership around Web 2.0 comes from informal networks or non-governmental organizations organizing around food and agricultural production. Planners working in formal institutional settings must continue to understand the niche that these tools can play in their own engagement efforts and determine how best to use the vast wealth of average citizens' food and agricultural knowledge increasingly available online.
Highlights
Given the popularity of Web 2.0 tools and websites in people's personal and social lives, and the ease in which these online spaces are accessed and the technological components necessary to be acquired, it is easy to understand why governmental departments and other organizations are looking to these arenas for an alternative method of soliciting public participation and feedback: they allow these agencies and organizations to be where the people already are
Given the ease with which people communicate and contribute content with Facebook, Twitter, blogging platforms, message boards and other online tools, it seems like an obvious principle to use as part of any public participation strategy
Web 2.0 tools enable people to create the content of websites, which has meant that, increasingly, "professional tools [such as those found in geographic information systems (GIS)] are entering the realm of the masses via Web 2.0 technologies (Le. through Google Maps) and from this the professions themselves are changing" (Hudson-Smith & Crooks 2008, n.p.)
Summary
There are two things that are part of daily life. The second one has emerged in the past five years or so: the Web. The second one has emerged in the past five years or so: the Web The former provides daily nutritional sustenance and energy, while the latter, increasingly, provides for individual social and business life. With the number of people online emailing, posting, and commenting multiple times a day, or constantly with the burgeoning wireless device and smart phone markets, the Web and food are becoming increasingly intertwined. Online grocery lists, and restaurant reviews are everywhere. What are less common are the discussions of how this food reached the sawy Web-user. They are, after all, producers as well as consumers Can they be reached? Can these new online websites (Facebook, Twitter. blogs) be turned from potentially very socially and entertainment oriented and become spaces of formally engaged, communication, participation and deliberation?
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