Over on PLANetizen's Interchange, Rob Goodspeed asks, How Can Planners Use The Web? (As if he doesn't know, bearing all or significant responsibility for Exhibits A, B, C, and D.) One of his categories is "Providing information regarding specific projects."

Recently, Mark noted a student project's online presence, a ten-minute long time lapse video of a week's worth of construction in Second Life that the student did up to demonstrate his concept development plan for the Motor Wheel site. Since the creator doesn't have a permanent site in Second Life to host the development, he removed it from Second Life after completion, but the video can be viewed here.

Now, is this a good use of technology to provide information about a proposed (hypothetical) development project? I'd say no. It's pretty darned cool, but it really doesn't communicate much at all about the development. (To be fair, the creator doesn't claim it does - the video is showcasing whiz-bang Second Life mockup skillz rather than the actual project.) This doesn't mean this approach doesn't have its merits, though - had the creator intended this for a planning or community audience, rather than a Second Life builder audience, I assume he would have put it together differently, and I think it could be done very well. Providing flyovers and walk-throughs of a proposed project, especially if the surrounding buildings have been modeled, will become more and more common. A virtual version of a project allows community members (and Planning Commissioners) to get some idea of how a building will actually relate to its surroundings, rather than just looking at it on paper and trying to estimate what the height and bulk will really mean in context.

I have to say that I'm pretty impressed by this student's effort. I was told recently that certain architectural specializations have started listing SketchUp and similar fast-modeling tools as required skills; planning practice certainly isn't nearly that fast to adopt the technology, but I think this particular student will be a find for developers.