Co-Creation: From Egosystem to Ecosystem

Abstract

Once people and place nuggets are revealed, transforming them into jewels is most successful when done collaboratively. Good urbanism invites others to contribute, welcomes them when they do, and brings them in as true partners (figure 4.1). In the words of Jaime Lerner (2010, 191): “A city is a collective dream. To build this dream is vital. [It involves] a process that acknowledges and welcomes the multiple visions that managers, inhabitants, planners, politicians, businesses, and civil society have of their city.… The more generous this vision, the more good practices will multiply.”

Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.

—Jane Jacobs (1961, 238)

Sealed systems have no future—communication, collaboration and partnership are key. Value explodes with membership, in turn drawing in more members. The concept of economies of scale is over-ridden by the “law of increasing returns”… according to the so-called “law of plenitude”

—Charles Landry (2000, 33–34)