Entry #19

nameless streets

Kimie Osawa

A proposal to assign names to streets (which, unlike Western cities, are mostly nameless in Japan) via crowdsourcing. Physical signs are placed on streets whose names are being solicited online; citizens can acccess a website to propose their own, original names, or vote on other people's ideas. Can bring attention to lesser-known parts of the city.

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• Metadata:
• • The degree to which advanced technologies (including IT) are used
    Not Applicable  (Low-tech) 1 - 2 - 3 (High-tech)
• • Site-specificness: The degree to which the idea targets a specific locale
    Not Applicable  (Site-agnostic/universal) 1 - 2 - 3 (Site-specific)
• • Degree of commercial potential
    Not Applicable  (Strictly for public good) 1 - 2 - 3 (May profit some parties involved)
• • Time scale of citizen-led changes to cities enabled by the idea
    Not Applicable  (Short-term change) 1 - 2 - 3 (Long-term change)
• • Geographic scale of citizen-led changes to cities enabled by the idea
    Not Applicable  (Small-scale change) 1 - 2 - 3 (Large-scale change)
• • Hurdles toward participation, from a citizen’s perspective
    Not Applicable  (Anyone can participate) 1 - 2 - 3 (Requires expertise, time, money, etc.)