The point of this note is to suggest that we make assumptions about how the space is used, to give an example of an imaginary way to know more about how it's used, and to suggest that knowing would be so useful that we should try to get more information.
In discussions on the forum and standing around in world, people have made suggestions based on assumptions about how our space works. That includes me: I am assuming lots of things:
- The shape of Kuula is part of why people hang out there, not just "history".
- The shape of a space strongly influences how it is used.
- Kuula's Freebies are a bit hard to find, and that is probably good.
- Ginny's Park is even harder to find and that may not be good.
- Parts of Kuula, like the news stand, are essentially unused and not paying off well.
Just pretend that when you TP into an NCI location, there is some kind of invisible ink on the TP point, that gets on your feet. Suppose that as you walk around, you leave footprints, and that when we turn on the ultraviolet lights, all those footprints show up.
If we took a photo of the footprints, we would see lots of marks where people go often, and fewer where they do not go at all. And suppose that when someone logs or TPs out, they left a little splash in another color. That would be interesting as well.
We know a lot about what that picture would look like ... and there are some areas where we might predict different things.
I think there would be lots of prints right on the TP point, lots of prints on the near stage and near grass, and lots of prints by the freebies. There would be a much smaller number on the home point.
From the home point, people would mostly walk into the small sandbox, a smaller number going toward the park. (You might not agree with this guess.)
From the TP point, there would be a heavy path out to the stage, a less heavy path across the road, and a fairly heavy path from TP to freebies without going out on the stage. (Again, you might not agree.)
We would see a large number of exits from the stage. We would also see a large number from the Freebies. And ... we would see a large number from the TP area, suggesting people coming in, not seeing anything of interest, and leaving.
And so on.
I suggest that footprint photo would be really interesting. We would see patterns, get ideas, and have a common basis for discussion.
We probably can't get that photo. What could we do that would give us more information, like that photo, about how our space is used?
What do we know? How do we know it? What else could we know, and how?
Thanks,
