There are undoubtedly things about your neighborhood that you wish you could change. As public space artist Candy Chang explains in a recent talk at a Creative Sante Fe event, there are people in your community who probably share your vision. The problem is that they don't have the means to team up with you to set the wheels in motion. That's why she co-founded Neighborland.com. The site allows people to share their suggestions about improving the public spaces in their cities with others who have similar goals. It brings people together to address important concerns and truly make the communities they live in their own.

It also provides residents with the resources needed to enact the changes they've suggested. The site has even partnered with Change.org (a petition site founded by Ben Rattray) on some of its projects to successfully bring these issues to the attention of policy makers. Chang is an advocate for the importance of using public space as a vehicle for making communities more inclusive. The TED Fellow creates simple, but effective, projects that redefine the way people share information with others around them to improve the places they live. Her Before I Die installation was so successful, in fact, that it's now being transformed into a book. In her moving keynotes, she shares these projects with her audiences and explores the potential that exists in simple projects to improve communities around the world—and make all of us feel more comfortable in the spaces we inhabit.