"Tearing down a lot of the buildings that will never be used, and making a temporary park space, could persuade developers that people are serious about this," he said.

Accordingly, Microsoft is trying to persuade outside developers to use its software tools instead of the tools of rivals like Sun Microsystems Inc.

The Ferry Sloops leaders said they hoped to persuade developers and government officials to redesign projects previously thought to have no effect on an essentially "urban" stream.

They persuaded developers to build five- and six-bedroom houses to accommodate Orthodox families.

Instead, the Audubon Society is focused on persuading individual architects and developers to be more sensitiveto the dangers their buildings pose to traveling birds.

Families like theirs have persuaded developers to add more two- and three-bedroom units to the mix.

How did they persuade developers - normally mistrustful of innovation - to adopt their unusual designs?

The company is aiming to persuade private and public wireless and wireline data network operators, application developers and manufacturers of computing and communicating devices and infrastructure equipment to license the software architecture.

Mr. Babbitt also persuaded developers in Southern California to spare hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable privately owned coastal land that is home to the California gnatcatcher, a tiny threatened bird.

But the effort largely failed because the bus was not fast enough to accommodate the range of products that were to be delivered in the coming years, and Philips had trouble persuading developers to support it, Mr. Doherty said.