Welcome to Designing Collaborative Workshops!
We will be hosting 3 Google Hangouts throughout this four-week course. The dates and times for the hangouts are listed below; you can RSVP on this pad by simply typing in your name and Google+ email.
= Week 4 Google Hangout (28 August) =
Day changed to Wednesday, 29 August at 9:00am PDT, 17:00 BST, 18:00 CEST
Add it to your calendar at https://www.google.com/calendar/render?eid=Y2FvMG10dHFoMTdwdDY1ODhzcDZuOHVoNDAgcDJwdS5vcmdfY3BzZjZ2Z3MzNWE1cnFxMnZuOGx1bDN1cnNAZw&ctz=America/Los_Angeles&sf=true&output=xml
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiN7t6GAaLU
Google hangout onair links
Guest Speakers: Helen Varley Jamieson, Kathryn from Seeds for Change
Participants (RSVP here). We will invite the first 8 people who RSVP to the Google hangout at the time specified.
- Jane Park
- Mick Fuzz
- Add your name/google email or plus account here...
- Cassie Lloyd Perrin: cassie@thebeansgroup.com for G+ hangouts during the day!
- Marleen Bovenmars: mbovenmars@insightshare.org
- Kathryn: kathryntulip@gmail.com
- Helen: ?
Agenda: https://p2pu.org/en/courses/77/content/1448/
Setting the Agenda
- Introductions
- What do we want to discuss today?
- Is anything missing from the Agenda?
- Helen will talk about her experience running both offline and online workshops. She will also talk generally about collaborating online to organize and prepare workshops that are run in face-to-face settings. She will address the differences and similarities between online and offline workshops, pointing to the strengths and weaknesses of both.
- Still looking for a good website/tool to organize workshop that is not owned by some corporate entity, is simple, and customizable. Still can't find one that does this for me.
- Upstage - platform for online performance - we've done a little bit of that. We have backend part of software where we manage the dif people that can use it. Would be good to extend this, but it all needs to be built.
- What I'm always doing is selecting from all the different free things that are available. Often use Upstage; really important for me that other people doing it are comfortable using Upstage.
- (Jane: this came up in our Why Open? course and might be useful: https://prism-break.org/ )
- If you allow remote participation, then you really need to dedicate a person to take care of them, eg. moderating chat, emails, etc. Nothing worse signing up to do a remote workshop and feeling like no one is there.
- Think about things online vs. offline.
- Recent example - We have a situation - http://www.wehaveasituation.net/
- Project with four other european arts orgs + Helen as a freelancer/programmer. Organizing workshops in each of these four places. In each place had a one week workshop to have a performance with a network discussion. Online and colalborative in the whole thing. Really great project - done on a shoestring budget, so sometimes people couldnt afford to come. Workshops took place in a physical location, but people were online and participating remotely. eg. email everyday summarizing what had happened and providing links. used wiki to centralize research. blogging. documentation - finished writing a model for this project which includes a pdf that will be on the website soon. some of the things it talks about is importance of finding roles, having a good venue with internet connection, remote participants, one persons job to take care of the technical side of things.
- Question by Mick: some things are easier to do F2F, eg. easy to sense the energy level in the room, change priorities, respond to peoples moods/interests. More difficult in a remote situation?
- 2 examples - 1, if i'm remote and the workshop is happening at a physical place, eg. univ with students and lectures, beaming in with workshop. beforehand, work with lecturer to get them familiar with upstage. and discuss with them about students, what level are they at. usually these kind of workshops are not more than a couple hours long. in this kind of situation, over 2 hours working with upstage, usually people are engaged the whole time. 2 - also do completely online workshops. usually last for about an hour. when everybody is completely remote, its a dif kind of situation. if some individual persons energy is flagging, then they will either leave or check email or make a cup of tea or things like that. its true that you dont know. usually you can get a sense in smaller groups. usually try to keep in touch with a physical person on the ground who tell us how the crowd is feeling
- for smaller groups - really tailor it to the group
- use upstage http://sourceforge.net/projects/upstage/
- Kathryn will talk about the Seeds for Change experience in running workshops, especially about the materials we adapted for this course and how they came about.
- Work with volunteers, activists, community groups, Our work is around skills for campaigning, decision making. Very experiential what we do. Curious about how to do this work online. So we might see something lik ea game that a group does together. More than a game - b/c then when you debrief then emotions arise. A way of learning together as a group. Wonder how that happens online? Or whether that can happen online.
- We devise a structure and then when we get to the workshop that structure might go out the window. We are more concerned with being flexible, go with whats needed by the group.
- Mick: My exp with seeds for change is an org thats really rooted in social movement sin the UK. One experience which is working with groups to facilitate gatherings which may be quite a short time to prepare, alot about consensus decisionmaking and generating ideas. Sounds like this is only part of what you do?
- Mostly its groups that go work with us, so they turn to us so we can help facilitate, etc. We are the people outside to hold the space for them. Facilitating those bigger meetings. Smaller part of what we do.
- Decision making handout - how best to work together when working at a distance. Some many anecdotal examples of things that have worked for groups planning events and things. Will send to Mick.
- Mick: Seedsforchange.org.uk - reason that Mick felt confident to put on th eonline course, thanks to the great resources. Tell us about how it came about?
- We started with the workshops. It became clear that when people participate in the workshop they feel there is a need for something to go back to. So having materials people could take away would be important. Many more people could also access materials on the Internet than would ever come participate F2F. Able to reach many more people with our resources. Published a book on consensus thanks to this greater exposure. More people starting to translate our work into other languages. Natural desire to share what we were already sharing with a wider audience.
- Marleen: advice for other people to share materials, eg. to get them to translate
- happened organically, people from dif countries email us and say we've translated you rmaterial! there is a project in europe to do translation, and we've put forward our materials for anyone who wants to do the translation work and get paid for it. interested in getting materials translated for eastern europe where there are less materials.
- Mick: reocmmendation - for collaborative writing system - the one we use at flossmanuals could be handy http://www.flossmanuals.net/
- training for virtual meetings: http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/virtualmtg
- Kathryn - helping other people do remote work. we are using piratepad - is there any good scribbling software?
- Helen - thinking of Big Blue Button - which also has some other tools in it - has a drawing tool in it. google "collaborative drawing"
- Marleen - half of the workshops we do actively involve the video camera so people will learn how to work with the camera. when we want people to come to a collective message, there is a process of group building that needs quite a bit of attention. so similar to any workshops that dont involve the video equipment. energizers and other fun games. then the third kind of process that is running through the workshops is the process of making/helping people to share their opinions and stories, their ideas on the issues that the workshop focuses on. those exercises are much more discussion based, using the flipchart, colored cards, and to gather ideas together so you have a big pile of dif colored cards. so hen people start working together and group and present them in a way that really shows the group process and the discussions that they've just had. there is a really great resource - the vipp manual - visualization in participatory programs. use to help people to get to their collective message. if workshop is focusing on using equipment, to not use it all the time. http://www.jhuccp.org/sites/all/files/VIPPmanual.pdf
- Helen - had a workshop remotelyw ith breaks. at the most we had 70 people online and at the least 30, and people stayed on. after 3 hours, people really do need a break.
- Mick - after hearing some of the desires to have tools (eg collaborative visualizing, group building, etc.) - the technology is a bit frustrated, but hopefully it might get there. compare this to some elements where the internet is great, eg. IRC - got involved in collaboration while working on alternative news. that only works while we were able to meet up regulary in real life. when that didnt happen much, the forum started to fail. sometimes you dont need advanced tech tools..
- Kathryn - find it valuable to know peoples energy levels. like this hangout a bit, b/c of the way people are present.
- Marlene - really share helen's wishes regarding platform that is free and open source that is not Google or something else to organize and run these workshops.also scheduling events with people in dif timezones. how to make this easier for folks?
- Mick - owncloud. P posted recently that they are working on an open source version of google hangouts. Mick will post links... eg. tactical tech list of tools. how to guide for information activism. tacticaltech.org - http://howto.informationactivism.org/
- About the course
- What will each of you be creating your agenda around? What are you struggling with?
- Where will you run your workshop?
- How is the course going so far?
- How would you improve the course for the future?
- Last thoughts...
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= Week 2 Google Hangout (13 August) =
Tuesday, 13 August at 18:00 BST/10am US PDT
Add it to your Google calendar at https://www.google.com/calendar/render?eid=dmNyMnZvbGFwYmpmYmJyMWRwNGJxczIzM3MgcDJwdS5vcmdfY3BzZjZ2Z3MzNWE1cnFxMnZuOGx1bDN1cnNAZw&ctz=America/Los_Angeles&sf=true&output=xml
Recording: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteARp6lG9BSerCiRUfqqCQ?v=sOYiMo64bwo
Google hangout onair links
Guest Speaker: Allen Gunn & Rhiannon (seeds for change)
Participants (RSVP here). We will invite the first 8 people who RSVP to the Google hangout at the time specified. Feel free to add your name as a reserve list.
- Jane Park
- Mick Fuzz
- Darlene Redmond darlene.redmond@nscc.ca
- Cassie Lloyd Perrin: cassie@thebeansgroup.com for G+ hangouts during the day!
- Gabriela Nardy: gabileitao@gmail.com
- Allen Gunn
- Add your name/google email or plus account here...
Agenda: https://p2pu.org/en/courses/77/content/1447/
Setting the Agenda
- What do we want to talk about today?
- Introductions
- Guest speaker: Talk a bit about themselves, their background/expertise, describe the best collaborative workshop (or one of the best) they've ever run and what they think made it that way.
- Allen Gunn
- organized a tech event for ruckus - combined beliefs about learning and their model of convening -- turned into a franchise over the last decade
- involved in organizing 250 tech/interaction events -- almost all part of aspiration
- aspiration - nonprofit focused on building tech capacity across the global sector. run events for stakeholders across the nonprofit tech supply chain. focus on "open" - try to work exclusively with orgs that do open licensed material. also open to working with orgs that are less open, eg. salesforce.com, other vendors who could be more open but are also good folks. how we do our mission: fascinating to do developer events as well as events focused on tech staff, etc. facilitating discussion on every point in the supply chain. getting people along that spectrum to talk more to one another. facilitative approach is needed. focused on bridging those silos
- Questions for speakers?
- Mick: What needs to be in place for that to really work? to make connections between the dif silos?
- Gunner: lived in a rock and roll band house in adult life -- always worry that show is gonna suck. so go into every event thinking it might not work. couple of rubrics we apply in terms of what events we do. survival method we follow -- we prioritize events that generate revenue, or will lead to future revenue. social enterprise filter first and foremost. also try to do a decent number of free events -- these we focus on impact. are we going to make a difference here? mashup of sustainabilty criteria and events criteria. advocate and agitate for a more open approach to all aspects of technology. apply a social justice lens to everything we do. tech centric lens on tech events is a horrible way to look at tech events. so spend a lot of time assessing social justice slant on an event.
- Cassie: Is what you deliver similar - or start from scratch every time you're brought into run something?
- Gunner: yes - we have a standard 3-5 day arc. but we start from outcomes. "what's on the agenda?" is pointless space filling. what are our outcomes, what are we trying to achieve? what does success look like after the meeting? we think of agendas as software processes that generate outputs. a well designed agenda is a set of sequenced processes that generate outputs. net outcome is consistent with stated goals. also believe in serendipity - shit will come up. 1) that's a good idea that is better than what came up previously and 2) baggage - ugly things can happen. egos arise, etc. we modulate events based on both good and bad emergent dynamics
- Cassie: processes that generate outputs - specific examples?
- Gunner: we have a public wiki where most of our methodology is documented under. we hav ea lot of support from mark surman (mozilla) who underwrote. example: design centric events - funnel set of processes. if you come into an event with requirements for a design - a "design straw man" people can throw stones at - we will start with a interactive debate session. letting people air out their views on a topic. air out extant issues first. if we were doing a design brainstorm event, we'd start with a process that surfaced a large number of possible designs/solutions, then have a voting process. then go two routes - take highest vote getters and assign next steps. and always leave room for people to tack on their own projects - including the outliers, the "lead baloons" and work on it. never control your participants anymore than they need to maintain co-equality. add to agenda if it wont detract from outcomes. event organizers need to be humble to extensibility of model and agency of participants. as long as omeone is "rowing in the same direction" allow space for them to grow
- Mick: often convening people from disparate places - how to keep the momentum going after the event?
- Gunner: Don't have a set idea - have a pre-event negotiation over ownership and outcomes with people accountable for outcomes and goals. People then take on post-event follow-up. Get it all locked in before the event, as if you try to get commitment at the event people say yeah based on adrenalne of event. Any promise made at an event has to be discounted by 80% - step back 10 minutes after the end. Also tell people they have to be completely present (no laptops etc) and draining. Trying to get people to commit to something after such a draining event is impossible.
- Jane: Are pre-get together checkins, as at Creative Commons - is that your MO?
- Gunner: Yes, depends on particular event. Specialise in f*d up situations, with bitch sessions. The more screwed up the context the more negotiations there are. The healthier they are, those checkins and some pre-calls with set questions are the norm. Event organisers need to focus on value creation / delivery more than content delivery (quality of brochures, name badges etc) - probably annoyed by your table bunting... Try to understand in pre-negotiation what people want to get out of the meeting for people to feel a success (on individual and group basis). Worst thing about tense meetings, is the "witness factor" - who don't get context. Events as knowledge market places - looking at demand side, and corresponding supply side, people there to deliver what people want / expect. If don't see that, double back to people with demands and feed back to manage expectations and pre-agree action plan if not fulfilled.
- Jane: preparing for Creative Commons summit. Numbers way exceed what want. Know in past you've broken groups out.
- Gunner: Get rid of "expert". Intimidate large swathes of the audience. In a room of peers - no apologies, ask your question and bring it. Spectrum. A lot more supply side knowledge in the room than giving credit for. Pre-event engagement three months before makes me sad - a week to go to participants with questions: stories or experiences to share - humbled by how many with a piece of the answer. All have (tacit, small grain) knowledge to share.
- Half of learning is practicing act of articulating what you don't know. Get people into small groups - 5 - don't like "icebreaker" term. Come up with 2 questions want answered before leave at the end of the day with 4 other people you don't know. Get ambient learning in before "expert" gets in the way.
- Keynote format broken. Unregulated market. My slides, let me shove them down your throat. Better to surprise people - trigger synthesis on the part of the respondent when you ask questions from the audience perspective. Makes experience for the speaker as well as the audience. Also, want to ensure what's being spoken about is what people want to hear about. Facilitators can get groups to come up with questions collaboratively for speakers so energy in the room is one of working together before asking questions and having that experience.
- Mick: drawing on experience going from corporate / silicon valley to activism side. Open question - how do you feel when you see these very horizontal collaborative techniques used in more hierarchical space or environments you might disagree with?
- Gunner: Invoke 4 freedoms - freedom to use. Got to be okay with whatever used for. Only place where sad when collaborative formats bolted on to mask non-collaborative agenda - unconference with keynotes and pre-selected speakers... Also a poser anarchist - do believe any time try to control anyone else's deal - take that out. These methodologies should give voice to people who don't expect it - that's a win. What are you trying to do? Anything that is about control, only place where we get pushing back, those behaviours not in line.
- Cassie: What about conflict or lack of values alignment on a more granular level?
- Gunner: Try to do work before the event - where possible - to find out schisms, issues, to try to approach before the event. Coequality and valuing the time of others is key. Can agree to disagree or get into ping-pong which creates situations can't get out of. Mindful of inclusion - no jargon (marginalises) and say that right up front. Rule of 1 (just make one point when you speak then let others speak - more knowledge), Rule of N (speak one nth of the time in any group). Constitutional frame to avoid - mutual respect at all times. Avoids disrespectful behaviour through constitutional mandate. Call it out and then have 3 strikes rule when not in line with values. Frame behaviours with respect / collaboration. Invoke collective to get leverage - generate awareness. Get everyone in line by throwing someone out! We mean it when we say respect.
- Mick - rounding off - useful to reflect - people not always used to be told what to do. Levelling power structures - but facilitators have control of the frame. Interesting to explore on a sociological level.
- Gunner: I would add, really articulate opportunity of the event at the outset - always astounded how people get it - time is precious. Value of explicitly saying that cannot be overstated.
- What topics are suitable for this kind of approach and what topics less so?
- What are good techniques to keep interaction happening after the workshop?
- What is the link between the collaborative / horizontal nature of these processes and the philosophy behind them? Can they work in more hierarchical environments?
- Before the workshop
- What are the key things to prepare beforehand?
- Your question here..
- During the workshop
- What is agenda hacking? What are the different or most successful ways you've done agenda hacking?
- Roles - what's the most imp thing about roles/how to define them?
- Breakout sessions - not always desirable? When are they useful and for what purposes?
- Last week we talked about some of our fav warmup activities/games - focusing a lot on animals and spectrogram. Any we missed?
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= Week 1 Google Hangout (6 August): What makes a successful workshop? =
Tuesday, 6 August at 17:00 BST/9am US PDT
Add it to your Google calendar at https://www.google.com/calendar/render?eid=ZDc2dHI4N3ZoY2g5aWVyZDRjNXRoMjVuNTAgcDJwdS5vcmdfY3BzZjZ2Z3MzNWE1cnFxMnZuOGx1bDN1cnNAZw&ctz=America/Los_Angeles&sf=true&output=xml
Recording: http://youtu.be/TLnMSXVHWYU
Google hangout onair link:
Guest Speakers: Chris Michael and Becky Hurwitz
Participants (RSVP here). We will invite the first 8 people who RSVP to the Google hangout at the time specified.
Just join this link: https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/dfb0ef7823e5e2cc16fd106af9ffea4533cff80a?authuser=0&hl=en
- Jane Park
- Mick Fuzz
- Chris Michael
- Darlene Redmond darlene.redmond@nscc.ca (11pm my time)
- Willow Brugh : willow.bl00@gwob.org for G+
- Bex Hurwitz: becky.hurwitz@gmail.com
- Cassie Lloyd Perrin: cassie@thebeansgroup.com for G+ hangouts during the day!
- Adam B. Levine: adamlevinemobile@gmail.com for G+
- Marleen Bovenmars: mbovenmars@insightshare.org
- Jonas Sjöström: jonas.sjostrom@gmail.com
- Janet Swisher jmswisher@gmail.com
- Clayton Hanson clayton.j.hanson@gmail.com/Clayton_Hanson@nps.gov
Agenda: https://p2pu.org/en/courses/77/content/830/
Setting the Agenda
- Introductions - all participants!
- What made you interested in this course? (background, previous experience, philosophy, outcomes)
- How do you hope to benefit from what is being shared here?
- Is there a topic or general area that you would like to explore in a collaborative workshop setting?
- What do we want to discuss today? Is anything missing from the Agenda? (this is called 'hacking' the agenda)
- Guest speakers will talking about what they think makes a good collaborative workshop + one of the best workshops they've run in the past and what they think made it that way,
- Chris: introduction + what is the value of a course like this - What made you interested in this area course?
- never took a course on facilitation
- top practices:
- north star: making sure that we all in the room, know what we want to accomplish, having a shared understanding, understanding as a team of whether this is where we really want to go. If it's lacking, there is no coherence.
- trust but verify: trust your instincts and what you're hearing with your eyes and ears, challenging your assumptions;
- facilitating is not teaching or training: it can be confusing when we don't know which role we're supposed to take. Facilitating is enabling the people in the environment to move it forward; a trainer can do this in participatory way, but it's focused on sharing information.
- Gatherings don't happen in a vaccum: gender issues, for example. Is everyone in the room sharing?
- Becky: introduction + When is a totally participatory approach suitable or when is there value for a more planned / perscriptive approach?
- Rememering you're in a room full of people. What would it take to make that room comfortable and a good place to share? Open and closing excercises are important. Make sure you have an icebreaker, have people in the room be in motion. Everyone is thinking with thier whole body, taking up space. And do a closing - movement, verbal. Appreciations! Complete the space in that way.
- Keep things visible in the space. Multiday workshop or open space, keep track with what has happened (butcher paper etc). Reflect on what has happened, understand the flow of what has happened.
- Make an inclusive space. Agreements made. Ground rules around how people have healthy communication with each other. Make a list of things they are agreeing to.
- One person, one mic.
- Try not to take up too much space by speaking too much
- Not using cell phone in group
- When you have those guidelines laid out, it's easy to call people on breaking them. Otherwise it's calling someone out mid-stream, and is very personal.
- Adam: ground rules and macro stuff. It's structural. Outside of content.
- Bx: yes, speaking to structure.
- Jane: specific example?
- Chris: most successful engagements with a shared north star and people know a little about the folks at the event. when people do that in advance, people are less likely to peacock in that space, if people can express their expertise ahead of time. Having shared agreements is useful - we can make an agreement around what to do if people, example, use a mobile phone or are late. If people are late, for example, they might have to do a 30sec song or dance. Also, some people might really like this. I tend to try to get a sense of who is in the room and identify folks who might need special attention. In the first breaks, I try to talk with them and get a better sense. If I need to ask them to correct behavior then, we've broken the ice and have a conversation to set the tone.
- Adam: on size, is there a particular size?
- Chris: done workshops with a couple hundred people but small groups always win. If you have a bunch of people, get them into smaller groups. One on one, one on two, even just for intros. Opportunity to share their experience and expertise. When you have a lot of people it becomes logistically complicated. Everyone included.
- Becky: Everyone is there as a person, and every person should speak. Some peopel are comfortable in big groups, some people are not. Set up things wher epeople HAVE to talk for 3 minutes, then switch that role. How are other people handling workshops?
- Mick: I don't like to have more than 12 people if I'm doing a tech workshop. Right now doing a 25 person workshop weekly and it's hard -- we haave to pair off. Big group sis good for ideas and sharing plans, but with equipment, larger groups become challenging.
- Willow: from 200-5 people, mostly hackathons. If it's anything over 12 people, it's for education. If it's 12 or less, work like code sprints get done. With a larger gruop, you are spending more time assessing the north start, and more like speed dating between developers and other types of people - also fine, but a variation with size.
- Marleen: We work with a max of 12-14 people. We work with video equipment, make sure people are comfortable nad know of ways of involving others. So that people know how to hand over the equipmentandtrain others. By doing things hands-on, by themselves, they learn not to be afraid and to involve more numbers. InsightShare's workbook on participatory video is amazing: http://insightshare.org/resources/pv-handbooko
- Cassie: I am facilitating in the leadership space. Sometimes we run 5-6 if we're talking about ethical issues, if there might be conflict between members. I'll go up to 12 for the more personal development groups. Other than that, I've only done bigger, ~30 in a more unconference style where I was there to facilitate a day long conversation/energizer. Echo Willow - with a bigger group, more like education.
- Janet: There seems to be a consensus of about a dozen working together collaboratively. That's the max I do. I have been part of events that have more than that, but they tend to split people out into groups that are that side at most. I've been at an unconference and going around the room doing a hundred introductions can be a slog.
- Jane: welcome as many people as possible, but rely on breakout groups. Gunner as a good model for this, will be a guest speaker later. Groups of 4, at least 3 of which have roles. Note taker, report backer, facilitator. Seperate out the note taker and report backer. Otherwise they have a lot of control over what is known about that group. Legible visibly, and the report backer audibly.
- Chris: Gunner is "the godfather" of participatory events. Having a few guaranteed tricks that you can always use. What I have done is prepare 3 different versions of introductions. and I've prepared 3 exercises or ice breakers I can use at any time when the energy is dipping or we need to bring new energy. They help me as a facilitator. Do you all have any introductions, make sure people get introduced? Challenges?
- Bx: What are these, Chris?
- Introduction examples
- Mick: This is a great North Star moment. Great activities we can pull from each other. WE're always keen to swap information about what has worked, different ways of what has worked, keeping the energy going. Happy but not surprised at the number of peope who have signed up to do that. Mine is linking things with animals. When you bring animals into the mix, people let go of their tensions. People get in touch with a silly side of themselves. Opens the doors in a lot more creative way.
- A great starter - you write down different animals on pieces of paper - maybe 2 or 3 of each type of animal. Everyone gets a slip with an animal noise on it and they have to move around the room making the noise of the animal and to find the others making the same noise.
- Marleen: One of the games we usually use is on people's connection to animals. Sit people in a circle. Get people intro'd to the equipment straight away. Not about their background on camera (scary enough if you don't have any). Name and if you were an animal, what would you be?Sets up for a nice experience. Says something about their character. Relaxes the group, releases pressure
- Willow: Inclusion hackathon - eg. urban disaster preparedness. all programing we do is inclusive to historically marginalized populations. so targeting people who don't fee like they belong in tech sector. question: what was one thing you were really proud of yourself for this week? great intro question outside of "tech" topic.
- Chris: get people to introduce each other. Pearl of someone's life, would be surprised to get introduced to the room. Not about work or the event. Spectrograms are great for this, too. Try not to make them political. But how many hours did you travel to get here? Lined up on a line. Furthest away and closest. Then fold the line together - who travelled the furthest meets with who is next door. Have them introduce each other. Or the game "The Wind Blows" everyone stands against a wall. "The wind is very strong for programmers" and they move forward. Gets out the identities. Those who love to fight, parents, etc. See who is moving with you. Gives bonds or ways to talk to each other. All have a bit of physical movement.
- Jane: This is based on an elementary school classroom picture. Before every class, I have people draw themsleves on a post it and put their drawing on themself on a board with a Tiwtter handle and talk about one way open has affected their lives.
Challenges
- Mick - due to cultural differences (based in the UK) getting the level right where people will engage instead of something that will make people shut down. Having flexibility with activities - based on how silly people are willing to be. The idea of counting up to a certain number -- this is mentioned in one of hte tasks. IT's more of a mental game rather than moving around - especiallly if people are not able to move around. Are there other experiences where you've had to modify activities that were planned because you know your audience will not go for what you had planned?
- Jane: usually things are fun and people have gone for it. But at Mozilla, unexpectedly we had to share space with another group. But instead of the activity about getting together and teachign each other, instead created a course on etherpad.
- Cassie: UK based, I tend to work with people who know each other well. You try to introduce an ice breaker and people wonder what are we doing this for? I preface it by linking it to the purpose of the workshop. Example, the animals - if it were - the animal that most describes your personality as a manager, go and find the other people who are the same animal.
- Becky: A bit like the animals, but get everyone to do some sort of motion. Then find someone else and mimic their motion. Have people pairing off to make a motion. Then have them find a new person. Or one person leads and the whole room follows. Then go around so everyone has a chance to lead. Also Champion: everyone has a partner. Rochambo (Rock, Paper, Scissors). The person who "lost" cheers on the person who "wins" - so you end up with individuals being followed around by a huge mass of people. Eventually down to two.
- Willow: We did something similar - with Bear Ninja Cowboy - gets people to move even more than with Rock Paper Scissor. You follow the person you just lost to and cheer them on.
- Chris: with a diverse group - some people don't resonate across the board. Find setting confinement inspires creativity. None of these have to have success, but: 1) get people in sets of 3, big pieces of paper and a challenge ("what does a safe community look like," "what does freedom of speech look like?") and they can't talk. 2) Lots of kids in my community. Got lots of dolls and such, gave groups 3-5 items, tell a story about their work or a challenge they are facing. 3 minutes to prepare, 60 seconds to say each. Just gets people thinking creativity. Brings humanity out.
- Mick: create a frame for people to be creative. Sometimes If you create a too open a space for a workshop it can be cournter productive. What people may think is creating an open agenda may look like handing them nothing. Create simple choices, get people to be creative within those choices. I've also experienced people who know quite a bit about the workshop get there to test you out. Judge you a bit, give feedback. I don't expect to input int the workshop, tell me what's going on. It's really important to get these guys on side and happy sharing their knowledge with other people on the course. There are great techniques to do this and we'll be learning them as we go through the course.
What do you want to see in the rest of the workshop?
- First impressions -
- Our impression of key facilitation techniques of collaborativeworkshops: different roles, activities, pre-requisites, resources/tools. Are there experiences that we want to share of workshops that have gone well or ones that could gone better? See https://p2pu.org/en/courses/77/content/831/
- Question on structure / order. What information would be useful to engage with before proposing your topic?
- Also what topic are suitable for this kind of approach and what topics less so?
- Giving credit
- Let's talk about the attribution of resources we are drawing on. We are pulling in different resources from different places and reusing them in a new context. As part of the course we aim to create new resources and share them under an open licence.
- How do we feel about that?
- Open approaches
- How does our approach fit into the School of Open philosophy?
- What are the links between Open Space Technology, collaborative workshops and the wider ecosystem surrounding Free Culture and activist movements?
- How do we encourage others to participate in what we are learning, to gain access to it?