19 September 2012 - Revamped weekly call

Attendees: 

• Jane
• Vanessa (in the pad, but @DML)
• Leah @leahmacvie
• Bekka
• Philipp
• Dirk
• Alison

Agenda:

• Community call email / discussion
  • Suggestion: we copy the format of the tech call to begin with:
  • Progress (what have you/P2PU been up to)
    • DU:  We moved the old P2PU site to dreamhost where it can live for the rest of eternity! A big thank you to Charles Tanton from Park Road Web  Development (parkroad.co.za) who helped us (basically did everything) - no (purse) strings attached! Charles is an absolute super star. 
    • PS: At #okfest event in Finland. Helped run sessions on School of Data and Open. Talked about MOOCs today. Working on DML stuff (but only the background). 
    • VMG: @DML--slides for presentation are here: http://www.slideshare.net/VanessaGennarelli/badges-at-p2pu (also maybe doing an unconference this afternoon on user-generated content) I <3 the colors, very simple- nice ecosystem graphic!
    • 
      
  • Priorities (top of your to-list for the week)
    • PS: Moving to the USA. Buffalo is a nice place to live and you can visit Niagara Falls everyday, if you want. :) [the commute would be hellish though] Finding my feet at Media Lab. Wrapping up Shuttleworth fellowship (admin, project reports). DML research letters of support. 
    • DU: Unified courses, working on demoable prototype
    • BK: went to South Africa and have been moving house - it's been an insane week. 
      • Setting up everything for course review
      • Gearing up for rounds launch on October 17th
      • Improving the community call
    • JP: School of Open, some stuff in relation to Mozilla (like #mozfest), SOO logistics for October meeting with OPI.
  • Problems (Are you stuck somewhere? How can others help? Or just vent frustration)
    • Starting to worry about dev resources (we probably need to add more / hiring takes a lot of time)
      • Sorry Dirk - i keep sending you emails. but +1 more resources? 
        • :) np, you give lots of good feedback/ideas
    • These are all good comments about the call / format (should we move them down)?
      • People who have jobs can't call in Leah calls in and she has a job. No excuse. Take your lunch early. :) With everyone moving around so much, there isn't really a perfect time. Some people prefer to do the calls during working hours. 
      • Call is a wee bit intimidating. Why? I don't think so- better than a Web conf.
      • Isn't really a conversation--you can say something awesome to *complete silence* (and imagine the internets explode with appreciation)
      • Feels really structured, not approachable, casual--is the call *for us* (staff, internally) or *for everyone else* (community participants)
      • Possibility of using hangouts or some other technology that allows more interaction (not only voice)
  • Process (How you're getting things done / Can we improve how we work together?)
    • Where do "ideas" go? Putting them under problems seems inappropriate. 
      • For example, I'm thinking a lot about what technology we should use to support schools at the moment and http://schoolofdata.org is a good example for a wordpress based school.
    • We could make it 4Ps and an I? Progress, Priorities, Problems, Process, Ideas?  nice ;-)
    • I'm using trello! but it's pretty much a lone venture... so i'm doing it for the sake of transparency but would love to somehow incorporate others: https://trello.com/b/slWxdy0L
      • I use trello as a private to-do list, and way of showing others what I'm up to, but it's not great for communicating (unless I'm misisng something)
      • Good suggestion VMG. Let's figure out how. I tried using trello and ended up using "reminders" because they work offline and sync across all my devices
    • Suggestion: staff use hipchat when they're working on P2PU stuff and want to have "hangout" time, and we make this open to anyone who wants to join in, but it's an informal space

• Things for discussion
  • Frustration with old call format -> Make the new call useful and valuable for all who show up
  • Make a topical/thematic calendar for community call? Line people up further ahead of time? highlight people doing cool courses in P2PU? highlight people completing lots of courses. Highlight people who are using the courses to build capital.
  • Why do we need a call? Purpose:
    • Tell the world about our work and make it easy for the community to chime in
    • Be transparent
    • Governance / be transparent (are those part of the same?)
    • Feel like a team (be a team) - Make staff feel in the loop with each others' work
    • Celebrate our successes and reflect upon our failures
  • Model and format:
    • 4P - has worked well in the tech call, 
    • Every two weeks (advertise with School of Open call - which is once a month)
      • Philipp: I like to feel like part of a team, not sure if every 2 weeks is enough for this/ I also think it would be harder for people to keep track, if it was every other week. +1 what if you miss one call, you're basically a month behind. 
      • How can we get input and a feeling of team spirit?  
      • Fewer calls will make us feel like less of a team, perhaps once a week, but super-short, show-up, check in, not a lot of admin, and if bigger issues come up, we can decide how best to handle them at the time
      • Jane -> mini check-ins can be helpful, but probably more useful for staff, but for volunteers fewer calls might result in more communication. +1 frame them as staff calls (but if others want to show up they are very very welcome - in the spirit of openness!) and schedule community calls that are for presenting work in progress/ research ideas / get feedback
      • Dirk -> I don't mind too many calls, but I would prefer it if we did more "doing" in the call +1, rather than just talking, 
    • Additional seminars/ research presentations
    • Add Working calls - we connect, but not to discuss stuff, but rather to do something
  • What should we call it? (maybe not important) -> "Staff call" or "The Call" or "Community Call"? Might be intimidated by 'staff call', I would think I was not invited, but that's OK if I'm not, but I like you guys, so I would like to be invited. :) 'Community Call' is a good one. :) good point! and you're totally invited!
  • Bekka proposal:
    • Weekly short check-in calls (open to all, but staff definitely)
    • Every other week community calls - seminar style / discussion / feedback on work in progress
      • Hands-on working together
      • Seminars on new research (UX) with invited guests
      • Showcase awesome courses by inviting course organizers to speak about the experience
      • have joint community AND school of open calls sometimes when it makes sense? 
    • Next steps: 
      • Bekka to communicate the change to the community, and outline the plan
      • Bekka to create a calendar and start populating it (with input from the community, OF COURSE)
      • We hang out on hipchat and see if we like it -> http://www.hipchat.com/gkNTyewyo