Designing for Civil Society

Ten conversation starters on community tech

I think we may be at a turning point in how we design for the use of new technologies in local communities, non-profits, and communities of practice. Earlier thoughts here. Or it may be I'm just waking up to some changes that have been going on for a little while. Anyway, there nothing like doing a seminar presentation to provoke some head scratching and searching around the hard-drive for reusable Powerpoints. I'm contributing to an event at the University of Dundee, Scotland, on Thursday about international lessons on what works and what doesn't. Tempting though it is to do some recycling, the spirit of the times demands something different. Here's a preview of what I think I'll talk about - but it may change after my visit tomorrow to the community technology conference in Brighton, UK to run a game and any comments I get here. It's a fairly small group in Dundee, so I thought some slightly provocative conversation starters might be the way to go. This isn't tablets of stone personal philosphy, just some hunches and nudges. I'll add more after the events, including some links.

Seeking inspiration for authentic engagement

I'm really looking forward to next Tuesday's meeting in London of the Authenticity Works group - convened with an informal and creative touch by John Moore - despite being put on the spot to get conversations going around community engagement processes.
This is only the third meeting of people from marketing, PR, coaching, facilitation and various sorts of consultancy who want to do stuff that rings true, practices what it preaches, has some coherent sets of values - and is fun and rewarding too. The positive face of anti-spin. Well, that's my interpretation. We all have our own, and the interest will, I think, be in discovering what authenticity means to people coming from different personal and professional places.

More about joining up online places - and people

How can we can we get good connections between different online places (email lists, forums, blogs and so on), work out which tools do what best, deal with so much communication ... and also think on what personality type and preferences dispose our energies to different ways of doing things. Are there face-to-face people, phone people, mainly-blogging people, community people? If so, what hope is there of connecting well?
These issues keep bubbling up, so maybe it's time to find a place to talk about it. Together. This may be a chance. Cindy Lemcke-Hoong - one of the editors of the 'human side of knowledge management' special interest group on Knowledgeboard, a European Union funded online place - is ready to do some convening. Here's how it started, some links, and how to join in. Perhaps a modest example of joining-up... may go nowhere. Let's see.

How academics can help - or hinder - community technology

The growing academic field of community informatics could helps us use new technologies locally, for social benefit, drawing on the latest public and private sector developments in knowledge management, social software, mobile devices, home digital hubs, and other stuff new, cool and potentially useful. Or it could help trap community activists wanting to explore the potential of new technology in models of the 1990s that have limited life or application.
Phew. That's a bit heavy for Saturday morning, but I need to get it out for a community technology conference in Brighton, UK, I'm contributing to on just these issues next week. My idea is to try and start some conversation before and during the event, instead of turning up with the Powerpoints and promising to post them up afterwards. Not a new approach, I'm sure, but it may be a bit different because we'll also add in a game and a wiki. It happened sort of by accident, as many good things do. More below on what's planned, and how you may be able to join in, plus more links.

Location, location - or dislocation, disinterest?

Jack Schofield, writing about Smart Places in Guardian Online, suggests that 'intelligent environments' could be the next big thing. He offers a round up of experimental projects using smart phones and other devices to connect us with content 'attached' to buildings and street furniture. This won't be just tourist info, ads and menus from the restaurants you are passing, but - for example - current and historical story threads woven by the Urban Tapestries project in Bloomsbury, London. Technology could enrich your sense of place.
Jack's piece reminded me that Howard Rheingold, writing recently in The Feature, wondered Does Mobile Telephony Disconnect People from City Life?. NY Times art and architecture critic Paul Goldberger, bemoaned "Disconnected Urbanism" in a recent issue of Metropolis, and Howard mused "Who would dispute that the Montparnasse of even ten years ago is a different place today, in part because more and more of the boulevardiers are in SMS or MP3 land or talking to someone whose body is elsewhere? I'm not as convinced as Goldberger that this represents an unalloyed tragedy, an irreversible breakdown of civilized norms. Don't we change our norms all the time?"
As usual, I expect it will do one thing for some people, and another thing for other people... depending on personality type, communication preferences, enthusiasm for technology and so on. It's not just location, or device - but people, place, technology.

Who's "Information Society"? - a review of WSIS

Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications, looks back on the World Summit on the Information Society and concludes that while the general verdict was a thumbs-down "from the perspective of many civil society organisations that participated actively, the WSIS has created a new opportunity for solidarity across ideological, sectoral and geographical divides." Academics and activists are now preparing for the second phase to be held in Tunis in 2005.
While official outcomes were limited " At the informal level the outcomes are more significant. I believe that the WSIS has been a watershed in the process of public participation in ICT policies. It has facilitated a shift from the world of obscure ICT policy jargon, engaged by a select group of NGOs, consultants, donor agencies, and governments, to a new context in which ICT policy has become firmly located in broader debates on development and society"

Organisations as people, clusters, networks

Ton Zijlstra neatly summarises in words and diagrams How We Might View Organisations as individuals and networks... not just people slotted into structures.
"Organisations are clusters of relationships between people. |
The individual and the network are the relevant economic units, not the organisation. |
Value is in the relationships, organisations are transactions along those relations."
Chris Corrigan, commenting, wonders if this is "something like the Open Space Organisation" and later describes how, if you map the way things really get done in organisations, the linkages look pretty much like Ton's diagrams. Great stuff.... transparent, understandable, usable. Earlier on this blog less elegant observations on organisations and networks.

Why people don't share what they know

The ideas for blog-based communities now being advanced by Jonathan Briggs reminded me of an interesting table of different knowledge behaviours posted by Mopsos. It charts Knowledge Web, Knowledge Ladder, Knowledge Torch, and Knowledge Fortress against definitions, examples and recommended interventions.
We may wish for collaborative webs, fostering communities of practice.... but those in charge may be thinking more fortress, walled garden, protect our assets and position. The chart refers to companies, but the situation may be similar in non-profits.

Effective civil leadership won't develop behind a login

Dave Pollard's justly popular blog How to save the world fortunately offers great lists on how to make a start. Recently he posted Ten ways to make a difference based on Peter Singer's work, with a link to How to change anything explaining Dana Meadows systems thinking. Inspiring stuff. But can I apply some of these 'Made in Canada' ideas (as Dave badges them) to developing civil leadership in London.... or at least pass on the ideas in usable form? The immediate challenge for me lies in the continuing conversation about how to further inspire and support thousands of people who have become 'graduates' of the Common Purpose London programme. The key issue: can it be done behind a login? I think not.

Why hacks, bloggers - and columnists - need each other

John Naughton writing in The Observer today takes an insightful look at why bloggers and mainstream journalists complement each other. He uses as a peg for his column a new Harvard study of the 2002 episode of US Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's remarks at the 100th party of Strom Thurmond, longest-serving senator. Lott applauded Thurmond's 1948 'Dixiecrat' segregationist stance and ended up losing his post because (in part) of bloggers. It's an interesting story - but what I found behind John's column interested me just as much. First the Lott-Thurmond story.