Social by Social Blog

I’ve run workshops in village halls, conference centres, board rooms and cubby holes … but no-where as memorable as our venue yesterday at the Chain Reaction event. Amy Sample Ward and I were assigned a room on the 28th – or was it 30th? – floor of the Clifford Chance building in Canary Wharf for our session of the Social by Social game. High, anyway – providing a vista right across east and south-east London: docks, Dome, barrage, offices, warehouses and homes from 16th to 21st century.

So when we started off with the usual question about inventing a scenario – where are we going to play today? – it was pretty impossible to avoid looking out of the window and imaging the community below … with a some help from a couple of people in the room who knew the area.

It turned out that  Canary Wharf was a very mixed sort of place, with top-rental offices and high-priced riverside flats next to social housing; busy with office workers in the day, dead at weekends; retail malls, but few local shops. While there were some strong community groups, and a 32-acre City Farm, action was needed on several fronts: organising festivals and events, getting better engagement and representation for residents, and connecting different communities.

So after filling out a description of the area we split into three groups and used the Social by Social card set to plan some action. You can see the cards we used in my post from yesterday. The three groups first chose from a set of cards offering engagement activities, then from a set of social media and other tools, and finally looked at ways to pay for their plans.

I shot some video as we went along, as you can see here, starting with an introduction from Amy. Thanks everyone who came, entered into the spirit of the occasion, and resisted the temptation to spend the entire time looking out of the window.

Previous game events here.

Tomorrow, Amy Sample Ward and I will be running a version of the Social by Social game at the Chain Reaction event in London … which promises to be a terrific 400-strong gathering of community activists, policy people, business leaders, with a few Cabinet Ministers too.

The game will be similar in form to those you’ll find here: we’ll invent a place, break into groups around some social challenges or themes, then use sets of cards to plan how to engage people, choose social media tools, and work out how to fund the package. However, although the format is pretty standard, I’m sure the ideas will be highly creative. The cards and other props are there to stimulate conversation – and that always works.

We’ve tweaked the cards from the last play, as you can see below. Each card has an image (so they don’t all look the same), a description, and budget points from 1-3. The green budget points are for engagement cards, yellow for tools, red for funding. We’ll set a budget for green and yellow, that has to be matched by red.

I wanted to get this preview up so we can do a little promotion of the workshop, and also have an immediate link for anyone who asks where they can get the cards on the day. We’ll shoot some video and report back later.

The official Twitter stream is cr_event, and you should be able to follow tweets tagged #cr09 through a search here. Follow us @socialbysocial

Today is OneWebDay! A day of on and offline events spanning the globe celebrating the Web.  This year’s theme is One Web. For All. bringing attention to issues and work on digital inclusion.

One Web. For All.

OneWebDay opens up techie conversations to everyone.  The theme this year of digital inclusion is especially important now as the speed of iteration and advancement is faster than ever and yet there are huge numbers of people without access at all.  Those who are excluded and unconnected are getting online at such a slow pace compared to the break-neck speed the “rest of us” are plowing ahead.  The only way, in my view, to bring those you aren’t connected or participating online into the conversations, especially those on digital inclusion, to help shape policies and changes for creating one web that really does serve everyone.  So, for OneWebDay today I wanted to share a few ways that I think we can all help others join the conversation about creating a Web that includes everyone.

Creating for All

There are many ways to get involved in OneWebDay (see below) but some of the actions that can be most powerful in light of this year’s focus on digital inclusion include:

• Join in and contribute to the conversations, networks, organizations and conferences/events specifically focused on digital inclusion (here in the UK that includes Digital Britain, Digital Inclusion Conference, and many others)
• Share your story (about how you got online, what your first online engagement or activity was, etc.) with local networks working to create online spaces to bring more people online
• Ask your partner, parent, or friend who isn’t online, why? what or how would need to change to get them there? (Don’t assume you know the answer!)
• Are you having a OneWebDay event today? Invite people who would not have seen your online promotions to join you at the ballroom, office or pub to be part of your celebrations and conversations.
• Are you developing tools, applications, or platforms for the web? Invite your friends, neighbors, parents, and others to give you feedback (even if they don’t know what the words you use mean) about what they would benefit from that maybe you and your network hasn’t considered yet.

OneWebDay is more than September 22nd.  The ways above to contribute to this movement are available for you every day.

Every time you host an event, convene a conversation, design a workshop, or anything else, invite those who weren’t on the email list, or at the last event, or part of your local community’s “social media club” to come participate, contribute, and learn.

Continue to share your story and help others share theirs so we can identfy factors and opportunities contributing to a web for all.

Regardless of next year’s topic for the September 22nd celebrations, digital inclusion remains a core barrier to truly celebrating the web globally.

Get Involved

There are many ways you can participate in OWD09 and help celebrate the web.  Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

• Participate in Local Events
• Perform an Internet Health Check
• Post Your Own OneWebDay Story
• Youth: Post a Video Response to the OWD Video
• Sign up for a Mozilla Service Week Volunteer Opportunity
• Help Universal Giving Bring the Web to the Developing World
• Post Your Unique Ideas!
• Help OneWebDay grow by spreading the word

About OneWebDay

For the last four years, OneWebDay has attracted a global network of partner organizations and individual activists committed to broadening the public’s awareness of Internet and Web issues while deepening a culture of participation in building a Web that works for everyone. In 2008, OneWebDay organizers documented volunteer-driven events in 34 different cities across the world. In 2009, we’re geared for events in over 50 cities in 20 countries! OneWebDay is all about your passion for the Web and your creativity.

Learn more about OneWebDay.

The Event:

Time: September 21, 2009 from 2pm to 5pm
Location: CLG, Eland House, Victoria, London SW1E 5DU
Street: Bressenden Place
City/Town: London
Website or Map: http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/contact

This is the proposed first stage – an opportunity for people involved in key projects at a programme level to do some initial mapping of who’s doing what and explore new collaborations, how to get synergy, take up, etc.

This will probably include key people from CLG, MoJ, BIS, plus Talk about Local, Media Trust, Young Foundation, RSA, IDeA and NESTA – but others welcome too if they think this is the right stage for them/their organisation to be involved. There will be other opportunities later in the process.

The Agenda

Our workshop is shaping up as a great opportunity to hear about the plans of government and national programmes to support local online communities and sites – and to explore the practicalities of setting up and running them. We’ll be looking at what social technology means for local activists, local government, and local media – and how to blend new stuff with the rich mix of existing communications and relationships in any area.

Our host from the Department for Communities and Local Government, Antonio Irranca, is on holiday until next week, so David Wilcox and I have develop a loose framework which we hope you will help fill out. The idea is for the three hours to be a mix of short presentations, and conversation starters, with most of the agenda set by those attending. It’s a chance to try the unconferencing format that’s increasingly popular when social media types meet face-to-face. (If you aren’t familiar with this, don’t worry. No embarrassing games, minimum Powerpoint, lots of chance to chat to the people who interest you).

We hope some collaborations will emerge, but first conversations -> relationships -> trust -> interactions

So – how about this:

1. Welcome, introductions and networking
2. An update from Government – what’s happening, what’s planned within DCLG
3. The national programmes – Talk About Local, Community Voices, Local 2.0 and others
4. Social innovation supported by Government – Ministry of Justice, Innovation Fund
5. Topics that you suggest. Here’s some to throw into the pot … what do you think? what would you add?

• what’s happening in local government. IDeA have big plans on social media and knowledge sharing programme; and who’s who related to local community work
• local media – citizen journalism, community reporters. Maybe something from Manchester and Birmingham?
• social spaces – how to blend online and face-to-face. Tessy Britton has a great project here
• what are the skills and roles needed. I really like Steph Gray’s suggestions on digital engagement
• the Secretary of State is keen on democratic renewal … but what does it mean, and what part might local social tech play
• resources for local activists and others – how we might use/remix content from Social by Social and other places

The format here will be someone pitches a topic and we break into groups, with the chance to repitch/remix for a second round

6. Review how useful the workshop has been and any follow through.

There’s no pre-determined agenda on next steps. If the Ning network is useful, we’ll keep it going. If other events seem a good idea, let’s see who might host next time. If this get-together is enough, that’s fine.

What would you like to hear about – or discussion might you lead?

I hope that we can get some content up online before the event, particularly on 2, 3, 4, so that presentations can be 10 minutes or less.

So, dive in! Join the Local Communities ning and add your thoughts about the event here!