commonspace

Networks, or networking?

Madrid, Spain – November 22, 2006: The Spain trip provided a good chance to look at the best of what formal networks have to offer to the telecentre movement: things like training, support, funding and visibility with policy makers. Networks like the one run by Esplai and CTIC in Asturias offer these things in spades.

The same trip also offered a good reminder of the power of networking. Esplai and telecentre.org jointly supported four international guests join the Madrid gig: two from Chile, one from Canada and one from Sri Lanka. It was a joy to witness the informal networking, idea sharing and friendmaking amongst these folks and the Spanish telecentre leaders. In particular, watching Isura from Sarvodaya (top right) connect with Marc at Esplai (top left) made me feel these interactions were making a difference: Isura had a chance to see how mature telecentre networks are running. This is something that will surely help with his task of setting up the Sri Lanka Telecentre Family project.

As I go into the Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum, this balance between networks (noun) and networking (verb) is very much on my mind. Networks with strong leaders and organizational capacity seem best at delivering concrete service offerings at a national or sub-national level, while the fluidity and light weight of networking activities seems like a better tool for community building, idea transfer, short term projects … and the early stages of getting formal networks started. Over the next week, I expect we will come up with some ideas for Africa that require the creation (or strengthening) of networks, and some that require networking. It will interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Telecentros 2.0

Madrid, Spain – November 21 + 22, 2006: Sitting in Madrid, I was overjoyed to find myself in a workshop entitled ‘el telecentro 2.0 o centro de servicios’. The session challenged telecentre leaders from across Spain to dream up a Santa Claus list of next generation community telecentre services. The result was a beautiful babble of ideas: medical and health services offered through videoconferencing; well trained student infomediaries who help seniors and others navigate the info society; participatory local democracy and urban planning using virtual reality. It was energizing to sit in a room filled with people who believe that we need to start thinking not just about community access, but also about community applications. For me, this is the essence of telecentre 2.0.

This beautiful babble was part of Fundación Esplai’s third annual conference on e-Inclusion, a gethering of over 100 telecentre leaders from across Spain. Two things struck me about this event. 1. It was filled with young people who see community technology as a compelling form of activism. The majority of the people at the event were under 30, which is in contrast to other western countries where people working on telecentre issues seem much more middle aged (like me :-)). 2. There were people from all different regions /  networks / NGOs, but it all felt like one movement. This probably has something to do with the fact that Spain has one of the most developed approaches to telecentre networking in the world, with mature networks in a number of regions offering support and nurturing to thousands of local telecentres. Networking runs deep here.

One of the leading players in Spain’s networked telecentre ecology is Esplai itself. Starting as a  web of grassroots community organizations in Catalonia, they have grown into a sophisticated organization with projects and partners across the whole country. They work on everything from economic development to the environment .... to telecentres. Their telecentre model includes a close coupling of a community development approach at the local level (each centre has a ‘motivator’ or community animator) with networks that provide training, support, new service concepts and financiang for local centres. Esplai’s success with this approach has led to a partnership with the Spanish government to help with the roll out of 3000 centres and to develop a national network. This meeting was a part of that national networking effort.

Stop that sucking sound

Over the weekend, Tonya asked me to help her write a piece of 'how to make conference panels better'. The result was a piece called Stop that sucking sound. The full text is included here:

Let's face it: most conference panels suck. With dozens (or hundreds) of eager listeners packed in like cinema-goers, the typical panel kicks off with a long recitation on the resumes of everyone on the dais. Audience eagerness immediately wanes . The first speaker then launches into a text-packed PowerPoint, going into every single detail of Topic X, and exceeding the alloted time by double. Half the audience has now tuned out. Three more speakers and three more long PowerPoints later, everyone in the audience is thinking about the weekend or the deadline they are about to miss. The panel chair apologizes that the speakers took so much time and explains that there won't be a chance for audience questions as planned. Everyone shuffles out, tired, confused, bored. On to the next panel.

The problem with panels is not that the speakers or ideas are bad (one definition of suck), but rather that the way most people run panels sucks the energy out of the room. The result is bored listeners, ineffective transmission of ideas and, ultimately, the failure to meet the goals that the panel set out to achieve in the first place: creating an engaging dialogue about interesting ideas.

The good news is that it isn't hard to make panels better. All it takes is a little practice and willingness to experiment (or, better yet, a willingness to change your definition of 'panel'. below). The following is a list of tips for panel chairs who want run more engaging sessions:

1. Pick a clear, interesting and UNIFYING theme. The topic you pick should be focused enough that get the panelists talking about the same thing, rather than their own thing. For example: 'how are users benefiting from open source in your company?' If you leave it too open, like 'open source and your company' you are likely to get a mish mash of things that really don't relate. 

2. Encourage (or enforce!) short, snappy, on-topic presentations. Assuming there is time for people to ask questions later, five to ten minutes should be enough for any panelist to get her basic ideas across. Set time limits accordingly, and let panelists know in advance that you will ruthlessly enforce the time limit. Also, point people web resources on making good presentations. (below) 

3. Create real dialogue amongst the panelists ... Dialogue is inherently more interesting than monologue. It breaks up the monotony of one person speaking. It also ensures that information flow is demand driven. People asking questions and making counter points naturally draw out information interesting to them, which means panelists don't have to guess what people what to hear.

4. ... and with the audience. This principle applies doubly so to the audience. Letting the audience engage early and often leads to more interesting and responsive sessions. As a rule, at least 50% of time in a panel session should be left for answering questions and hearing ideas from the audience. You can even put three minutes up front in your session to ask: 'what do people want hear about?' session for three minutes. This kind of audience interaction doesn't mean panelists talk less. It does mean what they say is likely to be more relevant.

5. Hold a conference call to get on the same page. Preparation is essential if you want the ideas above to work. A con call amongst panelists can go a long way towards ensuring people have a common understanding of the theme and agree to the ground rules. You can even use a call like this to rehearse the presentations. This lets your offer constructive feedback, and also let's you find 'problem panelists' early.

For panel chairs with even more courage, things can get even better if you are willing to drop the traditional panel altogether. A few simple good examples:

1. Talk Shows: With the stage organized like the set from Oprah, panelists are interviewed by the panel chair. This allows them to offer relaxed, off the cuff insights and to interact with each other. Also, just like Oprah, it's easy to add audience questions into the mix. This technique is good for people who want to trash PowerPoint presentations but still want the feel of a panel.

2. SpeedGeeks and Cracker Barrels: The room is divided into 'stations' where small groups of people hear presentations and ask questions on a particular topic. After a short time (5 min = speedgeek / 20 min = cracker barrel), the participants move to another station for another presentation. The presenters stay put. This format is excellent you have a lot of people with interesting presentations and you want to avoid the 'boring buzz' effect of ten people on a panel doing incoherent slide shows.

3. Open Skill Shares: Again, the room is divided into stations, this time with people offering advice or informal training on a particular skill (e.g. how to write a good blog posting). The audience members simply find the stations they are most interested in. Once they learn what they want to learn, they move on and find another interesting station. Great instead of a panel on practical advice or techniques.

Whether you choose to spice up a traditional panel or do something more radical, your role as panel chair is to make the session as much like a rock 'n' roll show or Baptist revival meeting as possible. You want everyone -- the audience, the panelists, the chair -- excited and sitting on the edge of their seats, ready to passionately shout out whatever comes to mind. What you don't want is for people to feel like they are watching television. Sadly, most panels feel like a local TV news interview show from your worst nightmares.

Resources worth reading:

1. Wikipedia page on unconferences. Lots of good links to open and innovative conference techniques. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference

2. PowerPoint and Presentation Tips. Links to great articles on good and bad slideware. http://particletree.com/notebook/powerpoint-and-presentation-tips/

3. Lessig Method. PowerPoint tips, including: 'it's not the size of your deck that counts.” http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/10/the_lessig_meth.html

4. Aspiration SpeedGeek Guide. Step by step speedgeeking info from the pros. http://facilitation.aspirationtech.org/index.php/Facilitation:SpeedGeeking

5. Top 10 Best Presentations Ever. Online videos that speak for themselves. http://www.knowhr.com/blog/2006/08/21/top-10-best-presentations-ever/

This document will be used to brief panel chairs for this years Canadian Social Enterprise Summit. I expect we will also use it for other purposes. I am deeply interested in comments on this so we can improve it. If you have ideas, please let me know.

10 years thinking about the commons

The other day, an old friend met someone at conference who said: “have you ever seen that paper from the 1990s comparing public access TV and the Internet?”

It turns out he was talking about my undergraduate thesis From VTR to Cyberspace: Jefferson, Gramsci and the electronic commons (1.2 MB PDF). I was so tickled that someone remembered this piece that I finally got around to posting the original version to the Commons Group site (been meaning to do this for two years). Here is the abstract that I wrote to describe it:

This is a paper that I wrote in 1994 on the links between the public access TV movement and nascent efforts to use the Internet for activism. A great deal has changed since then, including the fact that things like YouTube basically make public access TV irrelevant. However, many of the observations in the paper remain valid today, including the fact that we need to actively carve out a commons that will allow us to speak about, play with and reinvent the future.

As I sit here on the Toronto tarmac headed for two telecentre network meetings, it's nice to think back about the journey I have been on. Certainly, there have been tons of inventions and innovations in the past 10 years. However, the reasons for being passionate about community media remain as they were in 1994 ... and likely the same as they were when George Stoney and Don Snowden brought 16mm cameras to Fogo in the sixties.

PS. Here is the a picture of the cover from the paper:

Reboot.

Wow. I just saw that my last posting to this blog was September 3, 2006. And then silence.

Silence always means something. In my case, it's meant that I have been reflecting, reenergizing, reconfiguring.

When I was at the East Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum in October, I had a bit of a identity crisis. I realized that our amazing partners at Ugabytes could run a kick ass telecentre networking event all on their own (and they did). On one level, this was amazing. This is what we want telecentre networks to do. On another, it left me wondering: what am I supposed to be doing if not running gigs like this (which is what I've been doing for the last 18 months)?

Of course, the answer is: tons. My job -- and the job of my team -- is the help folks like Ugabytes become engines of telecentre networking. And they have. Many of them. That's success.

But this kind of success doesn't mean it's time to rest. Rather, it's a message to move on to new kinds of conneciton making: working with newer telecentre networks; threading networks together; finding altogether new players to excite about the telecentre movement (hi, Intel!).

So, that's what I have been doing in the silence for the past three months. Re-inventing my job a bit, focusing not just on nurturing networks but also on weaving the broader web (what Rich Fuchs calls 'shoelacing). Of course, I've been doing this all along. But it now seems like my core purpose. It's what I need to focus all my efforts on.

Next week's Africa Telecentre Leaders will be a great opportunity to publicly try this full time shoelacer hat on for  size. As you might imagine, I'll be blogging about it. So, stay tuned.