Global tracks on topics moderated by global connectors
Lars Zimmermann
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Hey everyone,
today i met in Berlin Sophia Opperskalski from Interloom (http://interloom.org/) and Frans Prins (http://fransprins.com/). They are going to organize a sub-track in the OSCEdays Berlin event on fashion and textiles – something like a bigger challenge.
And in our session we came up with an idea. They would be interested to be the global connectors of fashion & textiles. And this is the idea/question: Could global connectors for certain topics be useful?
Global connectors could scan local events and challenges – for example on fashion – and keep an overview. They can connect certain people with each other – help to close gaps, introduce people to each other and so on. They can help build better connections within sub-communities in order to grow them stronger.
People can reach out for help on topic related questions to the global connectors.
Global connectors would also have an overview about a certain field when it comes to talking to sponsors or certain industries. A good entry point for industries to the OSCEdays/OSCE.
And if someone – for example a textile manufacturer or a textile grassroots movment – wants to be part of the OSCEdays but don’t has any connections in their city, a global textile connector is a good person to address. And the connectors could help to engage them.
I think something like that could be very very useful. A lot of good things can come from that.
We could start with the fashion & textile track as an experiment, just have it on the page, and if other people step up and want to do something similar with other topics and seem to be up to the task, why not. I don’t think we should actively search for people and topics. But if they happen to come around as it happend with Sophia and Frans ...
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS I FORSEE
(1) It could work against our goal to create interdisciplinarity – everyone stays in their bubble, we create un-connected subcultures cooking their own soup.
(2) It creates a mess with the categories. What for example happens if they overlap. A track on „3d printing“ and a track on „digital fabrication“ clearly would overlap, where to draw the lines – there will always borderline cases? And if there are lets say 5 categories but none for „nature monitoring“ for example. Will people think that „nature monitoring“ is not a topic for the OSCEdays?
(3) It could be difficult to "filter" the people. How to decide and who decides who is up to the task?
These are the three arguments against it i can think of right now. I have counter arguments for 1 & 2. But But the three arguments don’t convince me to do it not. I think the potential benefits of global track connectors are higher.
But what do you think?
Erica Thu 26 Feb 2015 8:24PM
Hi Lars, thinks this makes sense and will happen organically in a way as those interested to take part join and we begin to see different areas, expertises and disciplines. Good to have people who are more knowledgeable in areas to add their expertise. It may be that as the areas, topics and challenges develop we merge/ combine particular ones to ensure wider opportunities to cross pollinate from sectors/ skills. This will be similar to how I see challenges developing - If 2 submit the same or similar can we ensure linkage is made to ensure there's isn't duplication and greater collaboration.
Timothée Gosselin Fri 27 Feb 2015 10:07AM
Yep it does make sense. I was thinking about using the term Nodes for those kind of categories/clusters. It is what they do at the Summerlab (very similar event).
For instance during the last one the nodes where:
Geographies
Counter mapping, data visualisation, sight from the sky
Mobilities/spaces
Soft mobility, diy machines, geocaching, new forms of tourism
Economies
Alternative economies, local / alternative moneys, free software
economy, knowledge economy: data mining / cognitive capitalism
Housing
Eco-building, mobile place, open-source building, self-managed building
Ecologies
Energetic autonomy, ICT & ICT business impact, recycling and transformation
Feeding
Food hacking, molecular kitchen, urban picking+cartography
Sharing / transmission / organisation
Dead drops / widrops / pirate box / share it, copy party, agil process
DIY / hacking
Reverse engineering, technological reappropriation
Network / Internet
Survival Kit, free and neutral local networks
I think we can something quite similar and the global connector could be in charge of the nodes. I also like the idea of node, each node cross other nodes. Its not something closed, you can be in many different nodes
Lars Zimmermann Fri 27 Feb 2015 7:13PM
Cool, i see we all see need for this.
Proposal: I will work with Sophia and Frans on a way to represent them as global fashion connectors on the wegpage - and we'll present it to you.
If we have a working model with them, we will see, if other people get inspired by that and propose to be global connectors around other topics.
Timothée Gosselin Sat 28 Feb 2015 3:16PM
Yep. @habibb can help you on that too. He went to the summerlab and gave me the idea of the nodes
Habib B. Sat 28 Feb 2015 4:13PM
Thx @unteem .
Personally, I really liked a format of event called Summerlab. This is open (FLOSS manual here, in FR though, maybe u can googletranslate :s --> http://www.flossmanualsfr.net/manuel-du-summerlab-titre-provisoire/ )
Reasons WHY I LIKED IT :
1) big freedom for participants : few & smart constraints, content is driven by participants
2) lots of creations/productions by the end of the event
3) met great people, still in touch with some to do stuff
From my understanding, KEY "SUCCESS" FACTORS:
1) 5 day event (enough time for OUTPUT) : each participants commits to stay at least 2 days to be able attend
2) good sourcing of participants :
2-a) by peer invitation (aka it starts with the global connectors) + how they want to contribute
2-b) fairly good mix of disciplines : there were mainly people from edition/book publishing, specialised educators, coders, makers, artists, designers, teacher
2-c) there were 50% local people, 50% non local people --> important to foster free & diverse exchange
3) format wise :
3-a) every day was starting with a 1-hour mandatory General Assembly at 10am (barcamp like): participants introduce in 2 min) what they wanna propose as workshops,trainings,mini conference), and other peeps choose were they wanna pug
3-b) there were 6 thematic nodes (that each had a fixed spot n the venue) : 3-5 spots for making 1 spot for training, 1 spot for sharing knowledge(conference - that was a tipi=awesome:) where several projects could gather, 1 share for edition (=write a FLOSS manual to enable people to reproduce the event again in the future)
3-c) 1 thematic party per day at night
All in all my SUGGESTION is to start from the crowd :
1) maybe start with a call for participants (limited to 100 by hotspot), where people just fill in a simple questionnaire : a) what I want to learn ? b) what I want to do / teach (alone or by group)? c) in which oscedays city ? d) which action do u prefer : make, write or talk ?
2) then based on the answers collected, maybe nodes will appear
what do you guys think ?
Sharon Sat 28 Feb 2015 9:24PM
@habsinn This is great feedback! One of the things we struggled with the Sustainability Jam was getting the outputs as far developed as possible...
In terms of the 'nodes', I think this is a useful idea, but needs to be flexible and organic.
It could also potentially help with funding in the long-term.
Lars Zimmermann · Wed 25 Feb 2015 11:06PM
Update: I made a little mistake and talked about the idea of global connectors in the fb-group. And immediately someone stepped up to the task (Susan Spencer Conklin). Someone with a lot of experience in community building. It seems that a position like that is good to engage skilled and motivated people more.