[@OKau] change to event planning

Wed Apr 22 18:34:20 UTC 2015

Hi Fiona & Cobi, 
Thanks for the feedback. It's probably a useful (at least to me) to elaborate on what makes open data projects valuable, sustainable and possible. It is these considerations that are governing the approach to project planning I'm developing. In this regard, the events are just a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
Value can mean the value to the person creating the project but that is also based on the value to the audience. I suppose this ought to be an element considered in what makes a data set 'high value'. 
Value is improved by inclusiveness/representativeness so if an open data project ultimately improves the participation of marginal groups in strengthening their human and political rights then that is one measure of value. An example would be a project that improves the collection and use of data on the sexual abuse of people with disabilities in institutions. That is one of the requests that came out of a recent Twitter chat run by a peak advocacy organisation in the disability sector.
People with disability may have specific needs that need to be taken into consideration with regard to consultation and participation, whether online or in person. It is an obvious example where a one size fits all approach is not appropriate. 
Projects need to be sustainable. This can mean physically sustainable from a point of workmanship and participation both for developers but also for participants giving feedback. I am trying to build redundancy into the approach so that the documentation of planning is maintained so that people can move into and out of the project with minimal interruption to the project. I suspect the hackfest approach tries to deal with this by having everything done on site within a day or so but then this has other limitations as many projects are not one day projects.
On the other hand, with ongoing projects participants can be reluctant to commit for fear of getting in too deep. Personally, I don't want people to feel they are being locked into something and made to commit to something that they won't have time for down the track. I want to design an approach where if an important participant were no longer available, the project planning should allow for someone else to step into that place. I think documentation is the key to this. 
For a project to be possible it has to have value and it has to be sustainable. This may well include the project being funded given that people need to be recompensed for the time they spend working on a project. One of the issues I am trying to address both for my own personal needs and for open data projects more widely is that there often seems to be this assumption that projects rely on volunteer coders and so open data events seem to be designed around the needs of coders rather than other participants. 
I've always found this a bit odd because if there is a strong political or business case for a project, coders will work on it if they are paid. Yet rather than design projects, get funding and then recruit paid programmers to open data projects, most open data projects seem to be planned the other way around and events are designed around the needs of programmers, designers etc and the potential end users of projects are almost completely excluded from open data events. 
Projects are then limited to what programmers are willing to work on for free rather than being designed around what the community might be willing to pay for if they had been consulted in the first place. A programmer should not have to ask themselves if they have time for yet another volunteer project because open data projects don't necessarily need to be unpaid gigs. Open data projects should have value to developers too. Hackfests can be one way of government recruiting consultants and so developers see the value in doing a couple of days work unpaid (though there are often prizes for the lucky ones).
This brings me back to my original point about the value of inclusiveness. Not everyone is motivated by prizes or consulting for government if the government is not seen to be representing the needs of the wider community. I think that when coders, funders and others can see a community behind a project this is a stronger motivation than just being expected to come up with ideas and work on them in a vacuum. Such projects will also be higher quality/of greater value because they will be designed with end users involved right from the start.

Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)________________________________________

 NoFibs.com.au - Open Data Reporter InfoAus.net - Founder and Developer 

Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2015 19:45:07 +1000
From: fiona.c.tweedie at gmail.com
To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
Subject: Re: [@OKau] change to event planning

Hi Rosie,

Just wanted to add that that sounds like a really sensible approach. We've all observed that one-off events are great for generating interest but sustainable projects need a slower approach. It does your work no service to try to jam it into a format that's not suitable.

I hope your venue is suitable (having regular access to ThoughtWorks here in Melbourne has made all the difference to getting the regular MeetUps going.

Fiona

On 21 April 2015 at 13:42, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com> wrote:

I've just been offered another venue that I can use free which seems to have quite good availability which is something that I'll need going forward as different projects as each group might have different needs. 

I haven't seen the venue yet. It's in Marrickville. It is on ground floor so accessibility should be ok.

Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)________________________________________

 NoFibs.com.au - Open Data Reporter InfoAus.net - Founder and Developer 

Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 13:32:06 +1000
From: steven.decosta at linkdigital.com.au
To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
Subject: Re: [@OKau] change to event planning

Sounds cool Rosie :)
Also sounds like standard prospecting for consulting and facilitation if there are opportunities for InfoAus to do things directly with stakeholders, which again is totally cool.
In general, I'm pretty keen to help grow broad community forums via events in different cities where people can come together with a general agenda but have the opportunity to then connect and start collaborating on specific things.
It would be fantastic if Sydney folks were able to start holding events as per the Melbourne group, although every week might be hard to sustain. I wonder if there is a Sydney venue sponsor in this list who'd be happy to host a bunch of OKAUers every few weeks or every month?  If monthly then I'd hopefully be able to trek up to Sydney for them on a fairly regular basis :)
Cheers,StevenSTEVEN DE COSTA | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
www.linkdigital.com.au

On 21 April 2015 at 12:51, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, 
If you've been reading my posts to the list you will be aware that I was planning a one day event for the end of May as an Australian effort toward the International Open Data Conference. I did end up being offered a venue in the city Mon to Thurs for 60 people. Despite this, I've ended up changing my whole approach to event planning with regard to open data events. 
Originally I was trying to make the projects fit the event that I had volunteered to organise (when the topic came up on Twitter) but the more I thought about what open data projects need, the less sense a large one-off f2f event made to me.
I set up a process/model for nurturing open data events from conception to implementation beginning with sourcing problems that open data can help solve at the InfoAus.net wiki. There are already several questions identified through engagement with communities. 
The more I thought about the problems identified, the less sense it made to me to try to plan solutions for all of them on the one day. Each of these problems seemed to be worthy of their own dedicated event and each of these events needed to be prefaced by consultation and planning which would best be carried out online prior to getting down to more concrete action face to face. 
I did try to think of uses for a large one-off f2f event occurring on a week day but realised I was still trying to fit the needs of a project into the event rather than the other way around. I've decided there's little sense in putting myself under pressure to organise an event just for the sake of coinciding with a particular date when that, in and of itself, does not seem to have any benefit to the actual problems or the open data projects that might emerge.
I will be holding virtual events to refine and source ideas for specific problems and when people interested in working on the specifics have been identified I can move forward with helping these people plan f2f events to carry out these plans.
regards,

Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)________________________________________

 NoFibs.com.au - Open Data Reporter InfoAus.net - Founder and Developer 

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