[okfn-help] FAO people at Open Everything Open Space meeting on 26th September

[Beth Tilston]

OK guys, here's my reading of what we said the other day.   Sorry about the
delay – my computer's bust and it's been almost impossible to get in front
of a computer for any length of time.  Please bear in mind when you read
this that I wasn't taking notes as 'minutes' but just for myself.  There's a
lot missing from here that I'd like other people to fill in.

Firstly, and we didn't discuss this, I want to ask people what they think
the aim of the two/three days would be?  When Chris and I were doing Reclaim
the Web, we knew that our aim was to introduce activists (3rd Sector,
volunteers, NGO employees etc) to social media, but it seems that our remit
for this event  has become much wider than this.  Can we come up with an
elevator pitch that I can give to people I meet at various moo-cardy events?
I guess this means defining the Open Space question.  This will also be
important for writing proposals.

*What we spoke about on the 26th*

*The Space *

We decided on the Hub KX for the event and as such are limited to the amount
of people that the space will take (something over 100, Josef?).  The Hub KX
was free at the end of March/beginning of April (see below).

*The Date and Time of the event*

The end of March/beginning of April was mooted as a good time for the event.
It was suggested that we join up with an event being organised by the Open
Knowledge Foundation (??? – Josef?) and hold the event over two days.  Josef
was tasked with following up on this which I think he has done and fed back
to the group. As I will never get this written up if I start rooting around
in my emails trying to work out what he said, I suggest that Josef tell us
once again what the feedback on this was.  There were some suggestions that
even if we don't pair up with the OKF, we hold a 2/3 day long event rather
than a single day event.  This was suggested as Open Space discussions
should be held over this length of time.

*Connection and Momentum*

We decided that we would set up a mailing list to communicate with each
other.  This has been done.

We talked about registration and how early registration would be important
both from the point of view of knowing numbers but also so that we could
begin to make connections between people before the event.  We also talked
about getting people talking to each other before the event – perhaps on
another mailing list.  It was suggested that we use a kind of collaborative
approach to organising the event i.e. getting people to suggest and vote for
people they'd like to see speaking there – Chris had some good ideas about
this – Chris, can you remind us what you said?

We discussed how we would disseminate the ideas collected at the event and
how we would encourage people to connect afterwards.  Various mechanisms for
doing this were put forward, wikis, collaborative text editors, using a Wii
pen and keeping a digital record of notes, cameras and drawings, a live
edited magazine but it became clear that we would need to have people
present whose responsibility it was to document the proceedings.  We decided
that there should be practice sessions in this beforehand.  It became clear
that we would need to define a number of different roles and try to find
volunteers.  We also decided we'd try and borrow/be given phones and cameras
etc to document the day.

*Prior to the event*

We spoke about having practice sessions in effective documentation before
the event (perhaps the day before) and also a session in 'visual
facilitation'.  I don't remember what this was – can anyone help?  It was
also suggested that the core team have practice sessions beforehand – can
anyone remember what in?

*After the event*

We discussed how to keep the momentum generated by the day going or whether
this was even our responsibility.  It was suggested that we get attendees to
divide up into regions at the end and agree dates and times when they would
meet to continue the conversation.

* Infrastructure*

We discussed having some sort of event specific money so that we could give
back to people all/most of what they paid for the event – and that they
would then be able to spend this in local shops.   We spoke about whether we
should charge for the event and everyone agreed that charging was ok, if
only as a mechanism to make people attend.   No one wanted to have money be
a barrier to attendance so we thought that we could have a clear policy of
waiving entrance fees for anyone who couldn't afford them.  (Further idea
from Beth – we have a sliding scale of ticket prices and we give back only
the lowest amount on the scale i.e. we have a scale from £10-£40 and we give
everyone back £10 in fake money)

We discussed 'cosying up' the Hub KX with the inclusion of hammocks and bean
bags etc.

We stated that we'd like to get some sponsorship for this event and everyone
was ok with that.  We decided that the next step in this would be developing
a working proposal to send to potential sponsors.

*Open Space*

We discussed our experiences of Open Space Technology and we decided that we
really needed someone to facilitate this.  We discussed how long an Open
Space event should take and decided that the event should be at least two
days long.

*Next Steps*

·         *Josef to badger Open Knowledge Foundation (??) for dates – has
this now been superseded by events?*

* *
·         *A cohesive proposal to be written collaboratively – two week
deadline – HOWEVER, I WAS LATE WITH THE NOTES SO SHALL WE AGREE A DIFFERENT
DEADLINE?*
I have cc'd in everyone's individual email addresses, but if you're already
on the mailing list please let me know and I'll just send mail to there in
the future.

Beth xxx
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