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Saturday 24 November 2007

Fast follow-up: see the project ideas

RSA staff made an enormous effort after the RSA Networks event to organise and upload reports of all the project ideas that were developed.
In an email to all involved, RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor provides a link to the reports for anyone with a login to the RSA site, and also urges project proposers to add their ideas to the RSA Networks site. This currently allows anyone to register.
As Matthew explains, RSA staff acting as network facilitators will follow up with offers of help. Matthew writes:
Dear Fellow
I'd like to say a huge thank you to all of you for making yesterday such an inspiring and energising event. I, for one, haven't seen the house buzzing in such a way since I started here. I hope that all of you had a similar experience, and that you left the building with some new contacts and lots of new ideas.
Of course, in many ways, yesterday was the very beginning of a new journey for the RSA. The challenge for all of us now is to find a way of holding onto that energy and passion, to combine it with patience and determination to build on the ideas that you began to develop yesterday.
You can see all the project ideas that you worked on, and those of all the other groups, by following this link http://www.thersa.org/projectideas. They are listed alphabetically under broad theme headings, and assigned to the project leaders. We would like you to log in to the networks platform that was discussed at the Tech Sessions yesterday http://networks.thersa.org, add your profile and, if you were the project leader, to upload your project proposal. That way you can tag your project in the way you want, which will be better and more accurate than what we have done so far.
The RSA networks project is all about giving you new tools to work together as groups of Fellows. That's what we started yesterday and we want to encourage you to continue the conversations over the next two weeks, to develop the thinking and ideas generation that you began at the event. The kind of questions you should be thinking about are: Is it a strong, clear idea? How much interest did it attract from other Fellows? Is it really different; are other organisations doing something similar and, if so, who should you link with? Are there other project ideas listed on the site with similar interests and is it worth collaborating with them? What is the next action? How can the RSA best help you as groups of Fellows to move forwards?
When you have developed your thinking please input your idea into the networks area of our website http://networks.thersa.org. Follow the link, log in and then click on to the ‘Propose’ box to get started. Next week, one of the network facilitators that you met yesterday will be telephoning you to see how things are progressing. We know that this initiative is all about what you as Fellows want to do together but we also want to do as much as we can to remove barriers to this new kind of collaboration, as well as providing you with new tools.
Of course, yesterday was not just about generating ideas about what you could do together. It was also a really important staging post on our journey to find a new kind of relationship between the Fellowship and the staff. Some of the sessions you posted under the 'How it will work' theme will inform our thinking here, and today we will be posting some of our own projects on these issues on to the platform for you to comment on. As our thinking progresses, informed by your views, we will keep you posted.
In keeping with the spirit we began to create yesterday, we want your thoughts to be shared as a discussion of many Fellows, rather than a closed dialogue with just me. We are sure that you will keep us on our toes on this but, in the meantime, we look forward to seeing what the seeds you sowed yesterday grow into!
Matthew Taylor
Chief Executive
At present reports are all Word documents that have to be downloaded, which makes it difficult to scan through the ideas quickly. However, it was a terrific achievement to get everyone concerned to complete reports, get them uploaded, and then categorised, within a day. The new networks site is designed to make it easier to see project summaries, and who is involved.
For me this immediate follow-up shows a real commitment to help Fellows move from a buzzy event to action. It could develop into a great demonstration of how to mix Open Space event technology with online follow-up and support from network facilitators.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

David

You are a star, the energy you put into this is amazing! I've just tried the RSA networks website, by, editing my profile, proposing a project, starting a discussion, and proposing an event. There are quite a few wrinkles to iron out yet, so can I encourage all "HIT THE FEEDBACK" button so Saul and the team can get the site to be working really well.

Sean Blair