The RSA Networks site is rubbish!

There. That's the elephant in the room dealt with.

But you wouldn't know how flaky this first version of the site is from reading the brilliant discussions and project ideas that over 150 patient, benevolent fellows have been posting to the site, and then discussing with passion. Warts and all, the site does seem to be buzzing!

After the event on the 22nd, Andy and I were amazed by the levels of participation and activity that exploded on the site - so at least the prototype we built didn't obstruct that! To be honest, we didn't expect that kind of success immediately, and so it's taken us a bit of time to collate that feedback and respond.

So I am very pleased to echo Anshuman's announcement, and let you know that we are going to be starting the next few rounds of development tomorrow - fixing some of the niggly problems and usability issues that have frustrated many users. There are also a few obvious bugs that we hope to squash, and some basic gardening work like creating an FAQ and some help files - all of which we hope to do before Christmas.

I have written a few posts on the RSA Networks site laying out the three stages of this plan:

1. A pre-christmas bug-squashing fest, where we aim to get the most obvious design and usability issues fixed.
2. An early January development cycle, during which we aim to implement some feature requests and try out some experimental collaboration processes.
3. A hand-over to a production team, who will take the prototype into production.

We are also going to be organising an event in late January, where we are hoping to reconvene some of the groups who met on the 22nd to take stock of the development so far, to look at which features should go into production, and to make decisions on other key issues that have been flagged up during the consultation process. As soon as we have a date for that, we'll send out an announcement with more details.

Of course, as with the first development cycle - which was great fun, we are again asking for your help in shaping the process itself as well as the technology.

We are still looking for the magic combination of factors, and the right way to ask the questions that will start to really activate projects, to move from 'discussion' to 'action', and to 'mesh the cogs' of the RSA - as Don calls for in his post.

Your ideas on those fronts, and comments on the three development phases, as well as your continued use and feedback on the site are much appreciated!

First thoughts on RSA Networks system

I believe RSA staff and developers of the RSA Networks system may be taking stock this week, with a view to further development, so it could be useful to feed in some first impressions and issues. It's been an enormous achievement by Saul, Andy, their team and RSA staff so far - so this is all meant in a wholly positive spirit. Here's my thoughts (please add yours):

• It's currently difficult to see where new discussions are taking place, and what's the difference between a project and discussion - but I'm sure that can be dealt with.
• We need ways to message people privately, to follow up issues/ideas that may not be of interest to everyone. Again, easy to implement I believe.
• More facilitation and hosting is needed, to respond to issues raised about the system, but more importantly to help join up conversations which are inevitably spread around the place. Online communities need community development. It's not clear if anyone is responsible for overall development as well as specific project support.
• While the system looks as if it could develop into a good place to fly ideas and find interested people, moving from discussion to action needs a lot more attention. How about getting together a small group of people (already discussing this issue on the system) to think through what that would involve? I think it is more than more online tools and meetings: it needs formats - systems to bid for funding or support, a market place, mentoring - or whatever. NESTA have already indicated their possible interest.
  

Beside these specifics I believe there are two strategic issues that need to be resolved quickly: degree of openness, and system ownership.

• It's currently not clear whether the system will be open only to Fellows. If that is the case, it will be a good place to gather support from Fellows - but many projects will have to move "off system" to involve other parties essential for real civic innovation. If it is to be open to others, on what terms? Maybe we could have a system where only Fellows can propose projects and invite others in, then project leaders decide how private or visible their projects are. Meanwhile there's not much motivation to propose a project if you don't know who will be able to participate in the longer term.
  
• The over-arching issue: who's system is this? RSA staff have put a lot of emphasis on the RSA Networks programme being by and for Fellows. If that's the case, shouldn't the online system - and associated processes - be "owned" by Fellows, or a Fellows/staff partnership? That partnership would then decide on issues of open-closed, hosting, system developments etc. If Fellows are just being asked for comments, with decisions taken by staff, nothing much will have changed from past practice.

The strength of the system is that it is pretty intuitive to use, and can be developed in many different direction because of the underlying modular structure (Drupal, I believe). So - great architect, more features needed .... but who is the client that makes the decisions?

RSA Networks preview meeting

Last Friday evening at 6:30pm a group of five fellows, five RSA staff, and two or three interested individuals gathered in the Shipley room around the Talkaoke table for a very early preview of the RSA Networks prototype website.

The event was also an opportunity to test out the non-technical (offline) process of project development and discussion we had whittled down from all the ideas, requests and discussions we had dug amongst the RSA's diverse communities. We attempted to do this by mirroring the process outlined in my first three blog postings (the ideas, the flow diagram and the wireframes).

As you may now be bored of reading me say, that process is to propose ideas, discuss them, then support them through to execution. We thought that if we set up an equivalent process 'offline' - in a convivial environment (provided by Oddbins and Anshuman's generosity) we could think through how we might be able to augment the process online.

We were not disappointed. The evening began with a presentation of the prototype - which was still quite broken and bare-bones at that stage - of course the first thing that happened was that I forgot my password in the bustle to get ready but that was swiftly glossed over and I presented our working model so far.

Unfortunately, I had failed to take the advice of our facilitator for the 22nd - Sean Blair to make some 'response' cards to capture people's thoughts about the prototype as it was demonstrated. Immediately afterwards, some really great questions came thick and fast, and quickly turned into a heated discussion about the broader issues: what is civic innovation in this context? Should the RSA's website be open to the public? What's the point of building another social networking site when Facebook is already doing a very good job? Luckily we have this all on video (up on youtube later today)

Rebecca Daddow coordinator of the RSA Risk Commission gave a fascinating powerpoint presentation about a new research project she's working on to help develop an online 'Behavior Change Tool' to help young children learn to make more informed decisions in their daily lives. This was a great example of an RSA project: multi-disciplinary, socially applicable and requiring the participation of multiple organisations and individuals.

Nico Macdonald talked about his research into the poverty of debating standards on and off-line, and the tantalising possibilities offered by RSS syndication in further cross-linking blogs, turning the infrastructure of the blogosphere into a loosely coupled adversarial debating floor.

Richard Millwood then gave a very inspiring presentation about his work with the Ultraversity, an online degree course in technology and research - during which he showed an incredible video of two enthusiastic women at their graduation ceremony, explaining the wonders of network-assisted learning at home beautifully - as if, (he said), they'd been given a script for a student recruitment commercial.

There was some debate about the projects, but far more about the mechanics of project assistance and development within the RSA, and how it relates to the RSA Networks project. I am very grateful to the presenters for offering to put their projects forward knowing this was likely to be the case. However, some connections were made - particularly between Richard and Team Everything - who were well represented at the gathering.

Sunny Hundal really hit one of the many nails of the evening on the head when he was talking about his work on Comment is Free. When he develops projects, it is impossible to imagine only involving fellows - there has to be some way of bringing in other people to work alongside them. This issue - of access and openness of the platform became one of the most interesting discussions of the night, with David Wilcox bringing up some very good questions about the incentives for fellows (or anyone) to use and participate without the terms of engagement being completely clear.

This theme - of degrees of openness, picking up on many of the threads on this blog and on the RSA Networks blog really became the core of the evening, and revealed some of the paradoxical issues inherent in a members-only organisation embarking on a process of opening access to its networks and resources. However, there were some interesting suggestions made about variable access granted by project initiators, depending on the stage in a project's development.

On the whole, the evening was very rich with bigger picture ideas of what the debates and issues are surrounding the RSA Networks project - and we came away with many new ideas to work into the prototype and our report.

Which I now have a prototype to launch!

The videos from the evening will be online soon.

RSA team sets out ideas for network development

The team developing the RSA networks programme has now produced a briefing for the workshop this Thursday, November 22.
You can find it on the OpenRSA wiki or download as a pdf. There's also an item on the RSA Networks blog, with a promise of more there too.
The paper asks Fellows broadly whether they want a deeper engagement with the RSA, and what they would like to change about interactions between themselves and the organisation.
Following earlier statements from chief executive Matthew Taylor there is a strong presumption in the paper that centrally-resourced interaction will be around networks that focus on the development of civic innovation projects.
Ten possible major project ideas are offered, ranging from reviving market town high streets to a debate on the proposed Severn Barrage, and a Speakers Corner in 20 cities across the UK.
Project development will require innovative thinking and action, and the paper explains that substantial use will be made of an online system a bit like that proposed for the Innovation Exchange. (Details of the RSA prototype have been outline here).
The prototype will be demonstrated on the 22nd. The aim is that it will be:

... a marketplace for new ideas, a space where Fellows can post new project ideas and a chance to tap into the collective wisdom and connections of a diverse and thoughtful group of people. In other words, the Fellowship will become more ‘searchable’, more visible and more accessible.
Through this, we hope that the Fellowship begins to understand itself as a complex, innovative network, powered through online tools as well as offline get- togethers, buzzing with ideas.
We also know that in order to strengthen the connections between busy Fellows, we can help by offering tools and techniques for those of you wishing to do work together as a network. Tools might include ‘routemaps’ or ‘guidebooks’, designed to share learning around popular Fellows’ causes, for example how to influence planning decisions in your local area. These could be published online, so that Fellows can work together to improve them.

The paper adds that central support could be available:

RSA staff as facilitators and brokers

Above and beyond the online resources outlined above, we could create a ‘field team’ of regional facilitators, sometimes Fellows themselves; sometimes staff, whose primary role is to support, challenge and develop emergent networks. This team would be ably supported by core staff at RSA headquarters, whose primary role would be to provide research support and a form of ‘concierge’ or brokerage service. That brokerage service would connect networks together if they had not already done so themselves, as well as building partnerships between networks and other key institutions and organisations.

The RSA as a Fellow-led ‘clearing house’ for ideas, and co-created projects

Much as it is now, but perhaps more explicitly, the content of the RSA’s research programme could be shaped to reflect the concerns and enthusiasms of the Fellowship, tapping into the energy and commitment amongst Fellows for action. Fellows could be involved as co-designers and project team members in areas identified by Fellows as priorities for RSA work. We could see Fellows forming ‘self-organised’ networks; networks which are connected to more substantial resources (such as funding, venues, or expertise); or even networks which formed the basis of a RSA research programme. Fellows could generate ideas for new projects at regular national and regional network symposia, working together with RSA staff to decide how to prioritise the allocation of resources and support.

The paper emphasises that the aim is to develop ideas and plans jointly between staff and Fellows. What are the implications, asks the paper?

First and foremost, we know that a networked model of change is about much more than ‘networking’ alone. Networks need both processes and content. Extensive research about such models – in technology, education and elsewhere – shows that really powerful networks have the following assets and qualities:

• A well-articulated and shared set of goals, and a plan for how to meet those goals.
• All members feel able and encouraged to participate – which in turn requires accessible, open channels of communication online and offline.
• All network members perceive themselves to have an active role in doing work - between meetings and dialogue – so that the network does not become a talking shop.
• A good balance of network leadership (sometimes shared by people) and facilitation that is designed to maintain momentum and provide challenge.

So, to make this model come alive, the Fellows involved in networks will themselves need to do a good deal of the work. However it is also true that if this is where the RSA networks project takes us, it will have implications for the staff roles at the RSA as well.

As noted above, you can read the paper here in full, and also download. There may be discussion on the RSA Networks blog, or do of course comment here.

RSA Networks Prototype day 3: wireframes

Hello OpenRSA readers,

Another extremely long and stimulating day today - during which the coding really got underway (more on that later). Friday will be a big push to get the prototype online in preparation for a first preview in the evening, so I don't expect to be able to blog at all, but I must get this wireframe out for feedback!

The front page that Liz has outlined here (click on it for an enlargement) shows what we're asking people to do with this simplified collaboration prototype. The headlines, as I've said before are: propose, discuss, and support.

Below that quick explanation, we're planning on showing a list of the most actively and recently discussed projects.

The two 'directories' here are for 'Projects' and 'People' - which both lead to a searchable list of people or projects organised by name, newness, geographical location (a google maps mash-up) or category tag - which is also represented as a 'tag cloud' of keywords on the front page.

Although 'folksonomy' is all the rage these days, we were hesitant about using it in an unconstrained way - allowing fellows to tag themselves and their projects without providing a category guideline of some kind. However, fellow Helen Westropp's excellent advice was that - due to the specificity of the fellow's professional vocabularies and terminologies, the tags fellows use will be recognisable to each other - and provide excellent indications of where multi-disciplinary approaches are at work. I'm excited to see what emerges in the tag cloud!

A project page (right) shows how each project will be represented on the site. Here the project has been described (all we are asking for is a title and a 30 word blurb) . Discussions can then develop - either by 'starting a new online discussion' - which creates a new thread underneath the project blurb, or by proposing an offline meetup - which is also listed beneath the project.

Others can either comment on the discussion thread, or sign up to attend the meetup, or start their own - and doing any of these actions automatically adds them to the list of people 'involved in this project discussion' - represented on the right column (2.5).

The main 'support' activity here is recommending the project to others - by typing their names into the 'recommendation' box on the right. This will fire off an email to the recommendee, providing a link to this project from the recommender. A similar function will allow fellows to invite each other to online discussion or events.

We are also keeping all this information (who recommends or invites what to whom) so that we can eventually start suggesting potential collaboration matches. For example: 'fellows who recommended this project to you are also involved in project X...' (amazon style), and will allow us to infer lots of other interesting interrelationships between the people and projects amongst the fellowship.

Finally, allow me to introduce 'Norman', our dummy fellow for the day. Each fellow, like Norman will have a 'profile' page showing all the kinds of information you'd expect from a useful web directory: mugshots, a short bio, his 'tags' - or categories of interests, events he's signed up for and a google map of where he's based (if you want to stalk Norman), online discussions he's involved in, and projects he's initiated.

You can also use Norman's profile page to introduce him to other fellows - just start typing their name into the 'introduce this person to...' box on the right (5.4) and you'll be able to select from a list of all fellows in the system - which will then send them both emails saying 'Norman, Simon thinks you ought to meet Norah... ' and providing links to each other's online profiles.

There is one final detail that we're hoping to be able to fit into the prototype stage... although time is running out now: 'aggregated feeds'.


We know that many fellows have blogs, use flickr, youtube, del.icio.us and countless other online tools to publish text, photos, video, links etc. etc. We want that activity to be reflected here so we are hoping to implement an 'aggregation' box on each profile, project, event and discussion page - where fellows can post 'feeds' from their activities around the 'Net, and see them collected on the RSA Networks site.

We are excited about the potential of this approach to allow the RSA Networks site to act as more of an expanding platform for participation and collaboration - than as yet another 'walled garden' type of social networking site (like Facebook) where we end up trying to lock our users into using the tools we provide. The web is full of great tools, and the fellowship are bound to have their own methods and preferences for what they use to communicate... we hope that this approach will help us facilitate rather than 'own' those collaborations.

In any case, this is getting a bit too philosophical - we are in the middle of frenzied site building for a pre-pre preview on Friday night at the RSA, so now I'm going to batton down the hatches and get on with it! Having said that - feedback is essential at this stage. Please do email me or comment with responses and ideas.