There is a better way to tell the inspiring story of a community, and to continue that story through action. The side effect is the ability to measure & understand the change happening around us.

The PlayersAudiences & Actors

Action leads to under-standing contrary to popular beliefThe jury is in. Action comes before thought. We tend to justify our actions after the fact, which highlights why activating a community around betterment is such a crucial endeavour.

In many cases this is already happening, but we know that a crowded restaurant only gets more so, and a quite one lags behind. Commu-nity actors, and those with the potential to act, need to see what others are doing, they need to be inspired. We can’t force people to act, nor do we want to, but we know that visibility of action will inspire others.

Change Enablers

Change without refer-ence is like a star with-out a solar systemBusiness knows to improve something you need to measure it. If social impact and involvement is measured effectively, then we can pioneer models for application in other situations.

Organizations funding change need metrics to guide their decisions. Leaders need feedback as to how to improve their approach. The com-munity needs authentic input into decisions. This is achievable. The web offers us a track-able source for quantiative interactions, and a conversational space for qualitative feedback.

Community Leaders

Conditions are ripe, people are ready, tools are neededWe don’t need to make leaders, we don’t need to make communities. We need to work with these existing networks and individuals to inspire effective action.

A leader’s main role is to say what everyone is thinking, to listen then voice the values of all. The web accelerates our ability to listen, low-cost rich media allows a leader to convey an ongoing narrative of challenges & accomplish-ment. The tools exist to connect people with both action and each other. But they need to be applied iteratively to make it work.

20 x GYC SiG

At the GYC you’re working on some-thing that matters, we want to help.

A lot of other people want to help too.Betterment Enablers

Community Leaders

Audiences & Actors

this is where we work

…along with a few people at your organization and a section of community lead-ers, so that we can make an impact for the grassroots youth collaborative.

You tell the story of the GYC. We build a tool to inspire action. The community becomes a valuable contributor, inspiring others to do the same.

When people are inspired by the story of others, they get involved.

The audience views stories, but also become actors in the ongoing story.

Through usage patterns we see what’s missing. We address a problem by formulating a knowingly simplistic solution then revise.

We gather qualitative feedback from the people who have been participating. Flag improvements, and begin the next iteration.

...to evalute outcomes

Inputs, outputs, conse-quences, impact.As an enabler, you need to know the best place to intervene. Plotting what the catalysts were in a larger ecosystem can be very difficult if not impossible.

By using the web to keep a constant trace on what is being done, and by allowing continual feedback, tracking progress can be helpful for all involved. Whether at the beginning, middle, or end of a project, we can add in measure to monitor the pulse of this initiative.

...to be aware

You need to know what’s going on right now.Twitter, facebook, and all the other networks have brought one thing to bear: the activity of others. When we can understand what others are doing, we can check oursleves, and either join in or do something different.

This activity also acts as a back-stream to understand a year later what actually occurred. It is not a replacement for reports, but rather to aid.

...to encourage success

Encouragement comes in many forms: Money, time, resources.When you begin to measure involvement by seeing who is doing what, you can see where impact is really happening. This means you can scale up successes and mitigate failure. From microloans to advise, there are many ways to encourage success. Understanding what suc-cess looks like is the first step, and for that you need eyes.

Micro-encouragement can come on a daily basis both from the enablers and the commu-nity itself. Most social networks build in a way to give kudos, digg, or like contributions. This gives an overall understanding of what’s worth investigating.

As an enabler you need...

...an ongoing narrative

Update the community through the webIts as simple as making a video every couple of days. When you let others know what you’re working on, and how they can help, they will. The first step is transparency, the second is engagement.

Though the web is accessible to all, it takes some novelty to get people involved. Creat-ing compelling messages can be done through passionate voices. Creating a compelling con-tainer can be designed for these messages.

We can pull content from existing networks(facebook, youtube) and customize it to the purposes of the GYC.

...surface opporuntity

Connect people to each otherOften as a leader you are a bottle neck. There are so many demands on the person in the centre, that there are sure to be missed oppor-tunities.

Use the web to profile people. When you talk about specific people, what they’re working on, and what they can do, others pay attention. Introductions are the first part of a conversa-tion, and that holds true online as well.

We can create a place for the community to introduce themselves to each other.

...inspire action

Follow up stories with actionable optionsInspiration is not the same thing as action. There is a gap between the two which is only filled by opportunity, and often encouragment. As a leader, you need to pull the people from just being an audience to being players in these stories of success.

After showing stories of current and past initiatives, make sure to provide a space for people to act. And when this action is taken, remember to profile those involved.

We can create a place beside each story, so that those inspired can action their intent.

As a community leader you need...

1Draw Interest

inviteinvestigateinspire

You can’t do open design without people. You can’t approach com-plex problems without the right people. That’s why our first step in any project is to invite the right people involved, and invite their larger communities.We do this investigation through the web and in person. The stage is set to inspire possibility, but also ensure that something con-crete will be created.

4Behaviour Intervention

intendinventinnovate

To begin improving this issue or community, we must carve out a small behaviour to encourage or reinforce. It is this small inten-tion that can start us on the right track.Using the web and in-person methods, we invent a tool or process which can be used. We then find innovative ways to spur adoption of this process and to understand its impact.

2Facilitate Conversation

congregateconverseconverge

Conversation is at the heart of understanding the problem, an a problem well understood is largerly solved. To have this conversation, we bring people from offline and/or online and congregate for a fixed period of time. In this t ime, ideas, understandings, and perspectives are shared. Groups converege on a specific out come, leaving also a possibility for a grander impact.

6Measurement & Analytics

recordreportreview

Each intervention has metrics recorded along the way. This is the stage where we report those metrics, whether they be views, actions, attendance, or funding. Reviewing is the most crucial step to understanding impact in a com-plex system. Without metrics we cannot compare, and as such can-not improve our approach.

Community Feedback

chattercommentcriticize

Throughout the process we encourage chatter and comments about how the process is working. In the end of the intervention we invite more in-depth criticism.

5Group Activation

explainelicitespy

We explain how to use the new process in the community. Implic-itly we elicit behaviour we’d like to see. We can now observe and espy how this innovation works in the real world.

3Summarize Insight

recountrelaterepresent

Crucial to engaging people is showing them how their effort has helped the overall project. Here we recount what hap-pened in the conversation.Having time to reflect, we look for relations between different discussions and points of inter-est. Finally, we represent the conversation in a way that can be easily understood.

7Final Artifact

detaildemodocument

The final artifact of this process could be a book, website, build-ing, or event. We detail that to the larger world, and demo it for adoption. To share the learning, we document the process and the final outcome.

Unexpected Outcome

recognizerespectrelay

The expected artifact is clear, but here we try to recognize unex-pected developments. We respect and appreciate what is unique in this community, but try to relay repurposable practices.

The Methodology

Facilitate

working with a groups & people

Story TellingIssue CardsMind MapSpecificationGroup SketchingPersonasTouch Point MatrixBack CastingUser StoriesContestRole PlayVisual Thinking

Create

ensuring a quality final outcome

Mood BoardPrototypeMock upUse CasesPosterDiagramBookVisualizationWeb SiteWidget / MashupVideoCase Studies

Ask

qualitative personal feedback

SurveyInterviewTestimonialVideo ResponsesSketchesForumSumbit FeebackTwitter & MessagingPhone CallsBlack BoardBlog requestsFocus Group

Measure

quantitative measurement

Custom MetricsWeb AnalyticsLike / NotWeb Views & SessionsContributionOnline ProfilesGoal / Click throughMembershipReferralsRevenuePressOnline Activity

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Methods + MeasurementFor each project we apply specifc methods which are relevant and work with the group to define relevant metrics. These are some broad design methods for both the facilitation of groups and methods for the creations of a final artifact. Measurement should be done both on a quantitative level and a qualita-tive one. These are some metrics we could use for either.

Let’s get Started

AFlocking Patterns: Through simple behaviour comes complex intellegence

option 1: Follow

Each of the 20 groups makes a 3 minute video explaining who they are and what they are working on

Each group is assigned 3 other groups to track over a month

Watching a weekly update (a total of 9 minutes), contacts, links, and ideas are contributed

Analytics are collected for each groups contribution and the links, contacts, ideas themselves

BPeople = Content: Inspira-tion leads to action when opportunity is presented

A beautiful short film is made about each organization, detail exactly what they are working on

Tasks are associated with the film, ready for viewers to engage

The audience becomes an actor, and a new film is made

Analytics are kept on views, and the ability to drive to action

option 2: Assign

CVisible Activity: People are already on social networks, make what works better

A group presents an ongoing story about what they work working on and toward

The community becomes aware of each other, and where they fit in

Overlap becomes apparent, and collaboration becomes possible

The outcome can be evaluated on connections made, and qualitative judgement based on interviews. A backlog of progress is available

option 3: Profile

DThe Gift Economy: Much of this work is done in the spirit of giving. Allow people to say thank you.

A task is shared. Either something currently in the works, or something needing help to accomplish

A task is completed by the person who created it, or someone willing to help out

A completed task, seen by all, is appreciated if felt worthwhile

Analytics are available for views, tasks, completion, and appreciation

option 4: Credit

Choose an intervention

The interventions layed out in this document are simple to implement and straight forward to use. Its important to pick only one, so that we can begin very basic.Depending on how the first intervention works out, we will revise our approach.

We will build on an existing platform

We know there is no sense in building some-thing that might not work at all. We can start where the people are. 1 million people in Toronto are on facebook, youtube is the larg-est video site on the web. Both of these plat-forms provides an open api.The goal is to make adoption as easy as pos-sible, while also tracking contribution.

We’ll measure involvement

Google analytics plugs into youtube and face-book provides analytics as well. We can use a service like getsatisfaction.com to solicit quali-tative feedback. If we make the experience seemless, we can aggregate the measurement as well.

Technical Details (condensed):

facebook.youtube.google.

A/B/C/D FB+YT =?

summary

1: Learning:

Creating a complex behaviour like community participation cannot be done in one swoop, it takes many interventions to truly understand.

2: Purpose:

To increase awareness, collaboration, and credit within the community, and provide tools to mea-sure & undstand participation.

3: Action:

Design & Implement a series of interventions using existing web-platforms and existing spaces within the communities.

thanks!