The deadline to submit session ideas for SXSW ‘10 has been extended through Sunday, July 12 (midnight Austin, TX time).
Over the past few days, I have had a number of interesting conversations here at No Better Time about how the Open Government Initiative could have been improved. I have a hunch that a significant level of improvement can be achieved in ways that have little if anything to do with the particular tools. Hence my session idea: “How to do meaningful online participation using (almost) any tool!”
Some of the recommendations I have in mind:
- Manage expectations: e.g. communicate your desired outcomes, expected impact, limitations, risks etc.
- Follow basic facilitation techniques: e.g. communicate and enforce community ground rules, be present in the conversations
- Be consistent: e.g. stick to your ground rules, show steady levels of convener engagement etc.
- Make it easy to follow the conversations: e.g. compile daily digests, point people to high-quality content or emerging themes
- Give guidance: e.g. explain what output you’re looking for specifically, give instructions/training as needed
Needless to say, this isn’t a complete list and each item would have to be fleshed out in more detail.
Online participation is becoming increasingly popular. However, a lot of the online tools out there are fairly limited and won’t work off the shelf. Folks who are trying this out for the first time will be running into the same issues. This session is an effort to bring good practice to these efforts and help people get the most out of their online experiments.
I’d like to submit this session as part of a multi-disciplinary team and look forward to finding a few collaborators.
Related Posts
- September 6, 2009 by Tim:
“No Better Time” Session Notes Now Available - August 28, 2009 by Tim:
Intellitics at SXSW 2010: Announcing Two Co-Panelists - August 16, 2009 by Tim:
Intellitics SXSW 2010 Session Proposal: “14 Ways to Make Online Citizen Participation Work”
Here’s the text of the panel proposal I submitted July 12. Looks like it just got accepted for voting later in August:
14 Ways to Make Online Citizen Participation Work
Using the web to engage citizens in public decision making is becoming increasingly popular. However, most online tools are not equipped to support the right processes. This panel of public participation experts will share 14 tips how you can get results despite these shortcomings and still make your citizens happy!
* What is public participation? (incl. definition, design principles, common success metrics)
* What are typical challenges of web-based participation? (incl. review of recent examples)
* What are some of the tools that are currently being used for public participation online?
* How to design an e-participation project from scratch?
* What are the common risks and how to best address them?
* How to pick the right tool(s)?
* How to take things to scale?
* Where to share your successes and failures (so others can learn from your experience)?
Voting is now open (started one week later than originally planned): http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4735