Developing a BarCampUKYouthOnline

Young People: CC Image: 'thaas loomoo 128' - www.flickr.com/photos/70021771@N00/216760345

There are a lot of people working on supporting young people through the internet, or supporting young people to engage with the internet.

Whether it's the web officers who run local and national youth websites, the people encouraging online campaigning and volunteering, the youth team at Direct Gov, the students and academics studying young peoples identity and interaction online, the youth workers working out how to support young people online, the policy makers thinking about sensible response, the developers of services targetted at young people, the consultants and bloggers thinking about what social media means, or indeed young people themselves – there are a lot of people with important perspectives and experience and questions around:

  • Online information services for young people
  • Supporting young people's online interaction and activity
  • Researching young people and the internet/blogging/social networking etc.
  • Developing online tools and platforms for young people
  • Exploring online technologies in education and participation
  • Young people's civic engagement online
  • And a whole lot more…

Well, inspired and encouraged by the success of BarCampUKGovWeb, and after lots of conversations with folk, I though we could probably do with a BarCampUKYouthOnline to draw together some of those threads, to bring together some of the people interesting in exploring these threads, and to build some networks and ideas for action. So let's organise it.

Provisionally I've put in 17th May 2008 as the date for the event – but that's about all that is decided so far. If you're interested in attending, getting involved in planning, or just finding out more – drop me an e-mail, edit the Wiki and join the Google Group mailing list. It would be great to have you on board… 🙂


Notes:

BarCamps are self-organised dynamic conferences created by the participants. The name is misleading, they've not officially got anything to do with alcohol.

Young People as I'm thinking of the category is broadly 11 – 19 year olds – although that's not a strict boundary on what we can talk about.

Update

I'd originally proposed 3rd May 2008 as the BarCamp date – but on realising this was a bank holiday weekend – am suggesting a switch to the 17th May.


Attachment: BarCampUKYouthOnline.doc

Learning with a Haiku

 

games make things more interesting

response rates are always lower than expected

we should build in incentives

 

Ok, it's not strictly a Haiku – it should be in 5, 7, 5 in sylables rather than words, but I thought I would experiment with using the Haiku form to capture learning, inspired by this post from Michelle Martin via Matthew Homann via Christine Martell.

The learning in question? It's about this online game for consultation on workforce development. We've extended the time it's open for to try and increase the rate of responses from young people, although the tight timescale of the project means I've not got the opportunities that I'd like to revise the game to draw on what we've already learnt.

However, if the incentive of knowing that responses to the consultation game could impact on the future of leadership and management training in youth services in England is enough of an incentive for you, then please do encourage any 13- 18 year olds you know to take the time to create their own youth workforce dream teams.

Welcome to the blogosphere Alice

Alice Casey's new blogLast week I met up with Alice Casey from Involve for a short chat about all things participation, and we quickly got onto talking about the role of social media in connecting the many participation people working in different areas of the country, the world and the web. In the conversation Alice mentioned that she'd been thinking of starting a blog… and would give it more thought again.

Well – true to her word, she has – and a it's great to welcome a new blog to the participation scene. Here's what Alice say's in her opening post on 'Cased'

I don’t blog. I think blogs are for other people. That’s about to change…

I work for www.involve.org.uk on all things participatory (more about that later). You might think that would include online participation, and yes it does in the broad research sense – but on a personal level I have consistently put off starting a blog of my own for these main reasons:

1) Convinced I won’t have enough time or inclination to update it

2) What’s the use? I won’t have anything interesting or useful to say that hasn’t already been said by someone wiser.

3) Blogging is something other people do – I’m a commenter not a writer! It’s just ‘not me’.

But Alice has committed to a three month experiment to overcome those reasons why not to blog. She says:

So, I’m beginning this blogsperiment with these goals in mind:

1) To share my own learning

2) To help better connect public participation people and related ideas

3) To add a dose of realism to the world of the already immersed bloggers out there

4) To have fun and share some personal interests

I'm really looking forward to reading Alice's contributions, and to benefitting from that helpful dose of realism 🙂

So – um, if you're involved in participation, stakeholder engagement, blogging for learning etc, do head over and say hi.

One page guide to Google Alerts

Google AlertsTomorrow the Buzz Off campaign will be launched. The youth led Buzz Off campaign is calling for a ban on mosquito devices, and you can hear the campaign team talking about the mosquito devices in this video.

What has this got to do with Google Alerts? Well – if you're launching a new campaign you probably want to keep track of the sort of coverage it's getting. And it's not just converage in the mainstream press that matters, but converage right across the web. And that's where Google Alerts come in.

Google Alerts lets you set up certain keywords that Google will track for you. As soon as it finds new webpages, blog posts, news stories or documents containing those key words, you get an e-mail to let you know.

So with Google Alerts the Buzz Off campaign can see who is talking about them, and, where that's happening on the interactive web, they can offer input and responses to conversations taking place.

To let members of the campaign know about setting up a Google Alert, I quickly put together this one page guide. It's available as a PDF for printing, and, as with all these one page guides, is creative commons licenced – so you can also download the original Word document and adapt it to meet your needs.


Attachment: Google Alerts.doc
Attachment: Google Alerts.pdf

Blogging for professional development

Centre for learning

One of the 7 reasons I gave for getting youth workers blogging was to foster reflective practice. Michelle Martin offered her reflections in the comments about the role of blogging for professional development:

One thought that occurs to me though is that your point about blogs for professional development may be the best entry into blogging for people. It's a safe, low-risk way to start blogging. I think part of the resistance comes from feeling like you have to do this really public thing where you're blogging to market your organization and what if you say something people don't like or whatever? But if people are blogging to support their own learning–to reflect, etc., this might feel safer. It doesn't even have to be public for that matter. A tool like Vox would also give a way for people to blog both publicly with a network of other youth workers and privately for their own reflection, all on the same blog.

And since then I've heard from a number of trainee youth workers who are keen to get make use of blogging and social media to support their learning, development and community building.

Well, with fantastic timing, Michelle has launched into another learning challenge (it was Michelle's call to action on the 31-days-to-a-better-blog challenge that really encouraged me to be a more active blogger), this time focussing precisely on blogging for learning.

Michelle has put together a Wiki of 18 different styles of blog posts with examples that can be used to support learning, and will be writing a post in each style over the next two months. If you've been thinking about starting a blog, but haven't known how to launch into it, joining this learning journey could be a great way to take your first steps .

It's a journey I'll be joining, and particularly if you're a youth worker thinking about making a start blogging, it would be great to have your company along the way…

 

Photo Credit: Adult Education? by PatrickS

PubPart: A tag for participation?

tag=comment

'nptech' stands for 'Not-for-Profit TECHnology'. In the last year, these six characters have probably led me to discover more extermely interesting stuff, and more extermely interesting people than I've discovered through all my wider reading, web-surfing and (albeit limited) conference going put together.

Why? Because nptech is used as a shared 'tag' across social bookmarking and blogging websites by an active community of people interested in not-for-profit technology in the UK. And it's possible, using an RSS reader, to follow all the blog posts, links and other interesting things they are sharing as they are shared – making a daily dose of the latest new ideas, insightful reflections and helpful resources easily available.

Each morning I use NetVibes or Google Reader to skim read the 30 or 40 links that have been posted with the nptech tag on the del.icio.us social bookmarking website since I last looked, and I might follow two or three links to read more. It usually takes less that 5 minutes – but it's 5 minutes well spent.

A tag for public participation?

So, after a conversation this afternoon with Alice Casey and Edward Anderson from Involve – I'm wondering if we need a shared tag for those working on public participation and youth participation in the UK? (Or is there one already that I'm missing?). Involve may even be pursuaded to take on putting together the type of weekly digest of tagged content that Beth Kanter creates and that makes the nptech tag work so well…

I was thinking about 'Participation Exchange' – but in tag terms that became 'PartExchange' which I'm not so sure about. So Edward suggested the tag: 'PubPart' for 'Public Participation'. What do you think?

Any other suggestions for a suitable tag? Or shall we get started with 'PubPart ' and see where we get?

(Not social bookmarking of blogging yet? It's really easy to get started – particularly with social bookmarking. Check out this video intro, and this one page guide to get the basics and get up and running in under 15 minutes…)

Should local authorities be on MySpace or Facebook?

Online communities mind map

Over on the BarCampUKGovWeb discussion list Ian Dunmore shared a question posted today on the Public Sector Forums:

“I've been asked by a couple of people in my council if they can use the
likes of Bebo and Facebook to add a group to, to encourage young people to engage with the council. Firstly, it's Libraries and secondly our youth
people who want to promote a youth portal that is being developed.”

In my reading for the Youth Work and Social Networking research I'm currently involved in, and in trying to prepare a series of briefing papers on Social Networking Sites I've been struck by how complicated an issue this turns out to be.

The answer depends on (at the very least):

  • Which Social Networking Site you are talking about
  • What you want to do through the Social Networking Site
  • What position you take with regards to certain examples of offline engagement with young people – that is, what professional judgments have you already made that you need to be consistent with online. (This isn't just about questioning the way we should interact online – it's about questioning some of the ways we interact with young people in general).

Thought experimentsAnd the answer to the straight question of 'Should our local authority be on my space of Facebook?' turns out to be a very qualified definitely maybe.

Some thought experiments and arguments by analogy may prove useful in exploring professional intuitions and sensible responses to Social Networking Sites. The following thought experiments are very provisional and under-developed at present – but I offer them in the hope they can in some way help further the discussions taking place…

Which social networking site?

What the community, norms and expectations in a particular Social Networking Site community are matter.

MySpace is visibly highly commercialized and seemingly chaotic. Think of it like a very commercial music festival. If your local authority were to set up a stall there to hand out leaflets, chances are you could be next to a stall selling occult looking statues and drug taking paraphernalia.

  • Would you be comfortable in this space?
  • If 20% of the young people you needed to reach with your message were there – should you get over any discomfort and be there?
  • What if 80% of the young people you need to reach will be there?
  • What if the festival has an area that is for over 18's only – but you know that all the young people you need to reach (who are under 18) are actually in that area? Would you go and set up your stall there? Should you? What are the issues in play?

Finale - www.flickr.com/photos/63195444@N00/198003640

(Caveat: Most festivals are temporary – so you might think 'we don't need to be there -we'll catch people at another time in the year'. The my space festival is year-round, 24-7. Does that change things?)

Facebook

FaceBook gives (at least) the illusion of a more ordered environment where setting up a Facebook page or group for your organization may perhaps seem like setting up and inviting people to join a community forum, with the added benefit that when they join the forum – all their friends are told about it. But any community forum needs facilitation and resourcing, and there is an expectation of meaningful dialogue. And on Facebook you're competing with many other groups and communities.

  • Do you have the resources to facilitate the sort of dialogue you want?
  • Are your expectations of return on investment reasonable given the competition in this space? What is a viable return on investment?
  • Is it enough to offer people to chance to sign as members of a 'community panel' if they only get invited to input once or twice a year?
  • Can you afford not to offer people in this space the opportunity to get involved in dialogue with you?

Bebo… well, I've not had an in depth look at Bebo yet – and I realist the Facebook analogy above also needs more work… so I'll come back to these soon.

What do you want to do?

What you're planning to do, and how you do it matters.

You might want to use a Social Networking Site to:

  1. Promote something that is going on.
  2. Provide important information, advice and guidance to young people.
  3. Engage in collective civic conversation and dialogue with young people.
  4. Build a mailing list of people you can contact.

You might think of (1) as like putting up a virtual poster, or running an advert.

A virtual poster? http://www.flickr.com/photos/48889111471@N01/6993358Q: If 60% of your target population for an activity or project are going to a particular space, and you can advertise there for free… would you do it? What would you have to think about in making that decision?

You might think of (2) as setting up a one-stop information and advice shop in the town centre. Only, in this town centre exists online globally.

Q: If someone is already providing good general information advice and guidance – what is the unique additional offer you can bring?

Social Networking Sites can often create an expectation of dialogue and can be an effective platform for dialogue and discussion (3).

Setting up a space where you ask questions, but are not actively joining the discussion and providing answers, asking further questions, or showing evidence of change would be like holding a meeting where you invite young people to offer their views on a topic, and then sitting there in silence until everyone eventually goes home.

Like a public meeting or community forum? http://www.flickr.com/photos/88158121@N00/302816924Joining a group on a Social Networking Site is a very quick action. Groups can have a far better 'sign up' rate that an e-mail newsletter might (4). And the informal quick message to group members may be received better than the carefully edited and formatted eat-mailing. But a group is also usually a space for dialogue.

Q: If you've not got capacity to manage the dialogue – can you be honest about that? If you can host dialogues, but only in one place which isn't on this particular SNS, should you be setting up an 'outpost' on this particular SNS to periodically point people to your main discussion spaces?

From years of running consultations with young people – I'm also well aware of 'the suit question'. Meeting with young people – should you wear a suit? It shows respect – but it's not accessible. But then – should you try and dress 'cool'? Probably not. So how should you act? What image should you present? What image will your SNS space present?*

(*Hint: get young people involved in helping you create it.)

What are your pre-existing professional intuitions?

To MySpace or not to MySpace? Or //How to// MySpace and //how not to// MySpace?Question your hesitancy. Understand your reasons. Check against your aim and mission.

The thought experiments above may cause hesitancy about engaging with Social Networking Sites. My hope is that hesitancy helps in thinking through how to engage well, rather than blocks any engagement at all.

As Dave Briggs puts it:

There are masses of good reasons for engaging with these platforms, for
example the fact that they are already being used by the young people in question, and we aren't asking them to sign up for some new Council (or otherwise) sponsored affair that is bound to be considered gaff.

And so we definitely need to spend more time thinking about this…

Creative Commons Photos:

Finale by sama sama – massa

Marking by Ti.mo

Public meeting by lsgcp

What do you want from a one-page guide on Social Networking Sites?

Social Networking Sites - Draft Guide for Facebook

Social Networking Sites (SNS) are pretty complicated things. If defining them isn't tricky enough, trying to create a one page guide that communicates all the salient facts about Social Networking in general, and a social networking platform in particular, is turning out to be very tricky indeed.

For the research I'm carrying out into how Youth Workers can support young people's interaction with online social networks, and for a workshop next week, I've been trying to explore the common features, and the specific features, of different SNS in order to be able to support an informed discussion about the opportunities and risks each present.

For my purposes, I'm looking to have a tool to provide the shared understand that lets us explore questions like:

  • Are our concerns about SNS linked to a specific feature of a specific site? Or are they linked to some common and integral feature of all SNS?
  • What aspects of SNS design maximise opportunity and minimise risk?
  • Are there some features of some SNS that mean the responsible adult simply can't engage with young people on that site? Or are there specific features that oblige responsible adults to engage with young people in that space?
  • What does a youth worker need to know about SNS to be able to support young people's use of them? Do they need to know about each specific SNS? Or is some general knowledge enough?

Online Social Networking - Draft GuideAs you'll see from the image above and the attached first draft of a general SNS one page guide, and a specific guide for Facebook, when I've tried to provide something to answer those questions, I've been realising it probably won't fit into one page – and the guides have been somewhat loosing the simplicity that I hope was a virtue of earlier guides in the series.

So – I though I would take a step back and ask for your input to help me refocus these guides slightly…

  • What would you want in a one page guide about Social Networking Sites in general?
  • What would you want in a one page guide about a specific Social Networking Site?

Whilst I can't promise I'll cover exactly what you want – I can try to make the guides flexible enough so that you can adapt them to meet your needs.

And as an extra question (I'm already leaning towards an affirmitive answer on this): should I ditch the diagrams currently in the draft guide? They carry a lot of information – but I'm not sure that they make it very accessible. What do you think?


Attachment: Early Draft One Page Guides – Social Networking.pdf

Tips for youth led research

The Young Researcher Network are looking to create a real change in the way research on issues for young people takes place.

Rather than imposing adult frameworks and structures on the challenges young people face today, they're building the capacity for young people to be researchers themselves, and to use rigorous research methods to support moves to create change.

They've started blogging over here and to help welcome them to the social media space I thought I would capture and share a quick interview with my friend and colleague Sarah Schulman, who has been responsible for a number of fantastic youth led research projects in the US.