Pukul is briefing the groups on what they need to consider when writing proposal documents. He tells the group to take into account:
Market Research, incorporating Political, Economic, Social, and Technology factors. Also Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
Objective. Keeping it Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound
Target audience, incorporating segmentations
Tactics / implementation
Monitoring and evaluation
The groups are now preparing draft proposals, detailing roles and responsibilities for working on the projects together. We won’t be making the draft proposals public on the blog, as these are ‘practice’ documents not ready for the ‘public’ yet.
OneWorldTV is an open documentary platform showcasing videos on human rights, sustainable development and environmental issues.
I asked Gareth why OneWorldTV came into existence and where they hope the platform will go in the future.
Click to download his statement or press play below:
Gareth appears to be a serious evangelist for Podcasting and has recommended that participants look at the mechanism for delivering rich media content. OneWorldTV have moved themselves into Video Podcasting, and release a monthly feed / download to those interested. He’s encouraging participants to use content acquisition devices that they already have - Mobile Phones!A picture paints a thousand words!
Rather than purely restricting their content to their own platform, they have taken to using other, more known platforms, such as YouTube. By doing so, they expect to attract larger audiences. He also recommends MySpace, where they have found it easy to build networks of interest quickly!
Other organisations worth looking at (all of these are linked):
He’s moving into ‘DotSub’, which uses wiki technology to provide video subtitling tools, opening up access to a world - wide audience. The purpose of DotSub is to allow volunteers to subtitle films. Being a bit clever, it allows people to subtitle into many different languages! For a demo of how it works, click here.
The group are now experimenting with it for themselves.
I think it’s a very neat way of enabling communities of people to share video material. My only question relates to quality control. Would this be a problem?
Peter takes the participants through the process of ‘building’ objects within the virtual world.
Below are a couple of participant examples:
Not bad going for a few minutes work!
Below is an example of real ‘virtuoso’ building within the Second Life environment. It’s called ‘The making of Suzanne Vega’s Second Life Guitar’. If you can’t see the video below, click here.
Peter starts the afternoon by showing participants a glimpse of virtual world, ‘Second Life’.Click here if you can’t see the video below.
Having watched the video, participants are granted the opportunity to understand it for themselves. Everyone arrives on OneClimate Island. Peter is demonstrating to people how they can ‘teleport’, change their appearance.
People are talking together, trying out new gestures, and Peter is just beginning to describe OneClimate Island to everyone. Its purpose is to facilitate discussion on Climate change to SL community members.
The group is moving to OneClimate’s presentation area, which is capable of delivering Powerpoint slides and synchronised audio, if that’s what’s required. Peter reckons that it’s a space best used for images. A good place to deliver presentations and take questions on what’s being discussed. Everyone now moves onto the ‘cinema area’.
Here’s the ‘cinema’ area. It’s possible to deliver live and archived video. Peter tells us that many companies and universities are using SL to deliver presentations and lectures. Next session is all about building things in the virtual world.
In short, make use of the tools out there! Nowadays, it’s not necessary to build applications and sites from ‘the ground up’. For example, a free blog might upload / embed free video on free video on YouTube.
Another characteristic of Web 2.0 is licensing. Check out the variety of new content licensing arrangements on the Creative Commons web site.
OneWorld see a major strength of Web 2.0 as shifting information flows. In effect, reversing traditional flows, now facilitating:
People -> Media -> Government communication structures far more easily.
Consider blogs. Often chronological series of postings, but can be adapted for many users, fully fledged web sites, and many, many features. Applications include Reporting on Events, Personal Testimonies, Inter-Team Communications.
Consider wiki’s as a means to collobaratively work together on projects. Very often, this can be as simple as a group of people working on a single document at different times. The world’s biggest wiki is actually an encyclopaedia, ‘Wikipedia’.
The participants are looking at how they might use blogs and other tools for the music festival project:
Using the web for people to select the bands who will play
Participants are now experimenting with the OneClimate platform to familiarise themselves with what Web 2.0 means in practical terms. In this short video, Peter is demonstrating a piece of ‘mashup’ functionality.
In order to make searching of content easier, Ken is describing ‘tagging’. This is where content is given meaning by users themselves, rather than the creators themselves. Emphasis can be given to the most popular content on a site using ‘Tag Clouds’.
Once a site is going, Ken advises keeping track of how a site is used. Google Analytics is a good example of a free method to track how a site is being used.
They are going to be looking at various web tools which could have relevance for participants with their own projects.
Ken Kitson opens by giving some background about Oneworld. They use ICT tools to:
Work for a fairer and more sustainable world
Help citizens from around the world to have a voice
Throughout the day, participants are to have Web 2.0 tools explained, with a look at Second Life (virtual world), and the use of audio and video on the web.
Before getting into their own content, Ken is asking everyone to introduce themselves and their projects.
Julie is talking with the group about following a process to achieve change. She emphasises the point of maintaining professionalism at all stages of the project cycle, especially during the fund-raising process.
Any project cycle includes the following:
The aim of the project. Often aspirational. (Aims)
What do you want to achieve in order to meet the aim? (Objectives)
What are you actually going to do? (Activities)
Often people will start thinking about the activities before the the objectives and aims. Something to avoid!
The activities should relate directly to your outputs. Objectives should relate directly to outcomes (the change you are expecting to achieve). Aims and impacts are one and the same.
AIMS -*- IMPACT
OBJECTIVES *-* OUTCOMES
ACTIVITIES *-* OUTPUTS
Always ensure that all these factors are linked strongly.
Julie gave an example of this methodology in action using ‘Reducing illiteracy in the Lebanon’. If you can’t see the video player below, click here.
I will update this post with a diagram explaining the project cycle shortly.
The group are posing a series questions to both Farah and Julie about
Q: Do we over complicate youth projects in the UK, which might explain why so many fail?
A: Julie says, ‘If young people are running the projects, they will run them in a way that works for them. It can get problematic if older people start telling people what works and what doesn’t’.
‘Retaining idealism from youth into adulthood is often critical for bringing about change as you mature’.
Q: ‘How do you rate the dynamism of UK youth in general?’
A: Julie says, ‘A lot of youth in the UK are materialistic. Civil society plays less of a role here than Asia. This is coupled with a depth of cynicism within UK communities with regards to organisations ‘coming to help”.
Amna Ahmad steps in to say that people are becoming more conscious of ‘civil issues’ in the UK. Awareness raising on energy and environmental issues, she feels, is starting to have a positive effect.
What do you think? Are UK youth just apathetic and materially obsessed, or is there another reason for apparent lack of engagement within civil society projects?
The group have identified key sucess / failure factors using a SWOT analysis in getting a project off the ground. These are a combination of both internal and external factors.
One of the major potential weaknesses identified has been maintaining consistency and regularity in generating content.
Major strengths include group passion, professional and personal experience, and cultural diversity within the group.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Speaking earlier, Pukul said,
‘This excercise will ground the groups initial ideas and insights to produce something tangible, sustainable, and culturally different’.
————————————————————————————————-
Following on from identifying these factors, groups are now presenting their objectives based on both the SWOT analysis and the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound principle.
