First 100 responses
From espians
An invitation for people to write down their feedback to the experience, and feed-forward for the future; arranged alphabetically.
Contents |
David Pinto
I have mixed feelings about the event. I had prepared well, with plenty of ideas, and exercises, and stories. When it came down to it, I couldn't quite pull it together. When I think about it now, it's because I didn't get feedback... Normally, there is always something or someone in the class doing something that I can respond to. Hence the focus is rightly on the members of the group. Often, in top sets -- dang, I'd forgotten about this -- with top sets, everyone just sits and listens, expecting the teacher to ranting on about something, for them to make notes, do an exercise or whatever. Hmmm... I remember this one class, I only had them for five weeks, and after the first ten minutes I realised that it wasn't working. For three subsequent lessons I told them I was hoping that an idea would occur to me so that I could be of best service to them. Each lesson, there was a growing sense of expectation from some. Eventually, on the last lesson, I told them I had thought of something the previous night -- which I actually had -- and I gave them a choice of activities: general chat, games that I have played before, or this new idea which I wasn't sure they'd understand. They all went for the new idea. We had an amazing lesson. I managed to explain very abstract concepts to them, the state of society, and engage them in appreciation of language, history, and their place in society. One of the best lessons of my life, and all because we primed ourselves to be open to the opportunity.
Hmmm....
I let the group go. I let them dictate. They wanted to know about ESPRA I think. The traffic-light-cards worked pretty well, and I hope people realised that that was experimental, it was new for me too. It wasn't a technique tried and tested. I hope that the whole experimental nature of the day, our structuring, and ESPRA was consistent. Too often I think people want to know something else, as if more knowledge is going to solve our problems. I tried to draw attention to the fact that the specific people in the room, their extended networks, their access to funds, their beliefs and energy, were all that was required. The trick was, to combine in such a way that an effortless collaboration occurs. The way this may happen is not by telling people anything, really, but inviting people to participate... and to do so in a slightly unusual, or new way, which we need to try out. Hence the experimentation. It's like wikipedia in real life. Is ESPRA the equivalent of wikimedia...?
People were most forgiving, I thought. I apologised for not making best use of their time, for not catching them. Good people... very good people... all the skills, intentions... wow... A privilege, and I can only apologise for not realising the potential at our disposal.
I still hold to the idea that someone can come up with an idea that 100 of us can carry out... ok, with respect to the 1000 at WTF, which is meant to be the next one, how about this challenge: what can 1000 of us do that produces a social effect within say a week, or even better, a weekend...? If we can see a substantial effect at the collective level based on our individual behaviour, this will reinforce our real sense of network power. Perhaps we can ask for suggestions before the event, or possibly decide on the day :)
As always, I am always orientated future-wise :)
We are hoping to digitise all the info, establish new profiles for people, and enable people to write feedback here, and more importantly, put people into contact with those they met, and to invite people to use even this wiki to assist in confluent collaborations...
- chris writes: I am fatigued seeing this wiki's main pages over-writing each other- what we need to agree is a home page that provides a menu to how to participate in living 24 as the most competent space connecting people on urgen t colaborations; nothing that keeps on reordering the homepage flow has addressed this; this serial usability error has been comitted at wiki, blog , 24weeks.com, 24 group of facebook -nuf said?!
Guilhem Buzenet
My experience about the first 100 event was chaotic, for obvious health reasons. Still, I enjoyed a lot the interaction that worked between the audience and the hosts, but more than that, I was amazed by the numerous dialogues started after the event. I think that there is a strong will from lots of people to collaborate following a similar framework to the one we try to build (Espra), it is a feedback that we always have after talking about our works. This is the reason why I stay at ESP and the reason why I push Tav to be the best he can at what he is the best.
My participation level was 0 (on a scale of 20 I guess) until 6pm, time where I started to feel better and could finally talk normally to people, and I do feel bad about the physical condition I had during the event, but still, I think it was great as it gathered interesting people who's goal seems to be to initiate some changes. Multiple, different changes, but most of the people I talked to agreed on the main lines to draw to move forward, and I think this is essential for the project and for the people making it a living machine.
Great job David and Mamading, thanks for this great sunday afternoon!
John McCane-Whitney
I've come from a very different environment to that of the ESP world - I've worked with large corporations that generally have very precise parameters that define the methods by which you engage with them. What this means is that the outcome of any engagement is reasonably predictable - which is what these corporations like. What it also means, however, is that such processes can take much longer than is neccessary & they give little room for creative thinking.
It was with this in mind that I was excited with the prospect of having an open, unstructured session after my more formal presentation to see what new ideas might emerge. Like many, I feel that this didn't work that well.
One of my hobbies is attempting to make music on my pc - there are a load of excellent "software studio" packages that enable this, & a fantastic standard common to most of them that allows for third-party synthesisers to be plugged in to any application that supports it. As a consequence of this standard, there are hundreds of such synthesisers, many of them free. On various music forums that I visit, people, especially beginners, are always downloading the latest synth, asking which ones are best & how to use them. The advice from the more experienced users is often "Get rid of all the synths you've downloaded except for a handful, then learn how to use these inside out". What they're really saying, is "Limit your options and your creativity will flow."
I think on Sunday our options were too many - we had a vague idea that we wanted to play some games and act out scenarios around the ESP concepts, & that we had a paper profile & some paper currency, but, in particular, we didn't understand how the ESP economy is supposed to work. We needed some more parameters to limit our options.
I hoping that we all learn from Sunday & can try something similar at the next event - this time with some more structure, but not so much as to limit our creativity.
Morgancreate 15:26, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
Firstly I would like to say thank you for the day and all the work behind it as I felt it was a positive day for myself. I have got some reservations regarding the outcome and the reactions from the organising group. There seems to be an air of disappointment at what was achieved. I was told that there was no foreseen outcome and the day would find its own organic direction… that it did. Then why the disappointment? I can’t help think that there was a predicted solution or some other desired reaction or input from the participants. The day was best when we were asked to mingle, with some form of reasoning like the ‘speed dating’ style 20 minutes, when we sat and listened the response became a little less engaged. To vote on things that the group had no idea what they were voting for i.e. who to speak, was not in anyway productive. I understand the desire for open house discussion but this simply doses not work without informed understanding by all parties. This is why I feel that there was a desired end product for the day that was not out in the open. I would love to stay involved and be a productive force in creating collaboration that is only for the better in our global society but I can’t stress enough how I feel about the lack of direction or structure. I understand that this was the essence of the day but just a little form of order was required. People walking in half way through, talking loudly when presentations and other goings open were underway… this is not a forward moving room of people. I am being harsh, but being nice and dishonest, is not going to get the project anywhere. If people are behaving like they don’t give a dam then and are not responsive then that is the fault of the organising teem for not holding the group. Again I would love to collaborate further… from the day I have a far greater understanding of what this is all about, and so it was far from a waste of time, plus I had fun and learnt from the experience. Creativity comes from a purpose! I can see one from the day but can a structure be formulated to hold the group? I would very much like to hear people’s reaction to my comments.
Pamela McLean
Thank you for yesterday's happening.
Sophia said something towards the end of the afternoon about bringing together two communities – I forget her exact words – something like the social community and the techie one....
Seems to me you now need to nurture your embryonic new community and encourage it to move into your space. You need to make your Space at Rich Mix merge seemlessly with your Virtual Space.
I know you want us to move in by putting stuff on your wiki .. and I can understand that.. after all one of the bests part of yesterday afternoon was the way you got the profiles up on the wall on the way in. That structured collecting of information was the Techi bit reaching out into the people bit. .....
and now...
next... what I think you need to do is.... stuff that would be much easier explainied /explored in discussion than by email...
so I phoned you....
If you want me to use your wiki then it needs to serve my needs within the RichMix/24week/openSpce/Espian/whatever community that I was part of yesterday....
We went form OpenSpace to the cafe – from the cafe to the Chinese meal – down Brick Lane we had to go our separate ways....
will you bring us back again together in your space....
or will you let us fragment.. and go off in our separate ways...
I've already followed up Iain via email and Femi via facebook and a David by a phone call... and I've “lost” Robert and I'm not sure where to look for him... I know you'd expect me to be able to find him in your wiki – but my experience of the wiki to date has been frustrating - and failing to find what I'm looking for..
Maybe you'll send out an email list today – and I'll be able to find him – I hope so...
Maybe it'll be a facebook type way to contact – or straigh list of emails – I don't mind...
I need to know about his happening on Sunday at the Palladium.. it would be great if you had a calendar at your space and I could just read it there without needing to email him to ask for the details to follow up our conversation yesterday.
Following yesterday I need to tell Guilhem, and Femi about out the LearnByDoing E-meeting (Two separate facebook personal messages I guess) – and I have to tell Chris Macrae (facebook or email) and everyone on the LearingFromEachOther group – oh and Caroline (facebook or email) – it's messy and clunky the way I'll be doing it. Would it get any easier if I get involved with the 24weeks people .. I have profiles scattered all over the internet.. do I really want to take the time to put another on your wiki?
I don't know.
But I did enjoy being part of your embyonic community yesterday – and I hope you will nurture it – and give us a home.
