An addition to your list of suggested speakers:
Emmi Bevensee ( @emmibevensee):
“Emmi Bevensee, of Rebellious Data, SMAT, and the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, has finished the second of Rebellious Data new Research Insights series of deep dives into the critical topics of our time. This report looks at how hate movements are decentralizing using emerging technologies in ways that make them harder to combat. These technologies ask us critical questions about the future of society and the internet but also pose incredible potential to help us along our way. The infographic below sets the stage but the full report can be found here.”
In preparation for the next AMA event (which will ideally take place on December 9th, 6:30 CET), I have contacted Emmi Bevensee of Rebellious Data to talk about their recent report on the use of decentralised technologies for hate group organising. As per @nadia’s suggestion, I think they would be a very exciting next speaker!
Following our meeting on Monday with @katejsim, @johncoate and @alberto, we discussed a few tweaks to the AMA that we think will help make the next one even more in-depth:
I have integrated most of these points into my email to Emmi, asking them to begin answering questions before the event goes live and to check in a few times after the event to answer lingering questions. I asked them to write a brief (1-2 paragraph) description that is substantive enough for the community to engage with. I also prepped them that many community questions might be policy-focused, and to consider this in their description and the ensuing discussion.
I did opt to keep the live AMA to an hour, as I am not sure we can ask people to stay on for much longer - however, I hope that if they engage with questions before and after, this will make the conversation more in-depth.
As soon as I hear back from them I will let you know - with the aim of being able to confirm a date by Friday (if they respond in time). Should Emmi not be available for the AMA, we will ask the speaker @MariaEuler suggested (and with whom she is already in contact), and whose work fits in nicely with many of the threads we have going around tech and education.
Unfortunately Emmi is not available for the AMA, so let’s go with @MariaEuler’s suggestion.
Maria, you mentioned you are already in touch with him and he has expressed interest? Have you explained our format to him?
If you want to put us in touch, I am happy to coordinate with him. Otherwise, feel free to cc me in your emails and I am happy to answer questions etc.
In either case, I am posting part of my email to Emmi here. I used @katejsim’s template and added a few alterations based on our last meeting:
About the AMA:
Time: December 9th (or close to that date) at 6.30pm CET
What you would need to do:
Before: Log in to the platform and prepare a short paragraph or two of description to post on the EdgeRyders platform (around 2 weeks before the live event).
While the description can be kept brief, it should be substantive enough for community members to get a good sense of your work and to engage with it without asking too many clarifying questions.
Leading up to the live AMA, community members will respond to your post with comments and questions. Ideally, you would begin answering some of these questions before the event begins. This helps spark more in-depth discussion during the live event.
EdgeRyders has a very heterogeneous community from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and interests (activists, practitioners, academics, designers), and given the nature of our research, many are interested in the policy implications of current and emerging technologies. This might be helpful to keep in mind for the discussion.
During: be online in our platform for an hour to answer any questions community members have (6:30 - 7:30 CET)
After: check in a few times in the week following the event to answer any lingering questions.
You might not be able to engage with all community questions during the event and sometimes community members will add questions and comments later on. Checking in to follow-up helps deepen the discussion, while giving community members a more detailed picture of your work.
That is something @marina and @nadia would know, and decide. But if we want more than an hour out of someone, an honorarium of some sort could make it more attractive.
shouldn this happen earlier so we actully advertise the event?
having the post up just 2 days before the event seems a bit short. that should be more like 1 month to 2 weeks? Or wil we just write a post to anouce it ourselves before that?
I would like to propose an AMA on openness/availability of COVID data. My friends in Italy have launched this petition, which reached 35K signatures in 10 days. The matter is interesting because it ties in three themes:
open data.
strategic/political use of restricting information, and how open data invalidate that, hence generating a resistance to openness.
the technical difficulty of building robust workflows around the collection, cleanup and publication of data.
I could ask one of them to do an AMA and tell the story. We could also try and reach out for activists in other countries, and see how the issue plays out internationally.
Hi @MariaEuler, my understanding of an AMA is that you have a shorter (time-wise), concentrated discussion with an invited speaker - i think that’s also what sets it apart from some of the other formats we use.
I think we can advertise this as soon as possible with a description of the event, the speaker and their work, but in terms of the posting, I think this shouldn’t happen much more than a few days before the live AMA. If the post is up for such a long time, the speaker could get overloaded with questions they won’t have time to answer OR it could lose momentum leading up to the live event. So, our aim should be to get people excited about being live on the day (and a few days before and after if there are more questions).
If its ok with you, I propose, advertising it in advance, having the speaker post 2-3 days before the live event, asking them to check in once in a while leading up to it to start engaging with questions/comments, have them go live for an hour and then asking them to check in once in a while for a week afterwards to answer lingering questions.
we can write an advertising post to send around (about AMA, about speaker and their work etc), but I don’t think the speaker’s AMA post should be up for 1 or 2 months - it will lose momentum and defeat the purpose of the event