Brainstorming LOTE6 roadmap with roadtrips, meetups and crowdfunding

Workspaces LOTE6 “OpenVillage Festival”
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The Next Year: Concept, Pitch and Plans

Concept: The Reef

Using Coral Reefs as a model, Edgeryders proposes a new kind of connective layer as an enabler of social and political renewal. One that is distributed, hyper-local and transnational at the same time. We are building a network of appropriate physical infrastructure in different locations, embedded in an online conversation equipped with collective sensemaking tools.

Our first Reef prototype is focused on supporting people and initiatives contributing towards making health- and social care accessible for all, open source, privacy-friendly and participatory.  

Over the next year we want to:

  • Inventory Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and North America  for promising bottom-up solutions running below the radar. Status: In progress.
  • Prototype a “reef", a collaborative distributed thriving landscape of interoperable projects and processes. We start with a Pop-up Village as proof of concept.  Status:Call for cities to host first OpenCare Pop-Up village is open.
  • Equip local communities to build sustainable practices to satisfy material, social and directional needs of their members. Status: Plans for scoping tour underway.
  • Support participants to translate the experience-based insights about what works into constructive political demands backed by new constituencies. Status: We have already developed, deployed and validated the methodology and tools.
  • Develop an appropriate governance model and fair social contract. Status: Participatory design process involving first contributors and supporters is being drafted.
  • Raise funds to support/invest in the development of the Reef. Status: 100&Change grant application submitted, currently reaching out to foundations and investors.

More information: Slide Deck,  Blogpost 1, Blogpost 2 , 2 page summary,

 

Step 1: Find a physical space and narrativize it around OpenCare (Oct - Dec 2016)

Where are communities running spaces for providing care and contribute to wellbeing?

Where is there new space available now for an Edgeryders base?

What are people there interested in making happen, or work on locally together with Edgeryders?

Who is willing to barnraise around LOTE?

A scouting process involves a tour in the following countries (tentative, open to new suggestions):  round 1 Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morrocco. round 2 Bucharest, Greece.

Attributes of the future ER space: We’re looking to set up in an international space where people can live a good life on little money. A space for up to 20 people, where community members would be living and working there. Some people will be based permanently, others will be doing temporary residencies to work on projects. The focus is on experience based learning and key tracks will evolve from it as ongoing contribution to the local community. LOTE happens in the city where we find the space, deeply plugged into the local OpenCare community.

OFFER: “You get us a space, we do the rest”  we can set up LOTE around a topic the community is interested in and draw international networks and support for direct local benefit

TANGIBLE PERK: “Host us at home, Join us in Hamburg!” The tour ends with a LOTE6 / OpenCare assembly at CCC with spots given away to (ideally) LOTE6 organising team

Actionables:

  • By 1st November - we need a QUESTION to our local networks, a MAP and a TOUR CALENDAR
  • Mid November - we need to buy minimum 10 tickets for CCC in Hamburg this December and 2 rooms x 6 bunk beds at the Generator Hostel
  • 30 December - terms of reference for a full LOTE team 
  • SAVE THE DATE: Lote6 Location and exact date announced Dec 30 - Jan 10. 

Other activities: send out calls to community members we know in those areas; host weekly community calls for planning a local meetup;  interview local initiatives online and assist them to join OpenCare; Tour in December - meetups, conversations, visiting initiatives; First LOTE6 Team building and planning meeting at CCC; Plan fundraising strategy; Recruit a fundraiser

Step 2: Finalize list of Tracks and Curators for the agenda (Jan 2017)

A full list of themes and curators/ speakers will make for a high level program we can then fundraise around and add detail to.

Attributes of LOTE6: In OpenCare we discover hundreds of projects changing the landscape of care giving in communities. We would like LOTE5 to barnraise around people’s initiatives. In order to be serve participants and be consistent with the Care theme, the event has to approach several areas: physical (body exercising, manual work, therapy etc), personal (development and growth), and professional/ intellectual.

Actionable:

  • Jan 20 Launch an open ended  "Suggested theme & speaker" call - pick an opencare theme and suggest a speaker for it, or add a new theme with proposals.

Step 3: Participants onboarding through an OpenCare LOTE tour (Feb - ...)

Local workshops in different places to socialize people into Lote6. People who volunteer to coordinate (eg LOTE team) will have a Plug&Play package to roll out. The events will move one step further than Open&Change workshops we did in Berlin, Thessaloniki etc - they will map in detail what is needed to barnraise around projects.

  1. Show a map of OpenCare: what are people working on for wellbeing; pick a dimension and understand together what’s needed to build systems around it
  1. Help with the online registration and meeting the rest of the community.

Step 4: Run the event (Sep 2017)

…

ONGOING: Fundraise and Crowdfund (Jan - Sep 2017)

Two funding goals: offline (early fundraising and during the February and spring events) and online (crowdfunding in the runup and until the end of LOTE). Our fundraising goal is 20K

[insert here details about fundraising and role, timeline etc]

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Dropping this conference toolkit here for now…

OuiShare just released this downloadable version.

I liked that:

  • at the speaker level - they have a combination of invited speakers and call for proposals
  • they have a team calendar in parrallel to the official event agenda - for overview of roles, responsibilities and checkins.
  • they have detailed briefs including for logistics and kitchen management!
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I have an idea to add to LOTE6 - or maybe an idea that could even determine the format.

It’s called Pop Up Care Village and it’s organized by Lava Mae in San Francisco since a few years. it’s an event that showcases available support for homeless people in the city and innovations around it, such as Lava Mae portable showers, barber shops offering free haircuts, or a pop-up shop that allows customers to purchase things that go directly to homeless people - Crack + Cider.

I think it would be fantastic to do something like this. Invite all the initiatives we know about, and make them not only talk, but actually demonstrate how change comes about and how little it takes to help others. It does not need to be only about homeless people - I can see a huge potential in building a great care event that provides a whole range of care related information and support to people.

I thought the location has been confirmed and it is Milano - has it changed? @Noemi

Also, I can see you’re preparing a map for a tour. I would be up for doing part of the journey and documenting ideas, I could visit some of the Slavic countries for example or the Baltics. And check the scene in Cyprus. I will keep my eyes open for relevant things in Indonesia as well - I hope to bring one or two great stories, especially because I am attending a Youth Forum for young entrepreneurs doing social business with participants from all over the world. There has to be some really exciting stuff coming.

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Pop Up Care Village whoa

Very edgy, thanks for sharing Natalia. Ping @Johncoate for something in his area. Actually the more LOTE6 will offer an opportunity to crowdfund project support through practical things, the better it will be. We were also considering the exhibition format, along your lines of thinking too.

I don’t know if it is going to be Milano, it will depend on the fundraising opportunities and we’ll probably go where there is the most support - whether it’s Milano or somewhere else. @Nadia is sort of on tour already I think, in and out of London and visiting something near Galway soon. So yes, if there’s an opportunity just shout, I’m not sure how much structure this will have for the remaining of 2016, for good or bad.

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I think it would be a fabulous event that some progressive city hall might be interested in supporting financially (maybe Austria, or Germany?) but also it provides a great chance to fundraise, as people can chip in for the projects they can see actually working, not just being exhibited (although we surely can do both). We could make a call as well and try to use some networks of cities to call for a host - not sure how successful this tactic is, but if we think we have enough time, we could try.

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I think we should go ahead and do it.

It’s a great way of scouting locations for the settlement too :slight_smile:

Super idea @Natalia

Are you up for leading on this?

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Lava Mae

I could go over and have a look at them in action.  Sometime after next week though.  On Monday we move my 91 yr old mother out of her house into a much smaller apartment.  She has been living there since 1986, and before that it was her parents’ house since the 1940s.  It’s full of stuff she can’t take with her and she isn’t too sharp in the best of times, so this whole process has been a bit of an ordeal for all of us.  I will stay with her for a few night next week and help her get more used to it all.  I will be relieved when it is over.  Should have happened years ago.

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I’ve created a short call for host in the wiki - please take a look and let me know what to add, what to change, how to make it look better, maybe pitch in some ideas. I will then create an event on fb out of it and send it out wherever I can.

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Made a few edits to the wiki

Hi Natalia,

I have done a proof reading of the Call, i think it’s very good. Have just cleared up a few parts where it was awkwardly phrased or really long sentences.

I’m not sure how you want to present this to potential client cities, but i would recommend putting the outcomes for the host higher up the document, certainly above what they have to provide.

I think it would also work really well to send it out as a dedicated newsletter to the whole community. It would make most sense to have a lead organiser who is already an ER member. Perhaps there is a member somewhere who hasn’t been on the platform for a while who is perfectly positioned to make this happen?

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Signaling (over)use of terms

Just leaving this here as a mental note. Could come handy later…

The Reef as an overarching concept works great (thanks @Nadia for updating the wiki).

The OpenCare PopUp village as a prototype also sounds super sexy.

LOTE and Caring on the Edge and other terms might need reconsideration… they add a little bit of noise in terms of what we want to do, at least for now.

I would suggest we stick to max 2 good terms in the way we communicate. If I have a hard time reading through this and I supposedly get it, dont want to imagine others :slight_smile:

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Agree

I think that we need to have a clear distinction between the levels of our plans.

I would suggest 3 seperate levels:

The grand plan: The Reef. This can be the headline information, or (i would suggest) it is our justification or reasoning.

The main event: LOTE/COTE - we need to clearly decide which of these titles we will use for the next gathering. My feeling is we stick to LOTE to have continuity of event name/brand identity, but we subtitle it something like The Edge of Care. So. LOTE6: The Edge of Care. However if we need to call it Caring on the Edge to fit into the OpenCare structure then we use that, but have to make a effort to use that in all our comms. If we use LOTE then we can tap into the heritage of the events that have come before and how they have led us to where we are now.

Finally we want to talk about the central prototype plan: The OpenCare PopUp village. This is the interesting part that we really want to pitch. It’s what makes LOTE/COTE 6 special and different from before. It combines everything that has been learned from 5 LOTE events as well as from the Open&Change workshops and the Open Care process. This is our core pitch to cities and what we want them to get excited about.

I would structure it like this: (in brief)

Hi City.

We want you to help us run and host our next LOTE, an international unConference and meeting of people from around the world who are exploring the leading edge of science, social policy and living. This one is about Care. We have spent the past 18 months studying cutting edge aspects of care from around the world. We want to come together to discuss, learn and investigate our findings, and we want to do it in your city.

What’s so great for you? As part of LOTE/COTE we want to set up a brand new idea: The OpenCare PopUp village. This involves reaching out to local initiatives in your city and providing them with a chance to showcase their work in action as part of the big event. We have experience of connecting to these initiatives through our work with the Open&Change project that brought initatives together in Belgium, USA, Greece. We are looking to extend our network and also help you raise international awareness of the great work that citizens and organisations are undertaking in your city. We have a skill of finding and reaching out to organisations and initiatives that operate on the fringes as well as in the mainstream.

Why are we doing this/Why your city? This is where we explain the idea of The Reef. How it’s about creating a physical network that matches our online network. How it’s about creating relationships with local governments and citizens. How it’s about being hyperlocal and globally connected.

That’s my view. If people like it i’m happy to spend some time tomorrow updating the Wiki to this type of structure.

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@Noemi, got it - how about we

@noemi, got it - how about we simply skip the lote name and label it as its own event  especially as it is a prototype. can @Nadia @Alberto @Alex_levene take one more look at it? besides taking off all the variety of names, is the call more or less ready? what should i think of or add at thia stage?  when we all agree i will start publiahing it online.

I also replied to Gallway and Lille. lets see.

I will establish tomorrow a parallel wiki for the tour.

Thank you for all the feedbakc and help!

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@Natalia Skoczylas see

@Natalia_Skoczylas see response above.

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@Alex_levene. I agree that keeping lote makes it a more reliable continuous proposal and gives the event hostory and credibility. and i would still use the format of the annual gathering to accompany the village as an important tool.

What do you think Noemi? how do we pitch that? if you want we can have a call on Monday to discuss it, i will have connection then

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see my link and document in the other wiki page

https://edgeryders.eu/en/comment/25675#comment-25675