Ok so the first Edgeryders Community Paper is online!!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104169463/Edgeryders-Community-Paper-Learning-To-Live
Why does this matter. Because it goes to show that:
-
with relatively little effort a large number of us can contribute towards producing something of value to others and to ourselves in policy contexts.
-
It highlights one of the challenges of doing this where money is involved. This was a paid gig, I was originally offered 500 Euros to do the work but it would have felt weird to accept it. I accepted the contract and signed it in my name because the administrative mess of producing a large number of contracts to split 500 euros is just not feasible. Now I don’t know what do do with the money, stick it into an Edgeryders paypal account or something…any ideas?
So here is the background and a little about the process…
A while ago I was approached by someone from the Council of Europe asking whether we could contribute to a report they were producing in repsonse to this Parliamentary Assembly Motion about the need to come up with responded to increasing rates of self harm amongst young people in Europe: http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc10/EDOC12256.pdf
So I set up a mission report about it here: http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/where-edgeryders-dare/mission_case/edge-learning
We tweeted about it both through my own and the oficial Edgeryders account.
People started having discussions in the comments. Then Ksenia set up a google doc and more of us started contributing here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LqX1mHnwvSpXwwl7akjdOxTDOqm9sOyNVsFESxyEAR8/edit
I thought it would be nice to get more input from the internets and asked people to help get together a list of initaitives, places, projects and approaches that seem to be helping get at the underlying causes: http://pad.telecomix.org/fasjubef
Where are the contents going?
They are being included as a contribution draft report to be submitted to the committee by the “Rapporteur” (Ms.) Elvira Kovacs through one of her colleagues, Angela Garabagiu (see email below). But they could just as easily serve as a starting point for more discussions or be used by individual participants as a point of reference in figuring out how their projects relate to each other. But more than anything they are I would argue a useful excercise for our own thinking. How do we know what we do makes sense? How do we connect it with what others are doing? How do we make it easier for others to find us and contribute to what we are trying to achieve? These are challenges many of us are facing in our individual efforts…
And the response:
"GARABAGIU Angela
11:59 AM (3 hours ago)
to me, EL-IMAM
Dear Nadia,
Thank you very much for having sent your conclusions. Great timing! I really appreciate.
I did not receive a copy of the contract. If you have a copy, could you scan it and send it by e-mail? The original should reach us by post.
I will start incorporating your proposals into the main report. I really appreciate the work put into gathering the replies and contributions from you members. Thanks to all those who took part.
Kind regards,
Angela"