Spot the Future Tour Info Pack

This wiki is where we coordinate, post and update the practical information about the Edgeryders Spot the Future Tour. It’s purpose is to ensure everyone understands what we want to achieve, why and can see how they could plug their activities onto the tour. 

Contents of this Wiki

LOGISTICS and COORDINATION

Discussions about the details take place in the comments below. When something has been agreed upon by the Online community builder + UNDP CO contact person in each respective country, the new information is added into this section of the wiki.

Armenia

  • April 18th - 19th (Fri, Sat),
  • Edgeryders contact: [Vahagn]
  • UNDP CO contact: [lurglomond]
  • Local host org 1: [BEM Youth Progressive Action Center]
  • LOCATION (FINAL): yoga center hall which is also hosting the BEM Youth Progressive Action Center NGO. It is located on 1,5 minute walking distance from the UNDP building, which is right next to the Republic Square, the very heart of Armenia I'd say and center of Yerevan
  • Location option 1 : http://www.tumo.org/en/tumo;
  • Location option 2: Youth foundation of Armenia (http://www.heh.am);
  • Location option 3: Agribusiness teaching centre (http://anau.am/en/2011-06-08-05-40-37/atc);
  • Location option 4: Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art (http://www.accea.info/en/accea/space/)
  • Ground transport for people to make it to the event: provided by UNDP CO
  • Max number of participants: 30
  • Workshop wishlist (what material or equipment is needed by difft people involved in organising the workshop): 
    • Cosy informal space with lots of light (windows) if possible
    • Internet connection! 
    • Projector & white surface to connect it to
    • Post its, markers
    • Extension chords ( many people with laptops)
    • Coffee, Tea, Lunch, Fruit, Drinking water
  • Registration: http://spotthefuture.edgeryders.eu/new-events/

Egypt

  • April 25th - 26th (Fri, Sat, Sun), 
  • Edgeryders contact: t.b.c.
  • UNDP CO contact: [Gazbee]
  • Local host org 1: [add yourself here]
  • Location option 1: [add suggestion here]
  • Ground transport for people to make it to the event: provided by UNDP CO
  • Max number of participants: ?
  • Workshop wishlist (what material or equipment is needed by difft people involved in organising the workshop): 
    • Cosy informal space with lots of light (windows) if possible
    • Internet connection! 
    • Projector & white surface to connect it to
    • Post its, markers
    • Extension chords ( many people with laptops)
    • Coffee, Tea, Lunch, Fruit, Drinking water
  • Registration: http://spotthefuture.edgeryders.eu/new-events/

Georgia

  • April 14th - 15th (Mon, Tue)
  • Edgeryders contact: [Inge]
  • UNDP CO contact: [Khatuna]
  • Local host org 1: Jumpstart Georgia 
  • Local host org 2: Elva
  • Location: Frontline
  • Ground transport for people to make it to the event: provided by UNDP CO
  • Max number of participants: ?
  • Workshop wishlist (what material or equipment is needed by difft people involved in organising the workshop): 
    • Cosy informal space with lots of light (windows) if possible
    • Internet connection! 
    • Projector & white surface to connect it to
    • Post its, markers
    • Extension chords ( many people with laptops)
    • Coffee, Tea, Lunch, Fruit, Drinking water
  • Registration: http://spotthefuture.edgeryders.eu/new-events/

OFFICIAL INFORMATION

Here is where we prepare information about the tour as a whole, individual workshops and the big final conference. We discuss contents in the comments below and then update this section of the wiki with new information.

Purpose of tour workshops

draw out people doing interesting work in the  local social innovation/hacktivism/tech scenes by offering an opportunity to discover and learn from interesting projects their peers are working on elsewhere, and to share their work and learnings with their peers.

Workshop is action oriented and designed to be useful for hands-on practitioners: 

Format is based on lote series of events. This Edgeryders event  has been developed by hundreds of participants in over 30 cities.

  1. Find each other online: we introduce ourselves and our projects here and participants can ask each other questions- so we are sure everyone understands one anothers projects and what challenges we each face. 
  2. Swarm the challenges: We identify shared obstacles and engage the rest of the Edgeryders community in sharing ideas or experiences of how to address them.
  3. Build shared solutions: The physical workshop is where we co-design shared solutions that can be built by the participants in the room. We then follow up and continue online.

We know this process works. It’s how we have gotten projects like the unMonastery, and Economy App off the ground in less than two years in spite of most of us having very little money.

Who it is for: Anyone passionate about their project. Citizens and representatives of initiatives related to unemployment, social innovation, migration, environment and use of common spaces, arts, do-it-yourself approaches, community health and wellbeing, innovative civic participation channels etc.

How it contributes to achieving Edgeryders aims: The purpose of the workshop is to surface cutting edge projects and practices from the local scene and connect them to the ones already in the Edgeryders community. By meeting another on the Edgeryders platform and presenting our projects in advance, the physical workshop will be more generative for participants. We think this good for everyone and inspire and energise new collaborations between participants.

A generative workshop would result in the following outcomes: 

  • get participants excited about sharing their personal stories and interacting with others in a context of trust and peer support -> both during the event and after it, online
  • map where appropriate kinds of resources can be found if needed -> who can act as a local community builder and host subsequent events or spread the word about Spot the Future, what initiatives generate most enthusiasm and support from the others in the room  
  • inspire the people in attendance (both physically and through social media) to engage more people who are NOT in attendance. 
  • acknowledge future-building initiatives and encourage an ethics of rewarding the doers. This should make it more sustainable to engage in effective actions in one’s local community. 
  • mutual , peer to peer support around one anothers projects, and collaborations with people all over the world.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

How can community members in Armenia, Egypt and Georgia work with those of us not on location

  1. Participate in the WEEKLY COMMUNITY CALLS for a shared understanding of the project development.
  2. Assist us with planning of the Tour:
    • Build partnerships with local organisations to co-host the event (local hackerspaces e.g.), produce material for sharing via email, Facebook and Twitter inviting participants into the tour workshops.
    • Produce material for Edgeryders Spot The Future would tour minisite/page 
    • Produce digital flyers for sharing, coordinate (last minute) email and phone communication with participants.
  3. Work closely with other participants to craft and spread the news about the project among underground groups, welcome participants on the platform and re-share links. If you can help translating materials into your country language that would be great.
  4. Join the 1-email-a-day list: online community builders will send out internal email to the entire team with key content + link to be pushed out simultaneously on all our channels; we can rotate so 1 person does it for a week or so, then another one. we're not using third party services like mailchimp so just write to us to get the emails: nadia@edgeryders.eu

What resources are available to organisers:

  • UNDP has offered to cover venue and ground travel for participants in Armenia, Egypt and Georgia respectiveley.
  • Edgeryders visual repository for producing flyers and other visual materials is available online to download and remix.
  • There is quite a lot of press coverage of Edgeryders, past \#lote Events and community members projects such as the unMonastery. [Sam] and [Nik] have beautiful video footage too. 
  • Edgeryders social media accounts on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram are a good way to connect and coordiante social media outreach efforts.
  • Mailing list: At the moment we have a mailchimp account which we use to send out newsletters (only when something big happens). NB: We will move away from third partymailing list services as soon as someone installs an alternative. If you want to contribute towards this, here's the thread.

There are probably many more questions that should be addressed in the WIKI, that doesn’t mean we don’t think they are important or are not up for trying to address them. There are a lot of moviong parts to organising this tour: to simplify distributed coordination please add your question or suggestion as a comment below.

If you just want to go ahead and do something, add it as a task and assign it to yourself. That way others know what is already being done by whom and can coordinate or offer to help.

COMMUNICATION: COORDINATING OUTREACH and PRODUCTION OF COMMUNICATION MATERIALS

Here is where we ensure everyone who wants to help with letting people know about the workshops and inviting them to participate can get in touch with one another and coordinate efforts.

Also this is where we collaboratively build all the communications materials for the 1) Spot The Future website 2) Press KIT 3) Flyers & texts to make it easy to share information on FB, Twitter, Linkedin etc.

Facebook event pages:

TbilisiYerevanCairo 

Website copy

Events

http://spotthefuture.edgeryders.eu/new-events/

Livefeeds

Meet the Team

Please add one paragraph about yourself and what you are especially passionate about. And a sentence about how you are contributing to Spot The Future. Also please add a URL to a high resolution photo of you we can use on the website.

Inge Snip: Originally from the Netherlands, Inge Snip has been living in and out of Georgia for the last 6.5 years. During her time in the Caucasus she has been working with several NGOs and writing for several different publishers analyses covering the political landscape of Georgia and the broader Caucasus. She has been called, on several occasions: a social butterfly, that crazy lady, and Tbilisi’s guru. That’s only because she’s an extrovert, creative and socially active woman, who has built up an extensive network in the region over the past few years. And that all combined is why she decided to join in on edgeryder’s Spot the Future project.

Our Partners

A page where partner organisations can introduce themselves and how they are contributing to Spot the Future.

Add one paragraph about your organisation, the name and email of your contact person, and a URL to a high resolution logo. Don’t forget to include urls to your organisations website.

Elva

Elva is a mobile phone platform that allows organisations to collaborate with communities to map local needs and to advocate change. It is free and open source, using simple SMS and web reports. Elva publishes these community-driven reports online in compelling maps and visualisations, making it easy for decision makers to understand local needs and to develop an accountable and locally appropriate response.

Contact person: Jonne Catshoek, jonne@elva.org; Taylor Braun, taylor@elva.org

Elva Logo: will upload url soon

Jumpstart

JumpStart Georgia is a registered non-governmental organization which applies open-source technologies to open up public data and shed light on issues of social importance. JumpStart Georgia seeks to translate complex issues into a language a wider audience can understand and use to participate in fact-based discussions and ultimately make more informed decisions.

Contact Person: Eric Barret, eric@jumpstart.ge; Cristina Maza, cristina.maza@jumpstart.ge

Logo: will add url soon

About Edgeryders 

Register for final Tbilisi event

Hello Futurespotter!

This shared learning journey to Tblisi takes us through a tour of what futures people are building at the edges in Egypt, Armenia and Georgia!

To make the most out of our time together we need to get to know and understand one another’s work. As well as how we can support one another. By the time we have completed all 5 phases we will be well on the way to collaborating with new friends all over the world and ready to meet in person at one of the workshops in Armenia, Egypt and Georgia!  Those who take the journey through all five phases will come together for the big Spot The Future international event in June. It will be a chance to compare notes, hatch plans and meet some 50 new friends from across the globe.

There's two ways you can come to the big Spot The Future event in June

Sign up to Edgeryders, share your ryde below and book a flight or train to Tblisi for June 25-27. Email spfevent@edgeryders.eu before May 1 to let us know you’re coming. We’ll send you a ticket and practical information about the hows, whens and wheres as we come closer to the date. But do it now, organising something of this scale is a huge logistical effort and the sooner we start, the better the experience for everyone.

We also have a limited number of funded travel tickets available. Selected participants will be awarded paid travel and accomodations to the big final event in Tblisi Georgia. To be eligible for the funded travel tickets you’ll need to have completed at least 5 missions and been very active on the platform. We select funded travel participants through a gaming proof process.

Welcome aboard, the journey starts here!

Press Kit

Visa policy info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Armenia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Egypt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Georgia

2 Likes

Thanks for sharing!

I was just thinking about this.

Comments and Questions from Egypt :slight_smile:

Hi Edgreyders,

Thank you for all your efforts!

We just have a few questions and comments regarding the tour:

1. For the space

The Rooftop Studio Project, launched in 2009, is a local residency program for Egyptian artists in need of affordable work spaces.

Factory Space

A converted paper factory, Townhouse’s 650-square-meter Factory Space is regularly used to host exhibitions, contemporary dance rehearsals and performances, workshops, film screenings, lectures, concerts and more.

2.

  • Max number of participants: 25/30

Will participants attending the workshop be selected only through Edgeryders online platform?

3. Registration: We would also like to use other social media platforms for registration. We need to discuss how and which people will be selected for the workshop. Will it only be people engaging on the Edgeryders platform or can we also invite people from our side?

Finally, with regards to the Post 2015 consultation review, I see that you have uploaded all questions and themes to the platform. Working Out Loud on Spot the Future: Making it easier to collaborate effectively! - Spot the Future - Edgeryders

However, we would like to focus on three main areas: Unemployment, Poverty and Environmental Degradation. We already uploaded our feedback including research questions, for the post 2015 consultation report, last Sunday on to the Google Drive! I can’t seem to find those questions anywhere on the platform! 

Thanks! 

Gazbee

Hi Gazbee :slight_smile: Reponses to your questions below…

Q: which space is preferred?

I would go for ICE Cairo if possible. Added benefit: they have a big social network and could maybe help spread the word about it

Q:  We would also like to use other social media platforms for registration. We need to discuss how and which people will be selected for the workshop. Will it only be people engaging on the Edgeryders platform or can we also invite people from our side? Will participants attending the workshop be selected only through Edgeryders online platform?

There are no restrictions to which other channels can be used to invite participants to the workshop. However the project requirements and deliverables set key criteria that the workshops have to meet. I’ll describe them as this will give you total freedom to use your own channels effectively…

Edgeryders has developed a methodology in which the workshops are part of a longer process that begins before the physical workshop, and continues after. Ahead of people actually being in the room it is crucial that some preparation has been completed online. Participants are encouraged to

Our only selection criteria is that people have participate in the online preparation via the urls above ahead of the event. As long as it is clear to participants that they need to participate online ahead of the workshop anywhere you want to invite them from is cool. Actually the more the better :slight_smile: If you post the invitation texts up as a wiki I’ll be happy to give you feedback if you like.

Q: With regards to the Post 2015 consultation review, I see that you have uploaded all questions and themes to the platform. Working Out Loud on Spot the Future: Making it easier to collaborate effectively! - Spot the Future - Edgeryders However, we would like to focus on three main areas: Unemployment, Poverty and Environmental Degradation. We already uploaded our feedback including research questions, for the post 2015 consultation report, last Sunday on to the Google Drive! I can’t seem to find those questions anywhere on the platform! 

There are two kinds of calls:  1) The broader more general themes like Making a living (unemployment, poverty) and Caring for Commons (environmental degradation) 2) More narrow-scoped calls (under construction- they arent scheduled for launch till tuesday).  For a longer and more detailed explaination about how we make these design decisions than we have time to get into now, I recommend checking out the Edgeryders guide to policy makers and designers of policy-oriented online environments if and when you have time.

In order to prepare the calls for detailed input into the specific themes for Egypt e.g. poverty, we require an Egypt-based online community builder as questions have to be carefully crafted so they draw the kind of solutions-oriented, meaningful and generative participation. The UNDP CO office for Egypt let us know on Friday who you’d would like to work with and I’ve contact them but haven’t heard anything from him/her. Also I never heard back about a question regarding security for participants in Egypt (I was asked by someone considering applying).

Do you want me to contact other candidates or recommend someone?

Updates from Egypt :slight_smile:

Spot the Future – Egypt Updates

  • We had a meeting with Ice Cairo this morning and they are very interested in Spot the Future/Make the Future. They are willing to be the local host organization and to be recognized as a partner for the project.

They already have a large community of innovators. They especially work with green tech innovators with solutions that have a social impact and are environmentally friendly. They also have a lot of experience and knowledge on where we can find the innovator community in Egypt and they will help us a lot with that. They are really doing great and we need their support and they will also teach us a lot. You can find more info about their projects and initiatives here 

  • Agreement with Ice Cairo on their role:
  1. Ice Cairo as an organization is willing to take the role of the community builder as a whole, with our support of course, I will be going to their space to work with them one or two days per week. What we propose is that instead of hiring an individual we allocate the 1200 USD for Ice Cairo as they will fulfil the tasks of the community builder. However, only with your approval; if it is okay with you to bring them on as the community builders.
  2. Logistics – They agreed to provide us with their space for the workshop and they will take care of the logistics
  3. Organize two mini pre events before the Spot the future workshop in Cairo: We came to the conclusion that online mobilization is not sufficient and reliable; people will say they will participate but may eventually lose interest. The purpose of these two events is to mobilize people on the ground and attract them to Spot the Future and then they will start really engaging. Physical events will be a good mechanism to directly engage people on what we really want to achieve and the role they have to play.
  • A blogging and engagement event – We will organize a small event to introduce people to the concept of blogging and engagement online in order to get them interested and active in the process
  • An Introduction to Spot the Future event – prior to the workshop we will introduce people to Spot the Future and what the goals and outcomes of the event are

  • We will have a meeting on Thursday with Ice Cairo to design a social media strategy.
  • Logo for STF? We are not aware of a current logo for STF, therefore, with your approval we would like to come up with a logo to identify and market STF.
  • We need to prepare a 2 line maximum BLURB for Spot the Future. The simpler the better, people don’t like to read a lot so we need something very clear and attractive.
  • The call for action should also be as simple and concise as possible. Should include what we hope to achieve from STF and what participants will gain out of this.
  • We need to clearly identify the deliverables in steps , 1..2…3.. From my understanding, we want to engage those innovators on the platform to share their ideas and initiatives, challenges and engage with other peers on the platform; selected articles will receive awards. We want to engage them in the mission briefs, encourage them to share their ideas and solutions for challenges in each country. Those that are most engaged will be invited to the workshop in April. And finally, some of them will have the opportunity to go to Georgia for the final event. The Data collected from the identified challenges will be collected and formulated into a foresight report. Please correct me if I am wrong. It would be easier if each goal or outcome is stated in one sentence, because sometimes there is an over load of info all over the place, it is hard to gather everything together.
  • We also discussed the possibility of filming a short video presentation on STF, that would be clearest way to explain the project and what we expect from participants.

I also asked them to join us for the weekly skype call.

 

Please let me know if there are any areas you can provide us with inputs, especialy in social media and I am waiting for your feedback!

I would also like to have a skype call, because it will be easier to talk and clearly explain things if we are talking directly!

1 Like

Thanks for your ideas!

Hi Gazbee, this sounds interesting…

I know the final decision on community builder(s) is pending, so I won’t go into that and wait for news from your side.

About the pre-events : i think it’s a great idea, even more if you think there’s time before the workshop at the end of the month. I can help with the call to action and list of deliverables - the latter in itself is not so interesting for participants, I suggest we frame it as “What you get out of participating in Spot the Future? Why this is good for you etc”. Are you working on a document somewhere I can pitch in or how are you used to collaborating on writeups? If it’s only in Arabic I can’t help much…

Oh and by the way have you seen the new website that Nadia and Matthias have set up? http://spotthefuture.edgeryders.eu/ (read only, as an onboarding funnel for participants where ideally they get all the info they need before signing up here on the platform). I think this page in particular is a good example of call for participation, explaining where their contributions go. What do you think?

About a logo, it’s true we haven’t got one. I think you are free to use what you think works best, but the visual identity would need to be present also on the project new website to be consistent across channels no? So if it’s something that will go with it and Matthias won’t mind changing stuff that’s been built already, great :slight_smile: Or better yet, why not a Spot the Future Egypt to avoid any hassle?

Sure, let’s have a hangout later today or tomorrow before our general meeting? when would it be best for you?

No need for Matthias to change anything re visuals

Gazbee and Noemi, latest update…

here is the Spot The Future microsite and here are the instructions for changing the contents including visuals when you are ready. As you see the Arabic translations are missing. So until we have an online community builder for Egypt, can I ask you guys to provide the translations for the site?

Hello!

Hey Noemi,

Thanks for your reply, hope you had a good holiday!

Anyway, for the pre-events…they’ll be mini sessions and we will discuss this further with IceCairo. We are going to meet them on Thursday to develop a social media plan and once that’s ready we can move forward rapidly. I just want to make sure that they’ll be fully committed to this project. We will bring on Yasmine either way, and I just asked Nadia for her contact details so I can reach out to her and start working.

For the logo: Our designer in the office will create one; if you guys like it feel free to use it.

I already prepared a call for action with the goals of the project, what citizens will get out of it, their role etc. I am just trying to figure out how to attach a document here haha …also, if you have any ideas for a cool blurb for STF please feel free to share :slight_smile:

For the website translations: you’d like translations for all english content on the website?

Thanks for everything!

Uploading a document

To upload a document:

  • go to Spot the Future group page, scroll down and on the left there is a tab called Documents,
  • you click it and under Create a Document you have the option Go to full form.
  • you click and it opens into something similar as the posts: you describe it in the text editor and below there's an Upload option.

    Looking forward to read it…

times

For the workshop in Georgia I need to let the venue (frontline) know the exact time we will be there. Any thoughts?

yay we got the location ?

So it’ll happen definitely at Frontline? good to know, this way we can update the event page right?

In a document we’ve been circulating I proposed we start at 10:00 until 16:00 in Day 1, following with 10:00 - 14:00 on Day 2. @Khatuna should probably agree too.

@Lurglomond and @Vahagn can I ask that we agree on location and times in Yerevan too? if you haven’t already?

@ all: please have a look at the Events page here: https://edgeryders.eu/events and let us know what you think about the invitation to participate and register? should we keep it shorter/ clearer? what are your thoughts?

Re:Meeting yesterday

Hi all,

Just to remind you we’ve agreed with @Vahagn and @Inge that ahead of the workshops in Tbilisi in Yerevan we would be setting up event pages on facebook, or any other channels you see useful for driving signups for the workshops… Let’s try to coordinate tightly and make sure the people you think should be in the room will be there. My ideas on the process, feel free to comment:

- It’s up to you guys to make them bilingual or just in your language. Feel free to shorten or simplify the event descriptions we have so far if they read complicated

-I think it would be best if the pages were hosted also by our local organisers, a a way for stretch coordination with them.

  • feel free to use the pictures on this site, events and in our github repository and add the dates + final locations for each event; Scheduling unless UNDP country officers prefer otherwise (doesn’t really matter we just need it decided and up somewhere): Day 1: 10:00 - 16:00 Day 2: 10:00 - 14:00

  • the call for participation needs to specify that registering for the workshops happens here on Edgeryders - “after you’re signing up keep an eye on your Bulk folder just to make sure your email confirmation doesn’t get lost”; I suggest point to Arrivals (general sharing of stories) for simple onboarding. Additionally and sequentially throughout early next week, push out in the event page the new groups we are finalizing on specific research questions - this is the FINAL theme architecture consistent with UNDP priorities (eg of a group already up and running Spot the Future: Making a Living). This is final despite all the topics you may have come across for each countries in several wikis - yes, openness and collaboration can be messy sometimes :).

Does this make sense? Let me know what are your thoughts and where I can help ok? 

sounds good!

It would be best if the edgeryders FB page would create the event and make me co-host, I can then edit and make the partner org’s co-hosts as well.