Startups are part but not all
Hi Mohamed, welcome to Edgeryders and thank you for taking the time to get in touch.
Curious about how you found out about the project. In any case since you are new to the community I think having a look at the expectations manager wiki I put up might be helpful in getting a sense of what the work really involves. Check it out here and post any questions you may have in the comments?
I agree
Thanks Nadia,
A friend on your mailing list forwarded the project to me. The Power of Networks 
I took a look on the work on stewardship and am quite intrigued by the use of Ethnographer. However, I’m left wondering about what a time analysis of the semantic development would reveal, i.e. how did the conversation during LOTE4 actually develop over time? As all fruitful conversations eventually do, I’m sure it ended differently from how it started.
Going on to your expectations for the eventual Engagement Manager: I am assuming you are currently in the early stages of planning for LOTE 5 and want to get the process started?
Cheers
Possibly
This was a first test of the OpenEthnographer in alpha/beta. If you want to see how network conversation developed over time there is edgesense to play around with (use lote4 or possibly some of the ethnographic tags Inga used).
Re connection to getting LOTE5 going- there isn’t one 
If people want to get involved in driving LOTE5 that as well that’s great, but it’s a different project and conversation from this one. lote events are completely designed by the participants and they go wherever participants want to take them (including setting the theme and location- who does the work calls the shots). The project we are recruiting for is one done in collaboration with UNDP and UNV and several parameters are set by factors outside our control- it’s part of what makes this work so interesting. Essentially what we are learning to do collectively is building generative interfaces between self-selecting and largely self-regulating networks, and institutional actors that have many rules, obligations and priorities to balance.
There is some spill over people involved in one or more of the projects also get involved in the other projects and activities in the community but this is never something we push, if it happens it’s because people see value in staying in touch and building together. More on this in the call.
Lots to discuss
Seems like there’s lots to discuss, looking forward to that call
Available for Armenia
Hi all,
I see that you already have candidates from Armenia. That’s great. Please count me as well I joined Edgeryders 2 years ago I think, but I got acquainted with you IRL only last year October in Matera.
A short update on what I am doing right now: I am a student at American University of Armenia (so I get in touch with many students and student organizations daily). I am board member of Wikimedia Armenia and project manager of Utopianlab (coworking space). Thanks to this two organizations I know a quite broad network of people in Armenia, mostly young and aspiring people, who are interested in media and technology, social innovation and activism.
I also (in many cases personally know) people from other similar organizations in Armenia and have the experience of working with media companies here (TV, radio, press). So if I can be useful to this project, please let me know
Hey, long-ish time!
Nice to hear from you Vachagan. Somehow we did not manage to have a proper chat at lote4, hopefully this year it will be different
Ok so I have boiled down the practices/routines for doing this work into an overview here. Have a look and see if it is aligned with your expectations?
I hope so too, I also hope to be present at least one Edgyders event this year and meet you guys again.
The list of activities is pretty much what I love to do, so I will follow your guidelines below and, think about 3 projects
Gaumarjos!
Hi all! Great to see last year’s initiative is taken a step further! Georgia’s been doing great on the projects part, and people are still eager to come to the meet-ups I organize, not always a lot of people, but always people with great ideas to share.
I am writing this right now from my kitchen table with a 4 day old baby next to me! We got home from the hospital yesterday :)). Little Leonard will join the futurespotters community right away!
So what’s been happening in Georgie? Well, to start with, I am slightly biased as I got a part time advisor position at Iare Pekhit (the pedestrian rights organization) to help them set up a membership based association (funded by undef). So what’s happening on the pedestrian rights front I now know all about ;). Actually, today there’s an event where the winner of a public art contest will be revealed. Unfortunately I will not be able to join, but I’ll make sure to post some pics to the Georgia group later on.
For a few months different public space related grass roots organizations joined efforts in order to stop the building of a shopping mall and cable cart in old town under the name ERTAD (together). Several meet ups and one large protest march were organized. Unfortunately the group fell apart due to some miscommunications amongst the members, but for as long as it lived it showed great progress. I guess in the future with other large projects which may harm the urban space, this will be able to be set up again.
The last few months an artist duo has been tagging the city with phrases which should make people think about the space they live in. It’s an art and social development project by Mariam Natroshvili and co. It’s really cool to be in the suburbs somewhere and see a prhase and know it’s them. The other day I was hiking (when I still could 
) in the hills behind our flat and found a text stenciled on an abandoned trailer in the middle of nowhere. It’s very powerful. It would be great to find out more about the project and the artists’ goals.
What else? Oh yes, in fall several people came together (elva, undp, remi from cospot, me, charlotte from new ngo chaikhana, eric from jumpstart) to brainstorm about setting up a social innovation hub. We held several different meetings about how and what and were offered a place in the national scientific library. By January we were convinced we would somehow be able to make this happen, when the director of the library told us he had gotten a large sum of the government to renovate the place themselves, we would not be able to use the space permanently as a result. Although this was disappointing, UNDP offered the library to help them set up a workshop to see what users would like the library to be (co-creating). The Social Innovation Hub has been a bit quiet since, but that’s ok. In the mean time we have learned of several other different hubs being set up: one at a university, and one by a local youth NGO with the support of businesses. There may even be more, but I cant tell you from the top of my head ;).
There are many more interesting developments, such as the creation of the NGO chaikhana, which supports journalists; several different small social start-ups have seen the light; and probably many many more.
So, why this summary of how Georgia is doing? Well, as many of you know I was Georgia’s community builder last year for the Spot the Future project. I loved doing the work (it doesnt even feel like work!). And, I would love to take on the role again. I have time as well, as I ditched some projects pre-birth that I didnt like, to have more positiveness in my life. And, as I already know from last year how it works (I do know there are several different changes, but nothing to major as I understand), I will be able to work efficiently! :))
Now, this is a quick post from my kitchen table, still a bit sore from giving birth, but I could not NOT reply ;). Anyway, shoot if you have any follow up questions. I’ll be following the group closely and see what’s happening.
Congratulations
Wow. Is lola jealous? Yes I guess you saw the wiki I posted already?
There are some differences from last year for one thing we will not organise a large-ish meetup this time around and will expect engagement managers to share responsibility of running the weekly community calls.
The main challenge is really engaging ourselves, both the existing network of people and projects and new ones, in articulating a shared program for new ways to support grassroots initiatives (based on findings from STF). These ways need to be co-designed by the community so as to encourage collaboration, and not distort incentives or otherwise ruin whatever it was that made the initiatives promising in the first place. We also need engage people working on projects about which we do not know, and who may not comfortable working/communicating online into participating in the calls as a soft landing.
exactly
Lola finds the baby interesting, but we have a second dog (Kush) - a german shepherd mix - who is absolutely intrigued by Leon and follows him around wherever we go :)).
I totally get your points. Definitely challenging, engaging people merely online is not an easy job, but I guess that’s what the engagement managers are for who actually live in the countries involved ;).
Also, as the name indicates, this should mainly be focussed on youth projects? One interesting example I just recently discovered is about Ucha Kemashvili who lives in a remote village in western Georgia. He saw how devastating the braindrain of young people from his village was (everyone goes to tbilisi for jobs/education) and decided to create an incentive for them to stay: free wifi on the main square with a board which tells the inhabitants what kind of events are going on. It completely changed the village, a real community feeling was created. There’s also Kedeli community in Sighnaghi (inga may have written about them last year?), a family who is helping people with disabilities - they live with them, are being cared for and help around if they can. For the ones who are able enough, they set up a social cafe where they work in the city center, to empower them. It’s not youth, but a great example of grassroots initiative, and they often have young german volunteers helping ot for several months in a row. May be worth a follow up as well.
Anyway, I’ll check some other things that were posted later.
Welcome to Leon!
Thanks for the updates on Georgia, Inge! Good to know there are positive developments there! Would love to report on Armenia, maybe once I get there and meet the participants of Spot the Future 2014. Can’t believe you managed to write this all on Day 1 at home with Leon! I’m so happy the mothers’ community is growing @ Edgeryders! Lots of love and positive healing energy your way! 
Thanks! Would love to hear about Armenia as well! And Egypt! We had a great meet-up last year, it was really inspiring! As I understand it wont be this year, but online a lot of creativity and inspiration can be shared as well! (and I will anyway see you this summer!)
Hi everyone, moving forward this week
We’re still waiting for the news to spread and more people to have a chance to apply and then I would like to schedule calls with the candidates later this week, starting from Thursday, giving us enough time to talk with all of you and hire two people by Monday. I hope that you will have time for a skype call with me?
Ahead of the call I have two questions for the people for whom this would be the first time doing engagement management with Edgeryders (@rostika, @zaraavi, @Amalia_Kamalian, @SamarAli, @fatmaabdelnabi, @Hegazy and @vgratian):
1. Can you think of three projects that you would reach out to and involve in this project? Please add them to the Case Studies Adventure wiki by editing it (make sure to include your name so we know who has contributed what).
2. Could tell me, what’s your idea to use social media to engage people in this online platform - first to bring them here, and them make them use it on a longer term? How do you make connections with people most effectively in your country? (We know people are used to face to face meetings, but we still want them to use this online platform for dialogue).
Looking forward to meet you soon.
Hi Nadia,
editing the wiki is not working yet
With my network, i know who would be interested to join & simply approach. Outside of my network, I approach face-to-face to give an otherwise anonymous online space, well, a face. Either way, I think hard about how they can benefit from cross-border participation and a globalised network; i.e. how EdgeRyders can benefit them.
Yes, managed to botch it Im afraid
… am on the road on funny connectivity and Noemi came up with solution- post replies in comment below, instead of directly editing into, wiki. Sorry!
Case Studies Adventure Wiki
Hi Nadia,
Most of my communication is done through social media then telephone and/or Skype call and if there’s a need for a face-to-face meeting, we just do it.
Engagement of people in Belarus
Case studies done.
Engagement of people: i think the main motivation for people to come and to use the platform would be (1) finding partners for future projects and (2) learning and getting inspiration from others’ projects.
I would suggest to organize also thematic posts, e.g. cases on social business, inclusion, eco-friendly way of life, etc from each participating country, so people could present themselves, and discuss challenges and solutions. Then it would be easier to promote the platform online, in social networks and etc. I would suggest the initiatives/projects we are presenting as cases, are taking some points of discussions, and involve their team/colleagues/partners into dialogue (to make the agreements with them before posting). Presenting the platform at face-to-face events, with possible discussions they could take part right away.
Hello Nadia
Second question
I hope you are well
I think for some people its difficult to believe and to trust to virtual communication and insertion to online platform can realise very slowly. Of course it’s more effective to communicate and to meet face to face because like this you recognize a person well but in our times online communication gives us possibility to save the time. After all it’s easy to involve the young people to online social media.
P.S. Հայաստանում միակ խնդիրը անվստահությունն է: Այստեղ շատ են այսպես կոչված ցանցային թակարդները: Edgeryders-ի դեպքում ներգրավելը ավելի հեշտ կլինի, քանի որ կա կոնկրետ կայք, որտեղ տրված է կազմակերպության պատմությունը, ծրագրերը և նպատակները:
I second you on that it will take time in Armenia to engage projects from remote areas @zaraavi jan, but could you please elaborate why would people have trust issues with online platforms?
Cheers,
Anna
Dear Anna
Hello Anne
I hope you are well.
I think sometimes it’s difficult to decide what site is legal and don’t contain some viruses or it’s not haker’s site or way to thieve money . It’s distrust. But it’s become rare and now young people prefer to work and to communicate online.