OpenCare is an EU funded program made up of three things:
- A PLATFORM where people can share stories, ideas and insights and make new connections;
- A diverse and distributed COMMUNITY or network of individuals and groups, mainly in Europe but including the whole world, exploring alternative, more long-term sustainable solutions to healthcare;
- A PROCESS that brings people together from this community to share, inspire, connect and collaborate.
The aim is to bring together people, virtually or physically, to gather and share stories, ideas and insights. Out of this will emerge new ideas, new solutions and new connections that benefit all.
WHO?
There are two main roles:
- The OpenCarers:people who care, and are willing to share their stories about how they care. People like you!
- The curators: these are people who have created and maintain the platform, and curate the content. Right now they are @gehan , @winnieponcelet, @woodbinehealth and @noemi who is stewarding the process.
THE PROCESS
We (the curators) have devised a four stage process, described below. We invite you to engage at all and any stage. Every single contribution is valued, whether it is telling a story, leaving a thoughtful comment, bringing cake to a community gathering or helping to build a prototype.
| March 2016 - August 2016 | |||
| Project phase | What we are focusing on | How to participate | |
Collaborative Sensing: Who and what is already out there? |
Individual Stories (100) |
Contribute a story: Say hello and introduce yourself Participate in Op3n Meetups ( to receive invitations to future events, complete an Op3n Challenge) |
|
|
Objective: Discover, understand, acknowledge what people are already doing Activities: Sharing your own personal stories, interviewing people affected by the challenge topics and sharing successful initiatives or analogous examples from other areas. |
It all starts with an invitation for you and others around the world to share personal experiences, observations and examples on the challenge topic. You will share stories of individuals and groups who are building alternative alternatives to existing health- or social care, as well as of others whose attempts were frustrated. The purpose of this is to build a shared repository of stories, each one embedding strategies for improving health- and social care. Some will resonate more than others with participants, and that will signal to the community that a grain of truth has been found. Collectively, we will build knowledge about new approaches towards health- and social care. |
||
| July 2016 - September 2016 | |||
Collaborative Sense Making: Where are we going? Where would we like to be going instead...and how can we get there? |
Case Study Stories (20) |
Join fellow Op3nCare Active Learners Join fellow Op3nCare Practitioners Join the Op3nCare Partnership |
|
|
Objective: Analyse and structure the information shared in our conversations in such a way as to support op3ncarers desire and ability to constructively engage in society. Activities: Using appreciative enquiry methods and playing with tools like Edgesense to find surprising connections between your experiences and those of other participants. |
Whether it is because you want to solve local problems, keep governments accountable, avoid expensive mistakes or learn new things about the world in which you live, knowledge is power. This phase links Op3nCare stories to the social, economic, political and legal context in which they happen: were they enabled by something in particular? Were they hindered by it? What change in could have made the alternative happen, or happen more successfully? By asking and tentatively answering these kinds of question, participants in the process will build shared knowledge and goals. |
||
| September 2016 - April 2017 | |||
Prototyping and Testing: How do our ideas work in practice? |
Self-evaluation reports |
Join the Op3nCare Partnership |
|
|
Objective: t.b.c Activities: t.b.c |
Once the goals of Op3nCare participants, a range of possible strategies towards them and the obstacles in the way are reasonably clear, the project enters a new phase of hands-on, intensive peer-to-peer help. We look at each initiative and work together to connect it with the people, knowledge skills, and resources to take it to the next level. |
||
| April 2017 - September 2017 | |||
Impact: How do we take the work forward? |
Caring on the Edge event, Milan High Impact Publications Strategic Partnerships Spin-off Projects |
It is too early to say exactly how the work will be taken forward. It will depend on the outcomes of the previous stages. What is fixed is a conference in September 2017 that will bring together all the various strands of work, and can also serve as a launchpad for new initiatives. |
|
|
Objective: It is too early to say exactly how the work will be taken forward. It will depend on the outcomes of the previous stages. What is fixed is a festival on October 19-21, 2017 that will bring together all the various strands of work, and can also serve as a launchpad for new initiatives. Activities: t.b.c |
We collaboratively synthesise the results of our sense-making, prototyping and testing for OpenCare. This includes co-designing a fair social contract and ethical guidelines for all stakeholders including practitioners, policymakers, funders and investors. |
||