Fix City Dot Org

The good people of Brooklyn, NY now have a new tool at their disposal: FixCity.org. This crowdsourcing website (and its supporting organization) is all about taking small steps to “fix your city”. In this case the first project is to enable the public at large to suggest good locations for bicycle racks. As a part of the larger Open Planning Project and Open 311, FixCity is another effort to help citizens help government implement changes that they really want. 

Crowdsourcing – What?

I’ve talked about crowdsourcing on several occasions but for the uninitiated let me give my quick explanation. Essentially crowdsourcing is the term used for asking anyone (and I mean anyone) interested in participating in a process to provide their opinion/data/etc. based on some set of specific parameters. This is most often done via social media sites because it allows for maximum participation. The most famous crowdsourced project is, of course Wikipedia.org.

Fixing my ______

So what are the projects facing your community or organization? Do you feel like you really understand what your constituents and supports want? By crowdsourcing you may not get expertise (but you might get that too); what you will get is a chance to learn and honest feedback.

Crowdsourced solutions are like any other solution, if you aren’t asking the right questions you won’t end up with useful answers. To mitigate this issue follow these guidelines:

1. Create an environment of invitation – make your crowd owners of the process instead of outside participants.
2. Make sure that your questions are framed in the positive and require actionable answers.
3. Provide clear transparency of what is happening along the way so that participants don’t feel like they are talking to a wall or that their input is being misused.

There are other issues that need taken into consideration as well but I feel like this list is an excellent starting point. There is no need to be fearful of crowdsourcing – just take some time for thoughtful consideration about what your end goal really is and if you are ready to listen to the wisdom of crowds.

Pay it Forward

A big part of crowdsourcing is sharing; people giving to reach a common goal without outside incentives. When developing a crowdsourcing process use social media tools like Wiki’s or Blogs to share the process, the work, the lessons learned and hopefully the success story so that everyone can learn from what you’ve done. In this way you will be paying forward the good work you received.

If you want to explore this idea of crowdsourcing and how it might enhance a project you have in mind please feel free to contact us at Andrew Miller Consulting using this page. Thanks!

The format for the event was an un-conference which is loosely based on the same social technologies that the Art of Hosting employees in creating conversations that matter. If you’d like more information on Public Media Camp check out the website and wiki here: http://publicmediacamp.org/.

The framework behind the event

Setting up an un-conference is more than just inviting people to an event, there are underpinnings to the social technologies at work at these events that need to be built and understood in order to properly provide the space and mindset for truly meaningful conversations to take place; conversations that lead to innovative solutions.

Because many of the attendees of this event are expected to go back to their home city and host a regional Public Media Camp I wanted to provide them with a better understanding of the framework. I thought that providing some background about how these social technologies work would be crucial and, according to the feedback I received, I was right.

The purpose at the center of this session:

The design behind this session was put together rather hastily (I chose to do this teach at open space the morning of Day Two which doesn’t provide the time or resources you SHOULD invest in design):

The design is built around the purpose because EVERYTHING builds around the purpose.

We began with a check-in of, “How do you feel after a good conversation?” which led to the following thoughts:

• Like my ideas were represented
• I’ve been informed
• Feel like there’s action
• Empowered
• Motivated

This harvest sheet also grew out of our first question about experience with group circles and talking pieces. One of the key insights we came up with was that we don’t understand why, as children, we use these techniques and they work so well; but then at some point we stop using them and we stop really listening to each other.

That is the death of most potentially good conversations.

Other insights were:

• Talking pieces provide a physical reminder of how long your the only person talking, like a weight
• Talking pieces and circles are “good medicine” for having conversations
• Physical space is important when planning to have a circle so everyone can fit in it

Most of the session was a reiteration of the principles behind Open Space and World Cafe, some strategies for how they’re used and the importance of purpose and asking the right question. Refer to the design document for those notes (click here for a large version).

At the end of the session we had a chance to reflect on, “What did this conversation and teaching make you feel?”

• Bewildered at first but then it was eye-opening
• Confused that this session wasn’t about “online social media” but about “face-to-face socializing” and then glad that it was because face-to-face is so important
• Energized and ready to go
• Inspired
• Empowered

It was clear that we all shared a special experience and that several more individuals are looking forward to hosting meaningful conversations in their future.

Here are some resources for further research, learning and understanding:

• http://artofhosting.org
• http://www.openspaceworld.org/
• http://www.theworldcafe.com/hosting.htm

Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9E2D2PaIcI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Briefly though I want to say that, if you have a blog or a website or some online presence and you either have advertisements on that site or you actively review products (which you are somehow compensated for) then you have moved away from neutrality. As long as that is ok with you then great.

So let’s say that you are in fact ok with bias and that you feel advertising is of some benefit to you in achieving your goal. Perhaps you’re a digital magazine, or newspaper; maybe you’re trying to build a home business as a blogger or consultant or something.

When you consider shilling for someone in this multimedia world think of how that effects your image. All too often the ads are an after-thought. Just because signing up for Adsense is easy doesn’t mean the income you derive from it won’t be more costly to you in loss of readership; or quality participation from those readers. What are you trying to provide to your audience, the audience you’ve probably worked hard to attract? Do you want them to notice you or the products that you are drowning in?

Ads that fit the feel and format - NYTimes Online

Ads that dominate and distract - WCMH NBC 4

My opinion, which I have not been paid for, is that you would be far better off to maintain control over your advertising content if you decide to have some than  you are to let your advertising content control you.

As you can see the new site has a much nicer appearance and structure than the old site. There are certainly still some bugs to work through but all in all I think the City is doing some significant things right with this site. In particular is finally subscribing to the reality of “the long tail” where in they have cleaned up the crazy drill downs, created a more intuitive front end that retains the organization but removes the maze like feel. The ability to provide important and timely information in a clearly defined space is also welcome.

Some of the layout needs to be normalized with the style (get rid of the few remaining square edges when the rest of the format is rounded edge, update graphics like the 311 so it is legible). The alert boxes/tabs, etc. should include a generic load of information when clicked on that can then be changed by the user instead of leaving it virtually blank until the user does something. This is particularly true of the events search box. The City should decide what it wants to highlight and list those events in that box until the user chooses a different, more specific search.

All in all I’d like to give the City kudos for their efforts on the updated site. I look forward to seeing the next iterations of the site and hope that they maintain it well.

Sony is one of those companies which spends a good deal of money and effort in making art our of advertising. The most recent piece, Domino City, is a great example.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcnzam_R9c4&hl=en&fs=1]

You can also check out the making of the ad here.

Sadly it is advertising that provides the greatest connection to art and creativity to the general public. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing but for the fact that so much of advertising and marketing plays off of the cheapest sensitivities of humanity; fear and greed. As our schools and communities face deepening financial crisis we see deeper cuts in public arts funding, art classes and other creative endevours.

Juxtapose that with the fact that US cities are fighting to attract a global “creative class” as the way of sustaining the city and the culture, ultimately hoping that the creative’s will attract a greater diversity of tax base and eventual financial success.

I’m a fan of creating things, or enjoy other people’s creation as a way of filling my life. What if more people spent time doing this instead of trying to merely consume? What if advertisers spent more time crafting art for arts sake, instead of for product consumption?

Web development organization Sierra Bravo came up with the idea for an event to benefit Minneapolis area non-profits that was a huge success. Title the F1 Challenge they brought together web developers tasked with the mission of (re)development of 11 area non-profit’s web presences in a 24 hour period. Pretty cool huh! Being on the board of several non-profits myself and knowing how difficult it is for most organizations to put up a good online representation of themselves I can’t get over how great this idea is.

Jody Dzuranin and Alison Colman first brought this to my attention as an event they’d like to help put on. Obviously I was immediately on-board. Last night we had an initial planning meeting with members of the Fuse Factory and CSMC (as well as others) coming together to get the ball rolling. So how can you help? Here’s what we need:

• Location – I’ve contacted Tech Columbus so if you have an in there feel free to help out. Otherwise there are certainly tons of possibilities for this. We need workspace and good solid online connectivity. This will be a weekend event.
• Developers – We need web developers/designers, either professionals or very capable students/individuals. The more developers we can commit the more non-profits we can benefit. Similarly this means more networking between cool individuals.
• Sponsors – We’ll want to provide food, etc. for participants and that means either collecting a fee from participants which may have a negative effect or finding sponsors who can benefit from participation as well.
• Volunteers – You can never have too many volunteers. If you want to help with planning or with the event itself please contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the group.

Traditional media outlets are trying to discover how to effectively compete with new media. Why don’t they do what they are best at: investigative journalism, fact based reporting and providing audience with news that is truly useful and informative. If I want biased reporting and snarky remarks about any subject under the sun I need only turn to the internet and I can find a blog or website devoted to that. Give it a try if you don’t believe me – think there’s someone who hates old people smell then google it, I did and came up with this long list of reading (click away)!

Traditional media has the resources and ability to mine the depths of stories and come up with the real meat behind the marketing. Interestingly though is the fact that many “news” outlets are so tied to marketing that they can’t use their resources without alienating the very advertisers and owners who provide the resources. This is a terrible conundrum to be in – both for traditional media outlets and for those of us who expect better.

If you take a look at most traditional media websites you’ll have a hard time finding any useful information through all of the advertising and all the flash and announcements. For a great example of terrible traditional media websites take a look at Columbus’ NBC 4 WCMH website pictured below. Sadly (and it probably is the best of some bad sites) this site was voted the best ”news” website in Central Ohio according to Columbus Monthly Magazine.