Facilitating Collective Power

The FabBlog

The FabBlog contains posts about learnings we’ve made through our work.

The Remote Team Cohesion Lab is part of a suite of workshops designed to strengthen organisations’ abilities to achieve social change through empowering individual and team structures. This lab series is a collaboration between Sarah Allen, drawing upon her expertise as the Mozilla Festival Senior Director, and Dirk Slater of […]

What We’ve Learned about Remote Team Cohesion Recently updated !

With the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk and the slow erosion of trust that users are experiencing with Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), corporate social media is in decline. Not to mention the already existing social media graveyard that includes Friendster and Myspace. Our ultimate goal is to convene […]

Corporate Social Media is in Decay

Which format is best for your next convening? On March 24th, 2022, Six session designers convened virtually to talk about the pros and cons of the different session formats we now have to choose from: virtual, in real life (IRL) and hybrids (a mixture of both). The session included Tanya […]

Virtual vs IRL vs Hybrid

My primary reflection on 2021: it was marginally less crap than 2020. Certainly not the magnitude of crap that was 2020, but with insurrections, revelations and mutations, it still seemed a year we were all happy to see come to an end. Perhaps if we keep our expectations low and […]

Learnings we will take from 2021 into 2022

On October 27th, 2021, thirteen Network-Centric Resource designers engaged in an online discussion to share challenges and lessons learned about processes and methodologies that ensure knowledge assets are ultimately used by intended communities and networks. We discussed the ways we know if resources are used and useful to their intended […]

Creating Useful, Useable & Used Network-Centric Resources

Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve run over one hundred virtual sessions, and dozens of virtual events, interacting with thousands of participants. Here are six things I’ve learned along the way. Three things I’ve learned about tech: Keep the tech simple. Only use the tools you need. For example, […]

Six things I’ve learned about virtual sessions

Before diving into 2021, I’m taking a moment to reflect and capture what happened in the world of FabRiders in 2020. What I did In 2020, I supported over 80 virtual convenings, collaborating with more than a dozen organisations in 2020. I led over 60 of those, meaning I designed […]

FabRiders’ 2020

Notes from a Network-Centric Resource Project online discussion that took place on March 12th, 2020. Network-Centric Resources are hard and take an incredibly long time to develop and get right. As we are building knowledge assets for communities and networks to use, it’s hard to measure success. How do we […]

Indicators of Success for Network-Centric Resources

Notes from a network-centric resources online discussion that took place on January 14th, 2020. A network-centric resource is a knowledge asset that supports interaction and strengthens the ability of a community or network to exist. They can be a collection of curricula such as IFRC’s Data Playbook, EFF’s Security Education […]

Sustaining Your Network-Centric Resource

Reflections on how to be, and not be, a freelancer. Recently, someone on LinkedIn wrote to congratulate me on my seventh anniversary at Fabriders. I was a bit taken aback. Had it been seven years? The story behind FabRiders My career does have seven-year phases. Night Club DJ, Non-Profit Admin […]

What I’ve Learned after Seven Years of FabRiders

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources Project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. During an online discussion that took place on September 17th, 2019, resource designers shared their lessons learned on managing user feedback. Take-aways from the discussion User feedback is a critical element […]

Managing User Feedback, Online Discussion Notes

Our work with 360Giving and UK Community Foundations to establish a network of data champions, has revealed the thirst that community foundation managers have for being data-informed to improve the impact of grantmaking. This has been reposted from our report on the 360Giving website. There is also a summary. Building […]

What we’ve learned implementing a Data Champions initiative

This has been reblogged from 360Giving Over the past eight months we’ve been developing a network of Data Champions working in community foundations across the UK. The initiative is a collaboration between 360Giving, FabRiders and UK Community Foundations. In April 2019 we held a workshop focusing on how to strengthen and improve the data […]

What we’ve learned about building data culture in community foundations

On Wednesday, May 29th, 2019, FabRiders will lead the Open Government Partnership Summit Unconference on Making Data Work for Open Government. This document will help you understand how the Unconference will be conducted and how to get the most out of it. To paraphrase US President John F Kennedy: ‘Ask not […]

How to get the most out of an Unconference

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources Project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. Our past online discussions have focused on developing content with and for communities and network’s, such as Heather Leson on curating data-literacy social learning curriculum with Humanitarians in IFRC’s Data Playbook, Greg Bloom on co-creating Data Standards with Health and […]

Gunner on Facilitative Leadership, Online Discussion Notes

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources Project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. Our past online discussions have focused on developing content with and for communities and network’s, such as Heather Leson on co-creating data-literacy curriculum with Humanitarians in IFRC’s Data Playbook, Greg Bloom on creating Data Standards […]

Mor Rubinstein, on co-creating a governance structure for Open Heroines. ...

Building a Data Culture You spoke and we listened. We’re excited to talk and share with you again. Our next consortium call will be focused on best practices. We will hear from experts researching, advising organisations on and doing the day-to-day work of building a data culture within an organisation, […]

Our Next Data Literacy Consortium User Group Meeting

This blog is cross-posted from the 360Giving Blog. Big thanks to Jeremy Peters, Rachel Rank & Mor Rubinstein for their edits and inputs. Communities are complex and getting a clear understanding of them is a journey FabRiders’ capacity building work has focused on researching data literacy, designing social learning experiencesand co-creating knowledge assets […]

What We’re Learning From Building A Data Champions Network

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources Project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. Our past online discussions have focused on developing content with and for communities and network’s, such as Soraya Okuda and EFF’s Security Education Companion and Heather Leson with IFRC’s Data Playbook, or building an event in collaboration with 2000 individuals […]

Greg Bloom, Open Referral, on co-creating data standards.

In FabRiders’ work, we have researched data literacy, designed and facilitated social learning experiences, and co-created knowledge sharing assets with communities and networks. In the first half of 2018, we co-edited IFRC’s Data Playbook (Beta), which brought together our skills in all of those areas. The approach to identifying the […]

We’re Convening a Data Literacy Consortium

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources Project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. Our past online discussions have focused on developing content with and for communities and network’s, such as Soraya Okuda and EFF’s Security Education Companion and Heather Leson with IFRC’s Data Playbook, or around collaboration […]

Sarah Allen, MozFest Director, on how to collaborate with 2,000 ...

FabRider marked its sixth anniversary this year. We continued our learnings integrating user-centred design and co-creation approaches, developing social learning curriculum, enabling data literacy and supporting the development of networks of practice, in service to improving social change efforts. We did this via collaborations with 360Giving, Aspiration, Centre for Economic and Social Rights, Civicus, the Democracy Club, Global Voices, Idea in a […]

What we learned in 2018

At the beginning of December, I facilitated a four-day meeting for the Core Team of Global Voices, a platform that makes the world’s citizen media available to everyone. As an American living full-time in the United Kingdom, for most of 2018, I’ve been absorbed by stories that are consuming the […]

Reasons to be cheerful about 2018

A network-centric resource is a knowledge asset that supports interaction and strengthens the ability of a community or network to exist. They can be collection of curriculum such as IFRC’s Data Playbook, EFF’s Security Education Companion, or events like MozFest. We’ve chosen to describe the method of developing and sustaining […]

The Lifecycle of a Network-Centric Resource

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. On Friday, December 14th, 2018, we held an online discussion with Heather Leson, Data Literacy Project Lead at the International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent (IFRC) Societies about collaborating with […]

Co-Creating IFRC’s Data Playbook, Online Discussion Notes

Outside, the air was thick with toxic smoke from the Camp Fire, with warnings to limit exposure. Inside, it was Aspiration’s 15th Non-Profit Developer Summit and people were invested in being there. It was the largest #NPDev yet, with over 150 registrants and it seems the smoke didn’t deter people […]

What We Learned at NPDev 2018

If you are considering working for a social change organisation, it is unlikely that you are doing it for the money. It is more likely that you are following a sense of purpose to make the world a better place. And you are likely a hard worker willing to put […]

Questions to ask before taking that job at a social ...

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources supports the development of participatory resources, building assets for networks and communities that share ownership, enable contribution and support collaboration. In this online discussion, Adam Hyde shared his lessons learned in enabling collaborative content creation. Note that this is a redo of an online recording which we […]

Enabling Collaborative Content Creation with Adam Hyde, Online Discussion Notes

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources project helps resource developers understand how to develop people-powered and participatory resources and establish assets for networks and communities that share ownership, enable contribution and support collaboration. In this online discussion, Amnesty International’s Milena Marin shared wisdom and lessons learned about enabling thousands of digital volunteers to […]

Crowdsourcing Human Rights Research with Amnesty’s Decoder Project, Online Discussion ...