Network Centric Resources

FabRiders and Aspiration co-organize an ongoing series of Capacity Builder Convergences. These community meetings are envisioned as a collaborative and supportive environment to connect the broad range of practitioners who enable other organizations and individuals to strengthen their strategies, principles, practices and sustainability. We aim to explore and promote open […]

Capacity Builders Convergence

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

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

On August 26th, 2020, we held an online discussion with members of our network of resource designers to compare notes, share challenges and solutions in engaging communities and networks in co-creating knowledge-assets. We were fortunate to have Chloé Mikolajczak from The Restart Project, as an anchor for the discussion, sharing […]

Best Practices for Co-Creating Network-Centric Resources

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

At Aspiration’s Non-Profit Developer Summit in November 2019, I attended a workshop on Facilitative Leadership run by Misty Avila. What struck me about the session was how Misty walked the walk, demonstrating the power of facilitative leadership through the session design, providing structure and scaffolding for participants to share and […]

Recipes for Facilitative Leadership – a workshop session design

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

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

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

This draft module was intially designed for CIVICUS, to support their partners in the Speak! Campaign. We are thankful for the invaluable contributions of the team at CIVICUS: Hannah Wheatley, Frances Topham Smallwood, Soledad Gattoni and Stephanie Brancaforte. We are also grateful for all the guidance we’ve received on designing […]

A Draft Module on Listening and Learning for Event Design

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 ...

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

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 ...

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. What’s critical to grow a community around a resource is to understand the barriers to broader participation. To help exemplify […]

Redesigning for the Responsible Data Community, 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.  A ‘build it and they will come’ approach is likely to end up with unused and unloved content. Being deliberate […]

Designing EFF’s Security Education Companion, Online Discussion Notes

WE HAVE A NEW VERSION! In the last half of 2017, we ran several workshops in places like MozFest and Aspiration’s NPDev Summit to get better insights into the steps needed to develop Network-Centric Resources. Initially, we discussed it regarding ‘workflows’ but realised we needed a better metaphor to get […]

Network-Centric Resources LifeCycles Draft

We spent most of July working in California and wanted to give a quick report back on what I learned during the trip. It gave me an opportunity to get some insights from people that are focusing on developing network-centric resources in a couple of different contexts.  A quick summary: […]

Network-Centric Resources: August Update

We’re starting a new project that looks at developing network centric resources.  Resources are assets that are drawn on by an individual or groups in order to function more effectively. Network-centric resources are living resources that aim to build capacity in networks and communities to share and disperse knowledge. They […]

We’re developing a network-centric resource on how to develop network-centric ...

Here at FabRiders, we benefit greatly from our ability to share expertise with a network of technology capacity builders through which we have developed solidarity and close friendships. Recently, LevelUp asked us to help them think about how to improve engagement with the people who are interacting with their resource […]

What are we building: communities or networks?

Our learnings never happen in isolation and we are always grateful to those who have helped inform us along the way. We learned a hell of a lot from Misty Avila and Allen Gunn (Gunner) at Aspiration, who shared their methodologies to get tool developers to focus on users’ needs.  We […]

Hacking user centred design for social change efforts.

Preamble As individuals supporting movements working for rights and justice, we believe in transparency, collaboration, open data, and shared knowledge.  We strongly believe that resource creators should strive to be accountable to the communities they aim to serve. Content creators should not dictate accessibility by the user, and should strive […]

Responsible Resource Creator Manifesto (Draft 2)