Rachel Rank and Anna Scott at 360Giving inspired this post. We are working on a Data Champion programme for UK Grantmakers and were discussing formats for a blog post on a workshop on Data Workflows. They pointed to Cassie Robinson’s concise and informative Weeknotes. So I’m trying the format for Fabriders.
Fight for Your Right to Repair
This week I recalled my love affair with my iPhone 6S plus, which I named Lady Stardust. It was a trusted companion, even after a drop while running that left a massive crack across the screen. I lived with the break for well over a year. I was so determined to keep the phone that I eventually shelled out nearly 200 GBP to have the screen replaced and keep it going. Within two months, I had an even gentler drop while walking on a trail. Picked it up to find the screen had even more damage, and on top of that, it wouldn’t start. I saw the writing on the wall and immediately after the walk, headed straight to the apple store to get a replacement. Feeling so burned by the breakage, I bought the Apple Care on top of the cost of the new phone in case the screen cracked.
I’m working with Chloé Mikolajczak at The Restart Project on designing a Community Toolkit for the ‘Right to Repair Campaign‘, and as we talked about ways to get more people involved in the campaign, I wondered how many people out there must have stories like mine? Phones are more than just hardware; they are intimate parts of our lives and our attachments are being exploited. #LongLiveMyPhone
Facilitation Skills & Movement Building
I’m exploring running a workshop on, well, running workshops, expanding on the content developed for facilitators at MozFest and my ever-evolving workshop on adult learning. Colleague Tin Geber had mentioned that he was at a loss for where to refer people who wanted to hone their facilitation skills. Likely will call it “The Workshop Lab”. Along with Adult Learning content, I’d also spend part of the day having participants work on designing their own workshops. Put feelers out for identifying a venue in London mid-march. Hopefully, I can also include a few other colleagues, including Tin.
And speaking of MozFest, had conversations with Sarah Allen and Chad Sansing on how we improve facilitator support for the next one in its new location. Chad is focusing on increasing accessibility to the festival. Along with doing a physical assessment of the new venue, he’s also looking at ways to improve the proposal process and lower the barrier and diversify first-time facilitators. The conversation with Sarah focused on how MozFest is a beautiful tactic for building an Internet Health movement and how we can give agency and share ownership with everyone, wranglers, participants and facilitators. Arrive with an idea, leave part of a movement.
A new tool
I’ve been playing with a new App called Notion this week. I first heard of it while I was facilitating Open Ownership‘s Staff Retreat as they are adopting it as a knowledge-sharing/project management tool. I’m hooked just after a week of usage. You can set up a page for a project, and then you can keep everything related to that project on the page, including notes, task lists, kan boards, etc. It’s incredibly flexible. While I am not pleased that I am using another piece of proprietary software, this one will replace several others, including Evernote and Trello.
And listening to
I’ve had Frazey Ford’s track “The Kids are Having None of it” (see below) on repeat all week. Also, loving “Done” and “U kin B the Sun”.