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Blu-tack blogging and ICTD 2010 March 28, 2010

Hi Elaine

Ref our discussions on possible Dadamac sessions at ICTD2010 (not the live link-up one) - I have just thought of a possible way to organise our session (based on ones I have done like this during Teachers Talking). This approach hasn't needed a name before (I've just done it, not written about it) , so for now I'll call it "blu-tack blogging" - but any other suggestions are welcome.

The reason I like blu-tack blogging is that:

  • It is has a clear focus
  • It has structure but is also free to go off in any direction
  • It is driven by the interests of the participants
  • The person leading the session gets to know the participants and learn from them.
  • Everyone has the opportunity "to be heard", but without anyone having "to listen" to anything that does not interest them
  • There is an automatic record of the session without anyone having to write it up
  • It enables networking and discussion while it is happening - people are up and about, out of their chairs, discussing ideas while "blogging" and "commenting on blogs"
  • It can lead to genuine practical outcomes.

Introduction

At the start of the session I'll explain how blu-tack blogging works, and the focus and purpose of the session - to explore: our different roles in ICTD, approaches to collaboration, information flows (top-down or across), tackling practicalities of participation etc. I'll do this as briefly as possible, so we can get on with the practical, participative stuff. I'm hoping participants will already be up to speed on most of the issues, but in case they aren't I'll be ready to frame the session with reference to things like those mentioned below:

Mike Gurstein emphasises better collaboration between researchers and practitioners: "the real challenge is to identify/design the research in such a way that it is useful/intelligible to the practitioner" ..... "Community Informatics research if properly conducted and appropriately linked as a constitutive element of the community informatics practice can be a very considerable on-going support to the practice itself.  Research (and researchers) which are not so embedded run the very real risk either of irrelevancy, of inappropriate distancing and detachment, or even of competing for those scarce resources required for network survival.")

Richard Heeks writes that "Use of information and communication technologies for international development is moving to its next phase. This will require new technologies, new approaches to innovation, new intellectual integration, and, above all, a new view of the world's poor." He is arguing for a move away from top-down interventions and emphasises the need for collaboration between the intellectual domains of computer science, information systems, and development studies.

Interact 2009 (Ethics, Roles and Relationships in Interaction Design in Developing Regions) also addressed issues of collaboration and was open to "interaction designers working on projects aimed at ‘developing’ regions or working with marginalised groups in 'developed' regions, researchers and practitioners based in developing regions, and researchers working in the field development studies, particularly those examining development informatics."

Our Dadamac work is about enabling collaboration between UK and Africa, especially (but not only) with Fantsuam Foundation and other organisations in North Central Nigeria.

This is how the practical part of blu-tack bloggingworks

  • Participants get into groups to discuss the topic - armed with flip chart paper and felt tips in "the usual manner" of group discussions
    • Introduce themselves and their interests in the topic
    • They create a "group blog post" related to the topic
    • The blog posts can be bullet points (no need for full prose) but must be understandable without further spoken explanation.
  • The blu-tak blogs are posted
    • The "blogs" are blu-tacked to the wall, well spaced from each other. 
    • Each group reads another group's blog, discusses it as a group, and then posts a comment, on a sheet of A4 below the original blog pos.
    • This starts in a fairly structured way, but naturally breaks up into new threads (and more individual posts) as the activity continues and more comments are posted.
    • At an appropriate points the commenting ends
  • The session may continue in one of the following ways - depending on the time available and the content of the blogs and comments so far:
    • Participants return to their own blogs, read all comments, and each group prepares a group "digest" to close their blog.
    • Groups are asked to focus on a different aspect of the topic to discuss, write a new blog post, and repeat the blu-tak blogging as before
    • The blu-tack blogging ends and everyone joins together for the conclusion of the session 

For our proposed session I anticipate two main blogs: the first one on theoretical issues (which I hope will point to the benefit of new collaborations), the second on practical steps to be taken by the participants (which I hope will include first steps towards genuine new collaborations).

Skype later

I'll be around on Skype for while. Look forward to catching up with your latest thoughts

Pam