Bridging the people-technology divide ... with a few bits of paper

Last night I witnessed an impressive example of the power of collective intelligence at work on how social media and other technologies can  change people's lives and benefit local communities.
The setting was not a high-tech lab or forum of Web 2.0 developers ... it was a community centre in Bristol, and the experts combining their wisdom were local residents.
We got together to help the city council develop its bid to win the Digital Challenge, a competition among ten finalists to show the UK Government how well they are improving online services and ensuring all citizens benefit from the Net.
As part of the bid - due in January - the finalists have to include storyboards showing how the wireless networks, access centres, e-learning, e-democracy, e-commerce ... e-whatever projects will be used by different people in their area.

The difficulty in doing this exercise  is combining two areas of expertise, and two groups ... those who understand the technology, and those who understand people and their everyday lives. There isn't always enough overlap.

Last night we started from the people side, and offered the local experts of Lawrence Hill, meeting at Community at Heart , some props to help them get to grips with the technical. We didn't say so at the beginning, but it was the first time that Drew Mackie and I had tried out the workshop game we've developed for the Digital Challenge project team. Here's how it worked.
Before the event, we assembled a set of over 30 cards which represented the range of projects that any Digital Challenger might consider in their bid. You can download the cards as a pdf here.
Kevin O'Malley and Steve Parry, who are working on Bristol's bid, pulled out ones that most matched their ideas. They included community access, wireless networks, mapping linked to social media, storytelling and a content aggregator.
Then after an introduction to the Digital Challenge and the purpose of the game, the locals split into two groups to work with Steve and Kevin.
We gave each group a set of cards split into the pre-determined "must haves", plus optional extras. We also provided a cast of fictional characters - download here.
The first task was to review the characters - who should benefit from the Challenge programme - and make sure there was a possible match between their needs and the ideas on the cards. Additional ideas could be added.
Then came the creative part. In smaller groups of three or four, our local experts developed storyboards showing how the character they had chosen - or invented - could use the technology. Just to liven things up - and add to the rising tide of giggles and laughter - Drew threw in a few personal crises or opportunities that might crop up for the characters ....serious illness ... offer of a college place ...
It worked really well. Not only did everyone manage to understand enough of the technical options to contribute, they were able to turn these into life-enhancing stories any of their neighbours could understand too.
The secret, of course, was conversation. People could fill in gaps of understanding for each other, and spark ideas.
We only had two hours for the whole exercise, so the stories were outlines. Given more time, perhaps on another day after time for reflection, I'm sure we could have filled them out substantially ... and the local Connecting Bristol team will continue the discussion. I asked two people how they thought the event had gone.
Local artist  Jenny Sheehan (left) said she felt that the exercise helped to make a connection between technologies and people, and trigger thinking about how it could really help transform people's lives. A collaborative, community approach meant there was scope to bring costs down, to create a resource bank, and encourage skill sharing.
Kevin O'Malley (right) is one of those responsible for developing the Bristol bid, and he said that so far a lot of the bid development had, inevitably, been technical. The evening's exercise provided a way of bring this work into the realm of real people, with real issues, in a real community. Drew and I felt some satisfaction that a low-tech set of props (bits of paper) had help bridge the people-technology divide.
We'll revise the game in the light of helpful suggestions from the players - who said they didn't mind being first testers - and post it to our Usefulgames site with results from Bristol and revised instructions. I'll provide an update here too. In January we are running a session in Manchester.
Update 1. Drew has now transcribed the stories, and you can download the sheets as a pdf here.
Update 2. More discussion about the game over on the Connecting Bristol site and Straight Outta Easton

Comments

[Steve Woods]

David

It was great to take part in your first run of the game and trust you and Drew found it useful.

One thing I believe came to the fore quite starkly was the sheer amount of talent there is in communities which most visitors to our major cities never go near (I've lived in one for 3 decades).

Even though some of the topics we discussed were quite high tech it was good to see appropriate technology in use - paper and pens - even if my handwriting perplexed some participants.

Looking at the cards again tonight, some of the jargon may need to be demystified/changed for ordinary mortals and take a more red top than broadsheet tone. Specialist terminology sometimes cannot be avoided and intelligible explanations provided. I realise in professional situations jargon is unavoidable; inflicting it on the public is not.

[The Bristol Blogger]

David,
I'd have two (related) issues with this process:

1. In project management terms there is a large element of putting the cart before the horse happening here. You have identified a series of solutions and are now consulting to see how they might solve problems. Ordinarily stakeholder consultation would take place to identify problems and then the solutions would be tailored to fit the identified and agreed problems.

2. You have identified 'community' very narrowly as residents. The causes of 'multiple deprivation' in areas like Barton Hill are very complex. Off the top of my head I'd identify issues such as geography, transport, planning, housing and education as extremely relevant. All these things are managed for the community by experts and professionals. At what point and in what role will these professional communities and stakeholders be engaged?

[Clair Silk]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say how much fun i had working with you guys. It was the first time i had done a games workshop in relation with Bridging the people-technology divide. It all sounded quite technical when i was first told about it, and a little "heavy" going. But we arrived at C@H with a few friends (safety in numbers), and listened to you guys explain what it was all about. I had so much fun, splitting up into small groups, some people i knew and some i didnt but that did not matter because we were all new to the game workshop. I have to admit i too were so pleased to see game cards on good old fashioned paper, although some of the jargon and even the wording was a little confusing but we talked through together what our interpretation of the cards were and verified it with one of the prof team. We went through what our area currently had, what will be coming soon and our wish list. I have to say our group were a little greedy with our wish list but never mind. We then choose a charecter from a list provided that we felt as a group could identify with. We then used the technology to aid our charecter through a time line from 1 to 3 years ahead, we were also given little incidents to deal with from the prof team along the way. Our little incident was that our charecter suddenly had a serious illness. Anyway i thought our time line story was funny. But seriously it made me think about the way in which we view and use technology, not only in our area but as a whole day to day. I would definatley do this again and encourage others to get involved. You dont even have to know much about the technology, I have only had an email address for two weeks.

And a comment for those playing the game in a group- nominate someone to read the cards out and the charecters info, its so much easier than say four people all speaking at once about different things.

And if you want anymore technical or indepth comments i am sure somebody elses comments will suffice.

A local resident of Barton Hill/Lawrence Hill

[David Wilcox]

Steve - point taken on jargon. We'll be revising the cards to make them more people-friendly! Any suggestions welcome.
Bristol Blogger - fair general points about consulting on 'givens' ... though I don't know what previous work has been done by the local team. Maybe they can expand on that and the other issues.