Reflections on reuse: it saved us hours in developer time
We’re now half way through the Community Explore programme, delivered as part of Power To Change and Promising Trouble’s Discovery Fund — a fund to develop new ideas and learn new skills.
We’ve been supporting community businesses to undertake user research and explore a challenge they have identified, and the opportunity community technology presents to tackle that challenge. As we kick off phase 2 of the programme, participants taking part in the Community Explore programme will start developing new ideas and prototypes, all of which will be made freely available for others to reuse and learn from. Are you interested in how reuse can help you save time and money to deliver more impact? Concerned about the risks of reuse? Read on!
It saved hours in developer time because we didn’t have to build something from scratch.
Ellen Smyth, Programme Lead at CAST speaks to Rachel Conlisk, Founder of Creative Active Lives and a participant on the Community Explore programme to hear more about how open working and reuse helped her drive more impact for young people.
Please could you introduce yourself?
Hey there I’m Rachel, Founder of Creative Active Lives, CIC. And my project for the Discovery Fund is to build from the ground up a community Minecraft server for children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).
Tell us a bit about how you support young people?
We have experience delivering autism friendly Minecraft Clubs in partnership with Club Minecraft. We also provide inclusive play sessions and holiday clubs for the council. The children I work with are often socially isolated and excluded from playing online. Some young people experience difficulties making friends because of the social implications of their needs. They find their safe place in the gaming environment and they’re happy there. It is their social space.
But there are barriers for these young people to play online because it’s not a safe environment. A lot of them have experienced really awful bullying and have come to me from that place. Others are just never allowed to take part in online gaming because it’s not safe due to the nature of their particular vulnerabilities. And so Minecraft Clubs are all about creating a safe space for these young people to explore the online gaming world in a safeguarded environment.
What challenges do young people experience accessing this social space?
In one of my first research interviews a disabilities group leader asked me about how kids that can’t use the keyboard play Minecraft. How do they join in? I just was a bit dumbfounded. And I had to say, well you know I can’t help with that. I said that’s something that the parents would need to support with. For example helping the child use the keyboard.
I didn’t like my answer but it was the only one I had. I didn’t know enough about the needs of these young people. And I don’t like to say I don’t know, and I can’t. That’s not in my vocabulary.
So I thought to myself well, you know, that’s awful, isn’t it? We’re creating this resource for kids and for disability charities. But there’s a whole load of kids who can’t access this resource that I’m spending all this time and money developing.
It helped me realise there is more to the server than setting up a server. It’s about not leaving anybody behind, because that’s not fair.
What did you do next?
I started reading everything and anything about gaming that I could possibly find online. I became obsessed. I was asking, who am I leaving out? And how can inclusion be a full part of this project? It’s no use saying it’s an inclusive server when I’ve just told someone that half their kids can’t use it.
I was researching anyone who worked in gaming for children and young people with additional needs. I wanted to see what was going on all over the country, not just in Minecraft. You never know what you find online. I came across this amazing charity SpecialEffect.
They created some open source eye-gaze control software for Minecraft that works with a low budget gaming eye gaze controller. This allows users to use a keyboard to play Minecraft, by using their eyes.
How did that help?
The software is open source and can be adapted for any server. I was absolutely blown away that such angels exist honestly.
One of our developers was able to take their open source software and integrate that technology with our own Minecraft server. So children who don’t have use of their limbs for gaming are able to join our Minecraft server using the low budget eye gaze technology. They can still join in and play Minecraft with us.
What benefits did that bring?
We could, in seconds, provide a solution for young people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to play our games. That has saved us a lot of time.
It saved hours in developer time because we didn’t have to build something from scratch. We could just use their code and tailor it to our own Minecraft Server. So there is a big cost benefit there.
Being able to use the code developed by SpecialEffect helped us take this huge leap forward. We could suddenly include a whole new group of people in our Minecraft Clubs who are physically disabled.
I’m hoping that we’ll be able to give that kind of jump start to other social organisations in the future, as we create a lot of our own code too and it is all open source for others to use or adapt. We save everything on GitHub so anyone can see and use the code, you can log changes, make comments, start a discussion, it is such a useful space.
How did SpecialEffect react to you using their code?
They were so pleased that someone else was using it. We’ve been able to tell the people who created the code that yes, it’s really useful! So they know that it works, even beyond what they designed it for. They were really happy that we had managed to adapt it for our own server.
You know that feedback is so important, it helps motivate you to keep going because you see you’re doing something good. It’s a lovely world, the open world is, isn’t it? Everyone is very helpful.
What makes the open world such a lovely world?
I personally come from a place where collaboration is better than competition. We’re all stronger together. I think there’s always enough space in the world for more resources that support people in need. So if you can come up with something that’s useful and valuable, it’s important to get it out to as many people as possible.
We should all share our resources with the people who are in the epicentre of where support is needed. That might mean sharing your code so someone else can use it to create a new service, or sharing resources that will help another organisation on their journey.
What would you say to someone who is concerned about the risks of making their IP open?
I really hear that. I’ve spent a lot of money and time creating the service we provide for young people and I’m so competitive. Giving away intellectual property and ideas is not me at all. It’s been very, very, very hard to do, to start with.
I didn’t want to create all of this just for someone else to copy it! I’ve worked really hard. What if someone used our code to create something I don’t like? You’re basically letting anyone have your IP, your thoughts, your best work. You’ve got to make your peace with that, move on and just accept it. Everyone will always copy a good idea whether you put the code out there or not.
What if someone uses your work to create something you don’t agree with?
You can’t control what people are doing with the resources you share openly. That’s the thing about open source. You have to just learn to deal with that. There’s all the heart that’s gone into what you created, which isn’t written in the code, I try to remember that.
Someone could take your code and use it to make millions. But you know well, I can’t do that, or I would have. It’s not what my service is about. You have to look at them, and you know say — okay, well done. And then hope they remember you in future.
I can’t choose who is the recipient of my code. It’s either out there or it’s not.
I remind myself that you can’t control everything. But by making your code open, someone else will benefit. Even if that is one person surely it’s worth it.
It took a real shift in mindset that I really had to consciously make. And remind myself daily of why I’m working in the open.
What helped you shift your mindset?
I realised that actually, the open world is a very good place to be in. You’re in very good company when you do it. It’s nice to work in a space with other great organisations who are willing to share their knowledge for good.
The open working world is full of the nicest people and I’m just really glad to be able to be one of them now. Working in this way has helped me raise the profile of what technology is available out there for people to use. We’ve been able to share the fact that this technology already exists with people who had absolutely no idea. This is a big benefit because there are people out there that really need it.
As part of your grant agreement for the Discovery Fund you have agreed to share all your work and resources openly. What do you think about open working and reuse being a condition of your funding?
I think it’s really important that this is in the grant agreement, because it just gives you that clear boundary and expectation. We’ve been given this fantastical amount of money, I mean fantastical! So if others can benefit from what we create with that then we should be helping make that happen. If it wasn’t in the grant agreement it might not be on our radar to make our IP open or share our resources. It helps to have a set in stone expectation, because otherwise you might not do it.
What support do you need to continue sharing your work openly?
I think it’d be great if we could get some kind of help or pointers on how to share our work. How do you get the word out there to people who might use our code? Because it’s really hard. Sometimes you think, oh, I bet loads of people would love this! But then what do you do, go knocking on doors? It’s hard to explain who you are and what you’re trying to help them do by sharing your work sometimes. It’s hard to get across how important it is to learn from one another. And people are suspicious when you say: this is free.
So it would be great if someone could help us think about who we should be sharing our work with, how to communicate it, where to share? How can we make the best use of this asset and the money that we’ve used to create it?
What advice would you give to someone worried about sharing their work in progress?
Open working doesn’t stop you failing, but it puts you in good company when you do fail. We can all learn from each other’s failures and hopefully it stops you making the same mistakes as others. Nobody’s perfect. We all fail. I think one of the other barriers that gets in the way of people sharing their resources openly is fear about putting something out there that isn’t good enough. What if it’s still a bit messy or doesn’t work properly, is it good enough to share?
But one of the great things about putting your code out there for the people to look at on GitHub for example, is that you’re not just putting it out there as a done thing. You can share work in progress and ask for help. And then people who’ve used your work in the past, or who are interested in what you’re doing can come and help you. And they do!
Don’t be scared of sharing something that is incomplete or wrong. You can use it to get combined brain power on things, which is really powerful. When someone else uses your work you create a positive ripple in the world and that’s just so cool.
Interested?
Are you interested in how open working and reuse can support you to deliver more impact? Here are some useful resources:
- Shared Digital Guides: A growing bank of digital guides, written by charities, for charities.
- Catalyst library of assets: More than 600 resources developed by charities on CAST & Catalyst programmes, and made available for others to use: contains project roadmaps, user personas, handbooks, visual design assets — and lots more!
- Space for Reuse: This service provides direct support to social impact organisations and funders, helping them to reuse technology and sector-developed research.
- Data Collective: A community for people using data in the social sector.
- Creative Commons, a nonprofit organisation that provides licenses and tools to grant copyright permissions for work.
- Open working toolkit: A free toolkit designed to help charities, funders and other organisations share their work openly.
We’re here to help! Feel free to get in touch at ellen@wearecast.org.uk
