Week 9 Communities-Definition: Reflections from Margate Bookie
SIDE Labs have asked me to write about Margate Bookie’s experience of the Communities Definition programme. We’ve been building a Slack workspace for our writer community to share feedback.
In the run up to working with SIDE Labs, we previously ran trials of the Feedback Machine on Facebook and Discourse. There were problems with both these operating systems that left the impression we were nearly there in finding a bit of kit that would do what we need. What we wanted was a place where people could edit docs and chat about them in order to support each other’s writing like you might in a workshop but online.
Having a basic knowledge (and interest) in the latest tech out there, I began the programme with the goal of communicating what we need to SIDE Labs, being presented with this thing (that they’d know all about) and working with their guidance to trial and tailor it. I was very clear on what we needed. In one early brainstorm session I only needed one post-it to describe what this thing looked like. Although I didn’t have the knowledge to source it or the skills to make it, I was confident that this bit of kit was out there for us.
When SIDE Labs suggested that instead of one new mystery operating system we could use a couple together, I was resistant: this was not the plan. It was after some crisis talks that I decided to show them it wouldn’t work with a trial so they could see the issues for themselves. As it happens, it was me who needed the trial to appreciate their vision.
So we’ve built a slack channel which interacts with a googledrive to work on feedback for people’s writing in groups. We’ve learned how to make this accessible. I’ve embraced the (up to) 90% lurkers and we’ve got people writing with support. There’s a community bubbling and I underestimated their ability to tether between the apps. This tech is great at what it does, a chat format and an editing format. I have learned that by combining the use of two operating systems that are much evolved and refined, we are able to outdo what something more specific and obscure might in one place.
Although the Feedback Machine remains at an early stage in development, this is the first solution that has worked in a meaningful way. Now that the Catalyst programme is drawing to a close, I hope we are able to secure more funding to support us in rolling it out to the people who need it and cultivating that community among them.
