Project Report - November 2008

Overview
November saw the lead up to the closing EQUAL event in December and the closing activities for CoPIM. Work was also done on the recommendations to ESF decision-makers for social innovation (http://innovation.esflive.eu/node/760) and social reporting toolbox. There were also preparations for the social reporting of the final EQUAL event.

...

Reflections and next steps

The most interesting question at this stage is how to bring closure to this cycle in this phase of the community and what lessons could be learned for future reincarnations or transformations? What did individuals learn and what did clusters of people learn together?

(for the full report, please see the attachments)

Project Report - October 2008

(for the full report, please see the attachments)

Overview

October saw two major events - the EU Open Day workshop and the Lisbon workshop. There was also a Steering Group meeting for preparing recommendations for ESF decision-makers.

...

Reflections and next steps
There was a lot of work carried out in October, both in terms of organising and facilitating the events, and also on reporting the events and in preparing the toolbox. I learned some significant lessons from social reporting that also surface questions about the nature of this community of practice and about the online tools for the community. What follows is some of the learning plus a recommendation for future similar situations.

EU workshop
As with the process of preparing the workshop last year, much of the learning happened in the steering group in the process of preparing the content and activities. I think that the workshop itself, while of some value to the audience, was very context specific.
Recommendation: in future workshops I would keep the structure of the workshop simpler, bearing in mind that the audience were not very familiar with EQUAL. The post-it notes for comments and suggestions was very interesting and could have been used as a start of conversations online.

Website and its organisation
The life-cycle of this comunity of practice is drawing to a close, and there is little value in making any major investment in changing the website. However, it is worth noting that the value of a Drupal site being used as a blogging tool has not been fully taken advantage of at any time. For example, the social reporting of the event was carried out on a page inside the “Event reports” rather than as tagged blogposts on the front page. The exectations of people who use this site is that it is more a publishing or broadcasting tool rather than as a co-created space for inviting people into the community or of carrying conversations one step further. I am the only person who is able to use the space, which should count as a weaknesses in the CoP’s activities.
Recommendation: Given the level of online activity and interest of steering group members in online tools, the platform is probably rather ambitious. There needs to be a team of people doing the work of the facilitation and site maintenance, including dealing with the smap.

Social Reporting
The Lisbon workshop was a good opportunity to continue refining the social reporting toolbox. Here are some of the lessons from about social reporting from this event:

What is social reporting? Social reporting is a way of deepening conversations and is not a way of producing accurate reports of “what happened”. This is a different approach to the traditional idea of broadcasting results of an event and is not always apparent when people are first introduced to it. Some people whose conversational videos appeared on the website were concerned that their conversation was not appropriate and even asked for a Power Point presentation to substitute the video. Part of the reason for this is that the final outcome of the social reporting was to be published on the official CoPIM website. This meant that on the one hand people were being told that this was informal and conversational. On the other hand, their conversations were published on an official site, which gave the idea that they should be producing the official line.
Recommendation: have a separate online space for particular events, which are linked to from the main site, but which are not part of the official site.

Time.  Social reporting takes much more time than I ever anticipated. Filming, recording and interviewing are the least time-consuming activities in the social reporting process. I greatly underestimated the time it takes for post-production work, including:
Uploading files
compressing files to make them more easily uploadable and downloadable;
preparing captions for the videos and audio files, with text that puts it into context;
Editing videos;
Embedding code into the site;
Bringing closure to the conversations started by the social reporting.
Recommendation: plan and budget (people) resources for doing these tasks.

Roles: facilitation and social reporting. It was very helpful dividing the roles between facilitation and social reporting, allowing both David and I share in the planning and follow-up of each task but focusing on the activities of just one during the event.
Recommendation: pay attention to the different roles of people involved in the social reporting process.

Dissemination and voluntary social reporters.
The participation of voluntary social reporters was a very satisfactory element of the process. They were keen to learn what to do in order that they could use it in their own practice. Since the Lisbon workshop two voluntary social reporters have talked with me how they have used the concept and activities in carrying out their own event. It could have been more productive and interesting for them if we had organised more preparation for the social reporters, involving them in some of the pre-and post-event activities.
Recommendation: if possible have a skype conversation or meeting with social reporters before the event to engage them in the process at an earlier stage in the process.

Project Report - September 2008

Overview

Activity picked up in September in preparation for the Lisbon workshop, EU Open Days and Steering Group meeting which will all take place in October.

Reflections and next steps...

• September has been a busy month preparing, consolidating and developing the work of the CoP. It is interesting to compare the events of this month with the report of September last year. There has been a leap of confidence in relation to using new tools and meeting up in places that are not face-to-face.  It is important that we should review the new approaches and methods to meeting and communicating of this CoP before the end of the lifecycle in December.
• The approach of the Lisbon workshop also marks a different degree of confidence than that of the Warsaw seminar. The workshop builds on and extends the preparations and lessons learned from Warsaw, which we should also be recording as part of the shared learning of this CoP.
• The workshop in Lisbon will be another opportunity to develop the social reporting toolkit. Social reporting will also help to make a coherent link between the work of this Innovation Mainstreaming CoP and the event on Social Innovation and Transnationality to be held in Lisbon in December. 

To read the complete report and annexes, please download the attachments.

Project Report - August 2008

Overview

August was generally a quiet month. The registration process and preparations were made for the Lisbon seminar. A social reporting plan started in preparation for the CoPIM events in Lisbon and Brussels, leading up to their presentation at the EQUAL event “Powering a new future” in Lisbon in December. Preparations for the next Steering Group meeting to take place in Brussels before the EU Open Days.

Reflections and next steps

August was quiet in terms of public activity, but there were significant developments “behind the scenes” in relation to preparations for the social reporting. September will be a time for preparations for the events in Brussels (Steering Group meeting and EU Open Days), the Lisbon Workshop and “Powering a new future”.

For the full version of the report and the site statistics during August, see the attachments.

Project Report - July 2008

Overview

A July highlight was the interesting visit to the Netherlands Centre for Social Innovation (NCSI) following a Steering Group meeting at the Centre. There was a slight increase in the number of people visiting the site in July with the event report of the visit to NCSI attracting the most visits. A survey to find out the innovation strategies was sent out and the plans for the European Open Days began.

Reflections and next steps
Given the uncertainty about the future of this CoP after December there was a positive air and significant activity and suggestions for activities. The number of people completing the survey was disappointing. Some next steps:

• Pay attention to the suggestions made by the working groups at the SG meeting;
• Continue with the policy of social reporting, attracting visitors to the site and keeping a memory of the work of this CoP.
• Resend the survey and interpret the results together in order to write a report about its implications.

For a copy of the full report, please see the attached documents.

Project Report - June 2008

Overview
June was a transition month between a cycle of activities that have been extended until December. A survey about the impact of the Warsaw seminar was written and sent to members to complete online. Preparations began for the next steering group meeting and visit to the Netherlands Centre for Social Innovation.

Conclusions and Next Steps

• Continue working on the site, liking to different types of content in Community;
• Continue developing the social reporting side of the CoPIM;
• Put the names and contact details of all people who have attended CoPIM events in a database for staying in contact even if they do not want to become active members of the CoP. 

For a copy of the full report, please see the attachments.

Global Report - May, 2008

This report is a global overview of all the reports written since preparations started for the community of practice. It has three components:

• site statistics and observations
• a table which contains a summary of all the activities, products and conclusions and recommendations that were presented in previous reports
• some global reflections and recommendations

 ...

Interim conclusions and recommendations

The Innovation Mainstreaming CoP has renewed funding until December 2008. During this time it will be possible to consolidate some of the learning, prepare a legacy for what has happened and build bridges into the future, whether this future is as a CoP that continues on its own or if it merges with other CoPs in the ESFlive network. Outside the ongoing collection of tools from different member states, some of the ways this CoP could continue with these objectives are:

• Build on the learning that happened in preparing and presenting the Warsaw seminar for the Lisbon seminar - both in terms of the preparation processes and the output of a seminar (reflections and recommendations reproduced in Annex 3);
• Improve the methods for social reporting of events, tools and learning processes through more use of videos and other modes of reporting, particularly through the newsletter;
• Continue refining the tools and the presentation of the tools on the site.
• Increase site visibility through more blogs and social reporting on the site as well as more traditional means.
• Carry out a self-assessment as part of a helpful legacy for any future development of this CoP.

 For a full copy of the report and a year's view of the site statistics, see the attachments.  

Project Report - April 2008

The principal activity in April was the Warsaw seminar which took place at the beginning of the month.

Recommendations

The Innovation Mainstreaming CoP is nearing the end of a cycle and the beginning of another. This would be a good moment to review the domain, community and practices, including such questions as:

• Who are the community and who are the clients in this community of practice?
• Which roles are needed for carrying the domain, community and practice forward?
• What are the different ways people come together in this CoP and what can we do in relation to the technology and tools to improve that?

For a copy of the full report see the attachment. See the annexes (attached) for site statistics and for notes and recommendations about the Warsaw seminar.

Project Report - March 2008

Overview

March was a month of preparation for the seminar and Warsaw, with weekly telephone conferences being an important and emerging practice for preparing events. There was an increase in tools and in the organisation of tools into domains....

Recommendations/next steps

• This month saw telephone conferences become a tool in the repertoire of this community’s practices. This practice could be one to reflect on and add to the tools and resources of this community.
• A newsletter was foreseen for the month of March, but the articles were not forthcoming and I did not follow them up. A newsletter is an important element of a communities activities and it is worth some investment of time if sponsorship of the community will continue beyond May.
• Now that tools can be filtered by domain it is important that all tools are re-entered so that they can be found in a tool domain search. At the SG meeting in Paris it as also agreed that tools would be reposted with catchy, explanatory titles and brief descriptions.

See attachment for full report and site statistics...

Project Report - February 2008

February began with a productive Steering Group meeting on the 1st day of the month at Racine in Paris. Preparations for the seminar in Warsaw were underway in the google group, a telephone conference and the opening of a group in Polish.

For the full report, see the attached document.

Project Report - January 2008

General activities

January saw an increase in the number of tools in the site and some subsequent suggestions for changing the process and presentation of the tools on the site. Preparations for the seminar in Warsaw were the focus of conversations in the first teleconference held in CoPIM. A conversation was started about evaluating the CoP in google groups.

Conclusions and Next Steps

The year started with more activity than in previous months, particularly as more tools are being entered as resources. As the number of resources increases it becomes clear that they need to be organised and presented in more user-friendly ways.

As more people start to register on the site it becomes all the more important to make people feel welcome and to start connecting different people up with each other. This is a fundamental aspect of being a community of practice rather than a website or a project. It was foreseen that this practice would be a part of the role of a facilitator but it does not have to be. Such an important role should be re-evaluated in the light of the dynamics of the way the CoP is developing.

As the CoP starts to grow it would be useful to think of how an evaluation of the health and sustainability of the CoP by its members would take place. One suggestion would be to have a sub-group of the Steering Group to carry out a self-assessment of the Innovation CoP to provide a springboard for reflection and learning by the full Steering Group.

The telephone conference was an important development in the repertoire of this community’s communication communication tools and practices. The practices, such as making notes and recording the calls, is one that could be developed and shared with other communities of practice in the ESFlive network.

See attachment (and annex) for full report

Project Report - December 2007

Overview

During December there was a face-to-face meeting for facilitators in Lisbon and a face-to-face meeting in Brussels for the Steering Group. Most of the activity, both for facilitators and steering group members appears to take place in face-to-face meetings and encounters.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Visits to the online space were down in December compared to November, which is what you might expect over Christmas. In the meantime there are some issues to be considered:

• It is a challenging job for the facilitators who are not familiar with the tools and there is little online activity for them to engage in. This may be a good time to review role and expectations of the facilitator.
• In a community of practice there are three elements that need to be nurtured: the domain, the community and the practices. As we near the end of a cycle of the CoP (in May) it would be helpful to reflect in what ways these three elements are being cultivated and what strategies could carry the CoP forward.
• A review of the site and the site’s content in the form of blogs, re-ports, tools and news should be carried out in the light of the statis-tics reporting the movement on the site.

See attachment for the full report.

Project Report - November 2007

November was a quiet month in terms of the online space, with the main activities being a preparation for the Steering Group and Facilitators meetings to take place in early December.

Conclusions and Recommendations:

- November saw a consolidating of activity online after several events in October and preparation was made for November. There are probably many activities taking place offline and it would be helpful if an overview or a story could be written by a facilitator that gave other members a glimpse into what is going on in the national groups.

- The site would also be richer for outsiders if there are regular blog-posts written about the domain (social innovation) and about the tools. Ideally, these should be written by people who have insights into the products, processes and their impact in EQUAL. Blogposts that get readership are usually fairly brief and written in a journalistic style or with a human angle. They are also more attractive if they have photos or audio files.

- The Sound Planning CoP regularly take brief videos of people who are part of the network or from events that they organized. These videos are stored in YouTube and provide an interesting blog post for community members. This use of videos is one that could be adopted and/or adapted for the CoPIM. A brief video interview with people involved in social innovation or the tools would be an interest-ing item for readers and members. Do EQUAL offices have a video camera that could be lent to the facilitators for this purpose?

(See, for example, “Sound Planning meets Etienne Wenger” http://soundplanning.esflive.eu/node/291 and “A conversation with Gerhard Braeunling” http://soundplanning.esflive.eu/node/298)

See attachment for full document.

Project Report - October 2007

October was a month with several face-to-face meetings and many opportunities for self-reflection about the IMCoP. There was a Steering Group meeting on the morning of the 9th October before the workshop at the Open Days of the European week of cities in which the SG and one facilitator participated. Members of the Steering Group made up a panel at a workshop in the afternoon where they talked about innovation mainstreaming to a more general audience attending the European event. On the 17th October the IMCoP presented the case of Innovation Mainstreaming CoP at the session with Etienne Wenger and during the same afternoon there was a meeting with Gerhard Braeunling from the European Commission and other members of the network of European communities of practice.

Conclusions and Recommendations

- The issues of needing more Resources on the site, increased marketing and outreach for the CoP, and more concern about the role of the facilitator, continue to be important ones. However, these questions may need to be considered in the light of the continuation (or not) of the IMCoP in the new programme.

- The question of the continuation of the CoP in the new programme has strategic implications for what to do in the forthcoming months. Should facilitators and Steering Group members invest time to make sure that more tools and resources are put into the site? What is the invitation to new members if the project is going to end in May? If, as John Neill suggested, the facilitator role is a pilot study, then what implications does that have for the work they are doing now and in the future? Preparing this vision for the at the next Steering Group meeting and/or online would help to determine the next steps in the IMCoP.

- There were two issues that arose in the session with Etienne Wenger about the IMCoP. One of those issues is that of domain – to what extent is Innovation Mainstreaming a domain that is sufficiently part of people’s identity that they feel the need to invest their time in the CoP? A second issue was that of “nurturing” the CoP. Who has the role of nurturing and tending to the relationships in this community of practice? Nurturing, the role of people who care about the domain, is often part of the role of facilitators. However, as Willem pointed out, their work has been a slow and time-consuming business as they research the “territory” and try to establish local relationships in order to help give people what they want. My observation of Wenger’s model is that facilitators have been contracted as “support” rather that “nurturers” whereas a sustainable community of practice requires both. Both these issues, that of domain and of the absence of “nurturer/s” of the community, could be reviewed by the Steering Group when considering a next phase.

See attachment for full report.

Project Report - September 2007

Report summary

September was a quiet month as preparations were made for the coming year. A newsletter was published, there was no Steering Group meeting although there were some online preparations for the Workshop at The European Week of Regions and Cities. At least one member of the steering group became more confident about blogging on the site.

Report conclusions

- While there was a dip in activity this month it was important that the Steering Group advanced their confidence in writing blog posts on the site.
- Currently the main place for communicating is in the Google discus-sion group where there are forty-three members from the Steering Group, Facilitators and guests. However, there are some messages and reflections that reach out beyond this group in Google and it is important that these are regularly posted in members’ blogs on the IMCoP site.
- There is still a need for further clarification of Facilitators’ roles and for more work on marketing and outreach.

See attachment for full report.

Project Report - August 2007

Report summary: As in most online communities in Europe, there was little activity in the commu-nity due to holidays. Some new members registered and browsed on the IMCoP site. The key activity achieved was the settlement of most of the facilitators' contracts.

While there was little activity in August, the newsletter is underway and some people have started to join the online space. September is an important month to focus attention on community building. Some key steps to do this include:

• Increase site resources. There are still very few resources on the site. This should be considered a priority for the next phase. This includes getting more resources and regular contributions of blog articles.
• Invite others. The single most effective way to get someone to join the community is to offer them a personal invitation. Facilitators, Steering Group members and any other existing community members should be encouraged to personally invite others to join.
• Emphasize and practice welcoming new members. Ideally the facilitators and Steering group will develop and implement a process to welcome new people into the online space. The welcome should include suggestions for how a member might use the space and participate in the community.
• Write and publish the newsletter a regular schedule with diverse contributions. The newsletter has been slow in being published this month and not all facilitators have been able to contribute.
• Continue to refine facilitator roles. It would be helpful if facilitators could see more clarity about their roles in the CoP and it is strongly recommended that they attend attend the next Steering Group meeting in Brussels.

Project Report - Phase 1

This report makes up the first phase of the project, the aim of which was to:

1. set up initial communication spaces for coordinating the project and designing the space;
2. research members of the potential community, its activities, and ways of supporting them.

The report: EQUAL_report_February.doc

Annex 1: Notes from the first meeting in Lisbon ANNEX 1_Design phase 1.doc

Annex 2: SG "to-do list" after the first meeting in Lisbon ANNEX 2_EQUAL - SG to do list (content).xls

Annex 3: Reflections on the survey ANNEX 3_Survey Reflections.doc

Annex 4: Social network map (you need to look at this document online so that you can zoom in to see the details) ANNEX 4_EQUAL_network_map.pdf

Annex 4b: Questions raised by the social network map ANNEX 4b_socialmapreflections.doc

Annex 5: The scenarios ANNEX 5_CoPInnovationScenarios.doc

Annex 6: Internal monitoring and evaluation policy ANNEX 6_EQUAL_onlinespace_ME.doc

Project Report - Phase 2

The aim of phase two was to prepare the initial site and community development.

The report of this period is here: EQUAL_report_April.doc
And the annex is here: Annex 1_Full SG notes_7May2007.doc

Project Report - Phase 3

The aim of phase three was to develop the Innovation Mainstreaming site and launch it in the ESFlive network of sites, and to integrate the steering group members and facilitators as members of the online space