This week saw the launch of the Social by Social handbook – a practical guide to using new technologies to deliver social impact.
The idea behind this handbook is to help enable organisations and communities to understand the wealth of tools and online technologies available to support their work, and to allow them to communicate more effectively with their community.
Of course, online technologies are not the answer to successful community collaboration, but they are a useful tool to allow people to connect and collaborate within communities and across boundaries.
Social by Social was actually launched at the Reboot Britain event with a practical game focussing on the fictional town of ‘Slaghampton’ – which had a variety of community issues. Participants, using the Social by Social guide, worked together to consider the different tactics and tools for interaction and social engagement to help improve the plight of Slaghampton (surprisingly, no-one suggested renaming the town!) You can read all about what happened on the day here
Social by Social was commissioned by NESTA and was developed by a core team of technology and social change experts – Andy Gibson, Nigel Courtney, Amy Sample Ward, David Wilcoxand Professor Clive Holtham – who also helped facilitate the game at the event.
As I said above, online solutions aren’t the only way to collaboration, so I think it is great that the guide is that not only freely available online at www.socialbysocial.com , but that the team are also dedicated to explaining and delivering the game offline at events as well. (You can also buy a hard copy if you wish)
The guide is also Creative Commons, which means that anyone can update and adapt it for their own use, and the development of a wiki versionof Social by Social is now underway, which will allow a community to develop and plan ’for real’ online.
I think Social by Social will prove to be a very useful resource, and I look forward to seeing how it will be used within real communities…not just the fictional ‘Slaghampton’…
4 comments
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July 10, 2009 at 9:21 am
Amy Sample Ward
Thanks for the great write up of Social by Social! I’m so excited about it
I am hoping to propose a version of the game for the 2009 Chain Reaction conference, too – think it would be a terrific venue to bring people together from different sectors, different age groups, and talk about new ideas for impacting communities.
Thanks again!
July 10, 2009 at 10:12 am
chainreactionteam
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your comment – that sounds like a great idea! Lets talk soon
Laura
July 10, 2009 at 11:36 am
The Week That Was: At events… «
[...] In partnership with NESTA and the creators of 2008’s 2gether festival, Reboot Britain was an opportunity to hear from inspirational individuals such as lecturer and ‘travelling geek’ Harold Rheingold, the RSA’s Matthew Taylor, and Craig Newman of Craigslist fame (to name but a few), learn about practical community projects such as Talk About Local and Birmingham’s Social Media Surgeries, as well as collaborate in participative workshops such as the launch of the new collaboration tool Social by Social. [...]
July 10, 2009 at 1:33 pm
David Wilcox
Thanks Laura! As Amy says it would be great to run a game session at Chain Reaction, and also evolve the game with instructions so that it is playable by groups in their neighbourhoods. I’m really keen to help develop more networking in London among those interested on social/community uses of tech. Kinda Social2London.