GoodGNUs

As more of my GTD-based system displaces my natural chaotic style, and leaves me relaxed & more on top of work, I’ve been trying to distill this sytem into a workshop for people busy with social action, and contributing to the commons, yet not as effective as they could be with the right system of organisation.

Buzzword bingo

One problem with taking systems traditionally favoured by vice-presidents of multinational companies is that activists are very wary of anything that smacks of management bull***t. In a directly-delivered workshop humour can be used to work past this, to the useful elements of systems like GTD. For example, buzzword bingo can be played, giving prizes to the first one to collect all the management-speak.

But when I attempted to turn the course into a poster, I found myself feeling very apologetic about the whole thing, and pushing the humour too strongly.

In the FOSS spirit of release early, release often, I attach the poster here - looking for useful criticism. E.g.:

• Does it get its message across?
• Does the humour (inc. crappy graphics) kill it?
• Is it meaningless - i.e. it really needs the workshop to explain it, and a poster isn’t an appropriate format?

Having had to miss Oekonux, for family commitments – and miss other events due to lack of time, or not being able to be in two places at once, I’m musing on outsourcing.

There’s been a bit of talk about outsourcing lately, especially amongst those who’ve read The 4-hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich. A book (& website) that takes personal outsourcing to its logical extreme.

But what to outsource? Tim Ferriss, the 4-hour Work Week author, has even outsourced dating – but most of us want to live our lives, just with more time for the bits that we like best.

Time crunch

Why mention this here? Well, in a busy couple of weeks I failed to find time to write on any of what kept me busy here. Not good, when I’m busy writing a workshop session on productivity, efficiency, & effectiveness (it’s called Keeping the Activist Active, if you’re interested, and I’m looking at delivering it at any third sector conference, barcamp, or unconference that will have me). No, it’s time to look at outsourcing.

I already have all of the code writing (and much of the systems architecture) from my current projects placed with people far better than me. Bits of sys admin are being examined. Writing? Well, I’m not sure how appropriate a ghost written blog is, so I’ll stick with it for now, and revieew the situation again in a year or so.

What does that leave that takes so much of my time? Networking.

A lot of time is spent by the average social entrepreneur (or any entrepreneur) on networking events, and social networking. Business breakfasts, Open Coffee, Speed networking, Co-working days, unconferences, you name it, there are a thousand opportunities to swap business cards, look someone in the eye, and contemplate a business opportunity in a new relationship.

Social Media

Online we have LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Identi.ca, FriendFeed, ThirdSectorForums, Ning, IM, IRQ, Groups, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, good old-fashioned e-mail groups, hours of time at the screen and keyboard building and refining a network of contacts that we hope will enable us to change the world, or at least bring in a small contract to help to pay the bills.

Given the amount of time spent in networking, enjoyable though it is, little wonder that one looks for a way to free some of the time to get actual work done (unless you work in PR or sales, in which case managing your network of contacts is most of your day’s work). Can it be outsourced? I’ve tried it, after a fashion. At previous businesses we’ve divided the conference schedule, and reported back on the contacts that we’ve made – it can work if you’re systematic, and report well – but that’s no use for a one man band, or someone in a small company without colleagues enough to deputise to the role.

Ghost writer

When it comes to social media, there’s a real possibility – get a concierge firm to write your Tweets and blogs to guidelines that you produce, and to reply to comments and tweets for you. It’s easy to review their work, and get reports; it can work – so why doesn’t it feel right? Because Social Media is about personal insight into what contacts are up to. Not gory details, but little snippets of a contact’s life that show you they’re a human being, not a company automaton. You can outsource your information channels, but how much personality can the contractor provide, and can it show any of the authentic you?

Hmm, an overlong post. If I can outsource something else, I’ll get more time to shorten posts. I’d be interested to hear what you’d like to outsource in your life, and what is stopping you from doing it?

I had the chance to send a poster to yesterday’s #PraDSA event but - pressed for time with a workshop to do to - I sent along a copy of the Cult of Done Manifesto, to kick off a bit of a debate.

As knowledge workers, the attendees were more sympathetic than some to the ideas, albeit with some caveats at contentious points (e.g. “People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right”!).

I used the pretty, typeset version from Joshua Rothhaas. I’m posting here to give full credit to both, and to link to the CC licence. Particularly as I have the poster here at Design Patterns for Civic Empowerment, and have been asked more about it.

Yesterday’s PRADSA showcase event wrapped up two years of research. A look at PRActical Design for Social Action from both the practitioners’ and the researchers’ side (not that they are necessarily two separate camps).
The conclusion of all this? It’s the people. Every time. Every case brought out people who as facilitators, negotiators, directors or whatever, brought about changes in community by being able to mediate between community, authority, and technology.
It’s great that individual action is shown to be so important in an age of collective shrugging and turning away from big problems [1] - but that’s a heavy burden to shoulder for anyone wanting change, of course - get up and be the change. With a call to action should come a little help, and some pointers so - what do you think activists should do to get others on board?

[1] Or turning to face them with #smallsteps, of course.