This year, I'm staying in on for Penguin Day and am facilitating sesion on Open Content and Nonprofits. Here's the description.
While there is much discussion about the promise of "Open Source" software, there is arguably more promise and potential in creation and utilization of "Open Content" for nonprofit needs. This session will define core concepts including the Creative Commons license, and then offer examples of how open content is already benefitting the nonprofit sector. Participants are encouraged to bring their own open content ideas, questions and challenges to the dialog
So, for demonstration of the value of open content, I am remixing two existing games for these session:
- The Social Media Game from David Wilcox
- Lucy Chilli's Copyright and Commons Publishing Game
I'll start the session with a very brief overview of examples (NGO in a box - Open Publishing) and an overview of the CC licenses. Next, we'd break into 3 small groups and each group would be given a pack of cards. The cards would include: creative commons license cards (source material and published material), publishing tools/platforms, and types of publishing content/projects. Each group would be asked to:
1. Brainstorm a context - ngo, goals, strategy, type of project
2. Pick tools, publishing license
3. Discuss issues/questions that come up
4. Bring everyone together for a report out.
Need your feedback:
- The cards will be in three categories: CC license, publishing tools/platforms, and types of projects. I'll include some blank cards, but need to identify specifically what licenses, what tools, and what types of projects. Do I need anything type of card? Ideas appreciated.
- I'm debating about giving each group a different scenario - like the questions here
- What examples exist of Open Content/Publishing in nonprofit sector?
Some questions/issues/further exploration:
Map the Unix Read Write Permissions to Creative Commons Licensing
Matrix
http://www.lucychili.net/au/
Question: Is CC by/NC considered open content? Why? or Why Not?
Resources:
Resources from CC site to have handy - will be wireless in the room:
To download graphics of license and logos (here)
The simple how to choose a license - what changes with 3.0?
The CC Comic - Use some of the images in cards:
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/how1
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/comics1
Legal Terms:
http://creativecommons.org/about/legal
Detail FAQ
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ
Educause
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7023.pdf
You asked me for a comment, so...
Perhaps it works with your audience, but if it were me, my first reaction is: I hate small groups, I hate small groups, I hate small groups.
Although people say that small groups 'give everybody a chance to talk' what they *actually* do is serve to eliminate minority and dissenting opinion.
For example:
Suppose there are two options, (a) and (b). Suppose that 4 out of five people prefer (a), but on hearing (b) one of them will be convinced to switch to (b) (this is a *very* common situation).
You have 15 people. That means that at the start, 12 of them prefer option (a) and 3 prefer (b). After the discussion, 3 switch allegiance, so you have 9 people preferring option (a) and 6 preferring option (b). Almost an even split; certainly option (b) is a respectable alternative.
But imagine that instead we split into three groups of 5. Now in each group, four people prefer (a) and one prefers (b). Although one person is convinced, there's still 3 people that prefer (a). So the group moderator reports (a). The results come back from the groups: everybody prefers (a). The preference for (b) has been squelched out of existence.
But that's not all...
The division of people into small groups is almost never random. Often, group leader are assigned by the organizer. Even when groups form on their own, the group leader tends to be the person deemed most favorable to the organizer.
Now you have a situation where, even if more than half of the people have switched their allegiance to (b), the organizer, who is loyal to the original option of (a), will report (a). This completely subverts the will of those who preferred (b), and worse, leave the (b) supporters with no option, no access to the plenary floor (without 'causing a disruption').
I have seen small groups abused so regularly and so often I have some to conclude that when small groups are employed it is almost *always* about maintaining the power of the organizers rather than giving people a voice.
To me, 'giving people a voice' does not merely mean 'allowing them to speak' but also 'enabling them to be heard'. When somebody is shuffled off to the obscurity of a small group, that voice has been stifled, not empowered.
The use of small groups, rather than empowering people, instead elevates a few people - the 'representatives' - into super-voices, and by design silences all other voices (again, any dissent from the official report is 'disruptive').
There is yet another way in which small groups stifle dissent: and that is by the creation of an expectation of resolution.
I was at a meeting where a small group process was discussed just this week, that would take place in a school context. Like everything else in schools, the 'discussion' was being carefully regimented. Three hours were allotted, with the requirement that the groups "come to consensus" in that time.
In my experience, the only way to get people to arrive at a "consensus" on anything in three hours is to run roughshod over their right to voice their dissent. Perhaps a vote may be taken after three hours of discussion. But on nothing but the most trivial of issues should any group (of any sort of diversity) be expected to reach consensus.
What is happening, of course, is that a consensus will be 'declared' rather than reached. The time pressure and the peer pressure in the small groups (where supporters of a minority view will have been isolated from any others sharing that view) will force dissenters to 'go along'. In these exercises, to, there is nothing major at stake - why be a holdout, when the process appears to be so much more important than the result?
Finally, although it doesn't really come up here, I will point out that small groups are often used to ensure that a superiority of numbers conveys a strategic advantage. You see this at policy conferences, where concurrent sessions are held to discuss different issues. I often find myself wanting to comment on more than one subject, but find that because of the structure I can only address one thing.
I have nothing against games like this, other than a passing observation that they may feel a bit contrived. But I really dislike the small group process. Because the most disempowering thing you can do, in any setting, is to impose a structure that ensures that voices won't be heard.
Just my view.
Posted by: Stephen Downes | March 14, 2007 at 02:29 PM
Stephen:
Wow, I had never looked at small groups in that way.
However, I agree with the commentor back at your blog:
https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11679714&postID=6343907334782331633
If participants come to a small-group activity with entrenched and polarised positions and a desire to press home their views, the endeavour is a waste of time. This happens to be the type of debilitating exercise we experience most often in political and commercial settings. On the other hand, if participants come with strong opinions held weakly, with a commitment for exploration and learning, or as delegates rather than stakeholders representing a public, then facilitated small group activity can be very rewarding.
I think this small group will be the latter ...
Now, my big question is in your looking at copyright/cc instructional materials - what are some of the best easy for non-lawyers to understand in addition to the stuff on CC site?
Posted by: Beth Kanter | March 15, 2007 at 04:20 AM