I’ve spent the last three weeks floating around the Webmaker MOOC as a ‘Super Mentor’, I believe there are about 90 of us with this title – mentors with various backgrounds, interests and experience helping make the #teachtheweb experience a great one.  So far the makes, remixes, conversations, blogs, and various contributions have been incredible.

This week was week #3 – Open Web.  The heart of my contribution to Mozilla, paired with the opportunity to collaborate with people I’ve never met?  Yes please :)   My goal was to take the Open Web challenge of sharing something in Github.

I don’t need to write much more than my new collaborative friend Sheri Edwards did in her post .   ( Ah!  working in the open even saves blog post writing !  )

I worked on a  scrolling-story-telling page based on our group’s collaborative work: Janet’s blog and feedback, Sheri’s video (mashing so many things including my friend Clint Lalonde’s blog) .  This is the current version:

Scrolling Site about Working in the Open.   (Start at the top and slowly scroll down)

Pretty impressive hey?  As a developer I must be a brilliant to written all of that complicated code one week,  and *then* super-tech skills to commit to github.  I could let you believe that but really this is all I did:

1. Google for storytelling sites/javascript
2. Found Super Scrollorama JQuery library
3. Clicked the Download Link (after checking out license)
4. Opened the index.html in a code editor and changed text – added in the video embed at the bottom
5. Opened the css/style.css file and made a few changes to background color, and h3 font sizes.

Once I finished my first draft I checked it into Github.  Sheri brought it to my attention that a lot of Github documentation jumps to show-stopping like ‘terminal’ And while I often use terminal I would invite #teachtheweb participants to try using one of the awesome github GUIs available.  I often use Github for Mac,  and I’ve seen Github for Windows used  as well, you don’t need terminal skills.

Rather than write some long detailed blog on the workflow for working with shared projects in Github using one of these GUIs (or terminal), I’m collaborating with fellow Super Mentor / Mozilla Rep Soumya Deb to hold a Github Hangout demonstrating how two people can work on a project together using Github and one of these GUIs. Stay tuned!

A great #teacththeweb week – see you in week #4.

So this project  came about, based on the fun idea that we could build something together.  Collaboration is a value we all hold as part of Mozilla Reps, shared values bring us together,  seeing Mozilla’s mission grow and thrive  is reward.  This,  and  the <3  we have for our community; our friends.

It’s natural really that we had so may Reps behind the idea of GenOpen (and MoFos too).  Response was huge – and very supportive.

These were the happy days, the salad 
		days as they say...

Hi, Raising Arizona

Aside from the fun, core-values stuff – we also identified collaboration, contributing to open communities,  open practices (etc) as web literacies we could contribute to Webmaker (We’ve since described GenOpen as a Webmaker Plugin).

With the support of our Mentor Community friends, we grew this question, to inspire responses from  youth on what they want to build.  We had it translated in over 10 different languages, and the current portal was launched around inviting mentors/youth leaders.  At least one great hacktivity sprung from this (thanks to collaboration with MoFO again and the National Writing Project)

We presented the idea on two Webmaker calls, and updates to the Webmaker dist list a few times….  As always response was positive, supportive and encouraging.  Responses posted to this question came in at a trickle. To be honest, despite the huge push for responses, we still sit at less than 50 submissions (and none using the hacktivities).

At Webmaker Training Days in Athens, some of the main GenOpen conspirators hatched an idea of creating a Popcorn collaborative project around two ideas submitted.  We called this project: My Music, Our Culture .  Laura, being awesome created a hacktivity for this as well. We labored over the level of technical steps (Github or not Github), deciding finally on Gist.

We’ve had bi-weekly, calls and an open house to help describe this particular project with minimal response.  All good response, all positive but minimal.  We stripped away some of the complicated layers (including Gist), but still sit at one submission.

We’ve since added another collaborative project:  a fantastic project for collaborative story-telling online called Writer Mortis.  I’m working with another Rep on the forked code, making Webmaker projects a story ‘submission type’ (potential here for promised MakeAPI )  All good feedback to this project as well.

I dedicated some time to promoting the project in other open communities like the Open Source Initiative and experiened only positive feedback.  More leads, and connections than I had time to follow – a truly enthusiastic response.

I also emailed everyone originally listed on the brainstorming etherpad looking for feedback on our status.  “Does the project as it sits, look like what you envisioned?  What could be better, more inviting – would works?”.  Only a few responses, but all were again positive and all added ‘we need more participants‘.

Understand that we have fantastic contributors to this project in Reps ~ but participants are those running events around one of these projects.  Reps don’t always have ready access to youth, so in a way – this is a chicken & egg problem. Outside participant/youth leaders need to see activity, activity can only happen with access to youth. We don’t have ready access to youth.

So anyway – without participants, there is no movement forward, the value is implied but not tested. Participation invites more contribution, invites ideas – and hopefully feedback.  As nice as all the positive feedback is, I wish we had more critique.  A quick shout to Tom, a young Mozilla contributor who called us on our ‘too much text/not inviting design’ (among other great ideas)

There has been one great suggestion that GenOpen, just become an entry-level way of getting youth contributing to Mozilla, where these same literacies are already in practice and successful.

In the beginning though, we really just wanted to make something together.  I still hope for this.  We’ll see. What do you think? Where do we go from here?

Universities in the Open

I keep delaying this post because I’m not sure where to start in describing my incredible trip to Athens Greece for Webmaker training days.  ‘Incredible‘ only begins to describe the experience of learning, friendship, of being actually seeing Athens, and  the generous Greek Mozillian community who took such great care of   spoiled us.

So what was Mozilla Reps Training Days?  Well, training days brought together 40 reps from all over the world .  We spent time observing a Hive Popup in Athens, and another another two  ‘training’ : exploring ideas for our local communities, setting goals, being empowered as teachers and mentors – and generally connecting as a global community over a common goal of spreading web literacy.

And that last point is really amazing if you think about it, and it was powerful to experience: Mozilla Reps – volunteers from Uganda, Greece, Keyna, Canada, Indonesia, Romania, India, Brazil, Argentina (and many more)  gathered together over the shared value of creating a web literate generation .  I, from a tiny West Coast town and someone from an entirely different part of the globe, with vast differences in culture and language, blended effortlessly together during these days in Athens.  The world feels forever smaller.

I left with great respect, admiration and love for our close group, and for our Mozilla Foundation Hosts:  Michelle, Laura, Mark, Chris and Gunner.

Day 1 Take-aways (Athens Hive Popup)

I was really interested in the Athens Hive Popup, because we’re trying to organize one here in Victoria.  I was super-impressed with this event, but also felt this was a ‘doable’ locally which was reassuring.

Stations

Stations were setup for making opportunities ranging from robotics to Popcorn Maker.  Youth were divided into groups of 9 (I think it was) and circulated through stations.  I liked this better than a free-floating style, because it meant kids would have opportunity to try everything, including those things they might avoid if unsure.

Variety

There were enough *different* types of making opportunities, that participants  stayed engaged:  Popcorn, Playlab, Robotics, Thimble (webpage Remix), Storyboarding, Stop Motion, Makey Makey and a few others…  I think Victoria could pull this off as well.

I also think variety can lend to a event theme.  Halloween Popup?

Energy

From the Icebreaker through to the end, the energy was palpable.  Credit to this goes to the obvious fun of the event, but also the energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers and station leaders were were having fun too.

Organization/Preparation

Each station was setup, ready to go and I later found out – tested the day before and it showed.  I think our local version should consider this same approach if possible, nothing worse than those technical difficulties at the last minute, and I liked the idea of testing everything a full day prior.

Volunteers

There were a lot of volunteers, you can never have too many and I noticed that a lot of the volunteers were youth.  A takeaway here is that we can hopefully involve some youth groups in YYJ.

Fill the Gap

Something I felt could have happened in Athens, that we could consider in YYJ is filling the Gap between ‘people arriving’ and the ice breaker.  We had a lot of talented people even among Reps who could have been ‘doing demos’ of some cool technology related to the event. I think this would be a good way to get participants thinking bout why they were there and have that informal learning happen as a result of participants and mentors ‘mingling’.

Language and Collaboration

Wishing I could understand some of the conversation between learners as a way to see what they thought of the event, of some of the Webmaker tools.  One thing I did observe at the Thimble/Popcorn station was a lot of sitting, and waiting for help.   Or, that the more vocal kids moved ahead quickly because they sought help, while others seemed to struggle a bit until someone noticed.  I wonder if collaboration/team projects could have helped here.

Day 2 & 3 Training Days

 Last to circle-singers

Training was held in Technopolis, a site of incredible history, I felt very fortunate to be in Athens for training days but also for the opportunity to learn more about Greek History.

I had unplanned learning opportunities at this event, one was actually in a small segment where we paired up to teach each other something. My partner Pablo taught me about CartoDB, which since then I’ve learned a lot more about on my own time.  I took mental notes on how Laura, Gunner, Michelle and Chris facilitated our group as something I am trying to get better at (speaking in front of grownups – kids are easier).

I learned a lot about other Reps countries, their challenges and goals – and could align most to my own.  I learned that I was in the company 0f some very smart, passionate people making the world a better place through actions, not by talking about it – but as directors of change in their local areas.  I felt incredibly honoured to spend these two days learning together.

Personally I worked on a plan for organizing a mentor meetup this April, with the support of our local Webmaker group I hope to bring together interested youth leaders to hack on some Webmaker tools for an afternoon.

Day 4 Take-aways (Teaching Greek children at the British Consolate#2)

On the last day, our Reps had the opportunity to teach groups of Greek children at the British Consulate.  We were divided into groups and assigned age groups, I led a group of four reps assigned to the 13-15 yr old group, which was promised to be approx 25 kids (if I remember correctly).  We  prepared a bit for this day during training days, and for some other Reps this meant better understanding Popcorn Maker which was our Webmaker tool for this event.

My take-aways tend to be things I wish had gone better, sorry this is just how my mind works!  I think overall it was an amazing experience and a beautiful day of learning.

The day-of, unfolded a little differently than expected (but the unexpected *is* expected at events like this ).  We ended up with a merged crowd of two groups since we shared a room – so approx 40 kids?  I never did count.

Before I go to takeaways, I want to say how awesome it was running this room with Ioana : we worked together as if we always had, I adore and miss her already.  Move to Canada Ioana.

Anyway!

Crowd Control

When I say we merged two groups, we actually made a choice to do this – as an alternative to pulling a divider across into two much smaller spaces.  It seemed doable at the time, but the mistake I think we made was to treat the room as a single group – I think icebreakers could have been done separately still, or we could have had each group take turns asking the other group ice breaker questions.  I think even share-outs could have been done separately (we went over time because of this).

And yes crowd control, having prepared methods of getting participant’s attention (clapping response etc) would have given us a lot more control.

Offline Activities

I think we handled the bad internet connection quite well all things considered.  I’ve run enough events to actually think ‘oh the internet dropped – I wondered when that was going to happen’.  Because I have run events previously around paper prototyping, it was easy enough to grab paper, draw squares and have learners focus on planning their popcorn story while the internet connection was sorted out.  I think this went well for most, except for the less patient kids who wanted no part of ‘planning’.

Challenging Groups

We had a couple of boys using their ‘Open Web bracelets’ to wack each other in the ear, and some kids who really didn’t appear to be listening to their Rep leaders at times.  I wonder if  removing the collaborative element could help kids like this, one on one. When it came time to show their work, they were actually  quite engaged in the topic, and the Webmaker tool – but too distracted to accomplish much.

Awesome Kids

I think of three kids when I think of the success of this day:

1. ‘Volcano Kid’  This was the very engaged child, who in the two hours he worked on it, completed a full narrative of a video on Volcanoes, which he presented to the group with a presenters confidence, adding is own voice narration to the presentation.  He was amazing, and clearly the Webmaker tools were something that gave his imagination wings.
2. ‘The girls who worked with Viking’ (photo above), they were so engaged, and Viking was such an amazing mentor that this group propelled itself.   Just watching them work together, share-out with both serious and silly projects was a joy to watch.
3. ‘the quiet kids’  Volcano Kid is probably the kid that does well academically anyway (not that this makes him any less amazing), so it was with as much appreciation that I saw the work accomplished by one of the quieter kids in the room: a thoughtful presentation on the earth, and he pride in their faces made this entire day worthwhile.

Spontaneous Ice Breaker, and my new fear of spontaneous ice breakers

The only thing I wished to erase from my memory is attempting the ‘Hack the Dance‘, without ever having seen it done, and with my nervousness over teaching with adults in the room. This icebreakers basically meant that Reps had to do a silly dance, that kids would hack.  I realize I need to visualize things like this beforehand, or at least participate on one first.  Not that this is a likely scenario ever again, but I can actually say this was hard.

 I loved Athens

I loved visiting Athens Hacker Space

I loved everything in Greek – including the Webmaker sign and the Victoria Station

I loved touring Athens – especially visiting the Acropolis, which took my breath away.

I loved spending so much time ‘in person’ with my Mozilla Rep friends family.

I loved Karokee, Souvlaki, wine and Harlem Shake with Mozillians :)

Thank you Mozilla <3

Back in December I wrote a blog post about creating a single collaborative (youth) open source project as a way to connect all of those map markers on the Mozparty Map. The idea was inspired youth at Mozfest who wanted to create a collaborative project on the web, and by my own life-changing experiences contributing to open source communities (like Mozilla).

It seems that empowering youth in technology(Webmaker) through collaboration (open source) was something a lot of friends (Mozilla Reps and MoFo) were willing to get behind and so we’ve been meeting every couple of weeks since early December evolving this idea.

This support has been important because no one really knows what a project like this should look like;it hasn’t been done before and it’s easy to let doubt creep in – shout out to the incredible, smart, passionate people who have helped bring ‘Generation Open’ this far, all on donated time.

Anyway…. here we are and a few things have changed… No longer looking at a ‘single’ project, but rather a portal to many collaborative youth projects; a place where educators and youth can find a project and get involved; a framework for starting new projects. We’re two days from launching the website, five days from Open Education Week, and slightly less than three weeks away from launching a Moz Reps alpha/test run of a collaborative webmaker project. All of which I will blog about more in the coming weeks, and you can learn more about in our weekly calls.

Next One: March 11th 8:00 PST 

If you can’t make the call, but are interested in helping please use the contact tab on my blog to contact me! Or post to the Reps Webmaker List.

ps – *logo is temporary

pss - so pardon brief/choppy review -  I haven’t had much sleep in the last week thanks to the awesome Webmaker Training Days and (less fun) having a sick child

GenOpen Wiki

Marianne introduced two motions last October calling on the City of Victoria to “open up government” by “providing its data for easy observation and use to the people who pay for it – local residents.”  As a result, Victoria launched it’s  first Open Data Catalogue  .  It’s no small thing to champion a cause like this, where ‘describing’ and  ‘explaining the value of’  Open Data is half the battle.  Inspiring.

Open Data Day  Victoria was held in City Hall Antechamber, where the main hackathon consisted of about 30 ‘grownup’ hackers.  We occupied the chamber side, which was a pretty cool experience for our youth participants (sitting in the Mayor’s chair was fun).  Truly inspiring to have the two groups ‘making’ side by side.  The Webmaker involvement felt like a recognition of youth in our community, of the importance in inviting their participation and value in to the future of government.  Our group was small (approx 9 youth), probably because we didn’t put a lot of effort into promoting this time, but the ratio of learners to mentors worked out perfectly.

(we played with Vine this day as well : “Mozilla Table, Mayor’s Chair, Webmaking“)

Bonus that we were able to demo our Webmaker projects to the adult hackers, councilors and Mayor Dean Fortin in attendance.  Mayor Fortin was incredibly good with our group, even letting kids wear his Chain of Office for photos.

Yes, a super-fun great day – thanks again to Herb and Open Data BC for including us, and for the City of Victoria who provided space and a yummy lunch!

Thanks to Scott’s contribution of the Victoria Wiki, as a final-act our hackers added their work by location-theme

View our Webmaker’s project on the Victoria Wiki .

Learning Reflections of the “Webmakers Breakfast Club”!

*Trying* to be organized, and *trying* to improve as a DIY teacher, I created this Hacktivity Kit  with contribution of ideas  from Scott Leslie (who I would have been lost without) and  of  based on the work, and with feedback from the amazing Laura Hilliger. We kept to the civic-storytelling theme, but for a few reasons were unable to wrap up with discussion on open data, and how it related to our work.  I feel disappointed by that, but also believe our Hacktivity could work very well with prepared mentors and learning group of similar strengths & interests. Our group was scattered on both counts.

Even though I try not to … I’ll always think of this group as the ‘Breakfast Club Webmakers‘.  We had about NINE youth with completely different reasons for being there: nine different strengths, nine different responses to our Hacktivity.  For one ‘Popcorn Maker was too easy’, for another completely uninteresting compared to learning code with Thimble (which I switched him to), one pair of kindred spirits working as a team embraced the entire project, while another struggled to learn the tool almost the entire time.

We also had two young women with an ‘idea’ around a Bucket list for their community.  Not only an idea, but a breakdown of their idea into entities, categories, drafts, workflow.   The challenge in this for me was *not* to tell them how I thought it should be done, but to encourage discussion among mentors with different backgrounds (CMS, Wiki and Open Government).  Scott had them create a Google Doc form, which was so incredibly clever as a a first step in visualizing their project on the web.

I look forward to sequencing in Popcorn Maker, transparency of code in Webmaker X and  a few other things to help make Breakfast Club Webmakers hackjams a little easier :)

A credit to our mentors that ALL of these kids left with enthusiasm and pride in what they accomplished.

All in all, a really fun day  – learning as always, on all sides and this experience has provided me with a few ideas on  Webmaker Victoria’s next steps ( I’ll write a separate blog post for that).

For whatever reason this week -  I  experienced a a major case of ‘fraud’ syndrome while participating in education-focused community threads.  Just because I want to teach, does that mean I can contribute something meaningful through teaching?  Because I learned this way, does that mean I can explain to others why it matters?

Thanks to the first exercise in Learn Creative Learning, I was able to shake that feeling off (mostly)

Activity: Write about an object from your childhood, in the spirit of Papert’s gears

Without a doubt, my the gears of my childhood(and young-adulthood) were drumsticks, as a snare/tenor  drummer in highland bagpipe bands.

first, I remember that no one told me to learn about differential gears

I was mesmerized by the drummers in my brother’s bagpipe band (he played pipes).  I  tried to decode what I was hearing, break it down into small pieces, and replicate.  I would play recordings over and over again – recognizing patterns in sets.  I would  eventually just *sing*  and hum patterns in place of those recordings.
When I finally had my own drumsticks, and lessons I played  constantly.  On my lap while watching TV, in the car on my practice pad – everywhere in between;  time signatures , beats, double time, para-diddle, para-diddle, mama dada, mama, dada,  patience and love.  I carried them with me everywhere.  I started writing my own sets, adding in variations of others until finally I was part of a drum core, composing, competing and playing together for a perfect sound.  Although usually with the pipes, we also competed in a drummers only set – spinning sticks between beats.  Eventually, at 18 I started teaching younger kids which was an opportunity to share the love, at least that’s how I saw it.

I can see (thanks to this exercise) how drumming was my gear, and that so much of that experienced provided me with learning I’ve built on ever since.

Math/Logic/Problem Solving

Writing music, learning and decoding drumbeats taught me so much about numbers: odd even, division (how many beats in  a 4/4 bar) and logic of writing a score to fit a specific tune.  I still sometimes count by ‘thinking’ in bars.

Remix and Reuse

Drum scores I loved, mixed in to make something new – changed a little.  Reliable pieces for all occasions  – I learned this through music first.

Collaboration/Community

Drumming was an outlet for happiness, sadness and  a good one for anger, but playing as part of a band removes the ‘me factor’.  Working as part of a group  towards a share outcome is something I learned in drumming. Definitely an early learning for Open Source participation.

Responsibility & Accountability

Competing as a drum corp, or with a band means if you screw up everyone else is affected.  Focus.

 Teaching

I’m not sure I was very good at it , but sharing a love and passion with new learners is definitely learning I have built on – most recently with web literacy.

So anyway…

I consider myself an event-organizer-by-fire, and over seven years I’ve developed some techniques that help me run donation-driven events quite successfully.  And by donation-driven, I mean that I rely entirely on donations of product, space, and resources. ‘ll share what I can with hope it helps others.
This list takes from experiences organizing garage sales, (a lot of) fundraising dinners,(big)lemonade stands, silent auctions, a festival of trees, head shaves, an outdoor summer movie series and most recently of course, a bunch of hackjams.

*focusing on donation-driven, but also some best practices I use to stay sane

1. An Event is a Project Even if your event is very small – open a gmail account for that event to track conversation, contacts and documents.
   • Create two email lists: [event_name]_volunteers & [event_name]sponsors, and file your contacts (as you make them into each of these categories).  This will help you stay organized,  you won’t miss someone accidentally -and if you have another event, you can use these as dist lists to solicit participation /sponsorship again .
   • Create new email lists for each new event (so you still focus on the current lists)
   • It’s important this be a separate account from yours, so that eventually you can transfer everything (pass the keys) to someone else should you decide to step back.
2. Describe It in a Paragraph.  You’ll need this.  In Google Docs – create a single paragraph(who/what/when/where) describing your event and focus in on *why* it’s important and why people should care  Caring means attendance, donation, media coverage.  I know..seriously?  ONE paragraph? Trust me.  In the same document describe it in a Tweet  (which can of course, eventually link somewhere)
3. Media Coverage
   
   • Write a Press Release (there are lots of good templates out there) using your paragraph.
   • Go back to your Google account, and create a ‘Sponsor‘ spreadsheet with  four columns:  Outlet, Type, Contact Information, Notes, Response (Y/N).  Not to be confused with your contact list, this is where you keep track of who you’ve sent emails to, who you phoned, talked to looking for coverage of your event.   Here’s one we used for our Popcorn Maker event.
   • News Papers Don’t just email the main editor, look into the newspaper for focus writers.  IT columns, family, education articles – and email (or call) those individuals as well.  Send them Press Release, but add-in relevant context to the person/department/editorial focus; why they  might see it relevant – you’re basically extending ‘caring‘ portion of that paragraph.
   • TV  Coverage Grabbing the general email from a TV station homepage won’t help as much as tracking down reporters, and if they don’t have available contacts on a website, find their Twitter accounts and tweet your Event Tweet.  Phone them.  There are a hundred other people, the same day trying to promote their event, their cause, be polite and clear , and be heard :)
   • Radio Look for radio shows with focus on family, technology and share your paragraph & work with Mozilla.  I spoke on a Real Parenting and saw two young hackers attend our event because of it.
   • Print Media  There are a lot of alternative print media outlets, free street magazines, community newspapers, chances are you will get a response from these folks, and the practices I mentioned using Newspaper sleuthing for specific editors will definitely work.  The work we are doing with Reps is cool, meaningful and relevant to the grassroots energy.  I’ve always found friends in these places.
   • Keep track of EVERYONE you have contacted in that spreadsheet, make notes on who followed up – this will also help next time, but also might signal areas you need to ‘try again’.  It also avoid duplicate requests which are just annoying to people (and why they all hide their emails)
4. Social Media
   
   • Share your paragraph or Tweet on all social networks relevant to your cause.  Investigate hashtags that might get you a better response locally  For example here in Victoria #yyjkids is followed by at least one radio station I am aware of, and I’ve had good retweets from using it.
   • Create a Facebook and or Google Group invite for your event.
   • Although recently I have only been creating an Eventbrite invitation because Facebook (etc) are linked in there.
   • Social media is where you might also find help with ALL of the categories I’m listing.  You  might find volunteers, venue TONS of help by spreading the word.
5. Venue  The venue can be the most difficult thing to accomplish on a donation-driven budget, but also one of the most important ones in making contacts, finding like-minded supports and (hopefully) future collaborators.
   • Keep track of who you solicit venue space from in your sponsorship spreadsheet (type = venue).
   • Identify your key needs (do you require technology donation as part of the space?)
   • Based on your needs write two lists – ideal spaces, and could-still-work spaces. The focus of course being to avoid the  all eggs/ one basket problem.  Be creative with your second list – I even once considered having a flash-hackjam around our University’s wireless when I couldn’t find donated space.  ( I didn’t but I could have ;). Actually could someone please run a flash-hackjam?  I want to see that.
   • Use your paragraph, but appeal to the likeness of your mission with the venue host.  Is it a university?  Appeal to learning, digital literacy,  is it government agency?  align what you’re doing to something in their community action plans (kids, families),  is an IT company   – it shouldn’t be hard to use Mozilla’s name and find a like mission :)  , even if it’s just ‘making things on the web is fun’
   • Don’t pay for a space.  Just don’t.  Offer to include their name on signage and advertising, paying for space means missed opportunity.
   • Obviously as a mom I want to write something here about taking care of donated space so they’ll share again, but probably that would be overkill.
   • Send thank you notes, and links to the event afterwards so they can share their involvement  (and your event/mission gets even more coverage.
6. Printing I’ll admit that printing is one of the hardest things to find donation for   a) because printers get hit up ALL THE TIME , and by everyone for free printing.  You and your hackjam aren’t going to win over a fundraising event for a family in need so, unless you are friends with the printer don’t even bother (or prove me wrong).  In the past I have done two things a) pay from my own pocket (obviously not ideal)  b) had someone who wanted to help, contribute the $$, or print it myself on my own useless printer.  (you an see I have negative feelings around this topic.   I think for those that can’t be there on the day, or want to help  – this is the perfect ‘ask’ . “Oh hey – maybe you could help with printing” .  :)
7. Food  Like printing, restaurants (actually all brick & mortar street level businesses) get hit up a LOT for donations, of food, gift certificates.  Disclaimer that my family owns a restaurant so this hasn’t been entirely difficult for me.  In asking for food donation (or gift certificates  – maybe you have a door prize in mind), be clear on what you are going to give THEM in return.  Just like venue, consider offering advertising space, prime location on a event .  In fact there is a whole fundraising-*thing* around renting out space in advertising (at the outdoor movie theatre sponsors paid to have slides in a powerpoint show while people got seated).  But that’s a huge topic.  Just know it exists.  You can also offer web services if you are a techie  – restaurant life is hard and often the website is crappy. Trade services.
8. Send Thankyous.  You know that list of sponsors, an volunteers?  That’s now your ‘Thank you list’, your next event will be even better because you send these.
9. Collaborate in the Open  Our last two events found a venue because a colleague ‘overheard’ us talking about needing space on Twitter.

Be kind to donors, you can never say ‘Thank you’ enough.

I suppose I challenge you – as a non-profit event organizer (be it a Rep or otherwise) to consider not only the benefit to your cause by making your event donation-driven though broadened conversation, but through money saved and directed at the cause we are working for.   By  reducing budget requests we are supporting Mozilla’s  work two-fold, MORE money can go towards efforts with MORE Rep activities, and all the many things we passionately support.

I also challenge you to be creative about this – don’t hit up the usual suspects, really think about who can help, who can benefit and who might not even recognize their ablity to participate unless you point it out. Be inclusive, don’t just ask for donation, but for participation and ideas.  Our local communities grow better this way.

You and I run events because we’re supporting something we consider to be important to the WORLD. These are causes we take personally, and our events raise not only awareness but with any luck – ignite the same response in others.  Donation-driven events(+ collaborating in the open) are a great way to make that happen.

I hope his helps – would love questions, or your stories.  (and will add to this as we go)

International Open Data Day is Saturday February 23rd!

Victoria’s event will be held at Victoria City Hall Antechamber Room.

Registration for volunteers, serious hackers, and younger Webmakers can all be done through our Eventbrite registration page! Lunch is provided.

The full agenda is on the Open Data Day Wiki page, and our group’s portion will run from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM

Let me know if you have any questions, and please share with friends/ social networks – because “kids coming together with adults to hack open data at City Hall” will be an awesome sight!

Wiki is UP

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker/Victoria with loads of information on  Webmaker and our last Meetup January 28th. 

ANYONE can register their name and edit this wiki – so please do (ie: add your organization to ‘Particpating Groups, or if you have space available for events add that under ‘available rooms/spaces, fix my edits anything)

Meetup Notes

…are linked from Wiki under (you guessed it) ‘Meetup Notes’

Open Data Day is ON !

At City Hall!  We’re mixing Webmaking youth with Open Data Day hackers  ( I know… if you’re not from Victoria, you now wish you were)

Check under ‘Participate’ for links, and Meeting Notes for Jan 28th for more details/action items (we’ll need volunteers to help)

FEEDBACK NEEDED 

Learning Hackjam (for youth & grownups who want to teach Webmaking) . Shall we?

I’m thinking of running a hackjam for all of you…  Perhaps spend a morning making things on the web around your own ideas with some of the cool Webmaker tools & projects.  For the hackers among you, thinking ‘make your own Popcorn.js plugin’ ?  (Firefox OS App development next time if this one works)

What do you think? If I ran an adult/older youth  hackjam around Webmaker  would you come?  (or bring older youth,)   – talking to Alana /Saanich youth next week with the same question)