gov-uk-community-development-framework

From IndieWeb

There is a UK government community development framework that provides many questions and implied suggestions for a better community, which can be useful for IndieWeb community brainstorming, however with the caveat that the UK government itself does not follow all their own suggestions, nor do they have evidence of the existence of an actual “community” around them that was improved with these suggestions or wasn’t already there like existing UK residents.

@emmajanehw on twitter suggested a helpful resource: gov.uk Community development framework.

Proposal

We should make sure that we meet every item on the checklist at the bottom, or have explicit reasons not to, and that it is easy to find for a wiki visitor (from the front page and individual events pages).

Skepticism

  • How is gov.uk (the author of said framework) an authority on community?
  • Does gov.uk have a healthy community themselves?
  • Does gov.uk clearly follow their own framework/checklist? (apparent lack of selfdogfood)

Barring obvious answers to these, we should take all their suggestions as "hypothetical nice ideas" - not as any sort of authoritative statement of items known to work.

Checklist

Is there a clear, circulated community vision or objective?

  • First line on the front page: The IndieWeb is a people-focused alternative to the ‘corporate web’.
    • defined in opposition to something?
    • has been quoted word-for-word in the media, is thus a powerful statement that resonated sufficiently for the press to reproduce it as-is without editing.
  • User:KevinMarks.com on Twitter: "@indiewebcamp has a clear goal - help you have your own website and learn from others already doing so" [1]
    • @emmajanehw: @kevinmarks “goal” and “help” are not used in that context on home page or event summary page. [2]

Is there a clearly defined remit - can people easily understand the criteria for membership?

  • remit: "an area of responsibility and authority" [3]
  • Bullet points below "Beyond Blogging and Decentralization"
    • Principles over project-centrism
    • Selfdogfood
      • not obvious to newcomers what that is
    • Design first, formats second
  • Principles
  • This might not be obvious on individual events pages -- who is this event for?
    • @emmajanehw: Currently the top level page talks about the “what” but not the “who”. [4]
    • @emmajanehw: The categories are foreign to me. I don’t really understand what a Creator vs. a Blogger vs. an Apprentice is. [5]
    • @emmajanehw: So I looked for something which looked like “me”, or described “me”, but I just found it to be about a diff community. [6]

Is there a way for community members to identify each other and find contact details?

  • discuss (linked from sidebar and body text of front page)
  • chat-names (linked from discuss)

Is there at least 1 person responsible for managing information and encouraging constructive participation?

  • not stated anywhere on the wiki (?) but fairly apparent on IRC
    • not true but apparently we can make it more visible
  • code-of-conduct linked from home page and every event home page.
    • +1 great point, coc fits this perfectly. It was not linked on 2014/UK or 2014/Cambridge, but I will add it!

Is there a way for members to interact in an informal way?

  • IRC backchannel
    • not publicized
      • not true, on the home page side bar "Discuss" and prominent on the home page, Getting Started, and individual event pages.

Is there a way or place for people to share or archive potentially useful resources, knowledge and documents?

Are there regular opportunities for community members to meet in person?

Is there a published and community-owned programme of activities, both on- and offline?

  • Redundant with previous item?
    • Yes, this checklist and previous could be collapsed. Poor editing of checklist itself.
  • Events

Are there opportunities for members to influence the activities and resources of the community?

Are there clearly defined metrics and plans to measure and regularly report on community activity?

See Also

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