DOCUMENTATION

COLLECTIVE SESSION #1

FROM ENGAGEMENT TO EMPOWERMENT: Citizens of Co-Creators of Community Serviceswith Prof. Peter Jones and Heiner Benking

Saturday, 24.11.2012, 16:00 h - 19:00 h.

THE IDEA

Design-Led Civic Engagement

The collaborative workshop, organized by deople network and d.collective was the inaugural event at the new co-working hub d.collective. Based on dialogic design methodology, the workshop ex-plore design outcomes in dialogue rather than merely verbal deliberation. New community initiati-ves are emerging as people take charge of social services once expected of government.

What are the opportunities arising in the increasing distance between community needs and what governments can provide? How might we design and organize to befriend this trend? Govern-ments as we know them are transforming, budgets and infrastructures are tapped out while citi-zens demand more than agencies can support. Social contracts are breaking down as govern-ments go broke, outsource and privatize. Citizens will need to organize to compensate and get their community needs met. How will we close the gap between what governments can provide and the social services that vibrant citizens and communities require? We can learn from the many small-scale community-led projects around the world where people are leading the way – to make, plant, harvest, heal, build, and teach collectively. At some point these collective actions become organized services that serve more needs across the community.

PRESENTER and WORKSHOP LEADER MODERATION and INTRODUCTION

Peter Jones is a professor in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation MDes program at OCAD University and fellow of the Strategic Innovation Lab. Peter is founder of Redesign, an innovation research com-pany based in Toronto, and a board member of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras. He founded the Design with Dialogue community of practice desi-gnwithdialogue.com, blogs at designdialogues.com and tweets @redesign. peter AT redesignresearch.com.

Heiner Benking is a journalist, facilitator and co-host of this dialogue. He founded the Open-Forum in 1995, now a project of Positive Nett-Works e.V., and is with Peter Jones part of the Institute of 21st Cen-tury Agoras community. (open-forum.de, 21stCen-turyAgora. org, http://www.harnessingcollectivewis-dom.com,http://dialogicdesignscience.wikispaces.com, heiner@open-forum.de)

THE WORKSHOP

Peter Jones collaborated with Agoras Institute associate Heiner Benking and deople facilitator Johannes Comeau Milke to facilitate the workshop structure. About 30 participants attended the session at the d.collective space at Okerstr. 45 in Berlin and fanned out into several small groups to develop community service concepts.

Peter and Heiner presented a brief overview of dialogic design and DwD. Two visual recorders worked together to create a single composition of the evening’s dialogues.

> Idea Selection

Dialogue 2: Possibilities “For your neighbourhood, what service could community members invent or ra-dically improve?”

Brainstorming session in smaller groups.

Dialogue 1: “What are the stories from here or around the world of community-led local services?”

Open group discussion, participants telling of the community services they know.

Dialogue 3: Idea Design

Working in smaller groups to develop the ideas along the following questions:

- What personal or community need does this service address?- How might this service involve the community to deliver maximum value?- What, tools, resources or incentives would community members need to help them initiate and implement this service?- What support could government provide to kickstart or sustain this service?

1. Idea: Creating Trust through shared Expertise and Information

2. Idea: Meta Information / Orientation

3. Idea: Communication

4. Idea: Houseparty for Gatherings

5. Idea: Worknet for Awareness and Funds

6. Idea: Education Enabling

Dialogue 4: Design Harvest

Check out Peter´s review of the workshop:

http://designwithdialogue.com/2012/11/from-engagement-to-empower-ment-dwd-berlin

>>>> Thanks to everybody for attenting our first collective session! Especially thanks to Peter and Heiner for holding the great workshop and sharing your

thoughts and ideas with us! <<<<<

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We asked Peter from his experience in Berlin/ Neukölln, what would be the potential of regular design with dialog sessions and how could such events have a positive impact on our 'neigbour-hood'? And here´s his answere:

„From my experience with the d.collective in the dwd workshop, I believe there is great potential for a continuing series of dialogue engagements. There is nothing quite like Design with Dialogue in Berlin, and if you created this as an ongoing ex-perience for the nomadic members of the designer and innovation communities, it would create an evolving sense of community anchored in the new d.collective space. An open dialogue space would give a generous opportunity for people to share and participate in the new learning community you are creating.“