Can the D+D networking site support / work better?  Ideas?

Convener(s):  Emma Adams 

Participants: Shakera Louise Ahad, Lie Chen, Laura Farworth (sorry if I got your last name wrong, I found it hard to read your writing), Thomas Hescott, Mark Morreas, Robert Welle, Phelim McDermott, Leslie Cooke, Annie Rigby, Jeni Toksvig, Dan Johnston, Clare Fischer, The Red Hedgehog + other folk too.

 

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

This was a wide ranging conversation which I struggled to keep up with at times.  Scribing and thinking at the same time…

Questions and problems that were brought up:

Is the Ning D+D Site any good?

Do we need a site at all?

Pros and Cons of different social networking sites and how to use them?

What motivates people to go to the Ning site?

How can we keep the energy that is in the room here alive when we go home?

D+D can be everything and anything so does this make it hard to translate into a site with clear goals and objectives?

D+D gives energy here in the flesh and then disillusionment when we go on line, but live monthly events work

Do people want to keep the experience of coming to D+D events as discreet ‘energy boosts’ which you don’t have the responsibility of putting energy into beyond the event its self???

Vicious circle of lack of critical mass – the site doesn’t get traffic so people don’t find anything so don’t go back etc etc

Every year people say that they want the Ning site to work, but then the energy drops and it doesn’t work like that.

Too much of a focus on what Improbable ‘should be doing’.

Suggestions of how to move forward / solutions:

Should it be more of a case that people take on responsibility for themselves? 

Would it work to have live chat / weekly update or do we need a news letter?

Social Networking sites:

Different people have different ways of interacting with platforms

Twitter not good for in-depth discussions

Twitter brings instant energy into the D&D event itself

Whatever solution comes needs to be low on man hours

Sadness that the energy in this room can’t be maintained.

For an online community to work, need to establish the point of the live community, ask the question of how we motivate and give value to that community, then need to express this through a question so that people know the point of going online.

Status is not an issue in the room, but the question, “Can I have your email address?” outside this room becomes something entirely different.

Really interesting: Issue of status, which is clear in the abstract industry, but not so clear in this room. Within the abstract industry, the rules work differently. Face to face, in the room, you can have time to build trust and figure out other people’s intentions.

Moderated: focus is kept on topic. (That’s a man-hour nightmare!)

Continue to have the Ning, but set up an email list. Add people who are on the Ning automatically but they can opt out, the hope being that this would bring more traffic to the site which might give us critical mass.

Some suggestion that this might fracture things into many different platforms, or it might just lead to different kinds of usage on different kinds of platforms.

Theatre Bristol have just done an Open Space and their website is very clear.

Ideas for expanding the use of D&D on Twitter, using Devoted and Disgruntled as separate identities. Maybe too complex, should just hash DD5

Does having a nice site motivate people to use it?

Are questions open or closed on the site: does that affect how people use it?

Facebook: news page helps distil what’s going on into one easy digest.

What people say they want while they’re at D&D doesn’t always match what they actually want, or what they do, once they’ve left the experience.

The Open Space list was great until someone suggested they all join a Ning, so lately it’s lost momentum as the Ning has taken off. The critical mass has moved.

Young Vic Directors’ Forum: also has an email list.

Not about going to a website, but about receiving something in your inbox.

It would be good if the social networking that comes out of the event mirrors the vibe of the event itself.

Mel administrates from Improbable, Jen also helps but has nothing to do because no-one really uses it.

Someone suggested that putting stuff up on the Ning won’t get noticed because no-one goes there.

Is Ning just the wrong tool?

The relationships one forms at D&D don’t make sense to continue in a social networking way. It’s more about having a coffee face-to-face.

Is it about sustaining the energy? Or is it about finding something else?

Phelim would like whatever it is to be open access.

There’s always a rush afterwards, and then it all dies.

People say they want stuff, but then it doesn’t work like that.

People said that the monthly meetings are fine. 

Suggestion for meetings online with live chat?

 

Plan for Action Meeting on Monday:

Email list?

Live chat meetings online for those who can’t get to monthly meetings in London?

Who is going to Tweet?