Drumbeat Overview – The First Date

Mozilla Drumbeat was a hybrid, chaotic event full of engaging people and ideas. I’m still processing, but in one word “Overwhelming“. The only model I can compare Drumbeat to is “The First Date“: new, so full of potential, contradictions, sometimes awkward, and sometimes magical. Trying to balance actions, participatory learning and some brilliant oration/creation is not an easy task. Add to this a deep sense of trying to model new collaboration syncing two sometimes disparate groups: open education and open web/hackers.

Every idea, every event starts somewhere. With CrisisCommons, I am encountering this same clash and collaboration of cultures: emergency planners and new technologists. The same theme exists: we know we have a great idea, we know we want to collaborate, but the space is undefined and a new frontier. We have the power of the Open Web cracking traditional models and providing incentives to keep trying. No one has the right answer on how this will look and how we could build in our respective areas. This is the beauty of being early adopters and change agents. Whether you are brainstorming around open education or open crisis management, there is opportunity to move beyond silos.

The People:
Meeting SJ Klein, Dale Dougherty, Phillip Schmidt, Mitchell Baker and Cathy Davidson was inspiring. Each of these people provided me with head-spinning thoughts about wiki, makers, P2PU, Mozilla’s future and the future of open education. But, I feel like each person I conversed with was a connection to like minds. Thank you to each of the participants for making this event so engaging. There are just too many people to name, but I would like to give mention to three people and their amazing projects/journeys:

Chacha Sikes will be a Code for America Fellow. She will be working on a project for Seattle.

Tobias Eigen, Chair,Kabissa: space for Change in Africa. Recently, they won the Netsquared award for Kabissa Connections.

Michael Nelson created Learning Goals. He has applied for the Shuttleworth Foundation grant. This project could help crack the code for crowdsource learning. I will be watching its evolution.

Highlights for me:

Scrunchup by Anna Debenham. She really knocked it out of the park on what web education needs to change.

Arduino xbee bike. It was magic to collaborate with two hackers from Greece and learn about how they worked with Arduino. I especially enjoyed being their test biker. Building stuff is part of opening your mind to new ways to learn.

Brian Lamb talking about the UBC wiki. I loved how UBC is using open textbooks.

Hackbus- the personalities, the books, the towing, and, most of all, the unifying force of all things Drumbeat

Badge lab
I spent most of the first day in the Badge lab. I believe that the brainstorming there can potentially help credentials for Volunteer Technical Communities. At times, I struggled with the focus on individual efforts. However, the models built will allow for group collaboration on badges. Communities will be able to create badges and work within the flexible model. It was truly exciting to have concurrent teams of brainstorming and software development. I’ve offered to be a community contact for any beta testing.

More on the Badge Lab from @sbskmi .

Science Fair
Mozilla Drumbeat invited me to share in the Science Fair on opening night. It was great to introduce people to CrisisCommons and inquire about how they think open education can be used. However, much like Speedgeeking, it is really hard to have an indepth conversation about how to build crowdsource training. I really welcome any input in this area. I will be blogging on this topic as I continue to work on CrisisCamp in a Box.

More Drumbeat posts: Reflections, learning and more:
Sleslie: Free and Learning
ChaCha Sikes: Mozilla Drumbeat Highlights
Aza Raskin on How to Prototype
Matt Jukes on Drumbeat reflections
Dave Humphrey on Open Video

What will I do with my Drumbeat Learning:

*We are seriously considering building a P2PU course for CrisisCamp in a Box.
*Universal Subtitles will be used for all our CrisisCamp in a Box videos.
*I will continue to collaborate on the Badge lab for future iterations. This is really key for our communities.
*Our community is very keen to follow the work from the Open Video lab
*I’ll continue to be in touch with some of the people I met. What an amazing group of folks. I also plan on engaging with people I didn’t get a chance to talk more with. I consider Move Commons top on this list.
*CrisisCommons will be collaborating with a number of the communities that I met at Drumbeat. More on this in the future.

The Drumbeat community is growing. I feel like the people and ideas that started at this event will have a lasting impact globally. I’m still thinking on how to use the connections and ideas to build CrisisCommons and support all the initiatives to create an open web. When I first started reading about the event, I was perplexed why the organizers started with Open Education. But, the more I pondered the concept, the more I became a fan. Education is a uniting force for all our efforts. And, it is the future of how we can promote and change our corners of the net.

Keeping breaking and making stuff. Every Drumbeater inspires me. Follow the #drumbeat hashtag for more thoughts from all the participants.