course
description

None of us knows until when we will have to adhere to social distancing norms and how this will change the dynamics of self-organization within our communities. However, one thing seems certain: We all will be needing some new skills as life merges with online environments more and more.

In this course we will look at principles of decentralized governance and other strategic approaches, online tools, facilitation methods,

and cultural aspects of self-organization aimed at creating a curriculum for digital self-management in groups and collectives. There will be space for questions, debates, and conversations throughout as we come together to learn tools for building community and cooperation to enable better futures.

course outline

Week 1

This is about getting to know each other and learning about everyone’s expectations and needs. What brought you to this course? What is it that you hope to learn and practice? Which skills and resources would you like to share with other participants?

We will start the course with an introduction into the principles of decentralized governance. We will focus on strategies for reorganizing group authority in a way that allows us to build systems of co-responsibility. We will look at historic references of collective decision-making, expression of wish and voting and we’ll make connections to our situation today.

We will explore actual groups and examples of decentralized governance online, so everybody has a shared understanding of the scope of things.

Week 2

This week will put a focus on online platforms and tools that facilitate self-organization in groups and collectives. We will focus on communication platforms, shared workspaces, tools for decentralized decisionmaking, collective budgeting and online voting. We will also explore the underlying software environments and assess their compatibility with open source standards and privacy & data protection rights.

By the end of week 2, each course participant should have a clear idea which platforms works for their particular need and why they think the tool or platform supports their community culture.

Week 3

This week will focus on facilitation. We will explore together what it takes to enable live collaboration. How to engage participants? How to make sure that speaking time is evenly distributed? How to switch between large group facilitation and breakout-rooms for smaller work groups? How to make sure to document the outcome of each online work session? How to follow-up on previous results and create momentum that lasts longer than two or three calls?

Participants will train online facilitation situations and will be able to test various approaches within the group in a safe way. Of course we will also engage in some fun plays to help raising both group energy and spirits.

Participants will train online facilitation situations and will be able to test various approaches within the group in a safe way. Of course we will also engage in some fun plays to help raising both group energy and spirits.

Week 4

The last session is about setting up a concrete work plan for each participant. Everyone is asked to map out both the online environment and social technologies to engage their communities. Together, we will assess those work plans and discuss any open questions. As a final challenge each participant will be asked to invent an online group game to support social coordination or to come up with a specific communication exercise to leverage issues of language, understanding and cultural difficulties.

By the end of the course we hope for each participant to get a taste of how to yield collective learning results and how to support the emergence of collective knowledge within their own teams.

who is this class for?

Community managers, group advocates, members of collectives, founders of cooperative startups, anyone with an interest in decentralized governance online. Enthusiastic like-minded community included. No experience necessary.

about live classes

Classes are 'live' meaning that you can directly interact with the instructor as well as with the other participants from around the world. Classes will also be recorded for playback in case you are unable to attend for any reason. That said, we kindly ask that you please only purchase a ticket if you plan to attend regularly. For specific questions, please email us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

about tickets

Tickets for this class are currently available via Eventbrite. If you would like to avoid Eventbrite fees, please email us for direct payment options. We kindly ask that all “pay-what-you-can” students register through Eventbrite. Due to reduced staffing, we’re unable to handle specific payment requests for these registrations.

about solidarity

We realise we're living in uncertain times. We are a small organisation with no outside funding and like many, we are also in survival mode. During this time, we are offering a limited number of pay-what-you-can solidarity tickets for this online class. Preference is given to women, POC, LGBTQ+ and persons from underrepresented communities in tech who would otherwise be unable to attend. We are greatly appreciative of your understanding and support.

meet the instructor