Ed Mitchell: Platform neutral

Here is how to contact me:
ed [at] edmitchell [dot] co [dot] uk
+44 (0) 7974 737 254
+61 (0) 450 321 576

I am the ‘web: projects and strategy’ person for Transition Network, the charity supporting the Transition Towns movement. This is two days per week. My current project is how to connect the hundreds of community group websites across the web – read my project blog here.

On the other days I consult with organisations about optimising their use of the web and finding genuine engagement with their stakeholders, design and run all manner of workshops, speak at events about humans, communities, the web and stuff, and if possible, go outdoors.

Here’s the blurb:

I’m half web producer, half groups facilitator. I do groups facilitation and design, on the internet and in the physical world.

I have been building and nurturing networks and communities since being studio and website manager for Gaia Live (an early community webcasting start-up) in 1997. A more recent example project was for Bristol’s iShed on The Media Sandbox project where I provided an end to end service including:

• Long term group design and planning
• Events design and facilitation
• Virtual space design and facilitation
• Client mentoring
• After action reviews and reporting

Here’s the reference from Clare Reddington, Director, iShed for this project:

“For Media Sandbox, Ed has created and implemented a ‘blended programme of physical and virtual facilitation’. In real-world language this means he has:

a) worked with us to create events which encourage networking and collaboration and

b) helped us create, use and manage a suite of free and accessible web 2.0 tools to develop and support a community around the scheme

Ed is a pleasure to work with, he is diligent, full of good ideas and input and extremely thorough in his documenting and reporting. The events he has staged for us have been extremely well received and useful to all who participated. I would recommend him without hesitation.”

General:

The key is to identify, understand and support a group as it evolves along its lifecycle, making sense of the context and offering a framework within which to develop, intervening where and when suitable in order to help it achieve its goals. There are a range of interventions (from one to one introductions to big group workshops) and two domains in which to do them (virtual and physical).

In order to do this properly, you need to know about the direct realities of management, facilitating groups and internet stuff. It’s what is called the ‘blended facilitation’ approach, tied in with the ‘technical steward’ role.

Technically, I can specify, manage, deliver and sustain ‘community websites’; From 1997 to 2002, I was an agency web producer with a range of public and private sector clients, the editorial producer for an early community portal, and production manager of then the UK’s largest public information website, UpMyStreet, where we introduced the concept of data and community boards localisation via one click usability to the UK.

Now I don’t do website builds, but I can and enjoy helping people clearly define their requirements before they approach web agencies and get involved in specifications. This is really really important, often overlooked, and straightforwardly handled. I know lots of agencies who do builds and will happily refer clients to a suitable agency with no commission nonsense to muddy the relationship waters.

The Knowledge and facilitation angle:

Since 2002 (with a distinction in my MSc IT at UWE, Bristol), I have been immersed in the knowledge aspects of groups, and how they relate to network building for communities and organisations.

I am experienced at effectively acquiring and disseminating (and measuring) relevant knowledge (from within and outside a group) across communities, and directly to individuals with particular interests. I also understand the relative benefits of different technical platforms and emergent tools and theories, and have reported on and championed community activity at board level for many years.

This has covered work with public, private and third sector organisations of all sizes on these ‘knowledge-y’, ‘community-y’, ‘network-y’ projects, ranging from The European Commission multinational oil companies, via universities, past The Arts Council and BBC departments to very small local charities). All my work comes with references.

All of these projects have involved a wide range of tasks from resolving member login problems and editorial work on websites and newsletters to the more glamorous sounding requirements analysis, workshops, event design and facilitation. All the tasks are equally important and I enjoy them all.

The Management issues:

Increasingly, we are observing that establishing and nurturing networks and communities within and around organisations requires conscious management changes and new team building. This management element of any project is too easy to overlook (a large gorilla in the corner); I build it deeply into all of my work to ensure that once a group is set up, it is then nurtured properly and usefully by its sponsors.

Inventing and deploying different methods:

I have co-invented and facilitated new facilitation techniques, management workshops and event models which are increasingly accepted into the day to day world, and regularly publish honest results and lessons learnt from all the work. Tools used range from tightly controlled private management level workshops to risky organisation-wide idea generation events, combining web technology ranging from free google groups to sophisticated deployments of specialised knowledge managment software.

Finally, I am a strong believer that we need to share our findings; if we don’t work in this mindset we risk falling into the ‘not invented here’ syndrome.

The nice bits about me, the vegetables and the cats:

I am still learning while pursuing this area professionally, and voluntarily run the uK’s SouthWest’s region’s ‘Gurteen Knowledge Cafe’ group (innovation and knowledge practitioners from across the south west) and co-curate Bristol’s ‘Skillswap’ network (largely technical innovators in the south west). I regularly volunteer for local and national charities – doing this groovy facilitatory sort of work and all sorts.

I also like climbing, walking through our beautiful countryside, digging my allotment and gossiping about my vegetables with my neighbours, playing with my cats, reading modern fiction and enjoying life in Bristol.