How can we use Green Goa Wiki to pool our collective knowledge

in support of Active citizenship in Goa?

(Part of the ongoing evolution of a digital platform to bridge the information disconnect between people who want to act & people who can help them to do so – see conversation history below)

 

Community Meeting 8th April 2017- Green Goa Wiki

(next meeting 24th April afternoon@Design Centre – Join the conversation : ) !

 

Present in Circle: Tamer Salameh, Eric Pinto, Thalmann Pereira, Caroline Collasso, Avertino Miranda, Taara Chandani, Nomita Khatri, Anna da Costa

 

Our purpose: To pool collective knowledge to brainstorm the start of a Green Goa active citizenship Wiki . After checking-in on how we are each doing on a human level, we asked ourselves: What do I care enough about and is in my area of expertise to contribute to the Green Goa Wiki today? Collective knowledge in the room included History of the Green Movement, Laws concerning the Environment, Environmental assessments and water management,. It was a small and productive inquiry where we shared some inspiring ideas and possibilities.

 

Excerpts from the discussion:

  • “The aim of the Green Goa wikipedia would be to create an information hub that can be used by people who need it – so we don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel”
  • “I would like to contribute to creating a portal, and see how information can be integrated to help the people of Goa. The ‘how’ is something to think about”
  • “We can be more effective if we unite and find a common voice”
  • “The old systems support conflict more than they support harmony. We can change the format to have a different outcome through the circle”
  • “Our state is small, and this is a strength as everything is doable.”

Initial Mind Map of topics identified (which will evolve and grow)

Tangible outcomes:

  • It would be good to have a single point of contact for the Green Goa Wiki who new content is sent to, and who any potential contributors liaise with. They can then liaise with other editors etc, but not everyone should be able to upload content themselves.
  • The Wiki data base can serve as the content for a mobile application that is also being designed.
  • It will be important to include success stories and solutions within the Wiki to inspire hope.
  • Caroline has already drafted quite a lot of material for the Angry Goan Project which could be used.
  • Nomita has offered to do some content writing
  • Anna and Caroline’s sister have offered to do some editing

 

Intangible outcomes:

  • Structure facilitates Emergence
  • Regular meetings on the 2nd or 4th Saturday’s of each month
    • Meetings to be held in Circle
    • Each meeting to have a “purpose” for the larger community to gather around and inquire and learn about.
  • “The best conversations happen over coffee break.”  – How do we hold the next meeting open enough for the community to define the topic? Open Space Format ?
  • What is the next meeting topic? Who defines it?
  • Circulate headings to the larger community asking for support with:
  • Collecting+Writing+Editing the info.
  • As a team, we ought to have made space to ask each participant to explain what they’d written up, to understand their thought flow in circle.
  • What do we want out of the Circle meetings? – to hold space, to Harvest, when do we lead, and how much? When to wait for others in the community to step forward to lead by calling conversations that matter?

 

Questions identified we could each ask ourselves:

    • Looking at the mindmap above,

 

  • Are there topics that I would like to add to the list?
  • Are there topics I can contribute information on?

 

  • Would I like to write or edit or research a particular topic?
  • Who would like to be involved in taking the Green Goa Wiki project forward?
  • Do you know someone who has knowledge or practice who can contribute?

 

Previously in this conversation…..:

11th Feb: identification of need for a digital platform to bridge information disconnect

 

16th March: Identification of Wiki platform as open source way of pooling information