eCampaigning Forum 2008 - Updates

Participant Content from ECF08

Duane — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:28:37 -0500

Blog Posts

Brian Fitzergerald's posts:
James Stewart's posts
- Ecampaigning Forum: Ben Brandzel (10 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning Forum: Karina Brisby (Oxfam) (10 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning Forum panel discussion: How do we campaign around elections? (10 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning Forum: Fish Yu, Greenpeace China (11 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning Forum case study: Patrick Olszowski, Action Medical Research (11 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning Forum case study: Rolf Kleef on nabuur.com (11 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning forum case study: myactionaid (11 April 2008)
- Ecampaigning Forum: Notes on Open Space sessions (12 April 2008)
- All James' posts by ECF08 tag
Jean O'Brian's posts

Ecampaigning Forum - Update from Day 1 (10 April)
Ecampaigning Forum - Update from Day 2 (11 April)

Fairsay E-Campaigning Forum 2008, Oxford (Michele McMahon, 23 April 2008)
One Laptop Per Child at eCampaigning Forum (David Bent, 11 April 2008)
E-campaigning Forum April 10 - 11, 2008 (Karina Brisby, 9 April 2008)

Photo Collections

Photos tagged 'ECF08' or 'ecampaigningforum' on Flickr

Bookmark Collections

ECF08 tagged links on Del.icio.us

Ready, set, go!

Duane — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:43:41 -0500

Participants are already starting to arrive at the 2008 eCampaigning Forum venue and many more are traveling to get there.

So if you are on your way here are your three key links:

Logistics info: how to get to the venue and other critical information
Agenda: what is happening when and where
Participants list: who is attending

See you there :-)

Exciting news: speaker confirmed and more...

Duane — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:08:24 -0600

I have some news I hope you are excited by as I am!

I have confirmed Ben Brandzel as one of the speakers. If you don't recognise his name you'll recognise what he's done. He was a founder of MoveOn in the US which inspired both Avaaz and GetUp (Australia). More recently he was the Director of Online Communications, Organizing and Fundraising for the 2008 John Edwards for President campaign that many thought as the US presidential primary campaign that made the best use of interactive media.
I have confirmed almost all roles for the paid work I was offering (due to the sponsorship from Advocacy Online and Oxfam GB) to help create a range of printed and digital content about e-campaigning that you can use during and after the event and pass on to your peers (each delegate will get 4 copies so they can share them with their network). These will include:
- Participant Pack
- eCampaigning Booklet with articles
- DVD of video interviews, articles, case studies, etc
- Online version of DVD content accessible by anyone
I still need one more video interviewer so if you have video skills want 1-1.5 days of work that should pay for your ECF participation and want to spend no more than 30% of your time at ECF creating video content then email me!
We are now at almost 70 participants (space for maximum 100) so if you are planning on attending but haven't applied yet, apply now.

Get your participation in ECF08 fully paid...

Duane — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0600

I've been able to confirm Advocacy Online, Oxfam GB and Oxfam Novib are now sponsors of ECF08. This is great because what sponsors do is make possible to improve the event beyond what the participation cost does. Each has sponsored specific improvements:

Oxfam Novib: Paying to sponsor a campaigner from outside the normal European and North American delegates (I'd love to do more of this!)
Oxfam GB: Covering the cost of producing (design, print, distribute) some useful e-campaigning materials for event participants (4 each so you can share) and beyond. This includes a participation pack with cast studies, a booklet with articles on hot e-campaigning topics and a DVD of video / audio / written interviews
Advocacy Online: Covering the cost of collecting and/or creating the content mentioned above that in turn allows the freelancers (who have expertise in e-campaigning of some sort) doing this work to attend the eCampaigning Forum if they couldn't afford it.

Paid Project Roles

Do you have project management or journalism skills and and want to attend ECF08? The Advocacy Online sponsorship is to hire a few people with the right skills and experience to create the content and oversee the production of the materials.

The basic plan is to produce printed and digital material that is relevent and useful to e-campaigning practitioners. This content would be produced through:

Interviews (in written/audio/video format) with ECF08 participants
Articles on key areas submitted by eCampaigning Forum participants (including those who can't attend the event)
Case studies collected from eCampaigning Forum participants

All this content would be published under the creative-commons share alike license and put online for anyone to use and re-use.

What I need to make this happen is:

Two project coordinators: one for the interview coordination
Three people with journalism related skills & experience who are able to interview others, ideally via video (so the audio can be ripped out to use on its own and the interview can also be written up as)

Anyone interested in this needs to also be qualified to attend ECF08 (and be willing to attend it). At ECF08 only 30% of your time will be used for this work so you can participate freely in the event.The aim of this work is to:

Get this content produced to a professional quality
Allow freelancers (or others) who can't afford to attend to pay the event costs with the income they earn from this paid work (and maybe even have expenses left over).

Interested?

If you are interested:

Read more about this e-campaigning content project
Learn about the available roles and responsibilities
Send me a CV or a description of your experience in this area.

Speaker and presentation suggestions?

Duane — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0600

Speaker Input

At the start of the event (see the agenda), two slots are available for speakers for 30 min each to help get brains buzzing. Last year we had Ricken Patel from Avaaz and Brian Fitzgerald from Greenpeace International (showcasing Green My Apple campaign). In the past we've also had academic speakers and way back in 2002 some corporate speakers. So what would you like to see this year?

Note: All speakers and most presentations will be recorded on video and put online - so even if you don't attend your input is valuable.

The big choice - do you want

People to speak specifically campaigning via interactive media (and thus directly relevant)

People who speak about a more generic topic (interesting but not unique to ECF)

Post input on the speakers wiki.

Presentation Input

Parallel Presentations

There is time on both days for three 30 minute presentations run in parallel (and thus not to the whole group). Do you want to present something in this? Do you want something presented here?

Post suggestions as comments to this post
Volunteer to give a presentation on the parallel presentation wiki.

Short Presentations

There are also times for a few short 5-10 minute presentations to everyone (but the have to be brief). Do you want to present something? Do you want something presented?

Post suggestions as comments to this post
Volunteer to give a presentation on the short presentation wiki.

ECF08 Registration is Open (finally!)

Duane — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:00:00 -0600

I always know I need to launch ECF registration when 5-6 past participants email me asking how to register :-) Well - here is it, the new, improved registration/application process.

Eight Things Different About This Year

It is being held at St. Anne's College in Oxford. This means:
1. Accommodation is on-site (if you want it to be). This is cheaper than hotels.
2. Even more time for sharing with other participants (if staying on-site)
3. More people can attend (max set to 100 this year)
4. We're in the centre of Oxford if you want to explore
5. Everyone can have Internet access
6. If you stay on-site you pay for accommodation through FairSay
7. This means a small increase in the overall cost of attending, but based on input in July 2007, this slight increase was acceptable (see the original estimates and input).
If you want to hold a pre-meeting, let me know and we'll discuss logistics.
You can follow updates via the event blog (or a news feed)
Subsidies this year will be first given to those willing to help (see how to help if you are interested)
I've also made some minor improvements to the agenda from last year with presentations just before the group knowledge sharing happens so that it sparks your creativity.
I'll be seeking sponsors to cover the costs of making the event even better - including bringing more people in from non-English speaking and non-Western countries
If you are a freelancer and wish to organise another event (e.g. general one for non-profits, with a focus on fundraising, bring together non-profit developers) in coordination with the eCampaigning Forum, I would be more than happy to talk more.
And one I care about but you may not: the registration process is much more automated (e.g. pre-approval, invoices, credit-card payment, personalised and tracked tell-a-friend links) all made possible with the open source eCampaigning Tool for Plone (developed by Petri of FairSay)

...and of course, all the things you love about the event are still there.

Pre Meeting Anyone?

Duane — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:45:36 -0600

This year, I have reserved some space at the venue for one or more groups to hold a pre-meeting on 8-9 April. This is likely of interest to you if have peers that you rarely get together with and:

You are part of an organisation with offices around the world (e.g. Oxfam , Greenpeace, FoI, Amnesty, WWF, World Vision)
You are part of a coalition or network with members around the world (e.g. GCAP, faith based groups, development / envio / human rights organisations)
A sub-group of those attending have something in common they can work on together(e.g. operate in Asia, similar model like GetUp, Avaaz and MoveOn, Spanish or French speakers)

If you think people from you organisation, coalition, network or another grouping would be interested in holding a 1-2 day pre-meeting, let me know:

That you are interested
How many people you'd expect to bring
If you want me to find you an event organiser-facilitator to hire to organise and run the event (I will first got to freelancers who have attended past e-campaigning forum events)

Also - if you are a 'freelancer' and wish to pull together a pre-meeting with others in your network who would attend the e-Campaigning Forum - let me know.

There is currently accommodation for 20 people reserved and I could likely expand this depending on demand.

Want to Help?

Duane — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:44:41 -0600

If you are a freelancer you are probably more in a position to help so after being asked by several people how they can help (in return for favourable terms), here are some ideas:

Video/Audio/Written interviews with event participants to publish online. Gillo and Pete are already committed to the video interviews. People to do Audio/Written interviews would be good too.
Adding/editing notes to the Wiki Topics during the event would be a big help. In the past some have done this voluntarily but I'm looking for a higher quality contribution here.
Coordinating articles for an eCampaigning publication. In 2007, OII volunteered to publish this but we had to pull it together and it never happened. Ideally it can happen before ECF08.
Finding sponsorship: The fees could be reduced for someparticipants and/or funding provided for others who couldn't normally attend. If you can pull this off with agreeable sponsors (no BAT, etc) then you'll definitely have a completely free place.
Finding qualified participants: I can probably get 75 people to the event fairly easily, but getting the additional 25 might be a struggle. Once the initial wave of people register, I would consider that if you can get 'new' and qualified people/organisations to attend then we can devise a scheme to help fund your place by getting others to join.
Logistics: a pain but essential. This includes:

Chasing invoices
Confirming rooms
Ensuring everyone is registered for Internet access at the event
Event packs
Registration on the 10th
Evening social organising
Online facilitation etc.

Other suggestions? I'm open to ideas - just ask.

Note: for anyone helping during the event itself, I would ensure is only 1/3 of the time maximum so that you can also participate in the event as everyone else.

Get Ready for ECF08!

Duane — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:15:40 -0600

I am proud to finally announce that the next eCampaigning Forum will be 10-11 April in Oxford, UK - so put it in your calendar now.

This year it will be held at St Anne's College by popular demand and can accommodate up to 100 people. I'll launch the registration process at the end of next week. You may also be interested in the cost estimate.