Hi Roy

Its very difficult to give an opinion without knowing more about what happens once they have filled in that form.

Is the plan to make the village visible to everyone straight away, or is this just the beginning of the registration process, followed by discussion with Nabuur staff, screening of LR/organisation, training etc?

If you can explain that step by step then you will probably get more input from people.

Mary

Ah true. When submitting the form (with all required date ok) then your village is automatically created and put online. The review process currently just doesn't seem to work so we are going to just remove that for now. (can you imagine it's hard for very new members to review/critisize eachothers villages?)

Of course we want to make sure these new villages get enriched by stories and projects and nabuurs as soon as possible and these 'getting started actions' is what I'm working on now.

For example:
- on the village page, show an invitation to create a first story (and show it only to the local rep who created it)
- provide a list of new villages that's easily accesible for facilitators and other local reps so that they can jump in and say hi, encourage the new local reps to connect
- still mulling over the idea if we should create a review process around creating a project. It might work if a project gets reviewed and revised, with concrete tasks added etc first before it is put live on the site. Set the projects up for succes first as it where.

So, villages are put online immediately, get people in first, then ask them to connect, share and collaborate.

Maybe this page from my sketchbook summarizes the ideas best:

Hi Roy

So the aim is to put a village online straight away? I am very surprised by this - you could end up with many hundred new villages with no activity as the LRs will have no clue how to use the site. It goes completely against what many experienced neighbours are saying, but I guess we already know that our opinions are not shared by the Nabuur organisation.

Is there any coordination between your redesign group and the Resource Team who are looking at training material for LRs, Facilitators and neighbours. It feels to me as though the two may be working in opposite directions?

Mary

I am also shocked by this-there is plenty of evidence all over Nabuur of the mass villages who came online without a project being defined-no tasks defined, etc. Out of those how many are active since coming online?

I also agree 100% with Mary here-it goes completely against what the Nabuur volunteers have provided feedback on for over a year and even prior to the last redesign. Why ask for feedback at all if no one is going to listen to it?

Roy-I don't mean to shoot the messenger, I just feel this is really off target of what should be happening. It's very disappointing and not motivating in the least.

Jennifer

JOIN / SHARE / CONNECT / COLLABORATE

NABUUR offers communities (Villages) around the world the possibility to present themselves, put themselves on the map (window on the world), share their daily life, their culture, hopes, dreams and questions, today’s news and tomorrow’s plans (Connect). In addition, they have the possibility to start a project related to plans for tomorrow (Collaborate).

NABUUR offers Neighbours around the world the possibility to experience the developments in these villages around the world, their culture, etc. and allows them to interact with these villages in ways that are sometimes only possibly by physically travelling there (Connect). They can also sign up as members of a project team and share their experience, knowledge, ideas, contacts, culture (Collaborate).

Every Neighbour matters, regardless whether they just connect or take part in a project. Neighbours can directly assist by sharing time, knowledge, contacts and creativity on NABUUR.com: direct, person-to-person. There is something to do for everyone.

For redesign of the NABUUR site this means:

We are working towards a clearer distinction between a Village and a project.

The Village site is of value in and by itself: people from around the world can connect here, experience the Village and its people, witness the events. It’s possible to discuss the developments in the Village and come up with solutions/ideas that may eventually turn into a project. This part of the site is like a ‘Facebook for Villages’.

The Village can opt to start a project, i.e. follow a more structured approach towards achieving their future goals. The project takes place in a separate functional collaborative environment (still offering the familiar range of shorter and longer term assignments).

Everywhere on the site, it should be easy to switch environments. (The list of) active projects should be accessible from every page on the site. In the Villages that do have a project themselves, there should be a clear link to that particular project.

How do Villages come online and how do they define projects?

Current process
In October last year the registration for new Villages was opened. Local Representatives can register their own Village. Putting a break on the registration of new Villages or neighbours is not an option: NABUUR is designed to be an open platform, that's what all the staff's effort goes into and the reason that our partners support NABUUR.

Through a sequence of forms, candidate Local Reps can create their own Village and submit background information and stories. As soon as the minimum requirements are met (contact info, Village info, picture, 3 background articles) the Local Rep joins a pool of peers, where they review each other’s Villages. After a successful review the Villages are made visible to the outside world. Once online, the Local Reps can engage Neighbours for their Village, start up discussions and thus learn how NABUUR works (by doing) and define an appropriate project.

Flaws
- The registration process is too difficult. Lots of candidates get stuck during registration.
- It’s not clear enough which information/stories are meant to end up where in the village. As a result sometimes project proposals are posted as background information or news, or Local Reps don’t know where to leave a message.
- The peer to peer review process is unclear. Some of you have received invitations from Local Reps whose village wasn’t visible yet. The quality of feedback varies from very good to very bad. In cases this part of the process took too long Local Reps got frustrated, mostly out of confusion about the following steps. A few experienced Local Reps were asked to guide the new ones, but their role remained too unclear to solve the issues.

Improving the process
The issues related to the process (too difficult, fuzzy) are being resolved with the redesign. Roy is working on that right now – he’s posted the first thoughts in the website development group. The best way to go is to lower the barrier, then make the next steps as clear as possible once the village is registered. That also comes closest to the ‘Facebook for Villages’.

At the same time we’re aware that new Local Reps (and Neighbours and Facilitators) will need guidance during the first steps on NABUUR and the other subjects that were discussed here. Next to making the site as clear as possible that will also require good content and training materials. I believe that in a joint effort on the redesign and training/orientation overhaul we all can come up with something pretty good!

Next steps:
In the last week Roy has already designed a simple village signup process, which is currently being built. He's now pondering on the next steps, which is where he'd like your input:

"So, let's assume our new local rep has succeeded in adding his village to the nabuur site. She will end this registration proces on the front page of her newly created village.

There is little actual content at this stage, so we are in a 'blank slate' situation. The goal then is to offer the next actions that can be taken."

You can see the wireframe (a drawing of the page) and the questions Roy asks here.

Please also provide your ideas on the next steps Local Reps should be offered. (which you'll all have ideas on, seeing the previous discussions)

Thanks, hope this description helps,

Pelle

Hi Pelle,

Thanks for this information. Indeed I think that it would make it easier to sign up. However I have one worry - will there be the same access to profiles for people having just signed up as a village? I think there are several of us already struggling now with lots of private messages from people who are looking for funding etc. If more people can sign up for villages and they have access to all profiles and the function to send messages, I fear a bit that this problem will even become worse. Maybe one should think about opening certain functions and information only to those who really have a registered project and are looking for a constructive dialogue.

best,
Maria

Hi Pelle

Is there a confirmation process before a village becomes active that the project actually exists? I understand Nabuur is an open platform for any potential LR with a dream. I think this does need to be made very clear to all neighbours, that these are unconfirmed projects.

However, how what about the process of becoming an active village? My concern is, that the process for becoming active is going to become less rigourous. Active villages, with volunteers raising funds and working hard and in good faith, I believe need to have some kind of initial (at least), and preferably continued checking process to ensure that neighbours working towards achieving Nabuur projects are not working towards what may predominantly be just a dream or fiction at best, and at worst, a con. I am wondering if or how this will happen in the new nabuur environment?

:)

Identifying a con, and preventing people from being duped, would involve a good deal of policing, and systems and safeguards need to be upgraded on a regular basis, since the crooks upgrade their own systems faster than the law enforcement groups upgrade their systems. Such regular upgrades on nabuur may not be possible at the administrator levels. Hence, all neighbours on nabuur need to be cautioned about the pitfalls related to aspects of funding at their point of entry on the nabuur platform - which is the signup stage for new neighbours. They will need to be advised that nabuur is an open platform, and law enforcement is not high on the agenda at nabuur, and hence all neighbours must exercise their own caution while handling any requests for funds or getting involved with fund-raising. Hence the onus of safeguarding their own interest will shift to the neighbours, who will then be forced to deal with each request for funds with the highest degree of caution and vigilance. As a result, the focus of all activity on the nabuur platform will gradually shift to more of meaningful interaction on all other issues except the issues related to funds. A logical fallout will be that all operators with their eye on funds will vanish from the scene, and what remains on the nabuur platform will not require much of policing - which is what anopen platform is all about.

Vijai

You say having a backup contact for a village should NOT be necessary - I totally disagree. We have lost "Kyomya" and all the work I did last year because we have no way to contact anyone else in the village now that David is gone. I was supporting 3 families and now have no way to get in touch with them. The neighboring reps at Kisozi and Wakitaka want nothing to do with Kyomya and David - so all is lost. Also - better background checking of the LR's would be very helpful - are they Really who they say they are? I got burned very badly and don't wish it on anyolne else.

--
Ginger :)

Hi Virginia,

I'm not sure what happened between you and David, but Alex from Entebbe was the first facilitator of Kyommya. He runs a youth grouth, so I believe him to be trustworthy. I'm not sure why he stopped being facilitator but he was always very friendly and I have his email address, if you want to contact him, maybe he could get in touch with the women,

Sinéad

Hi Maria,

Glad you're liking the concept. :)

As for access to profiles: Yes, the same access will be granted to those signing up a village, as well as other 'regular' neighbours.

We don't want to be selective about who gets what type of message. It may also occur that someone is excluded from a message that may interest them or be useful to them (perhaps now or in the future), because they don't have a certain access.

As more villages are added on, and more neighbours join NABUUR, the messages will likely increase. I hear you on the funding appeals: the point needs to be made more clearly that NABUUR is not primarily about funding. This may discourage private messages that refer solely to funding. We can make this clearer in the landing pages when a new neighbour/local rep signs up for NABUUR. (Which by the way, these expectations of what new users want to see upon sign-up is what's being discussed in the Resource Team here.)

Best,
Romina

Hi Lynley,

With the goal of scaling up to accommodate as many new villages/projects as possible (I like your wording: 'any potential LR with a dream' :)), and the fact that online platforms are generally limited by lack of on-site interaction (in most cases), it becomes difficult to implement a verification process for each new applicant.

The wish for reliable and growing local networks in various countries is still very much present, and we hope once they are established, they can assist in verifying projects. And with more volunteers traveling to projects, more local reps getting together to meet one another, and more local (and international) organizations getting involved in the mix, there seems to be a very organic verification happening on its own. For now, things will carry on as they have been, and should anything come up that questions the legitimacy of a project, NABUUR will definitely investigate it.

For villages/projects that have been visited by neighbours or staff, It could be useful to have a tag shown on the village that reads: "This village has been visited by (neighbour/nabuur staff/etc.)" - Do you think that seal of 'been-there-seen-it' verification would work? :)

Help me understand your second question: what type of checking process do you suggest? And who would it be done by; the staff, the local community, or the neighbours?

Romina

Hi Ginger

I have also been caught in this way in the past (different village, now 'on hold'), so I know exactly what you mean, its not a good thing to get caught in the middle of.
----

All villages should have a backup contact, not just becuase of situations like this, but also in case the LR is ill or is unable to connect for some other reason.

As to verification, I think LRs should be asked if they are part of a registered community organisation and, if they are, this information should be checked. Details of this organisation should be posted on their village page. Also, maybe they should all have to provide a reference. I realise this is not a 100% guarantee but may discourage people who are not honest. I know this goes against the 'open to all' idea, but if LRs are genuine, I am sure they would be happy to provide this information. Either at registration stage or before they are able to add any tasks related to fundraising. So much depends on whether Nabuur wants 'quality' or 'quantity'.

As to the expectations of new LRs:

* The likelihood of real results for their community
* An easy to use site that works well over a slow internet connection
* Access to help and advice from Nabuur and experienced LRs, especially for those with no experience of working online.

There must have been 30 villages added this year, with others in the pipeline. I would suggest asking some of them what their expectations were, whether these have been met, and how they think things can be improved.

I would also suggest getting some LRs (a mix of new and existing) formally involved in the design and testing process. As many find it difficult to be online for long periods due to cost, you may need to cover their internet access costs during this period.

Mary

we kiserian village worry about some con who are sending some letters to us ,the best thing is to deal with projects which are registed because there is ghost project within .
thank

Hi all,

Seeing all the questions about Village signup, project definition and concerns about making sure the projects are trustworthy, I made a short slideshow of the process as I see it.

It's not fully detailed: some of the details are still to be filled in, but I hope this gives a better idea of how I envision the 'connect' stage of a village, how projects are defined and run.


Nabuur Connect CollaborateView more presentations from pelleaardema.
Sorry, tried to embed the slideshow here, but that doesn't seem to work right now. Just follow the link for now

The main difference between this process and the current situation is indeed that a village comes online, without much work behind the screens, project checking etc.

At the moment too few new "Local Reps with a dream" find their way through the system. They get stuck in a process ‘behind the screens', which is not only frustrating for them but not very motivating for our team either (the only ones that can currently see the not-yet-online-villages). So, by lowering the barrier and making the process much more user friendly we hope to overcome this problem.

Getting the village online is then the first step in sharing information/pictures/stories about the village, engaging neighbours and becoming familiar with how NABUUR works. As Roy wrote, it will be made clear to the Local Rep (through its design) that the village only comes alive with her stories, pictures and messages. For neighbours, it will become much easier to leave a message in the village, get in touch with the Local Rep or other neighbours. (we announced this as ‘facebook for villages’, but that seems to have struck the wrong chord)

A Local Rep can propose a project, hopefully based on previous discussions with neighbours, ideas that were shared, examples that were found. With the help of committed neighbours and a facilitator the project can then be further defined, tasks can be designed and the project can take off. Updates and results can be shared on NABUUR and broadcasted on other media.

What's the current status?
The first demo of the registration process for neighbours and villages is available at http://demo.nabuur.org.

A number of Local Reps are being invited to provide their feedback, at the same time I’m live testing the demo with ordinary people, in order to get feedback on the user experience. This feedback will be used for improving what has been built, but also gives Roy input about how clear the design is, what issues people run into etc. so that he can take that into account for the upcoming processes. This method of testing (both face-to-face and online) will be used for all the functionality that is developed.

If you have a look, keep in mind this is not a finished site yet: there are no clear overviews of tasks or villages yet – all that will be added at a later stage. Feel free though, to click through the signup process. I’ll post the test forms here so that you can see what’s being tested.

In the meanwhile our team sat together discussing the project definition process. We’ll draw up the first ideas and post them here. Looking forward to your input! (of course I’ll gather what has been said already)

Pelle