Just one more day until BracketLab takes place and the team is now all now confirmed. Now, this is nothing new, but the way the team has formed shows the power of networks.
Here is who is involved (in order of how far the network spread):
Emily Wilkinson (Empathi) – graphic facilitator/illustrator (introduced through a mutual friend)
Naomi Ray (Studio Pixie) – graphic designer/illustrator (met through Twitter)
Matthew Smith-Stubbs – front-end web developer (fellow member of THECUBE, co-working space for creative businesses)
Andrew Davey (MediaBandit) – web developer (responded to a call put out through the Open Coffee mailing list)
Joel Somerfield (Order) – filmmaker (was passed on by someone through the Open Coffee mailing list. But turns out he has done work for mutual contacts also).
So we all know how important it is to stay networked to stay in the loop, but if you want to build a collaborative team quickly – it’s essential.
Stay tuned for the progress of BracketLab, which will be taking place on 2nd and 3rd June at THECUBE.
Bracket’s lunchtime workshop at THE CUBE was a great success, with lots of interesting discussion about effective creative collaboration using online tools. Questions were raised around approaching intellectual property and attribution, managing egos and how to encourage people to use online tools (when all they want to use is e-mail!).
Creative Boom London kindly wrote a fantastic review of the workshop which covers all of these points (and more) in detail.
Bracket’s session at Media Camp London 4 during Social Media Week generated lots of discussion about the best methods and tools for helping groups of creatives to get things done. It looked at how social media could be used to support collaborative working between artists and designers etc that are used to working independently, usually have autonomy over their work, are characteristically busy, and highly skilled in generating ideas. The aim of the session was to develop solutions for how to channel that creativity into tangible outcomes and how social media can be used to support the process along the way.
A visit to the If You Could: Collaborate exhibition leaves visitors buzzing with ideas and excitement about what happens when creative minds get together. Alex Bec and Will Hudson of If You Could invited 33 creatives to collaborate with someone of their choice, giving them 12 months to develop a final piece. The brief was completely open so the curators had no idea what the outcomes might be.
It looks like there’s been a hub of collaborative creative writing activity happening on the web this weekend!
A group of writers have set themselves up with the task to write and publish a book in just 24 hours using online tools to work together. The group has been using Google Docs to write and edit the document, as well as using Skype and face-to-face conversation to communicate, and have been updating us on their progress through their twitter profile.
A couple of weeks ago, I ran a workshop at The Hub, Islington. It’s the second time I’ve run this session, for which the aim is to help creative practitioners become more aware of the process of engaging in collaborative projects. The workshop draws on the experience of the participants to identify issues they need to consider and anything that’s stopping them from collaborating effectively, and then starts to develop solutions so that projects can be productive, effective and taken through to delivery.
So far, both workshops have brought up similar themes, and the dynamics of practical collaboration seem to be getting clearer. Some of the common themes that have come out of the workshops are:
Bracket has been working on a toolkit that can be used by those hoping to work collaboratively on a project with others. The initial framework is here. It is intended to be a work in progress, inviting contributions and developed as the model is tested. There are also some suggestions from facilitators/providers of social media, gathered from Social Media Camp London 08.
The model was developed with social designers hoping to initiate collaborative projects, at System Reload London. But maybe elements can be applied to other areas, ensuring that the specific characteristics and needs of the community are considered.
