g0v.london Civic Hacknight

How to get involved:

• Join our WhatsApp group for co-organisers.
  • This is likely a temporary place until Slack becomes more high-traffic.
  • It's ok to come lurk and check it out before you've decided.
• Join the g0v-tw Slack team and hop into the #london-hacknight-organising channel
  • This is where we hope to migrate, but for now is used for "extra" info that might be noisy in WhatsApp.

What's here?

• Hacknights
  • 2022-12-05 pilot #2
  • 2022-11-XX pil0t #1
  • 2022-10-26 pil0t #0
    • Event intro
    • Agenda (proposed)
    • Concepts:
• Co-organizing Meetings
  • 2022-10-23
  • 2022-10-24
  • 2022-10-26 debrief
  • 2022-11-04
  • 2022-11-13
  • 2022-11-20
  • 2022-12-05
  • 2022-12-12

Hacknights

2022-12-05 pilot #2

• debrief
  • #todo get contact for defunct citizenbeta community's organizers from ed (???)
  • #todo send blurb to ed to in turn send to mailing list spring polis event (???)
    • ed doesn't have consent to share emails
  • why more tech ppl this week?
    • patcon: may have been changing the topics on meetup to be more technical: https://i.imgur.com/SpCIHiP.png
    • edited on this page: https://www.meetup.com/g/g0v-london/settings/basic/
  • patcon: #todo buy tiny portable table tripod to store in the bag
    • for when we go mobile beyond newspeak

2022-11-XX pil0t #1

• #todo get mailing list from spring 2022 polis event for invites (patcon)
• #done create next meetup event (patcon)
• #todo scaffold out speaker booking guide and resources, forked from CTTO (patcon)
  • https://link.civictech.ca/speaking-booking
  • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sMHQR4-v-GNMIvw2-swG68bWyXAUwSHDbG2lrxoEPSQ/edit
• #todo send speaker invitation to shu yang using template (?)
• …
• …

2022-10-26 pil0t #0

Meetup event page: https://www.meetup.com/g0v-london/events/289213605/

Event intro

It is g0v's 10th anniversary on 24 Oct. 2022!

We want to introduce g0v community to friends in UK, Europe and beyond.

What do you want to introduce about g0v community?

What do you want to know about g0v community?

Agenda (proposed)

if hacknight format patcon

• 6:00 setup. doors open. food.
• 6:30 intro (fork CivicTechTO welcome deck?)
• 7:00 presentation
• 7:20 pitches
• 7:30 breakout groups!
• 8:50 pack up
• 9:00 wrap (post-hacknight hangout)

Concepts:

• A space/community to make people take hands-on to change.

• Diverse participants, e.g. more than projects in Taiwan and UK

- Discussion on governance (Strong focus of Newspeak House)
- Open participation spirits of g0v

ael
I want the event format to be open and participatory enough.
A talk + Ligntning talks from the audience?

Community, orgs and individuals to invite:

just throwing up ideas:

• mySociety
• someone from GDS?
• Demos
• Zooniverse

ael
Shared on Twitter

Meetup event description

Join g0v's hacknight to hack a better society with all enthusiastic hackers!

WHY SHOULD YOU COME?

g0v is one of the biggest civic tech communities in the world. We uncover problems, brainstorm ideas, and develop solutions to make the government more accessible, transparent and open!

WHO SHOULD COME?

YOU! EVERYONE! We welcome "hackers" from all kinds of professionals, all curious individuals and all who want to make a change. Our participants include coders, designers, activists, government officials, legal experts, writers, journalists, and etc.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED?

‣ DETAILS
Come help us chip away at civic challenges! We've got everything you need for a fun and purposeful hacknight: a presentation to learn from, wonderful co-conspirators to meet, some projects to work on, and delicious food to eat!

This pilot event is to gauge interest in hosting a more regular event. We'll need your energy and contributions to make that work! (See ABOUT US section below)

‣ PRESENTERS:
ael, g0v contributor (in-person)
g0v contributor #2 (recorded)
g0v contributor #3 (recorded)

‣ TOPIC: welcome to the g0v community

‣ BIOS
To be announced.

‣ VENUE SPONSOR
Newspeak House is an independent residential college founded in 2015 to study, nurture and inspire emerging communities of practice across civil society and the public sector in the UK. https://newspeak.house

‣ CHECK-IN DETAILS
Enter through the eastern-most glass door.

We might informally confirm RSVPs, but we're flexible. (Intention is to support attendee connections beyond the event.)

‣ ACCESSIBILITY
The event will take place on the ground floor. The event space has no steps inside. The main entrance has a 2" lip onto a graded concrete ramp.

‣ ABOUT US
g0v London is an exploration of seeding a g0v community in London, UK. We are running currently one-off hacknights that, with your support, aspire to become more regular.

‣ INSPIRATION
g0v is a grassroots social movement community dedicated to deepening the civic engagements and connections between the social arena and citizens. It is a decentralised civic tech community with core values of information transparency, open results and open cooperation. https://g0v.tw/intl/en/

Civic Tech Toronto is a diverse community of Torontonians interested in better understanding and finding solutions to civic challenges through technology, design or other means. They run weekly "civic hacknights for everyone", where people of all backgrounds and skill levels are welcome to attend. https://link.civictech.ca/meetup (Civic Tech Toronto was in turn inspired by the values and format of Chicago's ChiHackNight. )

‣ AGENDA

• 6:30-7:00 Doors open. Food!
• 7:00-7:30 Welcome and intros
• 7:30-8:00 Presentation, Q&A
• 8:00-9:00 Breakout groups (make something!)

Hope to see you Wednesday

Co-organizing Meetings

2022-10-23

• potential topics
  • Confirm meetup event description
    • Do we want to have a closing?
  • Invite list (strategies, ppl, prewritten text)
  • Invite 2 speakers
  • Setting a schedule for meeting/cowork up till event night?
  • emcee notes & presentation
  • Role sheet
    • Food
  • Item sheet (signs, boards, post-its, stickers, etc.)
  • Room layout
  • Accessibility (multiple floors? how to deal with ration club)
  • Breakout session
  • Feedback questions at the end
  • Survey (contact info)
  • g0v Slack channel
• contributor vs participants?
  • ael: participants just need to show up (low barrier)
  • patcon: assumption of "participants" is that you just show up, like every other event
• #todo check in with ruth on pitching (patcon)
• do we want closing?
  • pc: -1 bc will give us less time to work
  • ael:
    • Gentle reminder to help clean out or put the chairs back.
• event description
  • Emphasize it is a pilot?
    • ael: No need. Or put it down in the bottom. Or Just on site.
    • patcon: how do we say this will be more often.
  • Hack, hack, hack
    • patcon: too techie
    • ael: I think it is okay
• Trying to merge is hard. (Only expected quick sorting out)
  • ael: Maybe we should say in the intro that it is a mash-up
  • It is easy and quick to do it in a familiar container. But we are build a container.
  • Different ideas in Civic Tech Toronto just go separate groups

2022-10-24

• #todo buy red lanyards

• #todo invite a social media person [on-site, optional]

• #todo invite note-taker [on-site, optional]

• #todo invite greeter [in advance]

• #todo write text for sandwich board [set up]

• #todo invite audio/visual person

• #done decide hashtag: #g0vhacknight

• #todo copy/update welcome deck (patcon)

  • #todo create links for: g0v slack, code of conduct,
  • #todo create code of conduct link
  • #todo get wifi

• #decision use gdocs (hackmd and etherpad for more advanced ppl)

• #todo rewrite emcee notes (patcon)

• #todo create gdrive (patcon)

• #todo ask someone to accomodate new ppl in slack (ael)

• #todo prime english content in slack channels #intl, #general-en (ael)

  • defaults: #general, #self-intro, #rand0m

• #todo talk to declan about (patcon)

  • tables
  • power bars, extension cords
  • easels
  • whiteboard markers
  • post-its
  • white paper
  • pens

• #todo add mention of laptops to meetup (ael)

  • #todo send meetup message (patcon)
  • #todo coordinate with isla on food (patcon)

• #todo have short intro to demo (patcon, ael, ruth)

• #todo print sign template (patcon)

  • bathrooms, stay downstairs (accessibility)

• #done get hannah's contact info from ed (patcon)

  • #todo ask hannah about greeter role (ael)

• #todo write explanation of mashup (ael + patcon)

  • mashup, community experimenter, g0v + civic tech toronto
  • invitation to co-organize next event
  • ael: want to build a space where people feel that something can happen without waiting for permission. not anti-capitalist. just asking for solutions. space for "action".
  • patcon: action isn't as preferred as "engagement" or "participation". over-focus on action reminds me a little too much of startup worlds fetishization of "execution" and devaluing of conversation.
  • ardavan: some actions are changing minds, which is done through discussion. so not clear distinction between action and discussion. +1 patcon
  • ael: bring magic here, make them think that something can happen. word = work together.
  • explore possibility. have a community.
  • patcon: permissionless. not asking permission.
  • ael: "just do it", "just start it"
  • ael: "it's ok if something doesn't work out"
  • patcon: platform to re-imagine and explore a new civics

• #todo add gratitudes to emcee notes (patcon)

• #todo decide post-hacknight hangout

• #todo print stickers

• contentious topics

  • co-organizer roles vs ambiguous roles
  • tech language prominent or not ("hack", leetspeak, etc.)

2022-10-26 debrief

• feedback

  • participant felt this was the first truly open space she had been in in 3 years.
  • participant felt more energetic
  • hannah liked to pitching session. liked the consual tactics for privacy.
  • nathan: offered to help us advertise. 8000 ppl in inactive org he organizes. re: art+culture.
    • #todo ask community name
  • people passing on street with skateboards, were interested, but looking for more info.
  • clement said that this event is what newspeak tries to be. that this was what he was looking for.
  • prateek was very excited about the idea of sharing with public servants, but had to think how to do it without crossing work/life lines.
    • can't be regular due to family, but wants to tell ppl
  • brendan. collective intelligence. really stoked. wants to come back whenever next one is. wants to be regular
  • aaron. citizen monitoring stuff.
  • six: ael and patcon have similar enthusiasm. different types of charisma. same passion.
  • #todo ask ruth to share notes in slack
  • ael: if ppl didn't register on meetup, asked for contact info.
  • some ppl didn't want to be in digital spaces (meetup or slack). just wanted to be in person.
  • matthew didn't know about non-alcoholic aspiration, and felt awkward
  • Someone suggested to start earlier (They had time to kill)
  • hannah mentioned that the balance of time between presentations and work could use adjustment. presentations felt a little long.
    • harris mentioned energy was flagging during end of presentation, but he's glad he stayed
  • hannah suggested that we prime ppl a bit more to think about pitches (maybe activity or small group), as she met ppl after pitches who talked about things that could have been pitches
  • Nathan suggested to host in different venues to reach more diverse communities
  • ella and oshaun

• self-feedback

  • ael: can improve outreach to diversity of experience
  • people had right vibe
  • people picked up work
  • hannah and ruth started cleanup. ppl started putting chairs away.
  • brendan asked about ordering a hat
  • Hat is useful to create belongingness and role assigned
  • We got participants that really had participatory spirits that they helped out a lot of things and picked up work by themselves. We got the people having good vibes.
  • A mix of people although we can try harder to find more diverse communities
  • didn't successfully engage people into online spaces
  • patcon: would love nametags in future. bad at names.
  • #todo make/fork 101 session
  • #todo find new person for 101 role
  • ael really good at pairing ppl up in pre-event unstructured space
  • ael: more stickers, introducing stickers to introduce community culture.
  • How to engage more people just walking by and keep them
  • Patcon: we should explicitly say how every person is welcomed. It should be on slides. stickers solve this, but so does a slide.
  • Ael went out talking to people who stopped reading the blackboard. We did have several people joining from the street, but most of them left before the pitching session.
  • ael: I like Angel wrote "open to all" on the blackboard
  • g0v.london to be pointed to on the sandwitch board
  • Someone asked if we had a namecard or flyers
  • Food is a good method to create interactions between participants
  • Chaotic chairs make people talk about this
  • Creating activities for people to talk about and do
  • Door greeting, middle space, inner space setting up
  • Giving credits to each other
  • 1/3 of ppl had heard of g0v before
  • ppl are willing to help out the next event and want to bring friends
  • #todo send out post-event feedback survey
  • LONG GAME: better supports to help ppl start local neighborhood hacknights. shouldn't just be in one part of london. Helping ppl from far away start their own groups. Keep track of the long-distance travelers and fans from afar.
  • ppl wanted to know what other breakouts have done. => online notes, and summarize them somewhere
  • #todo share dolphin tank notes
  • #todo post notes to meetup group comments

2022-11-04

When? Fri, Nov 4 @ 8pm
Who's here? ael, patcon

• #todo create speaker guide
• #done talk to ruth about prototyping speaker booker
• why speakers?
  • patcon: most ppl are lurkers online. same offline. people want to just observe.
  • ael: bringing in new communities
  • distributed way to give mic to more ppl (new person every week)
  • speakers bring in more people
  • ael: inspiration
• how open is organizing discussion? ael: care about who is making decisions on speaker invitations?
  • can we distribute that so one person doesn't dominate? +1 patcon
  • patcon: when do we create a new channel for organizing? ael: start with one, organizing later
• ael: creative commons for all presentations?
  • pc: +1 first thought is that could be in template emails for speaker booking
  • pc: if someone ever had concern, i wouldn't personally want to press the issue
  • ael: if someone strongly against, we could ask them to remove that part
• pc: i feel less passionate about
• ael: many companies feel using tech is good enough, but its not open.
• ael: want a culture of creative commons unless opt-out. +1 pc
• patcon: i don't personally feel the need to educate ppl on open licenses (and we don't in Toronto), maybe bc ppl deeply practice and perform the values underpinning the licenses every week: collaboration, participation, and open culture.
• ael: why is open source very important
  • should be default
  • encourage anyone to have open source license even if they don't know
  • idea of open source is tied to license. it's the idea of open source you want to keep. open is not enough.
  • set of political philosophy, set of culture, how you build community, how you share code
  • i would feel it's not g0v

2022-11-13

ael Probably we need to change the date format as this is not the British date format

Invitation to previous participants from Meetup:

Subject:
[Invite] Next g0v.london Civic Hacknight on Tue. 15 Nov.

Hi all,

Thank you for coming to the #0 g0v.london Civic Hacknight in Oct. It was an inspiring night that everyone wanted to throw up the next one.

So here it is.

⏰Time: 18:30-21:30, Tuesday, 15th Nov.
📍Location: Newspeak House, 133 Bethnal Grn Rd, London E2 7DG
📢Speaker: Shu-Yang Lin
🎯Topic: Democracy in Taiwan: The People-Public Partnership.

There will be sincere self-introduction, 10 min sharing from the speaker, more time to hack and interesting souls like you.

RSVP to the next g0v.london Civic Hacknight #1 Pil0t
https://www.meetup.com/g0v-london/events/289473105/

Bring your friends or ideas!

We plan to host g0v Civic Hacknight regularly in London. If you are interested in co-organizing, just reply all to this email letting us know. (Mailing list is on the way)

Cheers,
ael
co-organizer of g0v.london

P.S. Sorry for putting the next one in a rush. There will be another one in early December. Stay tuned.

2022-11-20

When? Sun., Nov 20 @ 12 pm
Who's here? ael, patcon

• #done fix typo in meetup event. not "Tuesday". (patcon, h/t lorraine)

• #done create Dec 13 event from Dec 5 copy (patcon)

• #done adding theo and ella as co-organizers of events (patcon)

• #todo submit event description to Ed for newspeak website. see copy below. (patcon)

• patcon: What should we call ourself? Especially on the event introduction. What are the "we" we are going to refer to?

  • ael: Maybe to imagine g0v.london as a subproject or a sub-community in a larger international g0v community? +1 patcon
  • ael: I use g0v.london on every external invitations as g0v.london would directly lead them to g0v.lond Civic Hacknight Meetup group. "g0v" is not a good redirectory for our events in London. However, I don't want whatever community or projects we are trying to build now to be limited only in London. I want the Civic Hacknight can accommodate more issues beyond London to UK, Europe and other international issues.

• patcon: in Toronto, people continually called "Civic Tech Toronto" as "civic tech". e.g., "I'll see you at civic tech next week". So raising point that even if we call it g0v.london, people will say g0v for short, and we should maybe make sure we're ok with that.

  • ael: g0v is an organic community. New participants always have their own interpretation on what g0v community is. I think it is okay that some new iconic things or charcteristics developed in London added into g0v community culture. I guess it is important to set up the general social norms and understanding of a community. Using the community to keep the spirits going: open source, participation, hands-on, public spirits, nobody culture (along with the representation issue and building a community towards decentralisation)

• ael: BTW, we need to engage more co-organisers out of us as I may be very busy around 13 Dec and you are not in town.

• ael: how to engage participants really start to put their hands on building something? The past two events were inspiring in a way of discussion but not kicking-off anything yet.

• patcon: clement is going to role-model proper laptop work this coming week, and invite ppl to work with him

  • theodore is also going to model laptop work for open source hacknight breakout group

• …

• ael: I think we should more proactively invite interesting, diverse communities earlier this time. For example, we need more tech and design people. I value a lot on the diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, neiborhood/central gov etc. But I feel like inviting people who can start to build something is important.

• patcon: The many dimensions of diversity. https://manito-wish.org/assets/Diversity-Wheel-The-Many-Dimensions-of-Diversity-1.pdf

  • shared this in the speaker booking guide, as primer for those interested

• talking about participant in CT101 who wasn't sure her interests belonged. ael reassured her that community-level projects were welcome. not just central gov level. neighborhood is important.

  • #idea include more community/neighborhood focus in CT101 (Civic Tech 101)
  • Example projects are good to encourage various forms/scopes of projects #todo

• ael: anything we want to put our focus on in the community building in two events in Dec.

• patcon: there are values and weakness of presenting the tech aspect. so peppering some tech references is ok with me, but want to take time to empahsize not just tech

• ael: "civic tech" = global movement. i would do something like that, but more diverse projects across the world.

  • local groups do grassroots work.
  • ael: #idea creating new slides to focus on differentially based on who is there
  • More like a gallery or materials prepared for followup questions. Just to inspire people on the possibility of different types of projects.

• patcon: worried if other people feel they can't faciliate Civic Tech 101. if it seems too off-script that it intimidates ppl, that would be bad imho.

  • so a linear set of slides for simple first-time CT101 hosts, but slides at the end for more advanced "free jazz" CT101 hosts.

• ael: I agree with the linear slide structure fo any facilitators. The appending slides are examples and tool kits of civic tech projects. Any facilitator can go on the appending slides and search on those projects on site with new participants. e.g. extended readings on diverse projects such as gender, enviroment/climate change, labor rights, disinformation, country side, social work, policy reforms, protests, election-related etc. I don't want it to be too complicated.

• #todo find someone to (professional) photograph the next event. Figure out photo policy (Facial photo only with consent)

• …

• ael: I put these stickers in a queer community space in Common Ground. (Near Newspeak House)
  
  

• #todo ael is going to finish their blogpost on two hacknights: event documenting and insights on event organising.

• #todo

• ael: what communication channels for what communications for whom

  • g0v Slack:
    • ael: start with whatsapp group, but if we move to slack, co-organizers will need to be in slack. will be weird if they're not there. +1 patcon
  • WhatsApp: discussing more local logicstic issue?
    • patcon: we can create a WhatsApp sharing link #todo
    • proposal: we can let organizers know that they're welcome to share link. but for now, we should be intentional about who we actively invite to co-organize, and not yet post link publicly for all. re: founding effect and diversity of experience/expertise within founding co-organizing group.

• ael: who we want to engage/empower on 5 Deb, so that person may be able to co-host the 13 Deb without two of us?

  • patcon: non-Newspeak ppl?
  • ael: want someone to talk through process, not just assign tasks. more understanding of working process.

• #todo find a way to debrief within hacknight

  • patcon: Hard stop at 9 pm and then we can have a meta debrief right after. can help build ownership. practice for when we're hosted elsewhere and we need to be out by 9:05pm to be consciencious.
  • ael: I think it depends that how early people arrive

• ael: communication with the speaker on the presentation time and audience profile. Shu thought she had 30 min to speak while the 30 min includes Q&A. I suggest to separate talk and Q&A time on the welcoming deck.

• ael: i need ruth or clement to be more engaged by Dec 5. i need someone to form a culture with me.

• ael: #idea have a role sheet, and invite people to take ownership on each role themselves on the sheet. I think people don't know what and the scope of "stepping up" to help organising the next event. So if we can give specific roles or tasks that need a hand. They may feel more comfortable in taking one manageble task.

  • #idea runsheets for each role

• hi@g0v.london:

  • patcon: prefer hi to be random incoming emails
    • so it stays high signal-to-noise, and doesn't become an FYI email. but this can be future
    • in toronto, venues@ and speakers@ are the ones we use for specific FYI things, and everything else in hi@
  • ael: we can start with hi@g0v.london. I will start to cc hi@g0v.london for future followup on venues or possible speakers. +1 patcon
  • speaker@g0v.london

Submitted copy for external event descriptions

source: http://web.archive.org/web/20190903062153/http://civictech.ca/

Hacknights for everyone.

g0v.london is a diverse community of London residents interested in better understanding and finding solutions to civic challenges through technology, design or other means.

The g0v.london community comes together at our hacknights every few weeks from 6:30pm to 9pm. At hacknights, we come together to listen to awesome speakers, learn and share civic tech stories, and work together on projects that aim to make London better.

People of all backgrounds and skill levels are welcome to attend.

g0v.london aims to create a safe, welcoming and fun space for collaboration because we know that when people from different backgrounds take a collective and human-centred approach to addressing civic issues, amazing things can happen!

Come out to a g0v.london hacknight to learn about civic tech and meet some great people.

2022-12-05

When? Mon., 05 Dec @ 11 pm
Who's here? ael, patcon

ael: more developers today!

2022-12-12

When? Mon., 12 Dec @ 2:30 pm
Who's here? ael, patcon
Where online

Discussing who will do the Civic Tech 101 and emcee:

ael
I want to ask Ruth or Clément to do either civic tech 101 or emcee. I will want to host at least one of the roles. Those are the things I should have checked this week.

…

Discussing on ownership of a task and taking over by another contributor

ael:
I don't have strong ownership feelings on any tasks unless I have strong opinions on how that task should be done
But I do think it is good to ask whenever you want to take over to help. Or more in a way that you are going to start to do something

A PR or an issue on GitHub may be assigned to a contributor, but that is more like who have to do it at the end of the day if no one wants to do it.

I meant who is doing it and who is going to complete it

But I do think it is good to ask whenever you want to take over to help. Or more in a way that you are going to start to do something
That is why I want to have more open collaboration. I got a little bit frustrated that I learned you had asked Ruth to send the speaker invite only after a communication issue occurred. For me, this information should be mentioned in the groupchat so that anyone would know if they wanted learn about the speaker that week, they should go to Ruth

I didn't want to do micro-control

I don't have strong ownership feelings on any tasks unless I have strong opinions on how that task should be done.

For example, I may very insist to invite someone in a certain profile for one week. In that case, I would be happy someone taking over it knowing the profiles I am looking for. And would not be happy if the person taking over invites someone far from that spectrum or someone I considered better not to speak in g0v Civic Hacknight

For tomorrow g0v Civic Hacknight, please take over any non-physical preparation work. I only have the energy and should only spend my time on site

However, I do want to know how you feel about task ownership. I have the same concerns with you sometimes as you seem to insist on a lot of details. I was kind of worried to take over without following all the documents in place

I was strongly against the offer that you did everything for the first g0v Civic Hacknight because I had very strong ideas and values on what a g0v event should consider and display

That is why I want to have more open collaboration. I got a little bit frustrated that I learned you had asked Ruth to send the speaker invite only after a communication issue occurred. For me, this information should be mentioned in the groupchat so that anyone would know if they wanted learn about the speaker that week, they should go to Ruth

For example, the ideal should be I shared the info that I asked Harris to print out new stickers in Slack before he did it. Anyone interested in printing out stickers can join.

Since the task/ticket is not really owned by anyone, everyone can join. That doesn't mean Harris should be fully responsible with a deadline to print out stickers