Barton Hill game workshop
December 15, 2006 Posted by Kevin in : Digital Challenge , trackbackOn wednesday night Drew Mackie and David Wilcox led a group of Barton Hill residents through a card game which tested and developed some of the ideas that have evolved as part of Bristol’s Digital Challenge bid. We then worked on creating some fictional, but realistic, user journeys for a group of people in Bristol, examining how the Digital Challenge projects impact, effect or improve their lives. It was great fun with everyone getting involved in breathing life into the characters, and seeing the real, life-changing opportunities digital connectivity can bring to individuals and to their communities.
David has blogged the event in detail on his site. You can also listen to local artist Jenny Sheehan discussing her feelings about the benefits of connecting people and communities to new technology in a short video filmed after the event.
Comments»
Kevin
It was a most worthwhile evening. However, for the sake of accuracy I must mention there were a few of us interlopers from the Easton part of Lawrence Hill Ward.
What struck me in particular was that at least different groups had chosen the same character and had produced completely different stories but ones which both still had a ring of truth. Moreover, Drew's random intervention to interrupt the storyboarding with a event or crisis (illness, birth, crime, etc.) really forced the grey cells to work harder.
Woodsy- you Lawrence Hill gate-crashers were noted and have been reported to the appropriate authorities. You are dead right though, the groups did identify similar characters who did, through the magic of our story telling, and the power of technology, find ways to create opportunities for themselves that weren't there before we started. I know our group found a way to take our character from unemployment to national musical notoriety through the digital challenge, but these things can happen. Those chaps who set up YouTube were bedroom based codeing paupers two years ago and are billionaires today. This can and should be happening in Bristol. Believe.
Kevin
I think it should be pointed out that the stories were being told by ordinary residents of so-called 'deprived' inner city areas - the bits where the all the money for the glitter and shine runs out. It just shows what talent does exist in those communities and why such areas should not be overlooked.
Reading David Wilcox's blog, I was greatly encouraged to see our efforts described as 'an impressive example of the power of collective intelligence at work' and the participating residents as 'experts'.
As someone who has lived for 3 decades in the 'deprived' Lawrence Hill ward, I can tell you we're often not taken seriously by the powers that be and are frequently used as testing grounds for various official schemes. As a participant in Drew and David's game, this presented one occasion where I had no qualms or objections for once about being a guinea pig.
Thats right, and it is the truth of the stories born of real experience that particularly struck me. I made a few comments about this on the video that David shot of me for his blog after the event. Check it out on Davids website if you can bear to watch me bobbing about and wittering in front of the camera.
Too late Kevin! I see the video shocker last night…
[…] Kevin O'Malley's report on Connecting Bristol; […]
[…] Other news: Bristol has also been pioneering the Digital Challenge card game with David Wilcox from Partnerships.org. The card game which enables ‘non-techie’ people to explore technical and IT solutions to common problems. A pilot workshop was run last week with 20 people from Lawrence Hill, inviting the to explore how technology would affect fictional personas over a period of 3 years and feedback from this workshop will help develop the game for future use. The good news is that many of the solutions identified for Connecting Bristol received very positive feedback from the workshop participants, and there was also some new ideas from them we are now exploring. […]
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the workshop that Drew and I organised … and for being so positive!
We've now transcribed the stories and you can download as a pdf
http://www.partnerships.org.uk/docs/bristolstories.pdf
If anyone wants to develop the stories further we would be glad to help … although as I said in the blog item there's clearly plenty of local expertise on tap