Dotmocracy Facilitation with the AI IEP

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I've been working with the Internet and E-Communications Programme (IEP) team at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International to organise and plan a 2 year work programme for the IEP — one that best meets the objectives they've set for themselves and that gives them better visibility into what is actually achievable given their staff and resource constraints.

Last week I met with the team for the day to do two things: to come up with ways the IEP can better manage its ongoing operations (i.e. those repetitive tasks that must be done but never end like keeping site content up-to-date) and to begin to prioritise its projects (those temporary endeavours undertaken to produce unique results like replacing the CMS used to keep site content up-to-date).

To accomplish the former, we used dotmocracy, an equal opportunity and participatory group decision-making process my colleague and friend Jason Diceman introduced me to a couple of years ago. I'd never facilitated a dotmocracy session before, so I read the most recent version of the handbook, got some last minute instruction and advice from Jason himself, and it ended up working out really well — the group came up with more than a dozen proposals (ideas) for improving the ongoing operations of the IEP, which, once dotted, we were able to sort in order of agreement and begin to develop action plans and next steps around. A highly recommended experience :)

Check out Jason's site/company, Co-op Tools, for more on the process or to get him into your organisation to facilitate a session.

projectmanagement, programme, planning, softwaredevelopment, nptech, importantprojects, amnestyinternational, dotmocracy, facilitation, jasondiceman, cooptools

Greenpeace UK CMS Vendor Selection

It's been a while since I've blogged on the Greenpeace UK CMS project (partly be due to delays experienced as we've worked through internal approvals and partly due to the heat). I'm happy to report that we have now finalised our vendor selection/decision — after much deliberation, the Greepeace UK web team has awarded its CMS design & implementation contract to EchoDitto.

Congratulations, Michael, Justin and team! We're all really looking forward to working with and getting to know you over the next few months :)

I'd also like to say thanks to the other 5 Drupal vendors we worked with leading up to this decision, and especially to the folks at CivicActions, who volunteered to take us through Drupal initially and were extremely helpful to us throughout the entire process.

Thanks so much, Dan, Susan and Owen :)

projectmanagement, softwaredevelopment, nptech, importantprojects, greenpeace, echoditto, vendorselection, drupal, open source, cms

Programme Planning With Amnesty International

Two weeks ago I started working with the Internet and E-Communications Programme (IEP) team at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International (and thank you, David Heath, for recommending me; I've wanted to work with Amnesty since starting Important Projects and am extremely excited to be doing so now) — prior to beginning a CMS replacement project very similar to the one I'm currently working on with Greenpeace UK, I'm working with the IEP to organise and plan a 2 year work programme designed to both meet their defined goals and objectives and give them better visibility into what is actually achievable given their staff and resource constraints.

I'll post more as things progress, but in the meantime, thanks, Dan and Helena, for the opportunity to work with you and your team. I'm really looking forward to the work ahead :)

projectmanagement, programme, planning, softwaredevelopment, nptech, importantprojects, amnestyinternational

Shakespeare on Personal Time Management

Shakespeare, Richard II
(act 5, scene 5, lines 42-49)

AND NOW DOTH TIME WASTE ME.

projectmanagement, timemanagement, importantprojects, shakespeare, richardII