The Enfusion Network site has been live for about a week, and its slowly coming to life.

A few members have already joined - but what is exciting is that with just a small membership - connections are already beginning to be made. Sarah is hosting a conference call early next week (26th/27th or 28th of March) to take forward more discussion about how we build on the connections already there, and expand the network, the conversations and the long-term vision it supports - to be a real hub for a cross-section of participation consultants and practioners. If you're interested in being in on that discussion, drop Sarah a note

I'll be trying to fit in a day next week to work on the technology behind the site. There are certainly a few bugs to iron out and how people are using the site already helps to highlight some ways in which it needs to develop. My targets for next week (posted here to help keep me accountable as the developer...) are:

• Sorting out the profiles so that if you don't enter an age, description or any other element it doesn't display something like 'Age: 0'
• Finding some way of fighting the massive amount of 'trackback spam' the site is getting already, so that we can make effective use of trackbacks.
• Getting 'project pages' to look better and to make more sense.
• Start getting the resource pages into better shape - including adding space to set a licence agreement on resources, and adding more categories to help organise resources

In the longer run, before the end of April I'd like to:

• Display brief member profiles next to the content that they have posted to the site (e.g. Blog posts / comments etc.) - to help the content build people-to-people connections
• Improve the messages around the site to make them more intuitive and user-friendly
• Really build up the resources section so that you can find useful resources quickly
• Create a lot more content that helps people understand how to use the site and the features it provides for creating conversations, getting support and building connections...

At the moment I'm thinking that we should continue to grow in a low-key way until the end of April, learning from the early network members about what needs tweaking and developing - and then, come May - we should really seek to build up membership and participation - so that everyone who has already joined, and those who joined us over April - really do get the benefits of a vibrant and effective network.

As ever - all feedback, ideas, suggestions etc - most welcome :)

One of the issues we've got to think about as we build the Enfusion Network - is how to help consultants and practioners in finding the right tools for the job in creating organisational change. Creating a directory of resources, reports, methodologies and toolkits will be no use unless we can develop ways of picking out the right ones to use in different contexts.

I've been watching David Wilcox's posts on Useful Games for a while now - and I wonder whether his social media game could be easily adapted to help us explore the different youth engagement tools and resource which, we hope, will soon be filling the resource directory.

In strikes me that the description of how to play the game could translate easily to selecting organisation change tools to use in different contexts:

Play of the game

1. Workshop participant split into groups of 4-6

2. Each group is given a one-line scenario: e.g. local service organisation, national campaigning body, regional network. They spend a couple of minutes expanding on this, and the likely communication needs.

3. Groups choose from a pack of tools cards to address scenario - budget of 10 points reflecting cost/effort. Also choose one of the S cards - free Web services, Open source strategy to indicate approach (not sure about this)

4. Groups can add their own cards. If so, they ask the organisers what budget their idea attracts.

5. After choosing/adding cards to address the scenario, the group reflect on issues/queries on the cards chosen. What's going to be the big challenge?

If we create a summary card for each of the organisational change tools, approaches or practises that we each use as consultants and practioners, and then use a game like that above, to explore which method will work best in different contexts - we could help build up a rich layer of experience in our resources database helping future practioners get a strong sense of which resources might work best in each context...

Hmmm....

Just under a year ago (in fact, a year ago tomorrow) - I hopped on the bus from Oxford to London to attend a meeting convened by the, as yet unknown to me organisation, 'Youth Infusion'. Youth Infusion turned out to be Sarah Schulman, an intensly passionate advocate of young people's right to participate in decision making currently interning at Carnegie Young Peoples Initiative. From having little idea exactly what the meeting was about I soon discovered that for the meeting Sarah had brought together a cross-section of young youth participation 'people' from London and beyond to talk about building a 'network of consultants supporting organisations to change to involve young people beter' (even a year on I still can't express that idea in less sylables...). The meeting generated a lot of ideas - and in the months that followed, a small group, mainly driven by Sarah and Tom Burke, sought to bring those ideas together into a plan for developing that network. The ideas were inspiring, and the need identified was real. I was on board.

In the world of participation there are a lot of skills around engaging young people and working with them - but the capacity to critically support organisational change for embedding youth engagement has a lot of space for growth. And whilst effective participation work is all about connecting people, building community, supporting reflection and enabling change - so often as participation workers and consultants the space for us to be connected, in critical communities, reflecting, learning from our peers and creating critical and strategic change is lacking. Thats why I've spent many of my spare hours inbetween other work over the last three months building this online platform for 'The Enfusion Network' (as we've come to title the network...). And thats why I'm really excited that we're (soft) launching the site today - opening up the space to see how it will develop...

It's been an interesting learning journey to put together this site, and we're only at the start of it. Instead of redescribing all the different aspects of the site and how it fits into the wider network development - let me just paste in some of the e-mail we've sent out this afternoon to those who came to that first conversation in London in 2006.

We see the website as a tool for building a community of change-makers committed to youth participation and organizational change. The website allows us to create individual profiles, write blogs, participate in conversational forums, share and critique resources, and build projects with other network members. This is only the beginning. Over the months to come, we look forward to adding and enhancing the website’s features as we learn the wants and needs of our users. To do this, we need your help:

(1) Help us to build a community of reflective practical content on youth engagement. You can add content in a variety of ways:

a. Sign up as a network member and create your profile

i. Your profile can include documents and resources that you have created and want to share, showcase and get feedback on

b. Add resources, including case-studies, tools, agendas & training materials, and links to other sites

i. Simply look for the ‘Share Content’ link in the left-hand website menu.

c. Comment on existing resources

d. Write a blog about a participatory experience you have been engaged in or are currently engaged in

i. Also to be found under ‘Share Content’. If you would like to explore having a featured blog on the Enfusion Network, or would like to have a custom design for your blog, let us know.

e. Join a forum for open discussion about all things youth engagement

(2) Help us to start conversations. If you are interested in facilitating a conversation about a particular question or idea relevant to the youth participation field, set up a new space within the forum by clicking on the forum button on the top menu bar.

(3) Help us to build the network. If you’re interested in helping shape what the network looks like and how it is run, email us at enfusionnetwork@gmail.com. We’ll also be holding a conference call on March 23 to talk about next steps, particularly around the issues of ‘quality control’ and the copywriting of materials.

We recognize that because the network site is in its infancy, there many be some kinks! Please do let us know how we can improve the site, and what more you’d like to see.

The real test of the networks success will be whether we can look back in six months or a year and identify connections that it has build between participation practioners - and can identify its role in increasing the capacity of participation practioners to engage effectively with creating organisational change for youth engagement. The real test of the work I've done developing the website over the last three months is less interesting. I'm just hoping everyone will work without throwing up big error messages when (hopefully) network members start signing up over the coming days...

Fingers crossed... it's an exciting journey...

Well, the doors of the enfusion network website are slowly opening...

I've been tidying up the website over the last week to get it ready for action.. and I think I can now say that things are ready to 'go live'. There may be some rough edges - but already the site has plenty of features to support much needed communication and networking between participation practitioners.

We've got some exciting plans for the website. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be holding conversations with anyone interested in helping shape its future (drop me a line if you're interested in being in on those...) and we're talking to various organizations about sharing their catalogues of resources through the site.

Plus, the website is only one part of Enfusion Network. We're keen to hold some more conversations both via telephone conference and in person - and we'll be making full use of the new site to organise those.

So - dive it, join us - and let us know what you think...

We're waiting to hear your thoughts both on the website, and the wider Enfusion Network development over in the forum.

As I was testing the website earlier today I came across a problem...

The problem is organisation.

Or is that organization?

With just two active members in beta testing, the site has already fallen victim of the US-UK spelling gulf. And when the subtle spelling differences hit such key terms as 'organi(s)(z)ational change', it proves extra challenging to develop keyword systems and free-tagging vocabularies that are going to keep everyone happy...

I'm not sure what the sollution is going to be. We might need a spelling policy. Or I might need to work out some behind-the-scenes translation to make the website understand that organization=organisation (and such similar 'translations').

Whatever we work out for text and keywords entered by network members - it does leave me with one unresolved dilemma... should I be writing the messages around the site in UK or US English?

As the network grows, we may come across more complex translation issues - and I'm sure meaning can be understood both sides of the Atlantic whichever variant I use - but, I don't want to foist my spellings upon those who find them quirky... so, while I'm going to keep on writing the messages in UK English - if anyone would like me to switch on the translation engine and go round hunting our rouge 's's to be replaced with 'z's and reducing the use of u in colour, just give me a shout and I'll get onto it...