Story of 0.1.0 Release

In the beginning Ed created the Raise Up Network. And the network was without technology and inefficient.

The Raise Up Network's goal is to match the needs of Birmingham's kids with resources available in the community. Once matches are made, followup is required to ensure desired outcomes. Tremendous amounts of work go into accomplishing this end. A social networking site could facilitate interactions between people in the network, helping them follow through on their commitments. This is a different kind of social network. Unlike Facebook, social would be defined as "the welfare of human beings as members of society" rather than "activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other" (Webster). While the latter is a fine pursuit, the former is the focus of this social network.

During the 2014/15 school year several Raise Up Network events took place at Birmingham City Schools. In the 2015/16 school year many more are planned. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the network, people have been hired to plan and execute the events. Coordination of their work and the activities of the network will be done through network.edbirmingham.org. The networking events will unfold as follows.

Network connectors, who's job is to connect people and make sure they follow through with commitments, have been hired to work in each networking space. There is a networking space at each school. These connectors will use network.edbirmingham.org to manage the activities at their school. Each of them will have a username and password (#13) to log into the site. Prior to the first networking event at a school, that school's location (#31) will be created in the site.

On the day of each event, volunteers arrive at the school at 3:30pm to setup the space before 4:15pm. At 4:15pm another set of volunteers arrive and receive their assignments for the night. Assignments are participant sign-in (#21), greeters/traffic control and network member registration (#18).

Participants begin to arrive around 4:45pm. Greeters meet them as they arrive and route them to the participant sign-in area where they sign-in on a tablet device. The people signing into the event may be there for the first time or may be a returning participant. If they are attending for the first time then they should fill out the participant sign-in form (#21). If they are a returning participant then their attendance should be recorded by a volunteer without filling out the participant sign-in form again (#36).

From 4:45pm until 5:15pm, participants mingle, eat refreshments and get acclimated to the environment. During this time, connectors and volunteers will engage people to register as network members (#18). Member registration will be done on tablet devices as well.

At 5:15 the first activity begins with "What's New and Good". Every person at the event has 15 seconds to say their name, where they are coming from and tell about something new and good in their life. This helps people make connections based on their common interests and experiences.

At 5:30 the network transitions into "Business of the Network" (BOTN). Six different people will have an opportunity to introduce a conversation topic for discussion. Once the six conversations are introduced, everyone will divide up into six groups based on individual interest for a 20 minute conversation. Each conversation will have a note taker to record ideas that are surfaced. The group will determine next steps and identify people willing to be responsible for them which the note taker will record as well. Each conversation will be entered as an action and matches into the site (#26). Information entered about each conversation will be the conversation introducer, topic, ideas, next steps and people responsible for them.

At 6:00 the network transitions into the Marketplace. Each person has 30 or 60 seconds to make a request or offer. These can be opportunities, know how, things, etc. Immediately other people respond to the request or offer by raising their hands. A moderator reads the names of people who respond out loud. All the information is recorded with audio, on the match board and on index cards. The one who made the offer or request gets the cards for those who matched with them and it is that person’s responsibility to followup with the matches. Each request and offer will be entered as an action and matches into the site (#26). Information entered about each request and offer will contain the name of the person requesting or offering, description and the names of people who matched.

At 6:30 volunteers will clean up while participants mingle and follow up on offers and requests.

The next day, connectors follow-up with people to make sure they follow through with their commitments.