The Peace Sandbox

In an effort to be playful and inclusive in the way we work on this Peace project, I cleared off some space on an adjacent cubicle wall. (yup, it's all cubes over here) I've labelled the space the "Peace Sandbox" and have been posting ideas and images up there. Recently, we posted a big copy of our first draft intro text, and invited folks to mark it up, ask questions, or leave suggestions.

At first, there was nothing. We stood back, and made a few edits ourselves, but it was hardly shaping up to be participatory space I had imagined. And then, it happened. The post-it notes came out and started multiplying. I realized of course that I should be adhering to the same principles of meaningful visitor interaction and participation - thanks, Nina Simon - and went back to the wall and started responding to the comments and questions. I've added a re-draft of part of the text, and that has attracted its own comments.

The next step, I think, is going to be summarize this intro text "game", push it to the corner for now, and introduce a new game. I am considering a quick voting system for some very focused questions we have about our voice. The first one to tackle is the use of contractions. We want them, the director is yet to be convinced. I am toying with presenting short sample texts and asking for a like/don't like vote on them - maybe only revealing what was different between the two version afterwards? Still needs work.

Hardly ground-breaking - it's no wiki, after all, but this is the first time here that we've opened up the development process even a little bit.