In 2010 an opportunity developed to work on what was a short – mid length which lasted for the majority of the year. The Yortime Web Surgeries was the second project in 2010 that I worked on which was funded by the NIACE and BIS: Department for Business Innovation and Skills funded Transformation Fund.
In late 2009 Abhay Adhikari arranged for some free workshops to come to York under the banner of “Social Media Surgeries“, which at the time was a national movement gathering strength in a few cities and has since moved to become a global movement with it’s own bespoke website made by Birmingham’s Podnosh.
Following the free workshops which Abhay had arranged, I met with Julia Massey (Learning City York), who I knew managed some big multi-agency learning and skills projects in the city and mentioned Abhay’s efforts to her. It was convenient that the Social media Surgeries fit the bill of some learning outcomes for projects that were already in motion in the city to support upskilling voluntary and community organisations in the latest social media technologies to help develop their work in the local community. This led to Julia commissioning Abhay to manage a schedule of events from April – November 2010 which would explore the future potential of the Yortime Web Surgeries. The surgeries complemented some work already completed by York College, as part of the Transformation Funded Yortime project, to develop a set of web guides for community and voluntary organisations.
Abhay brought a small team on board to help assist in the production of marketing and PR content which could be used to promote the surgeries during the 7 months the events were running and so myself, Dom Smith and Katherine Jewkes. The team, led by Abhay had a fun project on their hands which would really be making a difference through our case studies, online events booking and a Facebook page for the project.
Due to my work with KhaoZ Media, I put extra effort into the project to ensure we had a huge variety of content from the events which could really contribute to a solid foundation that would ensure the project left a clear legacy which would pave the way for future sessions.
The team worked tirelessly for a long time to produce in excess of 15 videos, 8 case studies and over 30 audio interviews with volunteers, managers, attendees and local businesses who reflected on the workshops, the web and the best ways to make the most of being online.
Although we worked very hard, the real stars of the project were the volunteer surgeons who came from far and wide to take part in the sessions for free – offering up advice drawing upon their knowledge and skills built up over years of running their own businesses.
Some of the volunteer surgeons who helped out the project were:
Dan Croxen John – Applied We Analytics
John Irvine – Designition
Rick Waghorn – Addiply
Tom Smith – University of York
Katherine Jewkes -The Arts Collective
Kat Hetherington – Science City York
Abhay Adhikari – Dhyaan Design
Liam Wilson – KhaoZ Media
John O’Neill – O’Neill’s Solutions
Kadie Armstrong – York CVS
Liam Wilson – KhaoZ Media
Mike Leigh Cooper – The Creative Condition (me)
(sorry if I missed anyone out)
The feedback from the surgeries was fantastic. We had all sorts of people attending the sessions: old and young, tech savvy and not tech savvy, disabled and able bodied. Some people came down for a quick chat and a few questions while others came along (and back again) with in depth queries about using the web.
This led to a whole host of groups establishing websites, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and changing their views on how they use the web, hopefully in the long term improving the visibility of York’s third sector.
While the sessions lasted for two hours – from 5pm – 7pm, most visits lasted for almost the full time. People were free to talk to more than one surgeon and speak to others in the room as to get the most out of the skills on offer; something which was addressed as soon as a visitor entered the room and was paired with the most appropriate surgeon.
Locations for the 7 month surgeries was split across two locations – Explore York library and Learning Centre and York CVS.
The venues were both relatively central in York and provided different space. York CVS and Explore York were both modern, well lit spaces with internet access and drinks facilities while there was a definite advantage at Explore York in that there was a spare media suite available if we needed more computers (which happened on a few occasions).
It was never a guarantee to have anyone at all, as some sessions saw almost no visitors while others saw full rooms of up to 18 patients to 12 – 13 surgeons per session.
Once patients were happy with their chat, we had an optional set of free guides available to be taken away as a point of reference so that our visitors could take value form the sessions even when they were away and hopefully they can use the books as a resource to increase their skill and even pass on the booklet!
The final celebration event tied into a community event in the same way the launch event and our special surgeries did. this ensured that we could widen our captive audience by engaging with those with similar interests already at a relevant event as well as network with other groups and raise the profile of the surgeries.
This proved to be successful on every occasion for both ‘Yortime: Yorgroup‘ events at York St John‘s C4C Chapel where we signed up new patients, subscribed individuals to our mailing list and gathered feedback on the special surgeries at the events. It was also incredibly motivating for the team to be at a larger event and embed our project within the local community.
Here’s to a positive future and the further development of the Yortime Web Surgeries in 2011.
Click here to see my Yortime Web Surgeries album on Vimeo, or see one of my promotional videos below:
Paul Webster at York CVS, on “What happens at Social Media Surgeries“.