STREAM 7: HAS 38 MINUTES HAD ITS DAY?

[Ravi Amaratunga]

I had the pleasure of speaking with the lovely Anne Bonnar, a key player in Scotland's arts, culture and creative industries, last week. You can listen to parts of our chat below.

An interesting tangent arose, however, in part inspired by the entrance to the 'coffin workshop' in the basement of the Zoo Roxy (see the Lynchian surroundings in the video below) where we met. After a bit of animated discussion, Anne posed the question Has 38 Mins had its day?

She was keen to point out that "I dont think its had its day."

"Reflecting on theories of group dynamics, I recall that the famous 4 stages Bruce Tuckman identified in 1965 – form, storm, norm, perform was subsequently extended with a 5th –adjourning

38 minutes has formed, stormed, normed and now performs the task of being an industry platform and does it brilliantly

I dont think we are ready for an adjournment yet, honestly – or are we?"

As you'll hear below, she was keen to point out those salad days when 38 minutes first burst into this world

"We blogged on the politics, the economics, the cultural, scientific, ethical and social aspects of social media,often in a very web 2.0 style - provocative, casual, irreverent, immediate and leaning towards innuendo. But that was then - when these arguments had not been had in universities and the pages of the Guardian. Now all these arguments are in the mainstream."

Anne makes a valid, if a little disconcerting point. What do you think?





STREAM 7: ANNE BONNAR ON SCOTLAND'S DIGITAL LANDSCAPE & 38 MINUTES by ramaratunga

Here's some more info on educational Psychologist Bruce Truckman's group development theory. NB the first four stages formulated in 1965, with the final stage added 12 years later in '77.


Stage 1: Forming


Individual behaviour is driven by a desire to be accepted by the others, and avoid controversy or conflict. Serious issues and feelings are avoided, and people focus on being busy with routines, such as team organisation, who does what, when to meet, etc. But individuals are also gathering information and impressions - about each other, and about the scope of the task and how to approach it. This is a comfortable stage to be in, but the avoidance of conflict and threat means that not much actually gets done.




Stage 2: Storming


Individuals in the group can only remain nice to each other for so long, as important issues start to be addressed. Some people's patience will break early, and minor confrontations will arise that are quickly dealt with or glossed over. These may relate to the work of the group itself, or to roles and responsibilities within the group. Some will observe that it's good to be getting into the real issues, whilst others will wish to remain in the comfort and security of stage 1. Depending on the culture of the organisation and individuals, the conflict will be more or less suppressed, but it'll be there, under the surface. To deal with the conflict, individuals may feel they are winning or losing battles, and will look for structural clarity and rules to prevent the conflict persisting.


Stage 3: Norming


As Stage 2 evolves, the "rules of engagement" for the group become established, and the scope of the group's tasks or responsibilities are clear and agreed. Having had their arguments, they now understand each other better, and can appreciate each other's skills and experience. Individuals listen to each other, appreciate and support each other, and are prepared to change pre-conceived views: they feel they're part of a cohesive, effective group. However, individuals have had to work hard to attain this stage, and may resist any pressure to change - especially from the outside - for fear that the group will break up, or revert to a storm.


Stage 4: Performing


Not all groups reach this stage, characterised by a state of interdependence and flexibility. Everyone knows each other well enough to be able to work together, and trusts each other enough to allow independent activity. Roles and responsibilities change according to need in an almost seamless way. Group identity, loyalty and morale are all high, and everyone is equally task-orientated and people-orientated. This high degree of comfort means that all the energy of the group can be directed towards the task(s) in hand.




Ten years after first describing the four stages, Bruce Tuckman revisited his original work and described another, final, stage:



Stage 5: Adjourning


This is about completion and disengagement, both from the tasks and the group members. Individuals will be proud of having achieved much and glad to have been part of such an enjoyable group. They need to recognise what they've done, and consciously move on. Some authors describe stage 5 as "Deforming and Mourning", recognising the sense of loss felt by group members.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Billy - 38mins is an independent site with some C4 people who originated it. Our protocols at work make Facebook groups harder for us - nothing significant just we have a set of facebook protocols. If its done independently - and members of the community take over then that is no problem. Someone asked earlier about money - I pay for the basic platform costs annually but don't claim it back from C4 so its my own money.

We do have analytics yes.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Anne says: "But Stuart, do you really want me to have admin rights and start raking through the bottom drawers of 38 minutes?"

Yes

[Nicola Sinclair]

This is all really interesting and useful feedback, everyone, thank you. We're really keen to keep the network as useful as it can be but I think that with it being a network full of shared content we've been a little anxious about chopping up the groups and messing around too much - perhaps it's time we took the plunge.
What about:

1. We tidy up the Groups ( I can do this but Anne if you had time for a coffee maybe you could lend some advice?)
2. We send out a 'call to arms' looking for a community of 'super-users' who will be happy to regularly blog
3. We already have plans to send out a monthly newsletter and enhanced weekly email - watch this space but do post any ideas and suggestions

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Not read Billy's brainstorm yet but I will. I blame Anne Bonnar she should stick to reinventing the Abbey Theatre rather than causing trouble in sedate wee communities.

[Ravi Amaratunga]

I thought I'd let the dust settle a bit before commenting - but really glad to see this his got a little bit of a debate going, and indeed the insightful thoughts about the future of dear old 38M

Its quite evident that there needs to be a bit of spring clean, and @Ian I agree that wider administration might well be the key to a cleaner, clearer 38M - and also a more independent one too.

It takes a lot of love and care though, I've been lucky enough to get a bit of time during work hours to put together some content and maintain the site - but my time here is almost done and I'm not sure how easy it will be to continue to do so on top of a heavy work load - something I'm sure we can all appreciate.

@Richard on the Fringe, it does happen to be extraordinarily well administered. I cannot imagine if a kind of Rousseaun social contract came into being where all the artistic elements of the UK (and indeed the world) democratically assembled a festival in a moonlighting capacity it'd be quite as brilliant.

The platform is great. The community should be transient, and refresh itself - but the maintenance and independence of that platform is just as important - and kind of a full time job - especially as 38M expands.

[Ewan McIntosh]

I used to make a point of writing longer email weekly shoutouts, and they worked really well at pulling busy folk back into the community for a rant, comment or lurk. They take time, though, and as Stuart says, everyone pulling together on this is doing so in addition to crazy offline schedules, too. Maybe it is indeed a moment for us to think about how to open up the adminning of things. An easy start might just be to blog the weekly summary according to x, y or z and we can email the wittiest, funnest or most provocative/evocative to everyone.

Fascinating discussion about where in the circle of social network life 38minutes is. I still find it incredibly useful although I have guilty pangs about not writing here as much as I used to. I probably also worry more about what's relevant and not relevant than I should do.

[Richard Saville-Smith]

For me Ravi's post is a little bit like provocation for provocation sake. Sure there may be other things that 38 Minutes can do/energise/promote but Ravi's post invites a frenzy of navel gazing. I would have thought Ravi might have wanted to apply his social science typology to the Fringe which he's been writing about so enthusiastically in his last few posts. There is an institutionalised platform that's been doing crowdsourcing since 1947 and still doesn't seem ready to die - which may provide insight into the limitations of Truckman.

And, this is my point - there is a distinction to be made between 38minutes as a platform and 38minutes as a community. Whilst the community may morph with people leaving and people joining, the platform is relatively immune to the terms of the Truckman evolutionary progression precisely because it is a platform and platforms have a kind of neutrality because they do not depend on either individual or group direction in a specifically causal/identifiable/theoretical manner.

38minutes is a name which ensures it is never found by strangers, 38minutes doesn't promote itself, 38minutes has a few common reference points rather than a shared vision. 38minutes is not Facebook. These things could be changed and I'm ok about that (except for competing with Facebook) but let's not start a process of boring introspection when we've all got better things to do. If it doesn't work for you - go away - no-one's making you stay. If you want to make a positive suggestion - fire away.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Is that an offer Anne - admin rights can be given we struggle to keep up with the various demands as everyone is doing it alongside busy day jobs.

[Daniel Livingstone]

38minutes was about the 5th or 6th Ning group I joined, is the second largest in terms of both size and activity. I think it remains very healthy and useful - though the same can not necessarily be said for all the groups within 38minutes :-)

As for Anne's comment..."But that was then - when these arguments had not been had in universities and the pages of the Guardian.", I'll not do the digging, but Im not sure about that take on history ;-)

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Anne has always been a key contributor to 38 and creative thinker more broadly. There is much to say for exit-strategies and deciding when its time to leave the building. The key pruposes of 38 - to stimulate interest, cultivate digital media talent in Scotland and Ireland connect companies and talent, and to support the launch of Digital Inspiration have to some extent been achieved. Its not clear whether it cane find new prusposes although people join daily and Wanted is one of the most successful groups proving that there is some value in a place for creatives to meet.

I prefer Raymond William's three phases the emergent, the dominant and the residual as describing the natural phases that organisations go through - but its real food for thought.

So many things are happening around 38 - the recession, the launch of Creative Scotland, sectoral change etc.
Welcome the views of others.