Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Who is coordinating this effort?

Diane, Peter and Mark

The principals at AlphaChimp.Com, Diane and Peter, and Mark Rauterkus are the leads at this very early stage.

I have time and can do just about anything you need. What should I do?

I am unsure of what type of help you need.

Needs now are "recruitment" driven:

Attending a first round planning meeting.

Get others to attend a first round planning meetings.

Help to get some ink (earned media) so the awareness can rise, (recruit)

Soon, our needs are to sustain the discussion, do web research and craft plans.

The most simple scratch, recruit participants to planning meetings. We're planting seeds, instigating, aggitating. This is going to be a free thing from the get-go, so then it is just a matter of running where the wind takes us. But now, early, we need to make sure it is OPEN, FREE, and PUBLIC.

These efforts should not turn into bait to be gobbled by any one entity/instutution. Hence, we need the WPLUG ideals into our earliest steps.

Is there somewhere online we can see what the details of the project are and what we need to do to finish up or shore up weak areas.

http://Summit.CLOH.Org and it points to notes from past ponderings.

I'm willing to help, but I don't think I have the time to plan and coordinate if that's what you are looking for.

We want to hold 20 first round planning meetings with up to 15 people at each meeting. After every meeting the slate is made clean. You'd only need to attend one meeting, 19 still to come. I'd love to get one to three from WPLUG at each of those meetings. I hope that there are more than 19 folks who can give a couple of hours to ponder in open about engagement of community and YOUTH in technology pursuits.

Round two is strategy. Round three is implementation. But these are far into the future (net years). he notes from all the meetings are to be folded into documents. No need to study up before any round 1 meeting, just RSVP and jump in.

We are also looking to make some buzz and waves in this style of open and collaborative process. This isn't CDC work (Community Development Corporation), nor is it Downtown Planning Collaborative, Mayor's Commission on Public Education, Parks Commission Master Planning, etc., etc. The way things play out on Grant Street now is a blasted joke. We'll do better.

As a self-knock, this isn't YET of an approach where we can stand on the shoulders of those who came before. After these concepts are introduced to 200 + local people with meaningful opportunities of interactions, then we'll have a wide base and prop upwards.

Impressive, Mark. Great pict. How did you (as I'm sure you did) work in free/open source?

The open source parts are solid in my statements, but it seems to be clumsy in its reception. So, I'd like to talk about this and get some coaching from you all. Or, perhaps, this is to be expected?

On one hand, Pittsburgh is an old-school town, lump of coal mentality in banking yet with Westinghouse inventions and patents galore. But on the other hand we have CMU, SuperComputers, and aspire to a high-tech image.

The community efforts I try to advance, I say, are not for myself as everything I do and learn is documented and put into the public domain. To a fault, I'm posting into open archives. I'm a volunteer with a time investment. But I don't want to have others re-invent the wheel. I want us all to be more effective.

I've even taken an OPEN Source approach with talks about opening a closed, indoor ice rink owned by the city. You tell me stuff, I'll post it. Keep secrets to yourself. But, the developers or city rec people who are going to try to reopen this facility to everyone's benefit -- is going to have to do due diligence. Putting lists and pointers together of possible teams for rentals, etc., is prudent work and valued if it is open, easily accessible, and takes all comers/comments.

With the YOUTH Technology Summit, now we are in idea stages. Just planting the seeds, but doing mostly the listening. Who should be involved? What is the state of technology, society, our kids, city-life, etc.

The tactics and implementation of a summit is going to be much harder to manage than just talk about, however. And, our goal is to make the event so large with many sub-events that the main dance can't be owned by any one agency or institution. Ownership can happen in the sub-events that lead-up to the summit.

But, this is yet to get any fanfare in the media. Time will tell.

Updated: