The ZoP SC is part of a spin off project (ZoP.Space see www.zop.space) that aims to explore ]how some of the results (including theories such as the ZoP concept [Link: S-11], but also Layers tools such as Ach Rails, and the Social Semantic Server) can be used to support informal learning beyond traditional workplace contexts, for instance for Urban Regeneration through culture, activism and risk taking.
The ZoP SC (ZoP Stokes Croft) is essentially a peer-to-peer website that can be used to engage with a wide range of challenges from social regeneration, to workplace problem solving, heritage and culture, smart cities and urban data. This responsive website collects the video stories to give insights that aim to influence and inform people and organisations locally and globally. The video content will be organized by the community using tags, categories and annotations. These meta-data will potentially facilitate the relation of similar resources and connect people with similar interests, and this is where the Zone of Possibility will take place.
This website is related to the ZoP mobile app (see further description here: [ Link: T-11]), at the moment the prototypes (website and mobile app) are not integrated, but our future plans include to integrate both tools to be used in combination.
This tool can be used by people who want to do socially valuable actions and find examples and mentors to guide them. For instance: community managers, cultural producers, academics...or citizens engaged in a community.Main features
The ZoP website is a spin out project based of an existing mobile app (ZoP app) and an some other outcomes from Learning Layers: Ach So! app [Link: T-01], Achrails and Semantic Video Annotation [Link:I-18]. The web site (http://zop.space/sc/) is a prototype demonstration of an online learning resource where you can create learning playlists around the idea you want to follow. It also allows comment and discussion.
Main features are:- Upload: Upload your own video stories
- Share: Share your videos easily with your community
- Tag: Tag your videos in order to create collections and facilitate its search
- Create a playlist: Use the advanced search tool to create a playlist by using the following filters: tags, keywords contained in the title of text, owner, popularity...
- Discuss: Each video has a forum associated which gives support to deeper discussions
- Annotate: Collaboratively annotate on videos
Uses
Urban regeneration within the Zone of PossibilityThe ZoP Stokes Croft (ZoP-SC) case uses the concept of the ZoP to allow the people of the inner city neighborhood of Stokes Croft in Bristol to share their experiences of self-driven economic, social and cultural regeneration. The ZoP-SC project acts as a venue for the presentation of examples and discussion of urban regeneration; showing how an unrecognized corner of a city can be reinvigorated from the street up. By using the ZoP SC website (www.zop.space/sc) users can upload video clips, annotate points of interest at a specific time and location in a frame, share and discuss. In this way interesting findings, examples of informal learning actions and events at work or in a community project can become the focus of situated conversations.
The central idea of the ZoP approach is that the content of the website is generated by citizen reporters who have been instrumental in the use of culture, activism, social resilience and entrepreneurship in the regeneration of Stokes Croft. We've created a mock-up of what the website might look like in the finished project.
The finished site will have MyZop pages for contributors and commenters to allow communication through comments and responses. The scaffolding for the website will be co-designed with our first users so that things like levels of participation can be considered. This scaffolding will then be used to create ZoPs about lots of subjects; anything where there are people with hands-on experience and expertise to share.
Nominet from ZoP.Space on Vimeo.
Tech specs
The Story
How can people who want to do socially valuable actions find examples and mentors to guide them? Currently they could find a YouTube channel or Facebook group, but these are not designed with learning and mentorship in mind. The ZoP SC site is a safe, self moderated, co-designed social network for peer to peer learning. Unlike corporate platforms it is built around proven pedagogic principles and participant’s data is not traded for profit. It is not just about how to do specific tasks, but about how to get yourself in the Zone of Possibility; how to make the leap from idea to action.
This is a work in progress, where a co-design approach is being applied in order to understand the needs of our community and transform these needs into further technical requirements.
Since June 2016 we are having meetings with responsible persons of the ‘People’s republic of Stokes Croft’ and the ‘Bristol’s Cultural Quarter’ to develop this project further under specific grant proposals - as an spin off project derived from Learning Layers. The acquisition of funding will allow us to build a partnership with the community and build a more robust digital space to be initially populated by the members of the PRSC and in a second stage opened publicly to everybody. The main aim is to understand how the ZoP SC website is used to disseminate locally but also globally the social regeneration discussion collected in the digital space.
This special release is build in collaboration with U-Soap Media (Rik Lander), to be used in the Stokes Croft Project.
Research
Design based research and co-design interventions with field trials were the key in ZoP SC website. As indicated above, this is a spin-off project, a work in progress that will continue beyond Learning Layers. For this reason, we are currently in a preliminary stage of data gathering.
From October 2016 we have been encouraging members of the community to fill in our survey about ZoP Stokes Croft. So far, the feedback is positive and it provides interesting ideas of real use of our prototype.
Observations (paraphrasing and quoting returns to our survey): Participants agree they would like to use the site to inspire themselves and for learning from others. In addition, one respondent (a Cultural Producer/Regeneration Consultant) commented, “this site would potentially support my work in regeneration and encouraging individuals and projects to learn from each other”.
In comparison to existing tools, participants think the added social value aspects from this site are:
Contact
John Cook (John2.Cook@uwe.ac.uk)
Patricia Santos (Patricia.Santosrodriguez@uwe.ac.uk)
Visit: http://zop.space/
Testimonials
"your site seems local with examples of what normal folk have done, it's accessible and replicable in terms of taking similar actions"Response to ZoP SC survey, October 2016
"an independent creative commons initiative"Response to ZoP SC survey, October 2016
"co-produced process will develop something accessible and relevant"Response to ZoP SC survey, October 2016
"[this site adds an] inclusive factor, where all aspects of the society are invited to participate"Response to ZoP SC survey, October 2016