I want to second and augment ‘active programming part’. As Rob notes, coordination is difficult.
I think for EA Mexico the social opportunities and activities have been good (at least for the time I’ve been here). And there’s been pretty good opportunities to informally chat and 1-on-1. That’s all you really might want for a short program of a day or so. But if we’re going to be doing long (multi-week+) fellowships, I think we can try to do better.
I think that what is lacking a bit is the opportunity to organize actual work discussions/working together. I think this merits coordination in a few ways. We need to know who is here, what they are doing, but they are interested in, what their skills are, and whether and when they were interested in working together. We also need to coordinate the social expectations of when it’s OK to ‘talk work’ with someone or ask them for help and feedback on work.
I tried to start something in this Airtable as you know, but I shared it a bit late in the game. But maybe it could be as an idea a template for a future fellowships and co-working, retreats etc?
Some suggestions that (I think) would make a big difference (feel free to incorporate into your post, if you think it makes sense?)
Shared calendar we can edit, as you said
Maintained database/table of who is here and what they are interested in, and research/impact area groups we can join
Scheduled weekly (or 2x/week?) informal seminars, with ‘post seminar discussion and collaboration time’ scheduled afterwards
A ‘presentation space’ with blackboards or whiteboards, and projectors
A scheduled daily times and space (or maybe 4x per week) for ‘hackathon’, group work, and problem-solving. If you go to that space at that time, you partner up, chat, help each other, and get solutions to your problems. (Perhaps especially technical ones).
Ambitious: Facilitate people and groups arranging some projects and collaborations in advance of a fellowship, and getting ‘time bought off from their usual work’ to do this
Fancier: Possibly a ‘podcast space’ and times specifically set up for this. I think us being physically together provides a great opportunity to do and share public discussions, to communicate our work with others, to get a sense of where consensus may be, and to build information resources.
I want to second and augment ‘active programming part’. As Rob notes, coordination is difficult.
I think for EA Mexico the social opportunities and activities have been good (at least for the time I’ve been here). And there’s been pretty good opportunities to informally chat and 1-on-1. That’s all you really might want for a short program of a day or so. But if we’re going to be doing long (multi-week+) fellowships, I think we can try to do better.
I think that what is lacking a bit is the opportunity to organize actual work discussions/working together. I think this merits coordination in a few ways. We need to know who is here, what they are doing, but they are interested in, what their skills are, and whether and when they were interested in working together. We also need to coordinate the social expectations of when it’s OK to ‘talk work’ with someone or ask them for help and feedback on work.
I tried to start something in this Airtable as you know, but I shared it a bit late in the game. But maybe it could be as an idea a template for a future fellowships and co-working, retreats etc?
Some suggestions that (I think) would make a big difference (feel free to incorporate into your post, if you think it makes sense?)
Shared calendar we can edit, as you said
Maintained database/table of who is here and what they are interested in, and research/impact area groups we can join
Scheduled weekly (or 2x/week?) informal seminars, with ‘post seminar discussion and collaboration time’ scheduled afterwards
A ‘presentation space’ with blackboards or whiteboards, and projectors
A scheduled daily times and space (or maybe 4x per week) for ‘hackathon’, group work, and problem-solving. If you go to that space at that time, you partner up, chat, help each other, and get solutions to your problems. (Perhaps especially technical ones).
Ambitious: Facilitate people and groups arranging some projects and collaborations in advance of a fellowship, and getting ‘time bought off from their usual work’ to do this
Fancier: Possibly a ‘podcast space’ and times specifically set up for this. I think us being physically together provides a great opportunity to do and share public discussions, to communicate our work with others, to get a sense of where consensus may be, and to build information resources.