In my last post Self-directed small groups for learning, I talked about wanting to start a group where we support each other with personal projects and learning. I reached out to some friends and acquaintances to see if people were interested. Some people are interested, and I had the first meeting with one other person this week. It’s exciting to get started! But many of the people I talked to had questions about this group idea. Here are some: what kind of projects? What is the topic or theme? Is it about accountability? Do you need to be a programmer/tech person to join? These questions helped to clarify what kind of group I’m hoping to form.

I am imagining a group where the members are connected by a desire and ability to support each other to make progress on their personal projects or learning endeavors. On the desire to help side, the members ideally will be curious about the other member’s project and be ready to hear about these projects, even if it is about topics that they are unfamiliar with. In my experience, just having the desire to help is usually enough because there are many ways to support that do not require specialized knowledge. Just listening and asking clarifying questions can be enough to help someone solve a problem (even a rubber duck can help!).

But there could be situations where there are barriers that prevent people from effectively supporting each other. With some projects people are essentially speaking different languages because the knowledge needed for a project is so specialized. Relatedly some members might be triggered by certain subject if they had a negative experience it (maybe a terrible physics class). Alternatively people might want to meet with people with similar experience and interests. In these cases, it probably would be better if people formed separate groups.

With that clarification of the kind of group I’m interested in, here are my responses to the questions:

• What kind of projects?
  • Whatever you’re interested in! This group will be meeting remotely, so projects were you can make some progress while at a computer would probably be a better fit. But it doesn’t have to be all digital. For example you could document and publish your efforts to achieve new levels of physical fitness. For me, I’m going to be working on how to switch all of my software services to open source/privacy respecting services. I’m following The Opt-Out Project guide.
• What is the topic or theme?
  • Ideally our efforts would help the community in some way. In my previous post, I mentioned a goal of “Adding to knowledge and culture through open source work that can be shared and modified by others”. Personally I’m interested in ways that people and communities can have more agency with the technology they use.
• Is it about accountability?
  • Each person is driving their own project, so they don’t “need” to do anything. But it can be helpful for member’s to remind each other about their previously set goals. So yes it is about supporting each other as we each work toward our goals.
• Do you need to be a programmer/tech person to join?
  • No. It would be good to have a project or something that you’re interested in, but it does not need to be about programming or tech. I am one of those science/tech people and my projects will mostly be in that realm, so if that doesn’t bother you then it will be fine.

I hope that helps clarify what I’m aiming for. If you’re interested reach out!