Global Youth Panel - weekly update No. 4
Three days to go and everything is going perfectly. There’s not a cloud in the sky nor problem to report. In fact, we’re so far ahead of schedule we’ve been working half-days all week.Yeah, right.
Panellists
In order to ensure only members of the GYP take part in the debates we’re tying their Wave address to our gadget. Which means we need their CC to send out invites, collect Wave addresses and forward them to us. A slow process at best of times, a pretty frustrating one when a close, immovable, deadline is involved. Oh and with very new technology too.
Hence lots of communication with the CCs and panellists. Lots of individual emails sent, lots of hand-holding, lots of trying to determine what non-native speakers mean when they’re describing problems. Quite a bit of explaining the process and that Wave is not Gmail. All combined with the tasks each CC already has on their plate; which currently involves at least one sick mother and hopefully only one holed oil tanker.
So we’ve been really grateful for the extra invites that Google have given us and especially delighted to see invites seem to now arrive only a few hours after being sent. Without those two factors we’d have had a much more stressful week than it’s already been.
We wont have all 1,000 panellists online on Monday, this will be a rolling start. However, we should have close to 500 and they’ll be the dedicated ones, so hopefully the level of participation will be high. Now all we need do is get the add-ons working.
Development
Our strategy has been to simplify inbox noise by generating one Index Wave containing links to, and key elements for, all the debates: the Debate Title, Intro, Votes For, Votes Against and time remaining to participate or vote. GYP members will use this as their portal (yes I used that word) for the debates they want to participate in.
A Debate Wave will be a subset of the Index Wave – it will contain the title, intro, votes For and Against and timings for every individual debate. It will also contain all the points that make up the debate (test example: How many ninjas does it take to cut emissions by 20%.
Point 1: Chuck Norris, Point 2: Chuck Norris’s mum, Point 3 – well you get the idea).
The Point Wave is where the debates take place. This contains a blip with the argument, a blip with the counterargument and all discussion blips underneath. This is the only element at which GYP members participate. The Debate Wave and Index Wave are generated by robots that pull in blips, make debate Waves and then generate the Index Wave.
I am led to believe the Wave documentation needs a little polishing. And that a lot of the solutions professed by others on forums don’t seem to work for us. Hence lots of late nights, lots of missed deadlines and an inevitable to-the-wire finish.
I am filled with confidence though, and I say this knowing my reputation is at stake. Partly because I understand this is how these projects work. And partly because I’ve seen just how skilled our guys are and know how much they care. They’ll make it happen. Somehow.
PR
Messages of support have come from Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Al Gore so famously collected, various other leading climate change experts and leader of the opposition David Cameron. Now if that doesn’t spur the PM into action I don’t know what will.
Perhaps most encouraging of all was a simple message posted to a single list I’ve been on for a while. The outpouring of support was amazing to see and incredibly lifting too as it showed the amount of goodwill that exists for this project. Our main task now is how to
access it.
To help we’ve hired a professional who has written some press releases, developed a press pack for the CCs and is helping us with all things media. My feeling/hope/belief /goal is the amount of interest we generate will increase as the conference goes on.
I aim to show that despite the cynicism and disappointment that will inevitably emerge there are a group of passionate, dedicate and energised people who want to solve these huge problems. Our panel will provide the breath of fresh air the world needs during its time
of doubt. And I say that only half exaggeratedly, their enthusiasm has lifted me many times during mine.