Social Lean Canvas

here's a blog on designing a social lab, with some good 'pop-my-bubble' reality checks to interrogate.

http://www.social-labs.com/the-ten-most-common-mistakes-in-setting-up-a-social-lab/

Waiting on access to google drive so will post lean canvas here. Yeah here's first go 'Social Labs' leans canvas I did a couple weeks ago:

COST STRUCTURE

Cheap as chips! Costs are in hours work in website development, hosting/coordination of online space
and activity, and similarly in hours work preparinf social labs, running labs, debriefing, evaluating,
sharing stories/learnings, making improvements and building relationships, expanding Our Space
reach, maximising impact and growing open team of contributors/partners.

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

Start-up development costs getting website/social labs to MVP to be met by voluntary hours of work
(e.g. present activities) ‘skin in the game’ supported/accelerated by funding/sponsorship/investment
as much as possible!!
Moving forward, intention is for Our Space’ impactful activities e.g. hosting and improving website,
running social labs/supporting local partners to run labs... to be financed (hours work to be fairly
paid) by hybrid model, seeking contributions from stakeholder sources commensurate to theit
involvement/responsibilities/interests in supporting/achieving outcomes via Our Space activities

PURPOSE

• To catalyse housing solutions/developments that are in tune with common interests and are led by common people working together smartly, fairly, happily, autonomously and creatively
• In particular we seek to support contributions to make urban environs more liveable and people friendly, both firsthand via improvements and via establishing supportive pathways/opportunites for common leadership towards/proliferating win-win housing solutions/developments. The UN Declaration of human rights includes declaration that everybody has right to a home (along with many other rights). Ultimately we seek to enable this basic right by connecting efforts, activities and interests locally and globally. In an increasingly populated interconnected world we need to work together better in order to be true to ourselves and to secure and uphold rights of passage to/through a good life for all. Practically Our Space support transition to systemic/cultural housing solutions where houses are affordable/ accessible to buy/build/rent, have positive environmental impact, support healthy living/lifestyles commonsense symbiotic relationships with environs, habitat, home, family, neighbours, community etc.

PROBLEM

• Property ownership and development for capital gain, aggrandisement and pampering out of tune with common interests, with real life work, beauty and Nature connections
• Houses are expensive to buy, build and rent, have negative environmental impact, do not support healthy living/commonsense symbiotic relationships with environs, habitat, home, family, neighbours, community etc.

EXISTING ALTERNATIVES/HOW CURRENTLY BEING SOLVED

Ad-hoc, in bit-piece ways. There are some
great examples out there but these acts/
stories/choices are not (yet) well enough and
widely enough seen/communicated/
connected/empowered to turn the
mainstream tide..

SOLUTION

2-parts: website + Social Labs
- Website connects interests & contributors in
the big picture (Housing ecosystem), supports
knowledge & perspective sharing, relationship
building & leadership in the common interest

- Social Labs convene a ripe balance of key
players, skills and influences locally, inc.
citizens, tangata whenua, government and
business/industry changemakers, spark open &
challenging dialogues, encourage fresh-thinking,
innovation & collaboration toward common cause.

KEY METRICS

• Activity on website, readership + feedback
• No. of social labs held, no. of participants and balanced demographics
• Engagements valued by participants
• Win-win housing ventures/developments sparked and/or supported by labs/website - high standards of living, affordability, efficiency & environmental performance.

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

Building strength in relationships (knowledge,
morale, capability, common leadership), unity
in diversity, working together in whatever roles
toward common cause: win-win housing
developments.

HIGH LEVEL CONCEPT

Inspiring, connecting & encouraging
contributions to win-win housing developments
via web-platform + social labs

UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

-Our wholly co-operative approach We are all in
this together (people on this planet). This is the
direction we need to move in and it doesn’t
matter who leads this intiative/holds this space,
what matters is advancing the cause. Our team
has an integrity to work with everybody,
contribute however we can and support/honour
leadership contributions by others. This includes
contributions to Our Space & initiatives in direct
partnership with Our Space, as well as supposed
competitors/intiatives happening outside Our
Space but toward common cause,
- Within our team (and outside) we possess the
skills, knowledge, charisma & inertia to succeed

CHANNELS

-Through our networks and our networks
networks, including Climate Kick partners
- Intention for web-platform is to connect/speak
to and support contributors globally, taking
action/contributing to housing developments
locally, and contributing to the bigger picture,
maximising impact & + influence via storysharing
- The 2 parts of this venture (website, social labs)
are chief mechanisms to reach/connect people
to Our Space as contributors. Usual suspects inc.
email, word of mouth, posters, videos also key.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

• Climate Kick and/or other global partners who bring credibility, global influence and connection to/through their networks
• Funders/stakeholder reps inc. government, and NGO’s invest in/support Our Space due to + impacts/influence in common interest, in tune with their purposes, representing interests of their stakeholders
• Website developers to help build platform
• Diverse contributors to share their interests, stories and build connections/ventures via platform and/or via social labs

EARLY ADOPTERS

• Personal connections/networks, in particular locally within Wellington
• Being an early adopter offers opportunity to contribute in big way to growing something awesome
• The biggest draw to get involved is to advance own interests in housing (in tune with common interests) so local persons/groups/organisation eager to get involved in housing/increase their impact are early targets

And here are Caroline's suggested additions/changes:
- purpose: add "create an Eco-system of communities of dwellings that are people and nature friendly"
- problem: add extra one of "lack of readily available knowledge about how to overcome real/perceived barriers (eg. Planning/financial/legal/governance etc) and create affordable, people and nature friendly communities of dwellings".
- customer segments: change to "1. Dwelling buyers who are looking for a more affordable/community focused/environmentally friendly alternative; 2. Community housing providers looking for more affordable community/environmentally focused alternatives; 3. Iwi and hapu looking for more affordable, Tikanga resonant alternatives"
- channels: add "a conference on co-housing"
- unfair advantage - I'm not sure about the words "integrity" and "inertia" - is "integrity" meant to be "intention"?
- early adopters - change first bullet to "people in our networks, especially in Wellington, who are interested in people and nature friendly co-housing and need help to address barriers"

Disclaimer: as said in initial e-correspondence with Caroline, Drew, Nigel "Not sure I’m best to start this off (Social Labs lean canvas), not sure how on the mark.. I maybe better in role of gap filler/spotterer/alternate perspective giver.. Yeah please bounce back once you’ve had a go and I'll have another go."

Yeah as said tonight I'm keen and able to contribute in a collaborative way to advancing material/developing resources platform etc as mentioned in above canvas (or different) if anybody else is interested in collaborating on this effort and if the group is in support, thinks is worth it and can contribute at least to aligning interests/tweaking canvas, messages, words etc. to be representative of the group. Such could happen via internet (eg. shared google doc, email or loomio) and/or via shared real time collaboration in same physical space. If this is not a fit, maybe biting off too much that's totally cool too.

@lucaskengmana @nigeltaptiklis @annerowe @drewarensberg

Thanks for sharing this Seth.

There is some really good stuff in here, and I understand what you are proposing much better than in the meeting. I think there is definitely worth putting some thought into whether there is a value to widening our structure and I'm all for people taking this opportunity and running with it to create more solutions rather than us constraining ourselves.

There are a couple things I'd like to push back on though:

(1) The purpose and problem statements.

It is really important that our purpose statement is really brief and clear so I think both of the statements you have proposed need to be amended. I believe what you are trying to capture with your first bullet point is to "catalyze collaborative models for addressing housing issues". I'm fine with that being the goal for a social lab/collaboration platform but I feel the group's overall purpose should remain something like "People friendly urban densification" because I feel this is broader and better defined.

In terms of the problem, I don't agree with your first bullet point because whether people agree with this statement will mostly come down to deep-seated political beliefs so it will alienate a significant proportion of people (which seems a bit inconsistent with a goal of being more collaborative).

(2) Cost/Financial Sustainability

I think you are underestimating the cost. Setting up Kaenga took me about sixty hours all told (i.e. conceptualizing, writing content, hiring a developer, etc.) and cost about $250. That doesn't include the time it will take to promote it. I suspect that running events is much more time consuming and costly.

That is not to say you won't be able to get finance for it, just that we would need to carefully test this (preferably before making the expenditure).

@sethhickling you should have access too, check in your 'shared with me' folder in Drive.

Thanks @lucaskengmana! Good feedbacks I will have another go at lean canvas today/tomorrow, incorporating yours and @carolinetaylor improvements.

Re amount of work involved in platform design-build, I have a lean platform design in mind (sketched out on paper). I will explore/discuss dev with a humanitarian developer friend who has previously expressed interest in supporting/collaborating on project of this sort.