New Member Questionnaire
P2P Foundation Volunteer Member Questionnaire
Version 1.1 published December 2014 was prepared by Kevin Flanagan.
For applications please download and fill out the document then send it to [email protected] your application will be handled by one of our core members who will respond as soon as possible.
To Download go to File:P2P Foundation New Member Questionnaire V1.1 Dec 2014 .odt
PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THIS WIKI PAGE FOR YOUR APPLICATION.
In addition to providing a place to download an up to date membership form this wiki page acts as a kind of version control which we refer to as we develop and refine the application process.
Introduction
Hello, and welcome to our questionnaire for prospective members of the P2P Foundation. Please answer our questionnaire as fully as you can. The more you give us to work with, the easier it will make things for us to get a good idea of your interests and talents and the faster we can get working together. Your answers and personal information are kept private and are only accesible to core members tasked with accessing applications and helping new members. First, if you haven't done so already, please read the following documents in full. They provide a very comprehensive overview of our community. Before beginning, it's important to make sure that there's no misunderstanding or misinterpretation of what we're trying to achieve. Please take all the time you need to digest the material fully. We would rather wait as long as necessary to receive the questionnaire than to have you rush through it.
Please take the time to read through all the material below, and give us feedback.
- P2P Foundations Mission and Objectives
- Governance
- 3 Types of Participants
- Recommended Guidelines and Good practises
- A Note on Communication
These documents were specifically prepared to help fully explain our project, its development and your potential role in it. We refer back to these documents often in discussion, and they took a lot of thought, time and effort to prepare. The time we will take to consider you as a candidate will be at least as long as the time it takes you to read through these.
P2P Foundations Mission and Objectives
Please read through our Mission and Objectives. If anything isn't clear, please list it below. We would also appreciate if you would write a few words in response to these Founding Principles.
http://p2pfoundation.net/P2P_Foundation:About#Mission_and_Objectives
Governance
Governance in the P2P Foundation is something that is constantly evolving according to the needs or our network and community. We take inspiration from Multi-stakeholder Cooperative forms and the Open Enterprise Governance Model. Openness and organisational transparency enable people to self-organise and collaborate effectively (AKA Stigmergy). We aspire to developing clear governance mechanisms that help all members of the community to quickly understand how we work together.
At the date of writing V1.1 Dec 2014 the P2P Foundation is undertaking a review and in the process of updating our governance policies.
So what is Membership in the P2P Foundation?
At the P2P Foundation we believe that the cultivation of participatory, democratic practices, as expressed through p2p dynamics and in the co-creation of knowledge and material commons, are essential if humanity is to address the crisis in economy, democracy and environment. The benefits of p2p approaches must be made available to all of humanity.
As a pluralistic organisation the P2P Foundation seeks to promote diversity in its membership. We are a very international group. The European and American continents are well represented in our networks and we are actively seeking to engage new members from Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Asia.
We are also working to highlight the role of Women Who Are Co-Creating the P2P Society.
Participants generally fall into 3 types. Each has different needs, roles and degrees of responsibility.
3 Types of Participants
Community
Everyone is part of the community, so this category broadly includes everyone from blog and mailing list subscribers to facebook friends and twitter followers. The Community participate and contribute to the work of the Foundation in a variety of ways but are not directly involved or responsible for the day to day work of the Foundation. At the same time they are essential to the culture and the mission of the foundation.
Members
Are those in the community who, supporting the mission of the foundation, have chosen to get more involved and to give of their time and expertise to forwarding our goals. Members are volunteers, their time and contributions are valued. When a member of the community first gets involved there is this application process after passing another current member will be assigned to help you settle and show you how we work together, how we discuss and develop ideas, make proposals and group decisions (Loomio), how we manage tasks (Trello), how we document projects (wiki) or how the blog works (Wordpress). Anything you need to know just ask. It’s important you listen too as next time you will be the one training new members. As a new member you can take part in critical discussion about Foundation projects and vote when decisions need to be made. However as a new member your vote is non-binding until you have been with us for 3 months. After 3 months having developed an understanding of our working methods and decision making processes you become a full member and your vote is binding. You will also be ready to train in at least one new member. We recognise that as volunteers, members usually only have a limited amount of time they can offer the Foundation per week. This can vary from person to person and can change over time. To avoid any misunderstandings it is important that time commitments are discussed so that we have a realistic idea of what you can offer and we can expect or ask of you, it also helps us manage tasks more effectively. If there is a project or task you would like to be involved in just be sure to reflect and ask yourself honestly if you will be able to deliver on the your responsibilities. If so, great: dig in.
Core Members
Consists of persons who have made a full time commitment to the work of the Foundation or play a critical role in its operation such as founders, employees and web site administrators. Core Members are also involved in managing the organisation budget.
Recommended Guidelines and Good practises
Please read our Recommended Guidelines and Good practises
A Note on Communication
We feel one of the most important assets you can bring as a member is a good comprehension of what the work of the P2P Foundation entails, and a commitment to ongoing , clear communication. As a small organisation we can't (and won't) waste valuable time following up with members to either - (a) get them to fulfill whatever commitments they may have signed up to. Or (b) calling their attention to any deviations from our Mission and Objectives. We absolutely realize that there's a learning curve, and we will provide you with all the tools you need including training so you can manage your work and participate fully as a member. However, we will not invest time if the basic communication channels are broken. Not answering emails, not participating in meetings and discussion threads, not following up on tasks and projects etc., all amounts to non-participation, and we can't afford to invest time and effort chasing after people for this. Important note Please don't leave any blank spaces. We'd much rather see something like, "I don't know" or "I'm not answering this one, sorry" than to see a blank. If something seems irrelevant to you, please help us improve the form. One more thing. The form is written in a largely serious tone, but with a little humor here and there. We're human, and we wanted to lighten it up occasionally - but please understand that we are serious about the completion of the questionnaire, and we will read each one very carefully. The main purpose of it is so that we can understand, and relatively quickly, if we will be a good fit or not - and specifically how. With that in mind, you don't have to stifle any urge to be yourself if you feel like making a joke here and there. This isn't a medical history. Thank you and, once again, welcome!
General Information
Personal Information
Name
City/Country
Contact email
Skype Address
Internet and Social Media
Please copy the URL of whichever Social Media or Website info you'd like to share with the project.
| ________________ | |
| Apple | ________________ |
| ________________ | |
| G+ | ________________ |
| Diaspora | ________________ |
| ________________ | |
| YouTube | ________________ |
| Vimeo | ________________ |
| Personal Website/or Blog | ________________ |
Feel free to tell us some more about your website.
P2P Foundation and You
General Information regarding your goals and expectations in joining.
- How did you find out about the P2P Foundation?
- Tell us about you Including (if applicable): current/recent professional role(s); tertiary/other education; what attracted you to the P2P Foundation and its work.
- List three things you are passionate about feel free to add something quirky or seemingly irrelevant, to give us a better picture of you. Keep it to 250 words or less. Feel free to include links to your work/projects, etc.
- What are the three things you most value and/or seek in working with others? Please list them in the box below
- Specifically, what three skills would you most like to develop through your experience with the P2P Foundation? (they can be things with which you currently have no or only limited experience)
- Complete this sentence "From the experience (of working with this group), I would like to gain..."
Interests
The more we know about the things you're passionate and knowledgeable about, the better we can work together, feed that passion and support your personal development.
Rate from 1 to 5 your familiarity with, and interest in, the following subjects we regularly feature. If we have missed anything please list them at the bottom. It should go without saying, but these are in no particular order, and many are interrelated. If there are redundancies, it's just so we could spark your imagination a little. To choose a number on the scale below, please mark “X”. You can also copy and paste X for your own convenience for use throughout the questionnaire.
P2P/The Commons
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Post-Capitalism
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Activism, including the Occupy/15-M movements
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
"Artivism", Creative forms of activism, Culture jamming
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Free Software/ Hacktivism
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Environmental Sustainability and Resource Depletion
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Social Justice, Geo Politics, Anti-Empire
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Post-Growth, Resiliency, Permaculture
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Food Security
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Sharing Economy For our vision of what an "Sharing Economy" entails, please read this article: http://bit.ly/1wjfoXq
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Monetary Reform/New Economy
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Futurism/Prefigurative Models
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Spirituality, Consciousness (including practices, psychedelics, etc.)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Cooperativism
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Hacker / Maker Culture, 3D Printing, Fablabs
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Totally unfamiliar | Deeply interested, involved |
Did we miss any subjects you'd like to see covered by the P2PFoundation? Please list them below!
Skills
Collaboration and knowledge sharing are core values of the P2P Foundation and play a big part in membership. For example just as we current members are here to help you settle in and get familiar with the work we do and the tools we use on a daily basis, we hope that you too will eventually be in a position to pass that knowledge and experience on to future members. Please rate your skill level. If you are new to something mark yourself on the student side of the scale. If you are experienced and are willing to share that with others mark yourself towards the teachers end. We can always learn something new from each other.
Blog Curation (Wordpress)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Working with Wikis (Wikimedia)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Social Media / Community Engagement
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Social Media Promotions / Crowdfunding Campaigns
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Web development and Technical Maintenance
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Project Management
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
We also use the following tools -
Loomio (http://loomio.org)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Trello (http://trello.com)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Student | Teacher |
Additional Skills or Interests
Please outline any other skills
P2P Foundation Content
This section is specific to our P2P Foundation web-magazine/blog.
Which are your favorite authors among those we've featured on our blog?
If there have been any especially inspiring articles or videos that might have motivated you to join us, please list them.
What other authors or themes would you like to see featured?
List authors and/or subjects we haven't featured yet, and that you'd like to spread in your target language.
Favorite Media Outlets and Websites
Which websites or other forms of media do you regularly visit to read?
Please list them, regardless of which language they're in.
Where do you get your news and current events information?
Note, this is different from the question above in that we're specifically asking here about how you get your news - we know that there are lots of styles of filtering and finding information, we'd love to know yours.
Do you prefer reading longer form or more academic style texts, or do you prefer more personal essay/reportage articles?
Do you have experience as a content curator?
Do you regularly watch any television programs?
Do you prefer working on longer or shorter articles?
We define "shorter" as approximately 1500 words or fewer.
Would you be interested in writing original articles?
(Please highlight either “yes” or “no” in GREEN)
Yes
No
Things you like
Something about you, so we can get to know you better: what kind of music do you like? Books - fiction, non-fiction, genres? What about visual art, theater, cinema, poetry, what kind of culture do you enjoy - as maker, appreciator, or both? Or do you enjoy more technical pursuits like coding? Gardening, cooking...whatever you'd like to share.
What else are you good at/would be interested in that we may not have listed?
Here, we're looking for whatever you may want to add that we haven't asked. Random example: have you been a volunteer in some specific kind of group, or do you have skills that you think we would want to know about? But really, whatever comes to you as relevant here.
Language
As a globally networked organisation we aspire to reach out and engage with people from all parts of the world. If you are interested in assiting with the blog or wiki it is important that you have a good level of English. If you are not a native speaker please rate your English language ability.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Beginner | Advanced |
We also understand that requirements for English language skills can often exclude many that might otherwise be interested in our work. One way we try to overcome the language barrier is through our work with the Guerrilla Translations.
Guerrilla Translations regularly translate orginal articles from English to Spanish and vice versa and they are looking to offer translation services in other languages too.
If you are bi/multi-lingual and interested in translating articles on P2P and the Commons we highly recommend contacting them.
Please list any other languages you know and your level. Also list any regional variations (ie: Latin-American Spanish, Australian English, etc.)
Commitment and communication
As we've said, commitment and communication go hand in hand, so please fill this section and realistically as you can. Take your time. The clearer you are with yourself and us, the better our decisions about working together in the future.
How would you assess your time-management skills?
We're not necessarily going to rule you out if you say "I suck at this" - in fact, we're pretty good at it and improving all the time, and have lots of tools and suggestions to share on the topic. If you feel you're really good at this, we also want to know about your methods, so we can learn and share them.
Time/Involvement Commitment
How many hours a week/month do you see yourself dedicating to the project? How involved do you imagine you want to be in projects that work towards establishing new models in line with our ethical principles? We will work together with you initially to help determine realistic goals for yourself, and once those are established we will need that commitment to be one you can uphold. Our governance model allows for flexibility, but it's always good to have a general idea. So for the moment, an estimate of your projected availability is all we're asking for.
Organization Style
Do you prefer to self-organise within community, or do you prefer to have someone organize the workload for you?
Communication Style
How do you prefer to communicate? (Please highlight your “yes” choices in GREEN)
E-mail Chat Skype/Google Hangout Organizational tools – Loomio / Trello Other:
Timing is Everything: When to connect with you.
What time zone are you based in? What are the best time(s) and day(s) of the week for online meetings (bearing in mind that many of us are currently working in the EU):
Would you like a personal @p2pfoundation.net email address? (This can be provided after 3 months when you become a full member)
Outside Assets
Contacts or organisations you are connected with who share our values who may benefit (or benefit from) the work of the P2P Foundation.
These could include blogs, activist organisations, cultural or academic institutions, etc. in which you are an active participant or with which you are actively connected in some way.
What, if any, other personal or external resources do you have in your network which the P2P Foundation may be able to share in?
To be clear, these should be relevant to our work, and at your disposal for the sharing.
Can you recommend any grant leads or funding opportunities you feel would be particularly appropriate to supporting our work? We're asking for suggestions about specific leads for grants/funding that you may have.
Do you know any journalists or members of the media you feel may be interested in reporting or republishing our work?
Including but not limited to all the usual suspects both offline and online, on international, national or local levels. T.V., print media, blogs, radio, podcasts, etc.
Which influential people do you personally know? (for instance, authors, commentators, activists, scientists, researchers, theorists, humorists, cartoonists, venture communists, foolish philanthropists, bon vivants, drug dealers/your mom) whom you feel might support/endorse our work? :) ps: KIDDING about the drug dealers. Say "hi" to Mom.
Development
What is your vision of collaboration in the P2P Foundation?
How do you envision the P2P Foundation five years in the future?
Are their any tools to support the P2P Foundation that you’d like to suggest we add to our toolbox?
The Big Finish
You've almost made it, congrats!
Is there any feedback you would like to share about this process?
We're hoping for positive feedback, constructive criticism, things we missed.
Please offer your final thoughts about the questionnaire.
Is this what you expected? Has your perception of the P2P Foundation changed?
Thanks so much, and talk to you soon! Good job in getting all the way here!