ABOUT THE 2020 CONFERENCE

Dear friends and colleagues,

we apologise for the long silence from our side. After 3 inspiring training circles with Sofia Bustamante in the early spring the pandemic has hit us in various ways, and we were not able to continue the training circles as we had planned. While the pandemic has shown that working in a decentralised, hybrid off/online space is more relevant than ever, we decided to put Social Tools on hold for a couple of months.

Originally we had planned the 3rd edition of the Social Tools Conference to take place on the last weekend of September. The topic of the conference was simply “The Meeting”. Our intention was to role-play different meeting formats and situations and reflect upon one of the most typical social situations we find ourselves in when we work with others.


Nevertheless, in late summer we decided that the format we had envisioned for the conference was not compatible with social distancing regulations, therefore the conference needed to be postponed for a year to September 2021. After upgrading to a Zoom Pro plan and attending online seminars, festivals, concerts, workshops etc. we also experienced a certain “zoom-fatigue”, so moving the conference online was not a very enticing option for any of us.

But we did not want to go down without a beep! So we’d like to invite you for the 2020 special edition of the Social Tools Conference – pandemic style. You can read the details here and hopefully we see you around.

The Social Tools 2020 Team
Agnieszka, Ilpo, Oliver and Owen

ABOUT THE 2019 CONFERENCE

Decentralisation is a term that is currently en vogue. It is often mentioned in conjunction with block-chain technology and cryptocurrencies. We nevertheless want to focus our attention on the social implications of decentralisation processes. What happens to a group or community that moves from a hierachical to a more decentralised working model?

This event is for everyone trying to work in such a way: members of artistic collectives, co-ops, startups, NGOs, companies, museums, activist networks and so on. We have worked with Pixelache for many years to adapt a decentralized model. We came up with some of our own solutions that worked out, but struggled with some basic issues. We have realised that we are not alone with this struggles, and that those challenges are rather common to any group trying to move away from a traditional command-and-control structure.

We set up the Socials Tools conference in 2018 in order to invite speakers and workshop hosts that can help us and others with this transformation, to move “from disorganisation to decentralised organising” (Rich Bartlett)

While the 2018 Social Tools conference tried to give a broad overview of issues of decentralised organising, the 2019 conference will focus on 3 patterns that were discussed last year but that need a more extensive and thorough discussion: POWER. MONEY, CONFLICT

Power imbalances can be found in almost any organisation, so how can we talk about them and deal with them? How can we avoid “toxic” power but embrace “healthy” power?  How do we track and compensate contributions in  decentralised organisations? How do we balance paid, pro bono and volunteer work? How do we acknowledge invisible work and care work?

When trying to move towards a more decentralised way of working, conflict is almost inevitable. How can we deal with it? What patterns and tools are available for addressing conflict?

Those and many other similar questions will be addressed. Welcome to join us on this collective learning journey.

The Social Tools 2019 Team
Agnieszka, Ilpo, Oliver and Owen

PROGRAM

DAY 1

SYMPOSIUM – MONEY, POWER, CONFLICT

DAY 2

TOWARDS THE DISCO​

DAY 3

INTRO TO THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION PATTERN LANGUAGE​

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 27
CAISA
15:00-18:15

On the first day we will start with a fast paced session featuring 6 speakers. They will attempt in short presentations to highlight the most important issues in regards to MONEY, POWER & CONFLICT within decentralised organisations. This symposium will provide a good and quick insight into those three issues and will build a common foundation for the more in-depth workshops on Saturday and Sunday.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 28
HIAP SUOMENLINNA
11:00-18:00

On the second day we will have another in-depth workshop that will provide insights into possible ways on how to deal with money within a decentralised organisation.Using their “Guerillia Translation” collective as a case, workshop hosts Stacco Troncoso and Ann Marie Utratel will walk particpants through all the theoretical and practical steps necessary to move to a truely care-oriented open coop aka DISCO – a distributed cooperative organisation.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 29
HIAP SUOMENLINNA
11:00-18:00

The third day will  provide in-depth knowledge and hands-on practice about conflict in decentralised organisations and how to deal with it. The workshop is hosted by Sofia Bustamante, an experienced facilitator in the field of conflict resolution.