Disruptive Proactivity

I generally do anything, be it climate, democracy, transparency, human rights, or the multitude of other disruptions, because it’ll disturb the present to serve the future.

If you want me to come to your hackday, if you want me to work for free, or you want anyone to do the same, start by thinking about it from there. It might not be as easy for you to sell, and it might not appeal as widely.

A year ago or more, you didn’t need to think about it. But now, the present is plenty disturbed, and you’re competing with others who achieve more. Open Data lauded COINS being released, but with the most useful bit (WGA) missing.

Don’t tell me that you have these 2 datasets from this Government Department that are great. If you have to explain why I should care, if you have to convince that your day is important, you’ve failed already. If I think it matters, if it’s of interest to me, if it’s really valuable, I’ll happily work 80 hours on something less pleasant for free.

I don’t do things for prizes, or awards, or the food, and certainly not to spend time in an expensive venue; the point is the people, the issues, and what might be better because I gave up a weekend.

A longer version of this, with reasoning, <a href=”http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2011/03/why-prescribed-hackdays-are-bad/”>is here</a>. This version is 9% of that length - please refer to that if you want details or to critique.