Almost 20 years ago, October 30, 2005, I wrote a post called Account Planning School of the Web. It was about an experiment I wanted to try, a sort of training/coaching thing for junior planners/strategists/whatever we call them these days.
The central idea was:
- Someone sets some sort of brief, a task that's like one you might have to do in the real world
- Anyone who wants to can have a go at responding
- That first someone responds with feedback on all the the various attempts
- Everyone can see the attempts and the feedback
I think that proved to be quite a good model. It carried on for quite a while, lots of people joined in and contributed, it branched out in various ways and got passed around to lots of different hosts when I (inevitably) got a bit bored of it.
Looking back at all the posts now I'm struck by how much I was attempting to stitch together community, curriculum and content out of various ill-suited technologies, many of which immediately died. I bet that's easier now, I thought, I should have another go.
So I'm going to try an Intermediate Sprint on Patreon, a prototype for what a new APSotW might be. I'm thinking that'll run until the end of October when the new thing will launch, 20 years on.
I'm hoping Patreon and this new whatever it is will sweep together a few of the things we/I have been experimenting with recently; Coffee Mornings, Unoffice Hours, Haudoo, WIP. And maybe even Interesting, Findings, 4764, Afternoon Slow, Slow Findings, There seem to be common themes and, well, vibes.
I'm going to start with a new assignment. The same rules as the old days. I'll set a task, anyone can have a go, there'll be feedback for everyone. But it'll all be on Patreon, just to keep it contained, so you'll need an account or you'll have to become a member or something. We'll work that out together.
(Current assumption is that all this will be free, I believe that's doable on Patreon. Once we've got going it might make sense to mirror stuff on here too, just to keep it open, but we'll see.)
And obviously, I'm starting with the RSS massive. My people.