* The Debatewise Blog
Vision
This is a blog post for steph who has managed to forget her password, or username... or possibly both!!‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all’- Helen Keller
Sitting in a meeting room, minds come together to solve the problems of business. Puzzled by the challenges that are presented to Debatewise, our team of comrades are busy finding our direction in this crazy capitalist world. Our problem is simple...our liberal, ‘boheme’ idea of creating a online space of debated ideas although excites, does not make us sustainable nor puts bread on the table. So our mission is clear. We need a selling strategy. From grant funding, sponsorship schemes, to cold calling, we are trying it all and so we are asking you, the readers, the participants of Debatewise for your feedback by adding your comment below. The idea does spring to mind that a debate would sort out our problem with direction. Something along the lines of ‘Is there a place in the business market for Debate?’ or maybe it is more of a question as to whether the voices raised on our site have an outlet, a place in business and in society’?
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A new comments system
We finally have a new comments system for the website. This should encourage people to get involved in the debates even if they don’t want to write a whole new point or counterargument and are unwilling to edit what someone else has done. The new comments system gives several options as to what to do, a big improvement over the old system which was more or less a blank box that could be written in and posted. Comments did not have any context and seemed to be out of place on the old system, this is no longer the case! Now in the ‘Join the debate’ section another view of the debate in a much more linear format is given, this gives context to the comments as they are made relevant to particular points within the existing argument.The Join the debate section has several options. The first two are pretty obvious. ‘Applaud’ is simply giving thumbs up to an argument made by someone showing that you think its a good argument or agree with it. ‘Flag’ is marking an argument as inappropriate so that the moderators notice and consider the content. ‘Quote’ quotes the section of the debate you want to respond to, giving the text of the initial post, if you just want to reply simply delete the quoted passage. This then says at the bottom that it is a ‘reply to #x’. The final option is ‘my two ¢’ that allows you to take the discussion in a different direction by not quoting or replying to a previous point but still staying on topic.
Overall the new comments system is a massive improvement over what was there before. The new comments system may well be useful for revisewise as well. One of the things we are aiming for is pathways and allowing users to break out of the dual debate structure that is currently enforced by the site. This new comments system helps create a way through this. For revisewise debates the comments system could be considered a much more integral part of the debate allowing discussion on essay titles and how the debate should flow if not in a dualist structure. The comments system also helps to facilitate collaboration between users on the site, this is helpful for students revising as they can make comments on what needs to be revised more, how it should be done etc.
Hope you all like it as much as I do
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The joys of selling
Last week, I decided to help out Dave and Stephanie with the selling of various Debatewise side products such as our white label scheme. These products are essential to the future of debatewise, as they will help fund all the various projects we are pursuing, as well as ensuring that the continuing upkeep and maintenance of the site is kept up to date. The plan started off with me and Steph going to the city business library and getting a list of small- medium sized companies (sme's for those of you who like their jargon) that have some sort of environmental bent to them. I cant lie by saying that I was wholly confident when I started yesterday, and approached my first phone call with a real degree of trepidation, however as Alex commented yesterday, what is the worst they can do, hang up on us? I am actually weirdly starting to enjoy this whole process of 'cold calling' and treat each phone call as a challenge that I need to psyche myself up for. We are basically selling the product as a great tool for the various organisations to promote their causes and campaigns to a wider audience. We are selling it on the basis that it will enable organisations to harness contributions, find what arguments will be really persuasive for them, know which of their causes the general public harbour misconceptions over and will result in a large body of material that can be distributed to a wide audience. I am genuinely getting really excited by this prospect, and if any budding sales gurus out there have any tips or pointers please feel free to get in touch.Click here to add your comment
5 things for the week
Another bank holiday week with just 4 working days so not everyone will have 5 things this weekAlex
1, A document on the benefits of revisewise, and a nice little table setting out all these benefits in a nice accessible format so everyone here can see the benefits without having to know revisewise in detail
2, Working on the WODC rules and Code of Conduct
3, tested the new comments system on the site, looks good, perhaps david will write a blog post on how it all works and whats better about it compared to the old system - if not I will do one next week
4, a couple of ideas about how to improve revisewise, one should be pretty easy to do the other is probably rather longer term
5, found out a bit about the university of the third age, and local older peoples forums, might be a potential source for new rapid response team members as they are people who want to keep mentaly active and focused while having a lot of time on their hands due to being retired. Writing debates might be the perfect thing for them, they are bound to have lots of ideas and opinions that may be useful and interesting for us... the question is how to get them involved.
Stephanie
1. Revised our sponsorship packages and its powerpoint presentation
2. Met Super Nick from upstairs in BASH Studios, who helped with ideas and gave inspiration (I took fantastic notes)
3. Brough Pete into the 'Sales Scene' to try to get Debatewise out there with CSR and businesses
4. Researched different companies and businesses that we could target
5. Said a tearful farewell to Bettony but gave her a smashing send off!
Pete
1, Made significant progress on my screen cast
2, Joined Steph on the role of getting money
3, Went to the city business library to get information on companies that will give us said money
4, Got a detailed plan on how to apply for sponsership, it should be fool proof
5, Managed not to get too drunk at Betonys leaving do
Dave
1. Put the new comments feature live, try it, it’s great
2 Discovered Google Wave – think this could be amazing for us
3. Met with Tim from the RBKC about local authorities using Debatewise as a tool
4, Fixed problems with VoteMatch, all should be fine there now
5. Finished the WODC flyer, launch date next week
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‘Global debate challenge’ – the first truly worldwide debate!
For the launch of the inaugural ‘World Online Debating Championships’ we are setting ourselves a challenge – we want someone from every country in the world to debate on our site by the end of August. The site currently has views from IP addresses in all but 12 countries…1. Greenland
2. Western Sahara
3. Guinea
4. Niger
5. Chad
6. Central African Republic
7. Gabon
8. Congo—Brazzaville
9. Angola
10. Turkmenistan
11. North Korea
12. French Guiana
…and we want to hear from anyone who can help get these countries involved! The site’s founder David Crane says “Debating is the only way we can make informed decisions. With more and more issues affecting our entire planet we need to make decisions on a global scale, and this calls, first, for global debate.” He adds, on a positive note, that “we are privileged to live in a time when international communication is merely the click of a button. Debatewise want to harness the vast communication capacity of the internet to stimulate global debate. We hope the Global Debate Challenge will highlight the potential of the internet to reach every corner of our planet, and unite us in discussion and debate.”
Please get in touch with anyone you know from these places and ask them to go on the site!
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its about time for a five a week
We have not done a 'five things we have done this week' since the 8th of May – we must have managed to forget last week - and Betony was the only one of us who put anything in for the 8th! Debatewise is defiantly needing a new one so you all know what exciting things (or otherwise) we have been up too since.Alex
1, Looked through the WUDC rules and made changes so that they can be used for the WODC (now I need to change them on an electronic copy rather than using traditional pencil and paper)
2, Attempted to edit debates on Boudicca and Stalingrad. I was surprised that I could find almost nothing online relating to the Boudicca question... everything ends with her death (by poision) and the manner of her burial is not really mentioned. Cassius Dio mentions her as being buried but is not specific. To me as the only ‘primary’ source I have found that mentions how she was buried at all (there are only three that mention the whole rebellion) it seems to be case closed... someone else please find something relevant and edit this debate!!!
3, Spent some time looking for funding for revisewise. Unfortunately the British funding system for education seems to be rather obsessed with Higher Education and Further Education institutions rather than how outside organisations can help those institutions, or the students within them.
4, Continued my overall vision of revisewise document... this will be ongoing as either my idea, or David’s idea of revisewise and the uses it can be put to seems to change each week!
5, Written two documents; on how we deal with plagiarism and how revisewise can be used in seminars and essays.
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Removing indecision
We’re going through a major fundraising drive at the moment and one of the questions I really need to find an answer for is “Why should we give you any money?” Funders – be they charitable foundations, rich benefactors or banks – understandably need to know there’s a need for what we’re doing.To me the need is clear. I spend an inordinate amount of time online reading what other people think. I think other people do the same. If they’re like me they’ll find making sense of all the different opinions time-consuming, imprecise and pretty damn frustrating. They’ll want a better way.
But how do you quantify this? Does it really matter if people are undecided? Or rather, how much does it matter? A look around the internet has revealed self-help gurus talking about the damage of indecision but there are no studies which measure the actual effect.
Right then. Plan B. Go local. Examine events in my life to determine how indecision affects me and see if there are any broader lessons to be learned. The first example I can think of is the indecision about getting Marley detesticulised. It’s a grim, but important, decision and one I’ve been wrestling with for the best part of five years now.
On the face of it, the 'lose them arguments are overwhelming. 1) The zero sum game – there are enough pups in the world, making more means others wont get rescued. 2) Health – testicleless dogs are less likely to suffer from prostrate cancer or testicular cancer, plus they’re less likely to get run over by cars on their headlong quest toward that bitch in heat. 3) General wellbeing – he’d be less of a target for other intact alpha males and would be less frustrated by the sheer number of dogs who aren’t in heat. Plus he’s not likely to get it often, wouldn’t getting it once be worse than not getting it at all?
The keep them arguments are much more intangible. There’s the fear his personality might change or, worse, something might happen in the operation. There’s the concern something might happen to him in the world and that his offspring would allow him to live on. Plus, I think there should be more dogs in the world like Marley. He is what evolution was made for.
So clearly what we’ve got here is classic case of logic trumping, largely irrational, fear. The For reasons make a lot of sense, the Against reasons are anxiety based (I’m sure every dog owner thinks theirs is the best). This kind of fear will always beat logic since the fact it is irrational makes it impervious to rational thought.
Since the arguments can’t be convincing perhaps the consequences will do the trick. The consequences for him are essentially a less happy life. All he does when meeting dogs is sniff to see if they’re available. He’s not interested in playing, just mounting. And he seems not to care their sex or their age. I think he’s desperate poor thing.
The consequences for me are a less happy dog with a less long life. Which considering how important he is to me should be consequence enough. My inability to decide, to actually pick up the phone and book that appointment, is not good for him and it’s not good for me.
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European Bonanza!
As one of our RRT mentioned the other day, we appear to be having a 'European Bonanza' at the moment! The homepage has been colonised with tiny EU flags in the corner of most debates and they seem to be taking over the site. Don't panic and call the euroskeptics on us yet, however, as there is method to this euro-madness. We have been collaborating with Unlock Democracy on thier new project Votematch. This tool allows people to enter thier opinions on policy issues, and will match them with the candidate that best fits thier opinions. It's a great way of deciding who to vote for in the upcoming EU elections, and will hopefully be used in the next general election too. Where Debatewise come in is when people can't decide how they feel about the issue and want more info. At the end of the quiz there is a little 'd' after each statement, which links to our debate on the topic. Clever eh? We thought soMore about it here
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Five things (in four days!)
Despite it being a Bank Holiday I still managed to get a good amount done!1. Sent out 967 press releases (yes, really!)
2. Called 61 student unions/newspapers
3. Co-ordinated,edited, strengthened and added pretty little EU pictures to the 29 debates for Votematch
4. Written blog post for Donklephant
5. 500 words for the Charitymash website
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Donklephant Post
Across the pond we’re still debating…‘From a British Perspective Have Obama’s First 100 Days Been a Success?’After the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency there was much ink spilt in the USA on domestic policy changes during this so called ‘honeymoon period’. In Britain, however, we are more concerned with Obama’s foreign policy, and have the advantage of distance (both geographical and theoretical) from which to give an assessment on that.
Obama has made changes to counter-terrorism policy, stating his intention to Guantanamo bay and renaming the ‘Global War on Terror’ with a softer phrase. But are these merely empty gestures and word games designed to placate those becoming increasingly uneasy at the U.S’s strong-arm tactics? Obama’s policy on Afghanistan, too, was a disappointment to many of us across the pond as he insisted an exit strategy was needed but failed to articulate one definitively.
However, Britain is probably in line with much of the rest of the world in viewing nuclear disarmament as a wholly positive policy step, and the fact Obama supported Brown’s ideas for the economy at the G20 definitely strengthened the relationship between the new premiers. This side of the Atlantic there has also been concern about Bush’s stance in the environment and it seems Obama is doing his best to allay these fears through tougher fuel standards and CO2 regulations.
Finally, in his first 100 days Obama seems to have succeeded in changing the overall tone of U.S diplomacy from one of unilateral ‘world policing’ to one of dialogue and co-operation. He has smoothed relations with Russia and has indicated he will do more to engage with the Arab world. This is perhaps the biggest positive step from a British perspective, as our special relationship with the U.S means that in the eyes of the world, U.S diplomacy is also our diplomacy. It remains to be seen whether this change in tone will be consolidated by a decisive change in actions, but for now we can hope this will be the case. It seems for Britain there have been many positives at the start of the Obama presidency yet a few things left undone. So far, so good, but Britain has bated breath…
This post was brought to you courtesy of Debatewise.com For a more in-depth discussion visit the actual debate!
[I am attempting self-syndication here, as I also posted this on Donklephant
]
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the debatewise week
what have we all been doing this week?Stephanie
1. Wrote a letter to Hazel Blears (as you do) to ask for support and told her how wonderful we are
2. Finished an application for a Trust Fund, using very intellectual big words, complex syntax and enthusiastic rhetoric
3. Took criticism very well on said application (Excuse tissues hid under the table)
4. Met up with Marcien from IDEA to discuss Fundraising a debating event 'debatewise IDEA exchange'
5. Sifted through a big, nay enormous, book of funds, categoried it in Excel and didnt go mad in the process.
Alex
1, came up with an idea for how we could meet critics of revisewise, David did not like it but I think I will write up the idea anyway just in case we need to go back to it in the future... no spoilers as to what it was!
2, wrote two up to date debates. One on Obama's first 100 days in office, I had hoped that it could be put on donklephant which at the same time could highlight Obama's policy towards Iran, torture against terror suspects and changing the name of the war on terror all of which are to do with Obama's foreign policy however I finished the dabate a few days late!. I also wrote a debate on should we be afraid of swine flu for which others here have been adding points.
3, more phone calls, only managed about 30, also got a few email addresses for debating societies
4, added a bit to some of the EU debates, need to do rather more on this though.
5, found the email addresses of some UK journalists who might be interested in our press releace on revisewise
Betony
Two major challenges/deadlines this week as well as more Revisewise marketing:
1. Finished annual report for OSI
2. Finished House of Lords People and Parliament Inquiry evidence submission.
3. Sent out 'pre press release' on Revisewise and got replies form the Guradian and the Telegraph
4. Contacted more universities and sent out more marketing materials.
5. Worked on European debates for Votematch
Pete
1 Found names of journalists to email
2 Added debates to the website on Football, Swine flu and added to a EU Debatewise
3 Reprised my role as postman Pete
4 Made more phone calls to promote revisewise
5 Had another Friday team lunch, I love those.
Dave
1. Finished the fundraising task list Yen sent, love deadlines
2. Emailed all my friends, clients and even vague associates to see if they could help us raise money.
3. Went to see the very wonderful Ade to cost for Express Yourself
4. Worked out more of how the World Online Debating Championship will work with Neill, that’s getting quite exciting
5. Got the newsletter out, despite a very loud Friday evening office making proof-reading a challenge
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Running the marathon
That has to go down as one of the best days of my life. Mickey Thomas scoring in the last minute of the last game to win us the title at Anfield was ecstatic. If I’m lucky and have kids I hear their birth is pretty good too. But running the marathon will be one of those rare experiences I’ll cherish forever and relive frequently. It was, quite simply, fantastic.I was nervous the week before but in a good mood on the day itself and sat on the tube making friends with fellow runners. This in-it-together atmosphere continued all the way to and in Greenwich Park, though by then my nerves had ramped up and I was feeling apprehensive about what lay ahead.
But when you see four Wombles, three donkeys and a twelve foot nurse called Rob you tend to relax a little. I also didn’t have much time to think because five minutes after being in place the whistle went and we were off. Even if the thousands of people in front meant it took 25 minutes to reach the start.
I felt stiff and in mild pain for the first few miles, though knew it was the kind you run off. The crowds were thin, but even so I started to get a few of the magical things which saw me through to the end – complete strangers cheering my name.
One of the best tips I got was to print my name on my vest. When you do, and if you run close enough to the crowd (as I made sure I did), men, women, kids and grandmas cheer you on. What a feeling that is. What an uplifting, propelling, wonderful feeling to hear random people congratulating me and urging me forward.
The crowd was absolutely fantastic. They didn’t cover every inch but there weren’t many yards that were empty. The cheers were the best bit (and let me say again just how amazing they were), though we also had kids handing out sweets, firemen dousing us with water, bands playing us on, drummers proving a beat, people on balconies with house music backdrops, pubs with MCs shouting out names and other things I’ll probably only remember once I hit Send.
It wasn’t only the complete strangers who propelled me forward either. Mandy and Lily were at mile 7 somewhere near Dom and family. Romi was at mile 8, Mandy moved to Docklands to be at mile 18, Gian, Scott, Rob and Richard were at 22, Dave at 23, Paul at 24 and Natalie opposite Parliament.
Each person, each milestone, gave me something to look forward to. I only actually saw Mandy, Lily, the boys and Paul but knowing they were there was enough. Other things broke down the distance, crossing Tower Bridge, turning for home at Docklands, hitting the 20 mile mark, seeing Charing Cross and going up the mall.
The race itself went by in a bit of a blur. Miles 8-12 were hard in places because I knew the distance still to run, but the Lucozade sport and the cheers saw me through. Parts of Docklands were tough, but sports gels, more Lucozade sport and more cheers saw me through there.
The really tough miles were 20-26. My feet hurt every time they hit the road, legs were heavy and tired, I could barely throw a smile at the people calling my name, every mile took an age to pass and the people walking were very tempting to join.
But I even loved how hard it was because it was so hard. I knew I wasn’t at my limit and if I kept going I’d feel proud. Plus, walk then and I’d be walking till the end. So I gritted my teeth, pushed myself forward and managed to run every step of the way. And I was right, it feels great.
By no means was it all hard, in fact I’d say it was fine most of the time and wonderful as often as tough. There were many times the sheer spectacle of the event gave me goosebumps, I put on headphones for a bit and wanted to bounce for joy and frequently thought this is so great I’ve got to do it again.
I think the heat and my leg and the crowd meant a fast time was an impossibility. But I’m so glad I decided to take it slow and savour as much as I could. I ran past the outstretched hands of kids giving them high fives, grinned at my supporters, ate a few sweets here and there, congratulated other runners, took in the beauty of London and the magnificence of the event.
http://debatewise.info/images/misc/finishing-the-marathon.jpg
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Disappointment with revisewise so far
Having been working on revisewise for several months now, along with various other odds and ends, I am rather disappointed in the lack of people creating debates. While the vast majority of responses we get back are positive, think it is a good idea and is helpful no one seems to be using it... or while they might be using our debates they are not creating their own. As this is the main point of the project it is therefore not going too well!Possible reasons for this
1, students are being stubborn and like me do all their revision late!
2, students may well be discouraged at the work that needs to be done to put their debate online, or else think that they need to do a big long debate for it to be valid on revisewise.
So any ideas on what we can do about this?
Well not really... we are still attempting to market to student unions and lecturers so hopefully this will eventually bring results. We also don’t have any guides to writing debates on revisewise yet (one exists, and sooner or later we will have a screencast). We obviously don’t have the answers so if any of you can think of anything... or as you are reading this then tell us why you are not using revisewise then hopefully we can take any comments on board and improve things.
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Journalists
Having had the task of finding some education journalists I have been really surprised at how difficult it is to find email addresses for them. I would have thought the whole point of journalists would be that they would be easy to access by the public so as to give them potential stories, but this is not the case. I suspect that it is all hoarded by companies that sell the information through things like mediadisk. However these are not the kind of things either small not for profit companies like us can afford or that the general public has access too. Why are our journalists shielded from the public? Perhaps this is why ‘citizen journalism’ is taking off so fast; we need to tell our own stories on sites like twitter and youtube because we can’t find email addys to send our information to regular journalists!!Click here to add your comment
Friday Fiveday
Hey all, this week Betony has...1. Got 20 universities to agree to take marketing materials (and called over 80!)
2. Completed press release
3. Contacted student forum admins and posted notices on them about revisewise.
4. Wrote pitch to get people to contribute to votematch EU debates
5. Made interesting contacts at tuttle
6. Started referring to herself in third person...
Alex
1. Back to phoning (50 done this week)
2. Did several revisewise debates and have edited a few to have more citations in them – hopefully more usable to help with essays and revision
3. Found quite a few blogs on revision and elearning
4. Been looking up organisations that have views on European Issues for the European Elections
5. Sent off a whole load more marketing materials... unfortunately the PO has put the price up
(also got my historical debate up, found a couple of journalists who write things on elearning, extensively edited the America is the worlds biggest human rights abuser)
Dave
1) Went to Washington to speak at the Politics Online conference (blog coming soon)
2) Cornered Joe Rospars, the genius behind Obama's new media campaign to try and get him to come to the event we're organising in December
3) Were joined by a new intern Stephanie. Okay not something I've actually done but am particularly delighted by
4) Met up with Eleanor again to work out how we can create a sellable product from Debatewise to generate revenue
5) Met with the lawyers to work out how we can appeal against the Charity Commission's decision not to award us charitable status.
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What running has taught me - part 9
Running round other cities makes you feel like a local. Okay not in Istanbul, there they just think you’re a freak. And actually things weren’t much better in Amsterdam. However, in Washington you fit right in. Not only that but because my wonderful running partner/tour guide Anne and I had jogged past the White House, Capital Hill, a whole host of government buildings, museums and monuments to dead presidents I’ve come up with a new business idea. Running tours. Like the hop-on, hop-off buses you see except without the bus. Or the hopping.As you may be able to tell from my jaunty writing style it’s been a good week. Back on schedule for the first time in a long time I managed two speedwork sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, two easy runs on Wednesday and Saturday and twelve miles yesterday. Tuesday’s run was best of all. Twelve hill sessions, twelve times running up hills for two minutes at a time. Feeling exhausted at the top and exhilarated at the end; both because I’d finished and because my legs held up. Yeah for both of them.
Still not sure about making it round on Sunday though. Not a week on Sunday either, this coming Sunday, five short days from now. There’s not much more physical training I can do, it’s all about the mental stuff now: trying to feel strong and confident, coming up with coping strategies, visualising key points throughout the race and imagining the glorious, glorious, finish line.
Though to be honest, the whole thing about the finish line has never been a big part of my training. If I could take one thing from these past six months it’d be I understood the journey is the destination. This is not about the end but the expedition; the ups and downs, the pleasure and pain, testing myself and not always passing but always better for the attempt.
I have been in a particularly bad mood these past few weeks and think now the injury has been the cause. I’ve taken a huge amount of self-confidence from running, from being able to do it at all to being able to do it pretty well. The sub four hour marathon was supposed to be the cherry on the cake, incontrovertible proof of my ability, the cornerstone on which I’d build a future more secure.
Letting go of that goal has been more challenging than I’ve appreciated. It’s thrown up a great deal of self-criticism and doubt. It’s caused me to feel deeply frustrated and pretty damn angry. I’ve had to manage disappointment, loosen my grip on a outcome I thought necessary and emerge the other side feeling good about plan B.
Which I think I do. Plan B is to enjoy the race and not worry about time. It’s to understand getting to where I am from where I was is a good thing and enough. It’s knowing there can be other marathons, that I don’t have to do it all for this one, and to realise how old I’d feel in a few years if I got my best ever time now.
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At debatewise this week: our 5
It was only a 4 day working week so should we really have 5 things done? DEBATE!Alex
1, finished my part of the list of Humanities and Social Science lecturers... over 3200 emails, hope we get some response from them.
2, Spent quite some time working on a debate on the exclusion act 1679, trying to make it mostly from quotes of MP’s, more difficult than I expected partially due to the limited number of sources that are accessible to non-academics. (I will hopefully get it up over the weekend)
3, added a little bit to our email to professors asking if they could do debates themselves or suggesting it could be part of seminars.
4, making a list of historical societies (got somewhat overtaken with finding all those lecturers emails!) mostly have academic ones at the moment, however I think it is a good idea to expand my search to areas that may well have a broader memberbase such as historical magazines.
5, hurriedly put in a debate on the Global War on Terror to stop the onward march of the European Union on Debatewise!
Dave
1) Got the Twitter app up (www.debatewise.info/twitter). Tell us what you think
2) Emailed 2,200 lecturers about Revisewise
3) Finished the design for the new comments section
4) Started work with our new Fundraising mentor, so good to have your help Yen
5) That’s it this week, had to focus on the day job.
Betony
Mine has been a week of first drafts and the EU!
1) Wrote first draft if the debateiwse annual report
2) Wrote first draft of the submission for the House of Lords People and Parliament Inquiry
3) Wrote first draft of our google analytics report (investigation into what we can learn from stats about the site)
4)Had media training session with Joanne Mallon
5)Co-ordinated the EU debates ready for Votematch (as Alex mentions, we have been inundated - thanks to Judith, Samantha and Rebecca!
Peter
1) Achieved my target to get 500 university lecturers to contact for revisewise.
2) Started to write a debate on electoral reform.
3) Wrote a debate on Hillsborough, not really good im afraid, the issue makes me quite emotional, not good for debating.
4) Did various trips to post offices and post boxes to post revisewise materials.
5) Thoroughly enjoyed the debatewise friday feast.
And finally, we are sad to announce that Judith, one of our much loved interns, has been offered an internship with an MP and so is leaving us this week. Here are her parting words:
Working with Debatewise has been challenging, but also very rewarding and good fun. The workplace environment has been great to work in as it is a young, dynamic office with lots of energy!
What I enjoyed the most at Debatewise has been working on the website itself; it has been exciting to be involved in a project which empowers the public with knowledge on important current public policy debates. The most rewarding projects I have been involved in have been compiling judging criteria for the upcoming World Online Debating Championships and outlining lesson plans to be taken on by schools who wish to teach debating in order to enrich and engage school students in important discussions and debates as well as developing their communication skills and confidence.
What I will miss the most about working for Debatewise is the friendly, lively atmosphere, working on a variety of important projects, and playing with the office residential dog, Marley!
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My time to leave….
Well it has come to my time to leave Debatewise (although writing this I have already left). Being an intern has been fun, and it has helped me a lot, seems a lot has happened in the four months I have been here, which feels like a year. Though definitely in a good way.I remember Terence writing about becoming a human email machine when he left, it has been similar for me, except I was the human database management system. A little birdy told me that once I've left we will be getting real software... Sigh! It won't be as good as me though. Although it will always be on time.
Well anyways, thanks for reading and to Debatewise thank you for your help, and I will stay in touch!
Thanks and see you soon,
Dave Song
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What running has taught me - part 8
Progress. My leg is better; it’s still not right, but it is better. I managed three runs this week, one Wednesday, one Saturday and 16.5 miles yesterday. Although yesterday’s made me realise just how hard the marathon will be.The icing, heating, stretching and rest had all made such a difference I managed to make it down the stairs like normal people do for the first time in four weeks. I also bought a knee brace, new bouncy shoes and stronger anti-inflammatory painkillers and felt fine after Saturday’s four miler.
So typically I decided to push the long Sunday run. I thought if I could do 18 miles I’d be fine for the race. I probably would have made it too had I also not thought I needed to run half the miles at target marathon pace. Not my new target marathon pace, oh no, that’d would be way too sensible. My old target marathon pace. You know, the one I haven’t trained at for a month.
I did the first few miles slow and felt great. I was full of energy, free of pain and thought I could run forever. Seven miles passed easily and I strode on to the canal with the confidence of a Kenyan come down from altitude for the first time. Eight miles, nine miles, here we go…
At first I couldn’t work out why my minute per mile pace kept increasing no matter how much faster I went. Then I realised I was looking at my lap time. Ignoring the twinges in my leg I switched the iPhone to Five Star Dance tunes, turned the volume up and headed towards Ladbroke Grove.
You know you’re in trouble when you can’t make it up the sort of inclines that bridge canals. That and increasingly laboured breathing, more urgent nudges from my leg and ‘what-on-earth-are-you-doing-you-idiot’ looks from Marley. So I slowed down. Back to normal running pace. Back to reality.
It wasn’t enough. Marley looked tired so I dropped him back at the car, changed my shoes and headed back out for the last four miles. I made two and a half. The last little bit, as little as it was, was just too far. Trouble is, I’ve got to run ten miles more in just two week’s time.
Not so long ago I thought the marathon was ages away. Now it’s too close. Two weeks! I’m not ready, don’t feel ready anyway. I know the adrenalin and crowd and crystal meth will surely help. But if anyone knows anyone who can get it pushed back to the end of May there’s a drink in it.
Only one lesson this week really. Don’t be fooled by the first five miles. Oh and I’m not Kenyan.
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What running has taught me – part 7
I don’t make it easy on myself. First long run after a weeklong rest was on the treacherously uneven pavements of Istanbul. It truly is a beautiful city, but I wish they’d done some work on the cobblestones in the last, oh I don’t know, 1,000 years. Still, I managed 13 miles and, more importantly, made it to the bathroom this morning with barely a grimace per step. Progress!I changed my attitude towards the injury this week, I took it seriously. Until now I’d adopted the twin strategy of hoping it would go away and pretending it didn’t exist. Which might work for the bogeyman but wont for a problem that requires attention and rest.
The old approach saw me doing some of the stretching my new Olympian buddies told me to, but I didn’t ice or heat the thing, didn’t stop when it started hurting and didn’t even bother to work out the difference between a sports masseur and physio; I just thought one beat you up for twice as long but didn’t charge twice as much.
In my mind my magic body would heal itself without me doing anything different and that I had to keep running now or I’d collapse mid way round Canary Wharf on the 26th. But last Monday, after the pain refused to go away, I went to the Runners World forums, looked up “how quickly lose fitness” and found it takes at least three weeks and even then not very much or very fast.
Phew. No need to panic then. Have another week off and I’ll still be fine. Get some proper, stress-free, rest. Add a new this-is-not-going-away-so-take-it-seriously approach with ice packs just before hot ones, stretches twice a day and even sleep in compression tights (proper male sporting ones, with stripes down the side and athletes on the box and everything).
But why did it take me two weeks to go to the forums? They’re always where I tell other people to go, hell I even had a business that told big corporations to treat the views there seriously. So why can’t I take my own advice? First because we never do, do we? Second, because when it comes to problems like this I can be a little on the
ostrich side.
I have a tendency to try and ignore a problem I don’t have a solution for, don’t think I’ll find a solution for, or for which I don’t like the solution I’ve found. Of course, life has a wonderful way of placing the solution in front of your face, and an irritating way of forcing you to take it whether you like it or not.
I increasingly find these solutions on the internet, but I’m sure all the Buddhists out there will claim a good long look at a leaf will provide similar insight. Regardless how it comes, I’m going to take this week as proof that seekers find and focus works. Can’t tell you how fantastic it was to be running (almost) pain-free again.
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