Quick update on the debates
Our developers hit quite a few snags with the software and despite them working to 4:45 am Monday they couldn’t get it done. They are still working though and we hope to have a functional model later this week.Plan B was to do everything manually. Which is what we are doing. This means we can’t exclude external participants and don’t have a methodologically sound way of recording votes. But people are debating, and debating in large numbers. Last night we recorded 100 new blips or edits to blips in less than an hour.
Furthermore, the dedication some people are showing to the cause is remarkable. The Iranian team had to battle an internet crackdown yesterday to come online but come they did. We’re also recording activity from a great many other countries in the world.
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Successful first day of climate change debating for Global Youth Panel
The end of the first day of the UN summit, and a successful first day of debating for the Debatewise Global Youth Panel.The subjects of the day are ‘Will the Conference be a success?’ and ‘Will “Climategate” threaten the deals at the Conference?’ The results haven’t been counted yet, as the debates are still ongoing, but early indications are that most of our debaters think the Conference will be a success, and it’s about even for the effects of Climategate.
It’s been interesting watching the GYP debates. Hundreds of people have taken part, expressing between them many different viewpoints, and displaying some very eloquently-put arguments. The first day was everything we were hoping it would be, and is great reward for all those hours of preparation it’s taken to get here. We’ll publish the results in tomorrow’s blog.
Our Global Youth Panel has been debating against the backdrop of the first day of the conference. Prior indications were that it was going to be a lively event, and the first day hasn’t disappointed. There are the expected differences between the G8 block and the small island states, centering around the decision at the G8 summit in July to keep the global average temperature rise since pre-industrial times to 2C. The small island states – most at risk from rising sea levels, are arguing for a lower target of 1.5C, and it’s possible that the G77/China bloc will endorse the lower target.
Other aims for the conference are:
* Targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions, in particular by developed countries
* Financial support for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change by developing countries
* A carbon trading scheme aimed at ending the destruction of the world's forests by 2030.
Around the world, to stress the importance of the summit, 56 newspapers in 45 countries and 20 languages published the same editorial yesterday (7 December), warning that climate change will "ravage our planet".
In Copenhagen, the demonstrators were out in force, some protesting on rooftops and others staging a ‘die-in’ to represent the number of people who will die each year if a deal is not reached.
It’s been quite a day.
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1000 people, but so many more voices
So here we are - the start of the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen. This is what we've all been working for at Debatewise. Months of planning, thousands of emails, texts, phone calls, casting into networks and pushing the edges of communications technology.The UN summit has turned into the party nobody wants to miss: 15,000 delegates from 192 countries, and 100 world leaders. There have also been an unprecedented number of pledges in advance of the start of the summit. Most recently South Africa announced its first quantifiable target on emissions-reduction. The announcement came two weeks after China announced its first ever firm target for reducing its 'carbon intensity'. Yvo de Boer, the UN's chief climate change negotiator has said: 'Never in 17 years of climate negotiations have so many different countries made so many pledges.'
But we've all learnt to be cynical. And why shouldn't we be? We've seen the machinations of global businesses and protectionist politics who don't want to upset their shareholders or voters. Can we do any more than simply hope, that the keywords of the summit are climate change, deforestation, rising sea-levels, global warming, carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, reduction, recycling, sustainability' and the like, rather than terms such as profitability, carbon trading and shareholder perception?
Who will have the loudest voice at this global party? Those with the most money and therefore the most power? Or those who will be most affected by the pledges, decisions and commitments that will emerge as the summit progresses?
These are just some of the reasons we decided to run the Debatewise Global Youth Panel debates alongside the summit. We wanted as many people as possible to hear the voices of those who will be affected most by climate change. Those with the most to lose in terms of home, family and future, rather than share prices and poll-ratings.
It's been hard work, but we have 1000 people from more than 100 countries ready to be heard. But we have more than 1000 voices, because every person that has signed up to our Global Youth Panel is speaking for others, whether it's just their immediate family, a group of like-minded friends, or for the concern of their generation.
We have voices from those who have survived by picking a living out of mountains of rotting rubbish, and voices from comfortable homes in leafy suburbs. We have voices from Israel and Palestine, North Korea and South Korea, USA and Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. What they have in common is that they all know the biggest issue is more important than any other concern.
Will the conference be a success? The answer to this is not a simple yes or no. Successful for whom? Successful for those set to become 'environmental migrants', as the climate affects their homes, livelihoods and families?
That's why we've chosen to kick of our series of debates with: 'Will the conference be a success?' The debate starts this morning, 7 December and will go on for 24 hours. We'll bring you summary of the outcomes and best arguments later in the week.
And finally, let's hope that those involved in the sharp end of the summit have the sense to understand that it's not what they can take away from the conference that matters as much as what they can give to it.
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Global Youth Panel - weekly update No. 4
Three days to go and everything is going perfectly. There’s not a cloud in the sky nor problem to report. In fact, we’re so far ahead of schedule we’ve been working half-days all week.Yeah, right.
Panellists
In order to ensure only members of the GYP take part in the debates we’re tying their Wave address to our gadget. Which means we need their CC to send out invites, collect Wave addresses and forward them to us. A slow process at best of times, a pretty frustrating one when a close, immovable, deadline is involved. Oh and with very new technology too.
Hence lots of communication with the CCs and panellists. Lots of individual emails sent, lots of hand-holding, lots of trying to determine what non-native speakers mean when they’re describing problems. Quite a bit of explaining the process and that Wave is not Gmail. All combined with the tasks each CC already has on their plate; which currently involves at least one sick mother and hopefully only one holed oil tanker.
So we’ve been really grateful for the extra invites that Google have given us and especially delighted to see invites seem to now arrive only a few hours after being sent. Without those two factors we’d have had a much more stressful week than it’s already been.
We wont have all 1,000 panellists online on Monday, this will be a rolling start. However, we should have close to 500 and they’ll be the dedicated ones, so hopefully the level of participation will be high. Now all we need do is get the add-ons working.
Development
Our strategy has been to simplify inbox noise by generating one Index Wave containing links to, and key elements for, all the debates: the Debate Title, Intro, Votes For, Votes Against and time remaining to participate or vote. GYP members will use this as their portal (yes I used that word) for the debates they want to participate in.
A Debate Wave will be a subset of the Index Wave – it will contain the title, intro, votes For and Against and timings for every individual debate. It will also contain all the points that make up the debate (test example: How many ninjas does it take to cut emissions by 20%.
Point 1: Chuck Norris, Point 2: Chuck Norris’s mum, Point 3 – well you get the idea).
The Point Wave is where the debates take place. This contains a blip with the argument, a blip with the counterargument and all discussion blips underneath. This is the only element at which GYP members participate. The Debate Wave and Index Wave are generated by robots that pull in blips, make debate Waves and then generate the Index Wave.
I am led to believe the Wave documentation needs a little polishing. And that a lot of the solutions professed by others on forums don’t seem to work for us. Hence lots of late nights, lots of missed deadlines and an inevitable to-the-wire finish.
I am filled with confidence though, and I say this knowing my reputation is at stake. Partly because I understand this is how these projects work. And partly because I’ve seen just how skilled our guys are and know how much they care. They’ll make it happen. Somehow.
PR
Messages of support have come from Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Al Gore so famously collected, various other leading climate change experts and leader of the opposition David Cameron. Now if that doesn’t spur the PM into action I don’t know what will.
Perhaps most encouraging of all was a simple message posted to a single list I’ve been on for a while. The outpouring of support was amazing to see and incredibly lifting too as it showed the amount of goodwill that exists for this project. Our main task now is how to
access it.
To help we’ve hired a professional who has written some press releases, developed a press pack for the CCs and is helping us with all things media. My feeling/hope/belief /goal is the amount of interest we generate will increase as the conference goes on.
I aim to show that despite the cynicism and disappointment that will inevitably emerge there are a group of passionate, dedicate and energised people who want to solve these huge problems. Our panel will provide the breath of fresh air the world needs during its time
of doubt. And I say that only half exaggeratedly, their enthusiasm has lifted me many times during mine.
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Global Youth Panel - weekly update No. 3
This week we have mostly...Panelists
The panelists have started to come online and we’ve come up with a good way to get them Waving. We’ll ask people to collaborate as a country and form their top three tips for using Wave. Tips we’ll obviously share with everyone else. This will get them delving deep
into the environment, researching, working together and pulling for each other. We’ll get them playing Soduku too, obviously.
Some people have struggled with the invite process and we’ve encountered language difficulties helping people understand the delay in invite being sent and invite being received. This, of course, has allowed us to see where gaps in our expertise lie; gaps Eve - our
newest intern - and her language studying friends will hopefully help fill.
Best news of all came from Cambodia. Michael (surname unknown) has got about 30 kids ready to go, held practice debates, found an IT person to help and got the Phnom Post to cover the story (http://bit.ly/4N3fMa). What’s more, these kids were, in his words
“some of the poorest, most destitute families in Cambodia” and until a few years ago were working in the rubbish-dump in Phnom Penh. These are the kinds of people we’ll be giving a voice.
Development
Development is moving slowly and we’re a bit behind schedule. I have great confidence in the team though and their focus on getting the core solid is absolutely right. We simply couldn’t get other people to work effectively until that’s done first.
The possibility of this extra help got greater with the news that James, our man in America, runs the Wave subreddit on Reddit.com. Their community is 1,200 strong and even if only 10 of them wanted to help we’d get lots done.
Fundamentally, the core is all we really need to make the experience easy for our panelists. Everything else is nice to have, not essential. And all that nice stuff can come later if we need it to; our project will continue for two months into the new year. Plenty of time for developers to really add value.
PR
The first part of the Independent integration is ready for testing (http://independent.debatewise.org/). Debates here will not be created in Wave but rather on Debatewise. The idea is to allow Independent readers to debate exactly the same motions as the panel so we can
compare the arguments formed by Brits to those the rest of the world comes up with.
Messages of support have come from William Kininmonth, who headed Australia’s National Climate Centre, Richard S. Courtney, one of 15 scientists invited to give a briefing on climate change at the US Congress, Bulu Imam, a leading Indian climate change activist and one of the world’s most eminent climate change sceptics Dr Timothy Ball. More are being sought.
My favourite comes from Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon, who said: "The Global Youth Panel may be the most innovative project associated with the Copenhagen conference -- and likely the one with the most long-lasting impact.” A quote I think overstates things a tad but is one we’re using far and wide nonetheless.
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Global Youth Panel - weekly update No. 2
This week we have mostly...Panellists
We’ve hit our target of 1,000 panellists. More than 500 have signed up on our list and our 97 country coordinators have recruited an average of five people each. In fact, some of them have got significantly more; our Ecuadorian CC has found a grand total of 30
different debaters. The total number of countries represented has now reached 120, about two-thirds of all countries in the world. We think we’ve got just about all the major ones covered now.
We’ve allowed the CCs to go over ten because we know some people will drop out when it comes to debating time and some will only want to participate in certain debates. Therefore, the excess gives us a useful buffer which we hope will ultimately allow us to say 1,000
people voted on x. Or as close as possible anyway.
The CCs seem to have their Wave invites now. We’re introducing them to the environment and asking them to perform small tasks so they get used to the way Wave works. We’re also using it for some of the important collaboration jobs prior to debating kick-off.
Next stage is to get the panellists using and becoming familiar with Wave and we’re trying to think up the best games for them to play that would allow them to have a Wave moment or two. Sudoku anyone?
Development
As a non-techie I’m delighted and reassured by the great minds we have working on the project. Peter Chamberlin is the lead developer, ably assisted by Daniel Bartlett, Aleski Gorny and Greg Plumbly in London. The North American side of things is headed by James Wilson.
Daniel has put together the database schema and data store model, Aleski is building the core robots, Peter and Greg the gadgets. Once these fundamental bits are done we’ll farm out work to the other developers who’ve expressed an interest in the project. All our
gadgets and robots will be open sourced in the hope other Wavers might benefit from and improve them.
We’re also creating an API for the data itself so that publications, sites and/or individuals will be able to take the voting totals, points or debates and mash them up as they see fit. The debates will be published on Debatewise and on The Independent and we hope a number of other places too.
PR
In order to ensure people know about the project and the API we’ve spent this week researching and reaching out to climate change experts, politicians and celebrities. We are seeking messages of support and/or help mentoring the debaters.
We’ve got three new interns on this task, making five in total. One with contacts in Africa, a Brazilian who’ll obviously look after Portugal as well and someone with conversational Chinese. On top of this we’ve started asking our CCs for help and have created a few
different templated emails for them to send out directly.
This task was always going to be more involved and the results were always going to come in more slowly. We will continue to focus it from now until the conference ends on the 18th. We will also pick it up again when the second part of the project starts in mid Jan. We've got a couple of responses in so far and I think this will pick up speed the closer we get to the 7th and as the conference is going on.
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Progress report
We’ve probably got 1,000 people signed-up now. There are over 500 people on our list and we reckon the 92 Country Coordinators we’ve got will have an average of at least five people themselves. So target hit with three weeks to go. I’m pretty chuffed.A map of where these people come from and where the CCs are is below. They’re just jpgs and not snazzy interactive maps, unfortunately. Google have restricted the ability to export such things from their wondrous Wave so we’re forced to use old technology. Still the map of participants is pretty comprehensive I think.
Country Coordinators
Panellists
The development team are moving forward fast. We’ve got a confirmed database schema, which is essential if we want to allow other developers to build the various bits we need. And we do. We’ve also decided that we’ll create an API for the info, which means we’ll allow more or less anyone to take the points, debates and votes and display them or mash them up as they see fit. This is at the very heart of open information and I’m delighted we’ll have these facilities.
I can’t tell you how delighted I am we’ve got Peter, Alex, Daniel, Greg and Stephen helping out. Peter is a fantastic lead developer and has really demystified this entire process for me. Daniel is a database genius and I’m confident our information will be in very good hands. Alex will be building some of the robots we need to improve the user experience and Greg is one of my oldest friends and someone I lean on heavily in all matters technological.
On top of that we’ve got plenty of other people waiting in the wings ready and willing to help out. Their support is absolutely invaluable, I can’t imagine how we’d do what we’re planning to do without them. And they are all doing it for free.
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Global Youth Panel - weekly update No. 1
PanellistsRecruitment for the panel is going really well. We’ve now got over 600 people from 96 different countries. We’ve also got 84 confirmed country coordinators and another 5 almost definite. Our target was 100 for today so we're just short, but still 90 people recruited to do this work in two weeks of effort is pretty good I reckon.
Development
We have a team of 6 volunteers in London who are putting together the development plan for our debating gadgets and robots. We also have a team of around 14 developers in other parts of the world who’ll start the actual building work once they’ve been fully spec’d – hopefully Tuesday.
The plan is to have these complete by the end of November, which will give us a week for testing. This week will also be used to create the screencasts and other guides to help people get used to the environment. We’ll ask panellists to familiarise themselves with Wave
in general prior to that.
PR
The biggest next job is trying to get as much PR as possible for the panel. We know the people on it will be greatly motivated by seeing their efforts in print and by messages of encouragement from climate change leaders. We've already got a provisional promise of support from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and hope to get many more.
We’ve just recruited another two interns to help us with our marketing efforts. Their job will be to reach out to other web sites and publications around the world and encourage them to write about the panel or put our voting results widget on their site. With the sheer
range of panellists, with the subject they’ll be debating and with the thing they’ll be debating in we feel confident we’ve got a story to tell.
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The Global Youth Panel
For anyone not on the mailing list there may be some confusion about what exactly we’re doing for Copenhagen. Let’s clear that up.We wanted to capitalise on the success of the WODC but couldn’t run another event until 2010. I’d always thought we should do something for the COP-15 conference but nothing seemed quite right. Then a couple of interventions from people we share an office with made everything fall into place.
Our office in East London is a little hub of social entrepreneurs, many of whom work on environmental projects. The first hint of the idea came when Jane Burston from Carbon Retirement told us about her work with a group of people put together by the British Council. They’d developed a set of principles they believed Copenhagen should focus on, we thought we’d take these principles and get a wider group of people to debate them. Then Dan Lewer, also from Carbon Retirement, came up with the idea of using this group to vote on wider issues related to the conference and bang, we’ve got something exciting
From then on it’s all gone pretty quickly. I got in touch with the British Council who really liked the proposal and agreed to help fund it. We started contacting our list of people from the WODC and got a good early response, so were confident we could get our target of 1,000 panel members. And then the really good thing, the really, really, good thing, happened.
I first saw the Google Wave video the day after the I/O conference. I didn’t watch the entire thing (sorry Steph) but the first hour excited me so much I’d grab people passing my desk and babble somewhat incoherently about how amazing the whole thing was.
I knew Wave would be ideal for debate. The collaboration aspects are top-notch, the playback feature helps people learn how the arguments were formed, the contextual spellchecker and translation tools help people argue with other people who speak a different language and the extensibility means you can add whatever you want that isn't already there.
Clearly Wave was the tool for this project, but you could only use it if you were invited and getting one invite was hard enough. So how on earth was I going to get 1,000? A happy moment of serendipity let me know the Wave team were going to present in London. Even better, Steph and Lars – the two people in the huge long video – were doing the presentation. This was my chance.
I really prepared for it too. I wrote down everything I wanted to say and rehearsed it so it didn’t sound rehearsed. Before the meeting I went home, shaved, put on a suit, got there nice and early, made sure to drink just the right amount of beer (to strike that balance between confident and cocky), spent ages wondering when to speak up (during the Q&A or after) and was fairly quivery when I did.
Not that I needed to be. Steph got the concept straightaway and agreed so easily to my request I almost didn’t believe it had happened. In fact, it was only when she emailed confirmation a week later that I truly got excited.
It’s a such a big deal for us for a number of different reasons. It will help us get panel members, it’s a better way for them to collaborate, the fact we’re running one of the largest real-world demos of Wave means we can get some publicity for what we’re doing and we might be able to provide Google with a use case for Wave which would be great marketing for us. All of which means this could be the thing that puts us on the map.
Since then there have been lots of other developments which have been hugely exciting, not least the volunteering by some really skilled people to help us build the extensions we need. But this is already a long post and those guys deserve a bit more bigging up, so I’ll save that for another day.
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Week
Ricky- After a discussion with Alex and Dave, I was given the task of researching and contacting people from Africa to be a part of the GYP and country coordinators.
- Contacted as many Africans as possible, including people from the likes of Swaziland and Lesotho!
- Managed to get responses from a few people wishing to become CC's
- With the help of Alex, created materials (emails, PDF files) that can be sent to CC's
- Received some emails from Lincoln Douglas debate teams in America that I contacted a while back, and pointed them in the direction of our first debate that was released by the National Forensic league for them to add to.
Alex
Hmm so what did I do this week... good question, most likely only one main thing, its all about COP15
- Sent out a fair few emails to NGOs/Student groups etc to groups across Asia
- Helped in drafting the materials for us to send out (pdf, initial email, email to be sent on)
- Vompiling another list to send information to next week.
- Got my first country coordinator from Iceland \o/ somewhat odd given that my assigned area is Asia!
- Actually edited some debates this week! need something to act as a break from searching for emails of ppl who may be interested in our GYP
Dave
With five weeks to go to the start of a conference that could put Debatewise on the map there’s nothing more important than Copenhagen right now.
- Went to the Google Wave meeting and possibly, could, may have executed part B. The hesitation comes from a fear of jinxing things. So I’ll say no more but keep my fingers firmly crossed
- Developed send-out materials for the GYP
- Found my persuasive voice for those people who we haven’t yet convinced
- Worked on the software we’ll need to make the project a success
- Made the Jewish Chronicle’s site a bit more pretty – well there had to be something non COP15 related.
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a week mostly outside the office
Due to the weather turning colder and Bash being environmentalist we briefly decamped and worked from home. The office is in the process of getting some new environmental heaters installed, I assume they work more efficiantly than normal heaters although they somehow look rather retro!Alex
1. guess emailing has to come first as it has been the majority of my week, emailing to get people to sign up to our Global Youth Panel for the Copenhagen Conference and hopefully a good long time afterwards as well. Getting a similar level of results I got from emailing for the Census about eight months ago: 350-400 emails sent, 1 response \o/. This comes in several parts 1st finding organisations/email addresses then emailing them, and also emailing people who were already on our lists like the English Speaking Unions.
2. finally got my debate on negotiations at the end of the English Civil War up.
3. found some forums/groups for Ricky to post on
4. responded to an urgent call for debates for the JC!
5. Some people seem to have gotten it into their heads that it is acceptable to leave the Rapid Response Team, it is not, DESIST AT ONCE!
p.s. I am sure I must have done something on Monday, somehow with the last 3 days being different due to being out of the office I don’t have a clue what I did before!
Ricky
1. Emailed environmental forums and blogs in an attempt to allow us to post information about the GYP.
2. Trawled through facebook groups that concentrate on climate change issues and posted information on the GYP
3. Researched African climate change groups, but only found about three!
4. Responded to comments made in some forums in regards to the GYP, including trying to explain to someone why we are not similar to the Hitler Youth!
5. Retreated to the comfort of my own home to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday due to sub zero temperatures in the office.
Dave
It’s all about Copenhagen…
1) Blagged an invite to a talk about Google Wave by the very inventors of this wondrous product. Now if I can only execute the second part of my masterplan…
2) Tempted the Independent into a meeting about our GYP – or Global Youth Thermometer (geddit) as I’ve recently taken to calling it.
3) Found our ideal sponsor for the GYP – HSBC. Yes them, their focus on local knowledge and desire to understand different points of view = perfect match for us.
4) Developed a belief that this event could be the one that puts us on the map.
5) Loving the fact we’re now getting 1,000 visitors a day. And more importantly that a massive 170 different debates have been improved since the start of the month. Thank you Rapid Response Team. Thank you everyone who’s edited.
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Our Debatewise Week
Alex1, So the Copenhagen conference on climate change is comming up, and not wanting to be left out we have to get involved in some way. Had a good ideas session about what we might do.
2, wrote up a plan from the ideas session, and a list of tasks that need doing that we will split between us interns
3, nothing much happened this week on revisewise. my brother and I have decided to put up the page on The Wars of the Three Kingdoms as an example - we intend to do four or five debates on the subject and already have one on Gaelic Warfare up, I have been working on a debate on negotiations at the end of the 1st civil war
4, We have been writing for the LDdebate topic. We now have several points on each side. Need to email all the people who might help us to expand the page.
5, Had an unusually large number of questions about the RRT. We are also now asking them to edit others debates more. This week all out debates sent out on tuesday were taken within a day.
Dave
1. Working on the plan for the Copenhagen debates, have a good feeling about this
2. Finally got people to Wave with, now we can really see what it can do
3. Developing a sales strategy that might secure our future
4. Did some good networking at a Microsoft event
5. Early development for the IDEA Debate in the Neighbourhood programme
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Five things for the week
1)That I’m doing this list for the first time in months. I have meant to, several times, just not hard enough to actually get on the keyboard.2) That we managed to get 1,000 people to the site in one day. Can’t tell you how proud I am of that
3) Got the final of the WODC going without a hitch despite some severe scheduling problems
4) Managed to turn around a meeting that was heading south, due I’m sure to my charm, wit and intelligence.
5) In fact I’m going to put the entire WODC down. Okay, it’s gone on longer than a week but I am especially proud because it’s been a big success and could lead to lots of other goodness.
Dave
1) Wrote a press release for the WODC final and one announcing the Judges for the final
2) Wrote a brief introduction on three debates to go in the newsletter
3) Sent some emails out to Lincoln Douglas debate big cheeses in the USA.
4) Researched the new NFL topic on compulsory vaccinations.
5) Waned myself off tea, and now for some reason I am on black coffee.
Ricky
1) I actually managed to find time to edit a fair number of debates this week, first time in ages!
2) revisewise, another change in how we are planning to do things, so more writing of ideas and discussions
3) more revisewise, finished putting up a debate on the 1907 Anglo-Russian Treaty. It is pretty comprehensive. Given how little other secondary literature there is directly on the subject it is possible that only a 1936 book on it is more comprehensive on the topic!
4) LDdebate. A new topic is up on immunisation so ricky and I have been working on that.
5) RRT is going well, they took 9/10 topics sent on Tuesday and have already taken one sent out today. We keep getting more volunteers too.
Alex
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so what have we been up to this week?
Alexhmmm difficult to find 5 things this week, spent too much time worrying about my dropbox not working!
1, seem to have spent alot of time on revisewise to little effect. Start of the evaluating groups discussions have been put back abit while we consider things.
2, collated/wrote background to questions that David put to Lib Dem peer Lord Carlile for yoosk
3, wrote another comparison on pluck for Dom.
4, put up a debate on the 1907 agreement for revisewise - more to do on this, only done one level of analysis out of three!
5, delegated LD debate to Ricky, did a possible pitch for him that he and David then altered... (I assume its being used!)
I forgot that Ricky does not yet have an account on this so it my (alex's) fault that this is late:
Ricky
1, Emailed the majority of the debate teams from the debatecoaches wiki page
2, Researched the contact information of every debate chairman of every district in America - over 100! All I've got to do now is email them all!
3, Had an ideas discussion with David and Alex about Revisewise
4, Sent out a second press release on the WODC
5, Drank ALOT of tea.
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Weekly five
We have not done this much recently, and the few times it has been done it has been only me doing it! Anyhow David wants us to get back into the habit so here goes.Alex,
1, Organising materials for the evaluating board for revisewise
2, Working out how the revisewise pilot project will work
3, First time I have emailed the RRT some questions on a Friday! (don’t think they needed them this week though – certainly no replies yet :p)
4, A comparison on Pluck for Dom – have another one that I have not yet managed to get around to doing
5, Added a couple more people to the RRT, and on that topic Leo (who did the advertising for the position) visited \o/
Greg,
1, travelling from norwich
2, starting a new job
3, finding a part time job to help support my internship
4, meeting up with old friends
Ricky
1, Worked out how to walk from Fenchurch Street station to Scrutton Street. It took me 25 mins on Monday, now it takes me 8 mins. It helps not walking around in circles.
2, Researched how to write a press release
3, Wrote a press release
4, Added my first point on a debate on the website, during which I got quite heated.
5, Figured out how to work the kettle, after looking blankly at it for around 10 mins
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WODC- Slamming the alarm clock
ZZZZZZZZZZ sleeping sound of alarm clock ringing slaps ZZZZZZZ"WAKE UP ALL OF YOU!"
Over the past ten days we've had eight fully active interesting debates which have decided who are the eight Quarter Finalists. Thing is some of our adjudicators and our resident reporter have been slow on the mark for various reasons this was due to a mixture of technical problems and people being particularly busy. So apologies from all the team including myself on that but can't be helped. Anyway here’s a report on what’s been happening in the Second Round and a sight of what’s to come all the way to the final
Mexico are the only representative from North America after their northern rivals and preliminary round winners, the United States of America were knocked out by South Africa in a closely fought debate which was ultimately decided by adjudication. Something that Eusebius Mckaiser to use British understatement was more than happy about: "We are delighted to be in the quarters after sleepless nights about how we would defy our liberal souls by arguing against same sex marriage in the debate against the USA! In the end, we were rather chuffed to use LIBERAL arguments in support of an illiberal conclusion." Mexico in turn won their match by adjudication against Indonesia despite a protest by indonesia about one of the adjudications being not up to standard. However the protest was denied partly as there had been repeated complaints by other judges including Ian Lising about the word length of debates for example in the preliminary rounds. Also the USA's Northern neighbour Canada was knocked out by Lithuania fresh from defeating Latvia in the first round.
Estonia won the battle of the forfeits against Pakistan by adjudication with Pakistan's strategy of comprehensive demolition failing to . Latvia also won through in the second regional derby of the competition defeating Bulgaria and showing more than why the Latvians got through as a top 3 loser in to the Second round in the first place. Speaking for the Latvian Team Robert Bernans said that they were glad to have made the Quarter Finals and winning their first full debate (they got through the first round as a result of Dubai withdrawing).
After getting a bye against Singapore, England won their match V India. India protested the definition of the debate but the protest was disallowed as the adjudicators did not find anything specific in the definition that could be challenged. The other home nation Scotland didn’t fare so well being drawn against Venezuela and lost in a close debate, which was one of the most popular on the facebook group. Jamil Navarro captain of the Venezuelan team commented that” There’s also a certain satisfaction in going toe to toe against native english speakers and in reading compliments from the judges regarding the sophistication of our arguments or the boldness of our case.
So far excluding the teams that went through by forfeit all teams have won by adjudication so no one has gone to the people’s vote or the Chief adjudicator… yet although that may change. Also out of the eight debates in the second round only two were won by the side in the proposition as opposed to six matches being won by teams in opposing teams. Those results are strikingly similar to the matches that weren’t forfeited where a majority of the teams that won were teams in the opposition
South Korea beat Bangladesh in the trans continental battle and proved that their bye into the second round was not misplaced and are the only Asian representative in the WODC. Something that Josh Siwook Kim was happy about: “The inability to convey certain vocal tones or rhetorical remarks was a bit perplexing at times, but all the more we were able to concentrate on the logic and content itself. We had to slim down our "speeches" by discarding a lot of - what turned out to be - flowery verbal waste. (But even after all that cutting down, we realized we were walking on the subtle line between "persuasive rhetorics" and "unnecessary fluff".) So yeah, we learned a lot in terms of effective delivery and substantial research.”
Here are the results for the second round in full
SECOND ROUND RESULTS:
Started on Wednesday the 26th:
(Proposing)USA v South Africa; (Opposing)
South Africa win by Adjudication
(P) England v India (O)
England win by Adjudication
Thu 27th:
(P) Bulgaria v Latvia; (O)
Latvia win by Adjudication
(P) S Korea v Bangladesh (O)
South Korea win by Adjudication
Fri 28th:
(P)Pakistan v Estonia; (O)
Estonia win by Adjudication
(P)Lithuania v Canada (O)
Lithuania win by Adjudication
Sat 29th:
(P) Indonesia v Mexico; (O)
Mexico win by adjudication
(P)Scotland v Venezuela (O)
Venezuela win by adjudication
Moving away from the past, it’s time to look at the draw for the Quarter Finals which was done yesterday at 9.23 by Neill Harvey Smith and is also the draw that sets up the final bracket for these final three rounds with one debate starting off each day rather than the two debates in previous rounds.
Some interesting matches are in store as all three of the Eastern European countries battle various opponents from different parts of the globe and England face Venezuela raising the question of whether England can stop Venezuela’s Bolivarian march towards the WODC Crown or will Venezuela gain the honour of getting both home nations scalps in this tournament if they go into the final four?. Will we see another Battle of the two L’s in the semi finals as well or will South Africa have something to say about that after accurately predicting their victory over the USA after all South Africa: “…fear motions only, not Lithuanians!” . Oh and not to forget South Korea who are looking forward to debating against Latvia and :“ are expecting a great debate with the best European team so far.” The feeling is mutual from Latvia who having gone through two rounds of European competition are looking for a nice twist and “for exciting, fun and, of course, tough debate”
LINE UP FOR QUARTER FINALS
Starting on Thursday 10th September
1. (Proposition)Mexico v Estonia (Opposition)
Friday 11th September
2.(P) Latvia v South Korea (O)
Saturday 12th September
3.(P) England v Venezuela (O)
Sunday 13th September
4. (P) South Africa v Lithuania (O)
After the Quarter Finals we have the semi finals, The winners of Quarter Final 1 will battle the winners of Quarter Final 3 and the Winner of Quarter Final 2 will face the winner of Quarter Final 4. This goes without saying but both winners of both semi finals will go on to be the finalists of the WODC. Added to that unlike the previous rounds where teams were drawn into positions for the semi finals, a coin toss will be used to decide who will be the proposition and who will be the opposition for each debate. No such luck in the Quarter Finals though!. So the curtain will rise on a group of finalists on the 10th of September, eight out of twenty five teams remain but which one will go all the way?
N.B: Edited with thanks to those who pointed out mistakes in the earlier draft. If there are any more unresolved errors in further posts please let me know either through the blog or through e-mailing me on leo@debatewise.com.
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So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye!
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.Well the time has come to say goodbye from me as well, having been here only a few weeks longer, I can only commend Leo for putting down in words what is hard to capture.
Onwards to pastures new. Without this internship I would not have been able to move into the role that I have done in Charity Fundraising and so I thank all the wonderful people,
the crazy adventures, the networking, events, seminars and all the wonderful (and patient) direction given by David.
Joining Debatewise straight off the plane from Hong Kong, I wondered where I was going, what I was doing and was like most graduates, lost, not knowing where to go next.
Taken on with Debatewise as a Fundraiser, my role dramatically changed as the company direction twisted, turned and evolved and now is on route to sustainability.
I have learnt and developed through this, becoming more adaptable myself and more willing to broaden my own horizons, seeing opportunities where I hadn’t before.
‘He who would learn to fly in one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying’- Friedrich Nietzsche
So Shalom party people...i’m off to spread my wings
Stephanie
x
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WODC: 75% of debates fully active
With the second round underway it looks like we are not in for a repeat of the first round in terms of in activity as barring the debates on Saturday we've got 75% of matches fully active and with two more. All eight of these debates are well fought out contests in terms of points made refutations and general wit and humour sparking off the web pages. Time for me to post links up to all of the competitions going on in this second round. Apologies for the delay in doing so but anyway hope you enjoy reading them and voting for the side who you think has the best argument:
SECOND ROUND MATCHES IN FULL
Started Wednesday the 26th
(Proposing)USA v South Africa; (Opposing) "Same sex marriage should be legal
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1047-same-sex-marriage-should-be-legal
(P) England v India (O) "Western powers should leave Afghanistan
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1048-western-powers-should-leave-afghanistan
Thu 27th:
(P) Bulgaria v Latvia; (O) "All drugs should be decriminalised
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1049-all-drugs-should-be-decriminalised
(P) S Korea v Bangladesh (O)" The UN should impose sanctions on countries who destroy their rainforest "
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1050-the-un-should-impose-sanctions-on-countries-that-destroy-their-rainforests
Fri 28th:
(P)Pakistan v Estonia; (O) "Leaders of countries that use extra territorial rendition should be tried for War Crimes"
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1051
(P)Lithuania v Canada (O) "All taxes on inherited wealth should be abolished"
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1052
Sat 29th:
(P) Indonesia v Mexico; (O) "Poorer Countries should abandon Free Trade Agreements"
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1053
(P)Scotland v Venezuela (O) "All forms of gambling should be banned
http://www.debatewise.com/debates/1054
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Moving on through the misty maze
Well this is the end of my penultimate day as an intern working out on one of the four desks on the first floor of Scrutton Street that make up Debatewise's HQ . Sometime the week after next I'm going to be making my last walk from Liverpool Street Station north up Bishopsgate to Scrutton Street (one of the best walks to work in the world because of the contrast between the skyscrapers of the city and the low rise buildings of Shoreditch ) in order to hand over to whoever is replacing me at HQ and leave a card for a certain group of people . After that my four month and a bit stint as an intern here will be completed and It'll be down to preparing to go and study for a Masters at the University of Warwick .
I'm not leaving Debatewise entirely, I'll still be helping with the Rapid Response Team and the WODC as well chipping in where and when I can so this isn't farewell!. But I'm sorry to be leaving a office that has taught me a lot about stepping up to the plate, (the crease for you cricket lovers !) and not just when the pressure is down, being prepared to take on a large amount of different roles and tasks both inside the office and outside (whether it's been writing press releases, administrating the WODC and the site, tweeting as the spokesbird on Twitter, or recruiting people. Oh and to forget getting the chance to get involved in writing and editing some really interesting debates as well as generating . It's been one of the most challenging things I've ever done but it's been really rewarding. So in case I forget a few au revoirs.
I've also met a great people here both past and present at Debatewise, one sentence doesn't do these people justice. Steph calm but really friendly, vibrant and a real driving force in the group, someone who I've really enjoyed being around both inside and outside the office . Dave one of the best people that I've served under whether as a union member or intern etc who's patience and calm instruction as well as edits has been useful. Alex a quiet but intelligent, interesting and funny person who's constant trips around the workspace have been helpful and well received (oh and once again many thanks for the book about Japan's history) . I'm also really grateful to everyone at Bash Studio's (especially those on the first floor) for being nice interesting tolerant people to work around and for clubbing in together to give me some really decent birthday presents such as a red shirt and a 3 dimensional skyline of London that can be set up and taken around with me (Oh and not to forget some taSTY CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!). I've never received birthday presents from my work or volunteering colleagues before so Domoo Arigatoo guys I really appreciate them. Also just to say I've enjoyed sitting around in the centre of the action whether listening to interesting discussions about aviation the environment or film festivals or care related issues. Thanks also for inviting me to various events too such as a book launch in the House of Commons.
I wish all of you the best in the future whatever you decide to do and wherever you decide to go.
Some final thoughts on my role here and the work that Debatewise does which I've been thinking about for some time. All of this might sound like sentimental neo spirtual trash or disjointed musings but I hope it makes sense and is of value. Yesterday I hosted a panel discussion titled "Navigating through Debating" at an event called Skills Junction which was held in the Pirates Castle at North London. This was an event that was run by Skill the National bureau for Students With Disabilities in order to get people aged between 16-25 interested in volunteering and something that's part of volunteering is thinking about and navigating our way through the various issues whether they're disability related or related to something else like Far East politics. The problem with any set of issues can be obscured in darkness or shrouded in metaphorical mist because they aren't discussed or thought about in depth. So we're shining a bit of light onto a dark or mist by illuminating the different paths and possibly dead ends that make up make up the maze of navigating the various issues. Some parts of the maze are easy to navigate through others aren't. Sometimes we believe we have best compasses that work well whether they're moral, political or ideological . Yet at other times those same compasses lead us, the people around us into possibly the worst pitfalls or dead ends particuarly if we charge headlong into it thinking we're either heading along great straights only to slap hard into a wall because of something that we hadn't considered or that . In a way by providing information about the various issues what we're doing at Debatewise is illuminating parts of the maze by shining light on to the different issues surrounding subjects for example with the possibly the greatest labyrinth or journey of the lot the journey of life. So maybe less people will fall in to those pit falls or miss those turns although maybe some will as people will draw different conclusions on what those pitfalls and dead ends are. Eitherway there's more than one way to travel through life or think about life and maybe we're showing part of the paths that can be taken through it. Any way just my attempt to shed some light on the workings and goals of the "Wikipedia of online debate".
Last but not least not to forget a certain animal and mascot: I don't know what the canine equivalent of sayon nara is Marley but... iie I won't be patronising, somewhere in that brain of yours you know when you're being teased !. However it's been nice knowing you and watching you chase around toys across the room or on the rooftop at breath taking speed avoiding colliding into people and just being a generally friendly dog and I hope you can translate that into dog language!.
Sayonara HQ and Bash Studios. It's been a great few months but it'll be time for me to roll on through the ever changing maze of life once more.
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WODC: It gets rather cutting from here on in
This is it. No more second chances. The winners stay logged on the losers log out all the way to the final of the World Online Debating Championships.The Draw for the Second Round of the WODC took place on Sunday and it produced some interesting possibilities for example an Eastern European final possibly a revenge match between Lithuania and Latvia, a transatlantic scrap in the semi’s soon after the recent controversy over a certain… enough said about that! . The draw produced some interesting match ups too: Leading off on Wednesday the 26th of August will be the United States of America who got through the first round as a result of Bosnia forfeiting their first round match. They’ll be proposing a motion against South Africa who scraped through their match against Japan with one of the adjudicators saying that he’d give it as a neutral but couldn’t do that. However both Eusebius Mckaiser and Daniel De Kadt are “delighted” to have got through and are “excited” about facing the USA. Also while England’s cricketers will be trying to get over the post Ashes euphoria after winning against Australia, England’s online debating team will be up against more Commonwealth opposition in the form of India fresh from winning against Bangladesh starting on the same day . Bangladesh qualify as one of the top losers and go up against South Korea who sat out the opening round after being the odd one out in the draw starting on Thursday. That happens with Bulgaria (who won a first round match forfeited by a "snoozing" Israeli team) typing off against Latvia in the other match of the day. Interestingly Bulgaria are in the proposition seat where as Latvia have been drawn as the opposition this time giving the opportunity for Bulgaria to prove a point so to speak as the proposition , as will other teams that were in inactive matches.
A match of teams that won by forfeits starts the second half of the draw on Friday with Pakistan (who arguably gave one of the best arguments by a side in the forfeited matches) going up against Estonia who fought a forfeited (but still interesting) debate by Nigeria. Next up it’s our winner in the battle of the two L’s Lithuania going up against Canada who won by forfeit against Macedonia despite Macedonia trying to clamber back. Lithuania won an interesting match over whether "Nazi and Communist symbols should be banned". Last but not least on Saturday Indonesia propose against Mexico ,while Scotland face an impressive Venezuela who won a tough fought and interesting match against Indonesia persuading the adjudicators (if not the audience) that they were the team that should get through with their arguments over whether Dictatorship was the best path to development" . Indonesia did enough to secure a second round spot and will like all of the other teams have a chance to improve on their first round performance. But for which teams will improve enough to get through to the Quarter Finals of this inaugural tournament? Stay observing to find out and stay voting to potentially decide the outcomes of these matches
SECOND ROUND LINE UP:
Starting on Wednesday the 26th:
(Proposing)USA v South Africa; (Opposing)
(P) England v India (O)
Thu 27th:
(P) Bulgaria v Latvia; (O)
(P) S Korea v Bangladesh (O)
Fri 28th:
(P)Pakistan v Estonia; (O)
(P)Lithuania v Canada (O)
Sat 29th:
(P) Indonesia v Mexico; (O)
(P)Scotland v Venezuela (O)
All debates type off at 12.00 UCT/GMT (that's 13.00 BST) each day starting on Wednesday.
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