FCoP Inreach-Outreach Template

Purpose

The first goal of this activity is to brainstorm and articulate 2-3 internal advocacy activities that increase organizational readiness for and participation in software collection, curation, preservation and emulation activities.

The second goal of this activity is to brainstorm and articulate 2-3 outreach activities that can be pursued as part of an external outreach plan to help grow the broader community of practice for software preservation and emulation outside of your core team or department.

Download PDF version of this template »

Timeline

NOTE: This exercise can be done with a group synchronously in-person or virtually mediated. If you decide to facilitate this exercise with a group synchronously, consider the time breakdown provided below. 

Inreach

  • 10min Groups discuss who your internal stakeholders and audiences are and what they might need or want to know about software preservation and curation. 
  • 15min If possible, cluster these stakeholders into stakeholder groups
  • 15min Discuss possible inreach strategies for those specific stakeholder groups 
  • 25min Capture the 2-3 inreach strategies that everyone chooses to take home
  • 30min Report out 

Outreach

  • 10min Groups discuss who your internal stakeholders and audiences are and what they might need or want to know about software preservation and curation. 
  • 15min If possible, cluster these stakeholders into stakeholder groups
  • 15min Discuss possible inreach strategies for those specific stakeholder groups 
  • 25min Capture the 2-3 inreach strategies that everyone chooses to take home
  • 30min Report out 

If you decide to facilitate this exercise with a group asynchronously, consider the following timeline:

  • (One week) Inreach
  • Synchronous call or in-person discussion based on the results of asynchronous work.
  • (One week) Outreach
  • Synchronous call or in-person discussion based on the results of asynchronous work.

Instructions

NOTE: The Inreach Outreach instructions assume that you have a group large enough to divide people into two smaller working subgroups. If you are completing this activity by yourself or with a small number of people, SUPER! Each person can complete steps 1-3 for Inreach and steps 1-2 in Outreach on their own – and come back together to review and refine. OR, all steps can be completed as one group. 

Inreach

  1. Identify internal audiences and stakeholders
    • Ex. Archivists/Curatorial – involved in everything from ingest, appraisal, description and access including in the reading room
  2. Determine what internal stakeholders need to know: 
    • What the distinct collection policy is that allows them to do this in the first place; admin policy layer
    • On the software side – once they have that broader mandate, they need to know which questions to ask and the boundaries to put around a collection; asking questions, templates for their interviews, etc. 
    • Legally, what the boundaries are
      • Policy for deeds of gift
      • What can and cannot be done and other what circumstances
  3. Workshopping internal advocacy strategies for your audiences and stakeholders
    • Ex. Administration/IT: Demonstrate use and how it is applicable to the goals of the broader university
    • Ex. Establishing a partnership with the College of Computing and using that as showcase example of the value of software preservation and emulation

Bringing external attention to the work of the library and use that for external advocacy

  1. Who will do what – committing to internal advocacy activities in our organizations
    • Member 1:
      • Ex. Publish blog posts for the website about what the digital curation staff is doing
      • Ex. Share the forensic imaging workflow on the main website
    • Member 2
      • Ex. Openly documenting all of the work they have been doing (in a public platform)
    • Member 3
      • Ex. User study – using that as a means of gathering data
      • Ex. Oral histories
      • Ex. Cross training
  2. Jot down key points for the group report-out.

Outreach

 

  1. Effort mapping: 
    • Who, outside of your department or unit, is doing related work? 
    • Are there any ongoing grant projects that are advancing any aspect of this work?
    • Are there related but not specifically software preservation efforts that are closely aligned with this work? 
    • Who are your user constituencies, the people that you hope to serve with this work?
    • Who are your potential partners elsewhere in your organization that could be partners in this work – research, testing, or spreading the work?
  2. Brainstorm coordinated, cohort outreach activities
    • Ex. History, scholarly communities – academic community, academic conference Architecture as one possibility (AIA?)
    • Ex. Outreach to information science departments might be the entry point to the computer science
    • Ex. Focus on the student groups in info studies schools nearby – doing a lunchtime type event – sharing information with them
    • Ex. What about something with a really broad audience — like a TED Talk or an article for a major magazine/newspaper/podcast? (kinda wacky but maybe)
  3. (Drawing from your brainstorm of activities), select 2-3 coordinated outreach activities that the group likes best and complete the information specified below for each activity:
    • OUTREACH ACTIVITY 1: 
      • Audience:
      • Estimated date:
      • Preparation:
      • Who’s involved:
      • Desired community outcomes:
    • OUTREACH ACTIVITY 2: 
      • Audience:
      • Estimated date:
      • Preparation:
      • Who’s involved:
      • Desired community outcomes:
  4. Jot down key points for the group report-out.