Participation trolls. Do we know them for sure?
Moderators:
Przemysław Dziewitek, Civic Lab Association,
Krzysztof Ślebioda, Sustainable Development Lab Foundation
Time: 1. Day (Thursday, May 28.), hrs.12:45-14:45
Location: II floor, zone J
Format: experience sharing with elements of a training session
During the session we will talk about participation trolls.
Who is a troll?
Is it this type of a citizen who during a meeting always focuses on off-topic issues or participates in a discussion, but does so aggressively trying to take command over the crowd and the meeting? Somebody who attends every meeting, but only to get his own business done.
Perhaps a troll is a councilmember who attends a meeting and says that “we as politicians should be taking care of that business, we are responsible for talking to citizens”? Perhaps trolls wear suits and ties and they want to be called mayors or presidents? Or perhaps those are trolls who set traps for the crowds interested in co-deciding, and suddenly change the decision or realize only some parts of the plan?
Could we, the participation practitioners, be participation trolls? Constantly invading squares, public and residential areas we try to get citizens to take part in deciding how those places should look like, and convince them that he who is not interested in such dialogue is an idiōtes – an individual interested only in his private matters, refusing to participate in the public life.
First we shall determine who a troll really is, and then we will be covering the ways to challenge trolls and make them useful. Perhaps there is a spell that would transform trolls into eager-to-help and community-dwelling…. smurfs?
The session will comprise 3 parts. The first will be dedicated to experience sharing, the second to overviewing techniques that make it easier to cooperate with ‘difficult’ participants. The third will be a workshop for using troll-disenchantment spells.