Too many expectations?

I spent the first half of today at the rather random Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (in the posh part of town) learning about FutureLab‘s Greater Expectations project. And much that I want to support this kind of work, and appreciate that significant sums of money are being put into projects like this, I came away a bit non-plussed and feeling more frustrated than excited.

One of the problems is that the scope of the project seems so broad that it’s difficult to grasp exactly what scale and impact they see this having. I sat through the presentation and discussion and felt a bit stupid for asking for specifics – some personas or actual examples of young people using this resource for real. And I wasn’t blown away by the example given.

My main problem with the project is that there didn’t seem to be anything in there that wasn’t already available. You want to engage with decision-makers? There’s WriteToThem for that. Want to know how to report graffiti? FixMyStreet can do that.  Want something to do after school?  Here comes Plings. Want to do something positive in your community?  Try do-it.org.uk. Want to know what Universial Declaration of Human Rights are? There’s a brilliant video that will tell you. Want to set up a social enterprise in your school? G-Nation does that. Want some work experience? Hit Wexo. Want to campaign to make the world a better place? Ctrl.Alt.Shift is a good place to start.  Want to set up something closer to home? Turn off at Junction 49. Want to have your say on education policy? Head to Edge.  Want to get creative?  Blast, IdeasTap, or ChewTV to name a few. Wannabe policy wonk?  Get involved with BYC. Etc etc etc.

None of these are perfect, but they are far further down the road of providing practical ways young people can use new media to learn and engage in their communities and society in general than attempting to build an overarching project that tries to do all of these things (or at least links through to them).

I’ve nothing against duplicity of services, as an element of competition can be healthy; but there are too many half-baked ideas that were initially well-funded, but then, as with most third-sector projects, too much was demanded in too short a time and the end project is more “what could have been” rather than what actually is. Then a year later someone comes along to try and create exactly the same project, only that is underfunded and another half-baked project is launched.  It’d be great if one day a funder came along and said “here’s some money to finish that project properly”.

The second major problem with the Greater Expectations website was it was unclear why a young person would go there over any other the existing services. Not wanting to push as an educational resource sounds fine in principle, but it’s difficult to see without a significant marketing campaign how young people would actively go and seek it out. 80% of most website traffic comes from search, and they are as likely to find the existing services as this new one.

My suggestion for FutureLab, give your money to existing services to create a re-versioned website, which is “young people friendly”. You could create them under a common brand. That will have a lot more impact for a lot less cash, and has the added advantage of giving older young people the choice of using the default service, and conversely a youth version that can be advertised on the main website (“Are you under 18? You might prefer our youth version”).

I hope that the above isn’t perceived as bluntly negative about the project, but it’s difficult to get excited about another website aiming to make a positive difference to young people’s lives. And I’d like to thank FutureLab for the opportunity to meet some interesting people and get a flavour of what is going on out there.

PS. A quick stroll around Google led me to RSA’s Brainjuicer,  sounds similar to the Greater Expectations project.

Usual conflict declaration applies. YouthNet runs do-it.org.uk, and Citizenship Foundation is responsible for G-Nation.

Photo credit: Carf. Used under licence.