Jamming

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A Jam is an online exchange. A group of people 'speaks' together, using written posts, about a subject of importance to them. The discussion is actively facilitated to elaborate and deepen the exchange. Often experts are invited to contribute their experience and to moderate a portion of the discussion.

One of the advantages of a Jam is that it assumes that participants will come and go as their personal schedules permit - reading and commenting when they can. For this reason most Jams occur over at least a full day. While a Jam creates its own record, at its conclusion the discussion is organized, synthesized, and analyzed.  All the materials that are posted or referenced during the Jam are pulled together and included in the analysis. The analysis can be shared both on and off-line. It is the analysis of a Jam that accelerates and deepens work and is the heart of the return on investment (ROI) of "Jamming".

Knowledge in the Public Interest has developed a standardized methodology for our work.

• define Jam goals, objectives, target audience
• derive Jam threads from data
• identify and invite participants, guest experts, moderators

• create Jam site
• set up participant membership, glossary and resource library
• engage and prepare moderators and guest experts

• provide suggestions and support to discussion thread moderators and guests
• manage content, post links in posts when needed, enter resources in the resource database
• generate discussion summaries/briefs at appropriate intervals
• provide technical support

• extract and categorize key verbatims
• identify overarching themes,analyze for implications, synthesize findings
• generate jam data: number of participants, posts, views, resources posted
• write report
• submit for feedback and editing
• help adapt report for targeted publication and/or communication opportunities
• share with Jam participants and others as appropriate