DavidNash
Community Organiser for EA London
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I think the guiding principles from CEA would suggest that this is a bad idea
"Because we believe that trust, cooperation, and accurate information are essential to doing good, we strive to be honest and trustworthy. More broadly, we strive to follow those rules of good conduct that allow communities (and the people within them) to thrive. We also value the reputation of effective altruism, and recognize that our actions reflect on it. "
This is a good analysis but I think it simplifies between short vs long term, when people often aren't 100% one or the other. As well as whether particular cause areas are short vs long term when some existential risk work could be seen as highly valuable even if an individual didn't value lives tomorrow and some interventions that are seen as near term could have a much bigger impact on the future.
Is that because Facebook is GMT, and the UK is GMT+1?
I have a rough draft of questions that I sometimes send to people who are thinking of contacting someone on the EA London directory.
Questions to ask yourself
- What is the purpose of meeting with this person?
- What could you gain?
- What could they gain?
- Is it worth their time? (Potentially let people know why you think it may be useful)
To help them decide to meet you can give your background/skills in their areas of interest
Questions you could ask (choose relevant ones)
- Why did you want to do X?
- What was your background before X?
- What are the biggest bottlenecks in cause X?
- What skills are most useful for this role?
- What projects/volunteering should/could I do?
- What is the process for being selected for interviews?
How should I prepare for interviews in this area? - If I were to be a good candidate for role X in one year, what would be the best additions to my CV?
- How do you do well in this job?
- What do you wish you knew before working here?
- Can you think of somewhere else I could have more impact with my current background and skills?
- What do you do day to day?
- What impact do you think you have/could have?
- What might be the most impactful thing you achieved last year/month?
- What might be the most impactful thing you achieve next year/month?
- What's a bottleneck you have with regard to having more impact?
- What would you do if you weren’t working here?
- What do you think is the most neglected project/activity in your field?
- If you had all your living costs paid for, what project would you work on and why?
- What was the last thing you changed your mind about (in relation to your career)?
What was the most useful thing you’ve learned in the last week/month/year? - (Meta) How could these questions be improved? Were there any particularly good or bad ones?
In London there is a directory that some people have used to arrange 1-1s, I think there are a few others for different locations, careers and causes. I don't know if it's better to have one master directory/CRM/messaging capability on the EA hub or for each group to have their own way of networking.
Yeah, it's trying to do 2/3 things at once, and using a forum software for a directory isn't optimal.
It looks like DFID have funded a similar intervention today.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-aid-to-tackle-global-spread-of-coronavirus-fake-news
"Dangerous myths about coronavirus which are hampering the global fight against the disease will be challenged thanks to a new initiative backed by UK aid.
The support from the Department for International Development will challenge misinformation in South East Asia and Africa, which is then spreading worldwide, and direct people to the right advice to help stop the spread of the virus.
False claims and conspiracy theories have spread rapidly on social media, touting ‘cures’ like drinking bleach or rubbing mustard and garlic into your skin. These pose a serious risk to health and can speed up the spread of the virus, by stopping people taking simple practical, preventative steps like washing their hands.
DFID’s £500,000 support will go to the Humanitarian-to-Humanitarian (H2H) Network, which has extensive experience addressing the spread of misinformation during epidemics, for example following the 2015 Ebola outbreak.
The work of the H2H Network will complement UK initiatives by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the NHS to tackle misinformation online.
International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:
“Misinformation harms us all. By tackling it at source we will help stop the spread of fake news – and coronavirus – worldwide, including within the UK.”
H2H will work with partners BBC Media Action and Internews to create verified information in various languages to tackle specific mistruths spreading in South East Asia and Africa. Their work will also support journalists in these regions to write more accurately about the virus using information from the World Health Organization.
Support will also go to Translators without Borders, which monitors false information in various languages and translates validated content from WHO and other health agencies, and Evidence Aid which updates a database of research on diseases each day.
The initiative will analyse social media and online content to identify where the misinformation is coming from and how it is spreading – so victims of fake news can be sent the correct information and directed to official health advice."
Would that distinguish between people who knew about all the current resources and still wanted more versus those who hadn't been connected to what is currently available?
I think I agree with the minimum recommended resources you suggest, but I don't see Facebook group membership requirements as the only filter. It's more likely to be based on seeing what people write/projects they do/future attendance at EA events.
Sometimes obstacles can be good but maybe there are people who would be really great organisers if they just knew one other person who was interested or were encouraged to go to EAG.
A tangential issue that might be part of this disagreement is that anyone can decide to become a group leader, create a meetup page and start telling people about their version of EA as there is no official licence/certification. That would require more thought as to whether having official groups is a good idea.
As an update, I think trying to combine a directory, forum and wiki into a new website didn't work.
I've redirected the links to a directory on the EA London website and think that using Facebook groups as the place for these discussions makes more sense as it is where people already are.