POL.IS LEARNINGS
(FROM RE-ACTION’S ØUTDOORS 2.0 PROJECT)
Pol.is is a great tool for understanding how large groups feel about a topic. It is also great at finding consensus on what should be done in response to a problem.
Set-up
Topic
- Give it a catchy subject (we used ‘re-imagining....)
Description
- Set your stall out with a short description. Include the fact it is anonymous (we used this sentence: Vote anonymously and submit your own relevant statements.)
Seed comments
- Add 15-20 statements to get things started.
- Make the statements varied with some polarising views in there to get engagement from people.
- Use a few qualifying statements to understand which segment your audience belong to (we used ones like ‘I regularly practice outdoor sports’)
How to moderate
- Reject any comments that:
- Are questions rather than statements
- Identify a person / business
- Are defamatory, hostile offensive or unlawful
- Off-topic
- Are too similar to existing statements
- Overly targeted at an individual
Other things to do
- Customise the user interface like this so people don’t have to log in to participate and so you can moderate their comments
Gav’s thought on Pol.is
What we create is what we become. The outdoor industry is playing a role in creating a separation from nature. That might sound like a crazy statement but, advertising products for “uncompromising adventurers” with “impenetrable barriers” to “charge up and down vertical terrain” made of “waterproof, windproof and breathable textiles that offer fully protective environmental shelter”, builds a story of danger, individualism, othering, and consumption.
The result is a pitching of us against nature itself, in a story of separation and individual achievements. Valuing nature as something to consume, for our benefit. We’re creating a world, where we run through nature, rather than into nature. The very place that our survival depends on, and the place from where we came.
Using Pol.is has helped take a step towards writing a new story. Which I believe can only be written from a starting place of participation. A re-imagining of our relationship with the outdoors can only happen together.
