Why the Star Café?

A. Summary:

The primary reason for the Star Café is to help committed individuals form themselves into effective, likeminded groups working and learning to advance Quaker values. The vision is that these groups will help change the world. The Star Café puts collaboration, data and learning tools into the hands of peace and justice activists, and their support networks worldwide.

B. Key Points:

· The Star Café puts collaboration, data and learning tools into the hands of peace and justice activists, and their support networks

· The Star Café is designed to help committed individuals form themselves into effective, likeminded groups working and learning to advance Quaker values

· Effectiveness is key – the measure is the impact on Program work

· The Star Academy allows collaborative learning groups to learn, as peers, the skills they need for their

· Star Points will allow these groups to document what they learn and share the results with the community.

· The Star Café will foster Networks of Trust that will in turn foster rapid response

· The Star Café Crew provides expertise, training and support

· The Café is a collaborative project to build a collaborative environment and will evolve and adapt over time

· The Star Café is conceived in six month ascents. The current ascent opened on June 6^th 2006

C. Details:

When building the Star Café, more important than what, was why?

The primary reason for the Star Café is to help committed individuals form themselves into effective, likeminded groups working and learning to advance Quaker values.

The vision is that these groups will help change the world.

 To accomplish this, three words stand out:

Community, Communication, Collaboration

The Star Café is an AFSC project to build a collaborative environment where groups can work, learn and support each other. The Star Café then is designed to effectively put collaboration, data and learning tools into the hands of peace and justice activists, and their support networks, worldwide.

Effectiveness is the key measure of success for the Star Café – the effectiveness as measured in the work of the activists in the field.

The work of collaborative groups is at the heart of the Star Café. Collaborative learning groups will use the combination of the Café and the Star Academy to learn, as peers, the skills they need for their work and for their personal fulfillment. Star Points are a formal element of the Star Academy that will allow these groups to document what they learn and share the results with the community. This document is an example of a Star Point.

We all recognize that technologies are a two-edged sword. And we have all witnessed the assault of messages that bombard us in our newly networked world – threatening to dull us to even critical messages. A primary vision of the Star Café is to create a secure, reliable Network of Trust where protocols and pathways will evolve that provide the ability for the activist community to communicate rapidly and act deftly – when action is called for.

The Crew at the Star Café work to provide expertise, training and support so that the transition to these technologies is smooth and serves to support, not disrupt, the work of the activist community.

It is best to think of the current release as Star Café 1.0. For the Café is itself a collaborative project to build a collaborative environment and will evolve and adapt over time. The goal is to work together, in community, to identify and deploy the right tools, techniques and principles to accomplish the vision.

The Star Café is conceived in six month ascents. The current ascent opens on June 6^th, 2006 and will focus on working intensively with 100 users. The main objective will be to demonstrate that activist groups, supported properly and using the Star Café, can better achieve their Program goals.

The ultimate goal is to have the Café welcome and enhance the work of 1,000 activist leaders and 4,000,000 committed individuals.

 A final point: when you visit the Café, watch for Digit the Cat! And remember:

Collaboratively Use Technology to Enhance – Community And Teamwork