Invitation to be part of a WOL Circle being run on Workplace by Facebook in Q1 2018

I now have access to Workplace by Facebook and intend running a global/virtual Working Out Loud Circle on that platform in Q1 2018.

I am amazed that I have managed to get access in the end via me asking a seemingly innocuous question in last Thursday's #ESNchat Twitter chat and 2 senior Facebook execs responding. This working out loud "malarkey" really does work! #SimonOnAMission

See screenshot for an early iteration of a WOL Circle version of Workplace by Facebook that I am setting up.

A number of people have already expressed an interest in taking part in this circle. I will contact them directly about where I am up to.

Thinking out loud, see initial requirements I have of those who wish to be part of this circle:-

1. You will take a full and active part in a 12-week WOL circle with a start date of Monday 1 January 2018 with the 1st call being on Monday 8 January 2018 and the last call being 26 March 2018, likely to be 1 hour in the time period 18:30 - 22:00 UTC on Mondays.
   
   (where "full and active" means being able to take part in a majority of the calls, doing the circle guide exercises and posting outputs on the platform)
   
   (note given the test of Workplace for this, I am happy for people to be in this circle if they cannot take part in the group calls for timezone reasons but are happy to do other 1:1 etc calls across the circle at other times)
   
   
2. You will be willing to learn Workplace by Facebook sufficiently to post content and take part in calls on that platform (I can help with that when I know what I am doing!).
1. Update – 7 November 2017: It is looking increasingly likely that we will be using Zoom for the weekly circle calls as the required functionality to record group calls is not available in Workplace by Facebook (yet! see article). Zoom is easy to use so there will be no issue if you are new to it.
   
3. You will produce some form of evaluation of the capability of Workplace by Facebook in working collaboratively and running a circle on as well as comparing Workplace with other platforms you have used. This should not be onerous but is one of the major objectives of me doing this circle in this way.
   
   
4. You will be happy to be part of a circle with more than 5 people in if demand to take part is more than that.
   
   (I do not have a view on what the maximum could be but ideally I do not want to say "no" to people!)
   
   
5. You will be patient with me for any technical challenges with Workplace while we do this. I am not clueless tech-wise but I do have my moments ….
   
   
6. You will be willing, ideally, to have a play with Workplace with me prior to the circle starting so we have some basic things in place before the circle starts.
   
   
7. You will not mind not having long term access to the content we create on Workplace for this circle. Our access may stop e.g. at the end of March or April 2018. I intend exploring how to export etc content as we go through the circle.

There may be other things that come to my mind but that will do as a starter set.

I hope the "rules" above are not off-putting. That is not my intention. This is more about expectations.

If you would like to express an interest in being part of this circle, let me know either by commenting on this post or via Twitter DM (https://twitter.com/srjf).

Happy to take any questions relating to this.

Looking forward to another amazing WOL circle experience. This will be my 3rd WOL Circle.