Accelerated Learning

Accelerated Learning: Background & organization

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The Accelerated Learning concept takes as its point of departure the dense background of international experience, solid information and expertise that have been developed over the last decades via the New Mobility Agenda -- and the program and findings behind the New Mobility Advisory/Briefs. The A/L Sessions are in fact one of the most important learning and sharing tools being developed under these programs. (Fur further background on how these three programs and expert systems related to each other, please have a look at the Backgound Note here.)

Organizing an Accelerated-Learning event

Goals: The goal of the Accelerated Learning approach is to provide focused, time- and money-effective expert sessions on specific New Mobility approaches which are proving their usefulness in leading city situations, but which for the most part are not sufficiently well understood from an overall public policy perspective and decision purposes by city leaders. In an age of close to infinite "information" via Google and the rest, it is easy enough to accumulate vast libraries of materials on virtually any of these tools or measures (click here to review out latest listing of these). But this is a time consuming and treacherous task. If you are a mayor or one of the smart and busy people working for him or her, you probably have too much work on your hands to become a specialist in any of these areas. But you do need to know! Including enough to be able to oversee and direct your specialist consultants. What all this is about above all is the politics of transportation, the framework of understanding and leadership which the technicians are expected to support and make happen.

Method: The means for executing these sessions is to identify and work hand in hand with local, regional and national groupings of cities, organizations and concerned individuals ready to partner to organize New Mobility Accelerated Learning Sessions which host and bring together, say, ten of the more innovative (or at least more interested) municipalities in their country/region for Accelerated Learning sessions over the next six months or so covering the first two of the city policy areas being developed by the New Mobility Briefs. (Think of them as a collaborative peer-driven set of "Master Classes" bringing together talented individuals and interested groups who share a strong commitment to sustainable cities and sustainable lives, and are willing to get in there and learn from each other.)

Partners/Sponsors: From this end the New Mobility Agenda works in close collaboration with participating members of the International Advisory Council -- plus local, regional, national groups actively involved in this case in: (a) sustainable transport and/or new mobility. (b) cycling, (c) carsharing, (d) public space, (e) environment, (f) cities/governance, (g) children, (h) women, (i) transport disadvantaged, (j) transport user groups, (k) underserved local areas, (l) climate, (m) oil/energy contingency, (n) civil society, (o) public participation, (p) business groups, (q) downtown associations, (r) specialized consultants, (s) university/research, (t) schools, (u) local media, (v) national media, (w) social service organizations, (x) voter groups, (Y) transporters, z) faith groups. That takes us through the entire alphabet, and is meant simply of give a feel for the breadth of the base which could and indeed should be somehow engaged in what is after all really an important city and quality of life initiative, and not just 'transport' in the old meaning of the phrase.

Main reference: The process consists of a combination of (a) a print product - The New Mobility Advisory/Brief covering that topic, and (b) the sessions themselves.

Reminder: Brief #1 covers: Carsharing Strategies for Cities. #2. Road pricing//Congestion charging strategies (and options)

Organization and timing: The first 2008 A/L sessions are taking place in Europe (Monaco)in March 2008 and are being organized in three one-day "tracks" covering: (a) Carsharing Strategies for cities, (b) Road pricing//Congestion charging strategies, and then (c) an overall Sustainable Transport/New Mobility Leadership Forum. (Click here for more.)

Tailoring the Briefs: It would be desirable if once we have our own advanced working drafts of the respective Briefs in hand here - we then sit down with the local sponsors and core groups, to make sure that each corresponds properly with the local landscape. Once this has been done, the documents can be presented as joint products, thus fully reflecting the sponsor's lead role and active implication in the process.

Session Curriculum: Likewise, we would plan the curriculum and events for the Master Class sessions hand in hand. Of course!

Leverage/IAC: With the support of the members of the International Advisory Council and its extensions (that is the people and groups they know in turn) the team will be well positioned to start to build up national or other groupings in specific places. But these great people only give us a starting place. It will be necessary to network strongly from there.

Hosts and sponsors: Ideally, the program will be supported by a least a handful of organizations who will be prepared to chip in both to participate actively and to cover the full costs of getting this right -- and at the same time to offer other forms of support to ensure success (meeting facilities, events and demonstrations, media coverage, help with supporting web site, "scholarships" to permit non-funded individuals or groups to be involved, eventually webcasting to permit the extension of the meeting to other places and groups, etc. (We prefer multiple sponsors to a single source of funds, since that helps to spread the message and the lessons of the experience. Moreover, it helps us ensure that a full range of points of views and experience is brought in from the beginning.)

Which cities? And might there be participants other than cities? Well our first thought on this is that once we have come to an agreement and started to plot this out and have a full set of program materials in hand, the local core group might then launch an outreach campaign, describing what we are intending to do in a page or two (with links to background and reference information) and invite them to get in touch if they want to get involved. The number that we originally had in mind was to bring in ten participants, but upon reflection there may be no good reason for limiting the program to that number. But it may be a good floor or minimum figure, which we would need just to ensure credulity and impact - and at the same time to spread sots.

City involvement: It would be good if the cities and groups involved could be seen and see themselves as 'part of the solution' (as well of course as part of the problem, but hey aren't we all?). But I think this positive orientation, perhaps right down to some demonstration of 'success' on the street or via film or video might make for an interesting elements of the sessions.

But let us worry this one just a bit more since it is an important point. As we are seeing in our expert discussions on all this within the New Mobility Agenda's Forum, nobody or at least very few cities are getting these matters all right. There is almost always one or even many fatal flows, so we have to make sure that we are not just a bit too quick and too banal when it comes to patting ourselves on the back. For now, just let me signal this one as something to which we shall need careful thought as we move ahead.

Participation: It is our experience that it is best if the participating cities and groups fund the participation of their delegates. In the first of these events in Monaco, we are asking for € 500 per head in order to fund the full three-day event. (See above on 'scholarships for those who cannot afford it but who should be there).

Outreach: The entire program should from the beginning be structured with the goal of making not only the contents (print, video) but also the process of the A/L sessions as widely available as possible.

Media: We know that these events can have strong media interest, and we propose that this be kept up front from the very beginning. There are all kinds of interesting things that we can do with our topics that will capture the public's interest (and let's not forget that those are the people, civil society, who vote and ultimately shape our cities in an open democracy. Let me cite just one very simple tool for public exposure that we feel can work well, especially in the context of the cycling sessions - have a look at a short video for Conferencebike here. Don't like this one as an idea? No problem. There are a lot more where that one comes from.

Group work technologies: It is our experience that in collaborative international projects such as this we really do need to make smart use of the best available group work technologies and routines, and where this has been costly and a bit of a pain for some personality types in the past (we have been using this stuff daily since 1993 and our original installations cost well over a thousand dollars for all partners, plus a fairly sophisticated technical competence), today the Skype group have got this pretty much down. We have better systems here, but none that are simpler (and freer) and now that Skype basically does the job we really should integrate this into our project if indeed we do go ahead. Just below you have some of the reasons why we think this is a good idea.

First Accelerated Learning Sessions - Monaco Spring 2008

What? Three tightly focused expert sessions, each organized around a single "hot" New Mobility topic -- prepared and supported by a high level international group with extensive hands-on experience in leading cities and successful implementations world-wide.

Each session focuses on policy and planning considerations from the specific vantage of city government, local leaders, and other concerned groups who are in a position to make these policies and measures happen in their cities and/or to support them so that they happen in a way that will benefit the entire community.

This year we are looking at

Session 1: Carsharing Strategies for Cities
Session 2: Road pricing/Congestion charging
Session 2: Sustainable Cities/New Mobility Leadership Forum (Euro Mayors' Day)

And because few cities are as yet taking full advantage of the many, proven, low-cost, high-impact measures and policies that they can put to work and get visible results without delay - on the condition that the decision makers at the top put their minds to it. (The politics of sustainable transportation.)

Who? Mayors, city managers, elected officials, decision makers and their supporting staffs charged with making decisions about the transportation system of their city. And local environmental action and transport groups, consultants and university researchers. (> > > more.)

Where? Monaco. The Grimaldi Forum (> > > more.)

When? 29 March -1 April 2008 (> > > more.)

Why? Because the tough truth is that we have arrived at a point of major discontinuity in the daily transport arrangements, in our cities and in our lives. Look out the window this morning and what do you see -- despite all the hard work you have done and hard-earned taxpayer money you are spending on the sector? Increasing traffic congestion. Lost time. Mounting pollution and public health problems. Accidents. Poorly served groups and areas. Swelling subsidy costs. City centers in economic duress. Declining tax base. And now fears of $100 oil, global warming and suddenly the chilling prospect of energy blackmail. The old system may once have worked, but today it is clearly no longer doing its job. And in case you haven't noticed it, the voters are starting to. Sustainability and sustainable transportation are now emerging as major election issues.

Languages: The Dialogues will be supported by simultaneous translation into English and French. (Provision for additional languages can be negotiated with the organizers.) And to facilitate access to these materials for non-English language speakers, each page of the site provides one-click machine translation buttons for rough instant translations into Dutch, German, French, Italian Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. (> > > more.)

The Exhibition In addition to the Dialogues, EV/ER 2008 is supported by exhibits of outstanding cities, suppliers, agencies and others working to advance these important sustainability tools and concepts. (> > > more.)

Registration opens 1 November 2006. > > > more.

Additional background Check out the New Mobility Advisory/Briefs for more on both the general approach and on the developing details of all three tracks. > > > more.

Have any questions? > > > more.

Ten good reasons for using Skype to prepare for A/L sessions

Ten good reasons why we should be using Skype for organizing all of this:

It does the job.

It's simple

It's free.

Because in a team project we need to be in close, convenient and efficient contact -ideally as if we were all in the same room.

Permits team members to see when someone is in and free (more important than you may think).

It has a good chat function which can serve both (a) to ask discretely if someone is available to talk, (b) to exchange print information as you talk, and ( c) to share website and email addresses so that the other person can connect directly to it at the same time -very convenient for discussion, brainstorming and decision purposes.

It offers a much faster way for exchanging documents and files (including larger files than most email systems can handle) - and this can be done in parallel with your meeting.

It handles video very efficiently if you happen to have a web cam - and even if you do not but the other person does, you can at least see them at the same time you talk. Quite handy.

It facilitates group conferences - voice, chat.

It has a handy answering machine for leaving messages.

Of course you have to be ready to work with it. Sometimes (not often but it does happen) you may have a connection problem, in which case it usually does the tick if you hang up and try again to get a better line. Think of Skype as a very bright and usually well behaved child. We all can have our moments though and as a good parent you are long on patience. Aren't you?