Reflections on the Second Renaissance Barn Raising: Write Your Own Postcards
A vibrant four-hour gathering designed to harness the collective creativity of the community to support individuals in finding their way around the Second Renaissance ecosystem.
The Second Renaissance Barn Raising, held online on Tuesday, December 3 2024, was a vibrant four-hour gathering designed to harness the collective creativity of the community. Inspired by the tradition of barn raisings - where neighbors would come together to build a shared structure - this event invited participants to co-create meaningful resources for navigating the Second Renaissance space. In this Barn Raising we focused on the Write Your Own Postcards activity, which emerged out of discussions within the Second Renaissance Curators team around crafting travel guides, archetypes, and personal stories to support individuals in finding their way within and around the ecosystem.
Write your own postcards
This simple yet impactful activity brought together new and familiar faces, weaving creativity and fun into the development of useful and accessible nuggets of information. Using a straightforward template, attendees shared personal knowledge and experiences related to areas, organizations, practices, and people within or around the Second Renaissance Ecosystem Map. The goal of the event was to foster connections among those present and to support individual journeys into and within the space, for those who discover and read the postcards.
In total, we had 30 attendees and 48 postcards created. Participants ranged from artists and technologists to facilitators, researchers, healers, students, and thinkers. The event’s collaborative energy created ripple effects of enthusiasm, as participants wrote and designed their postcards, and invited others to join, contributing to a dynamic and inclusive flow.
The event followed a structured yet fluid format. Attendees began in the Postcard Room, where they could craft a postcard, then either create another or move to the Weaving Room for light discussions and connection. While the weaving space didn’t delve deeply into sensemaking as initially anticipated, it served as a gathering point for sharing ideas and re-energizing before returning to postcard creation.
What's next?
We’re aware of the want and need to keep this momentum going, to turn these postcards into a useful offering and connect them to wider resources, and to continue to run with the energy that was present in the event.
Our current, work-in-progress, plans are:
Transferring postcards to the Wiki: This will create an interconnected web of resources for wider accessibility.
Generating more postcards: Through an asynchronous activity to allow ongoing contributions of postcards to the Wiki.
Evolving the purpose: The use and development of the postcards will be shaped organically through the upcoming workspace calls.
To support, a Wiki Collaboration Club will commence with calls in January 2025, helping participants familiarise themselves with the Second Renaissance Wiki and contribute ongoingly to build this important knowledge base.
The spirit of the Second Renaissance
The event exemplified the power of community: highlighting collective wisdom, creating new resources, and supporting individual journeys through shared action. It reinforced the immense value of stepping into collaborative spaces, as participants testified:
“I'm delighted to see how Life Itself and the Second Renaissance hosts are able to create highly generative, warm, spaces. It was easy to drop into flow and participate all while making new connections and rekindling existing connections. Looking forward to more!”
“Raising barns brings community together in times of need, making work fun and amazing. In this case, mapping "the space" and connecting with people and projects in an intentional way. The feeling I left with was, "I'm not alone, there are other brilliant people doing amazing things and I want to get involved!"
Stay involved
Keep an eye out for updates and opportunities to contribute in the new year. We’ll be kicking off with our Second Renaissance Connection Calls on Tuesday 7th January.
Still want to contribute to the postcards? We will soon be sharing a video on how you can participate asynchronously and add your postcard to the growing collection.
Visit our Second Renaissance Wiki here.
And finally, for questions or ideas, reach out via the Second Renaissance Discord channel or email Lauren at [email protected].