A Rorshokito is a new way to gather people together in physical space. It can be done for people who share something in common, for example speakers of a particular language in a particular city, graduates of a particular university, or people who work for an organization or company. Or it can also be done with a diverse collection of individuals who are interested in a specific topic. Or a specific group but covering a topic as well. It can also be a way for people of two different groups to get to know each other and communicate, for example, single women and men, or (US) Republicans and Democrats, or native-born and immigrants. The process is designed to bring individuals into a cohesive and friendly group.

Problem

Gatherings happen all the time, but communities are increasingly difficult to build. Communities are based around people who know and trust each other and mostly like each other. They are not transactional. Once they are built, they can become a great source of mutual assistance, but that is not what they are, and they can not be built with that goal in mind.

There is networking, which is different. Networking has come to mean individuals connecting with other individuals for mutually useful interactions; it’s transactional. Its goal is not to actually build a network. It is simply a collection of interactions at the service of the participants and maybe with some convening credit for the sponsoring entity. But little remains after the interactions and connections are made other than their consequences. Communities on the other hand once they start may, or may not, allow or even encourage networking. But the networking doesn’t influence their continued existence.

The transactional and individual nature of networking gives an advantage to certain types of people. Some people enjoy or are better at networking than others. An example of networking is speed dating events, or how dating apps work. These activities look at dating as a marketplace of individuals who are each buyer and seller. Particularly on an app, the incentives for dishonesty are significant and the disincentives modest. The owners of the dating apps are in it for profit. Their revenue model is based on charging in order to connect with more people; they are designed to be addictive for the user and lucrative for the app owners. There are powerful incentives for the app owners to want to keep users on the app, so there are powerful disincentives for them to prioritize users meeting long term partners and leaving the app. 

In conferences or festivals, or speed dating events, or other type of in person events, people are used to “signing up” and getting some kind of ticket which usually means giving an email or phone number and saying they will be there, it may mean paying; they may have to put a very modest amount of information about themselves, but usually not. The event is independent from them as individuals. They just attend or not with no preparation or responsibility. The event will happen with or without them. In a very real way the event is not “theirs”, they are simply attendees. These events are not set up to need or create “buy in”.

In general these events use technology in a very particular way. Because the audience has no responsibility and the event will happen with or without them, attendees do not expect to and do not want to use technology before they attend. This has consequences. Because attendees don’t have any real influence or responsibility over what happens at the event, but will almost all have smart phones at the event, they can drift in and out of the spectacle and in and out of their phones if they want to. The only universal use of technology is the very brief sign up and perhaps payment at the start.

Solution

In theory, there could be a different type of event that would connect people better into a community. It would need to have the following elements:

1. Within set parameters, the event should be designed by and for the participants.
2. Joing the event should require some preparation by every participant.
3. There should be no speakers and audience, all should be equal. 
4. Participants will not know each other so would need to use an app to build the event beforehand but in some clear proscribed way.
5. Best to have no phones during the event to encourage participation and prevent distraction. 
6. Participants should have complete control of their information and who can connect with them.
7. There should be one designated language for the event.
8. Money should play as modest a role as possible.

Requirements

1. A web app or app. We’re building it. 
2. A person or group to make it happen and invite people.
3. Some physical space, the size of which depends on the number of participants but could be a park, a part of a city with different cafe’s or designated participating commercial entities or public locations.
4. A suitcase or something to store people’s phones.
5. A phone and phone number, the number of which can be given to all participants beforehand as an emergency contact to partners, babysitters, etc.
6. Because people will not have their phones but time will be important, they should be told to bring watches or something with which to keep time. That’s all they’ll need to bring.
7. One person at the event to organize, who has the phone, and answers questions.
8. A way to print pieces of paper before the event to give to each participant when they arrive and drop off their phones.
9. The event will take place during a designated day from around 10h-18h so there will need to be some provision and place for lunch. 

Process

The person or group who starts should be somebody or should know somebody who is very well connected and knows lots of people, ideally among the target group. This is a new type of event and very different from anything those joining will have done before. Joining will require some preparation by each and all participants before the event, this will be one of the toughest parts. For this reason joiners should be encouraged to bring one or more people they know. There is no reason not to broadcast or even advertise, but friend to friend will likely be the best source of joiners. Have a clear description of what is involved so each joiner knows this is not simply something to show up for (or not)  like other events that seem similar on the surface.

The total preliminary work before the event requires all attendees to spend around twenty minutes on their phones on three different days. The next of the three steps in the process can not commence until all joiners have done that step.

The organizers should decide on the maximum number of participants and the deadlines for joining and designing the day on the app. An example would be to say that anybody who wants to join an event that will take place on 1 June must have committed and signed into the app by 1 May and there will be a maximum of one hundred places. Since everybody must participate in the design, if people pull out, it will simply mean a lower number of overall participants. There can’t be a waiting list. 

If, as an example, the deadline to participate is 1 May, then those who sign up by then, can undertake the first steps on the app as soon as they sign up, but give those who signed up just before the deadline three extra days so until 4 May 22:00h. Then 24 hours for the organizers to chase down those who have not yet. Those who haven’t by 5 May 22:00h are dropped. Those who remain have until 12 May 22:00h to undertake the next steps. Then 24 hours to chase those who need chasing. The final steps on the app can be done until 19 May 22:00, with a day to chase down the last few. There may be those who in the ten days before the 1 June event can not come. The App will adjust participants so that on the morning of the event it will have an accurate count and can put each person in the right place. Of course there will be some who don’t show up and give no notice, but ideally not too many. 

The following is what the joiners will do on the app. They will get a great deal of information about what will happen and what it all will be used for as they go through this.

1) Make a Profile. The person will put in their first and last name, phone number, and email address. They will also take a picture of themselves. They can not upload the picture. They will know that the picture will only be used at the end for people to decide if they want to exchange contact information. There will be no way to make a screenshot, and it will disappear after people decide. Each person will also put in where they have lived, employers, academic institutions. No positions. And finally they will put in things they know lots about or are good at. Then they put things they are curious about, or want to understand better.

2) Propose seminar questions The afternoon of the Rorshokito will be groups discussing seminar questions that have been proposed and chosen by the group and is somehow relevant to the topic of this Rorshokito if there is one. So joiners can propose up to three questions they want to discuss. Only one sentence each, maximum of thirty words, 160 characters or so. They don’t have to propose any and all proposals will be anonymous. 

All joiners must do these things above before anybody can undertake the next steps. 

When all joiners have, then a message goes out with a link and joiners do the following: 

2) Choose who to meet Because people often want to meet those who are influential or good looking, in this case Rorshokito joiners will choose who to meet based only on where they have lived, worked, or studied, what they are good at or curious about. They will see no names, no gender, no contact information, no avatar or pictures. For this step when people open the app, after an intro explanation screen, joiners will see a selection of randomly ordered screens, each with the relevant information from an individual on it. They will swipe right for those they want to meet. 

3) Quantify interest After they have chosen who they want to meet, they will each be given the number of “coins” to “spend” on how much they want to meet each person. So, for example, say there are one hundred attendees total, and a particular joiner has just said they want to meet twenty of those one hundred. They may spend forty coins to meet somebody who lists the same small university they went to and twenty on somebody who listed a company they used to work for, ten for somebody who lists a city they have always wanted to visit, then two or one for the rest. 

5) Vote on seminar questions When they have finished the task above, all the seminar question proposals will appear as screens and the joiners will swipe right for those they would like to discuss, they can vote for as many or as few as they want and how they vote comes with no commitment. Whichever gets the top numbers of votes, can be signed up for later.

The voting is simple if the participants are a simple heterogeneous group interested in or united by a topic. But if there is a specific binary difference and the invitations have been done specifically to bring in exactly half of each group, for example, single women and men, or Republicans and Democrats, or native-born and immigrants then the vote tallying is a bit different. The final list of seminar questions will be those that get the most votes as well as gathering votes from both groups, because in this case, each small group that meets during the day of the event will be evenly split between representatives of the two groups.

All joiners must do these things above before anybody can undertake the next steps. 

When all joiners have done these things, then a message goes out with a link and joiners do the following:

6) Sign up for seminar questions And finally, joiners can sign up for seminar questions. Normally if there are three to be discussed they can sign up for their top four ranked choices, and will be able to discuss three of those four. 

7) Sign commitments That they will show up on time, that they agree to give up their phone for the day maybe 10:00h to 18:00h, bring a watch, keep to the schedule, adhere to the moderation rules, don’t ask for people’s last names or contact information at the event itself.

Once this is done, the app sets up two different groups of pairs of individuals, in priority order. The first list of pairs will be seated next to each other during lunch. They will be the people who most wanted to meet each other, meaning they spent the highest numbers of coins on each other. The second ranked set of pairs will be the pairs where one very much wanted to meet another or the interest was more lopsided. This second group of pairs will meet in the morning sessions in groups of four.

The day will have three main parts. If there are for example sixty people at the Rorshokito, after check-in, each will be told to go to one of fifteen different tables, blankets, or locations. At these locations, blankets, or tables, there will be three other people. The app will designate groups of four. Usually people will have three of these meetings. All the groups will discuss the same question at the same time, and there will be a facilitation guide. Examples of questions, What is the strangest food you have ever eaten? What did you think your job would be when you were a kid? What is a movie you think is under-appreciated? What do you think should be taught more seriously to young children? Did you have a childhood nemesis or enemy, who, why? What is your favorite holiday and why? One person will be randomly chosen to keep time and be sure that speakers keep to time. Each person will speak for two minutes, and people will then go around and discuss for a maximum of three minutes, then ask questions of the speakers in sequence. The goal is for each speaker to speak the same amount of time. 

Then there will be a lunch that will be seated. People will be seated with people they wanted to meet. They will speak to the individuals on one side, and half way through the meal, a bell will ring and they will switch to talk to the person on the other side. 

After lunch people will go to seminars that they have chosen, usually three, to discuss three of the four seminar questions they have chosen. Again a facilitator will be randomly selected who will focus on keeping people speaking the same amount.

Then at the end there will be a time to unwind and chat before people leave. 

The main thing is for people to understand that this is not the usual “just show up the event”. Some organizers, and we’d recommend this, may not clarify the exact venue until just before the event, to prevent people from showing up who have not fulfilled their design responsibilities.

Everybody should also know that the day before the event, since they will not have their phones during the event, they will be given an emergency contact number to share with those who may need it, partners, babysitters, etc. Somebody physically present will have that phone and can find them if there is a need. 

The day itself 

When people appear at the designated location at the start, usually a fifteen minute window, they will turn in their phones, smart watches, etc and be given a numbered fob, and a piece of paper or card with where they need to go and what they need to do. The organizer will be sure they have something to keep time with, a watch or something similar. 

The app will write an individual piece of paper for each of the participants that can be printed out the day before the event. It will tell each person where exactly to go and when and will clarify how things will work. 

A typical schedule would look like the following:

The Joiner’s first name at the top

9:45-10:00 Check in at (location)

10:00-10:30 Blanket (# location) Question

10:40-11:10 Blanket (new # location) Question

11:20-11:50 Blanket (new # location) Question

12:00-12:30 Blanket (new # location) Question

13:00-14:15 Lunch venue (seated)

14:30-15:30 Room (# location Seminar topic)

15:45-16:45 Blanket (# location Seminar topic) 

17:00-18:00 Room (# location Seminar topic) 

18:00 -19:00 wind down and head out (location)

The paper will be individualized on one side with where each person goes. Rules and important information on the back. 

Phones should only be given out as people leave. Better for people not to have phones at the mixer at the end so once they receive their phones, they can not reenter. 

After the event and when everybody has left, the organizer says (via an admin view) that the event is over. Each attendee will then get a message bringing them back into the app. They can go into the app when they want and will have something like forty eight hours during which they can choose with whom they want to connect.

A wall (like a wall or feed on Facebook or any other corporate social media platform) will be set up and people can chat there or post pictures, shout outs, etc if they want. 

They will be given the opportunity to give all participants their last names, emails, and phone numbers. They will also be given the opportunity to not give any participants any information about themselves, and to disconnect completely and permanently from the group, thee nuclear option.

They can also go through all participants one by one, by seeing their picture and say what information to give them, last name, email, phone number, or all of those. When they have decided for each, the picture of that person disappears, never to be seen again. Those who have offered the same for them, they will see their contact information that has been mutually given.

Unless they decide on the nuclear option, they will have access to the wall or feed and can see what people have written. There will be no instant messaging within the app, only the wall for the group that will have people’s first names. 

After the joiners decide who they want to be able to communicate with and how, they will have the option to put in a new picture of themselves or some other icon that will show on the wall when they post. But they don’t have to.

People could of course be in more than one Rorshokitos and have more than one wall. Each one they do, they must create new information, they can not keep information, since the app itself will not keep it.

In general, gatherings are of two types, one type is goal oriented, to network, to find a mate, or something similar. The other type is a party, or to be an audience of a band or other spectacle. There is no purpose of the second type except enjoyment.

The idea is that it is not purpose driven, it is not to transfer or capture knowledge or information. At the same time, there is no audience and no spectacle, only participation. And it is quite structured. Its purpose is to build a community with no predetermined goals for that community. It can decide what it wants to do next, if anything, or simply be a catalyst of something that the group or members of the group will decide upon.