Who Wants to Be…? is an ask-the audience game show, where the rules are made up by the audience.

This was the latest in a series of games which had started in December 2006 where an audience at Limehouse Town Hall made up the first rules about how the game should work, and what to do with the box office takings, by voting on new rules using a simple majority system.

For Adhocracy we decided to wipe the slate clean, and create a completely new version of  Who Wants to Be…? starting from the position of consensus-based decision-making instead of majority voting.

The game was radically different as a result. Seated in a large circle around the Talkaoke table, the 40 or so people there at the start of the game were initially dismayed at having to achieve consensus to move things forward. However, after a slow and halting start, the game, and people’s ideas began to evolve.

What was striking was how much people were willing to stick up for the consensus structure, even in the face of nearly unanimous opposition. There were some eloquent speeches, some fantastic ideas, and in the end, the audience decided to give £250 to the agit-prop activist group The Space Hijackers to protest against the DSEI arms trade fair.

What was interesting, given the reluctance of previous audiences to do this kind of thing (almost every game has had some activist ideas thrown in), was that ideas that would have fallen over in votes were not only countenanced by the consensus model – they actually slipped through to consensus without there being any kind of controversy.

This was a fascinating game of Who Wants to Be…? because it showed how different starting points (voting vs. consensus) can lead to radically different outcomes, as well as far more tortuous and complicated decision-making processes!

Click here to watch the full video

In its simplest form each participant pays an equal contribution which goes into a pot. We stimulate the collective imagination. Through discussion, debate, and ultimately voting, they will decide how to spend the total. Who Wants to Be has helped an audience to decide how to spend £2000, how to renovate a much-loved public park, and a grass roots approach to solve the world’s climate crisis. It’s a fun, accessible recipe for micro-social change.

In the standard format, the first half is about idea generation, and the second narrows down, refines and selects the final idea. To vote, the audience are given a folded card with 3 fluorescent colours.

The host with a microphone presents the show and helps keep the conversation and ideas flowing but it’s up to participants to come up with the ideas and suggestions. Gamble the money. Generator for a village in Zambia. Make a Christmas single. Build the worlds largest crumpet… are just some of the great and fun suggestions we have had.

Using our Heckle system, participants’ suggestions are sent to the screen as words and images to the screen. Using any web enabled device they can post them up themselves. This keeps a visual record of what has been said. The best suggestions get put through to be voted on in the second round.

The best ideas are pitted against one another in the second half of the show in groups of three, with each idea getting a colour (red, green or yellow). Participants hold up a colour to the idea they best like and a camera counts the votes. These votes are calculated and the highest vote is put through to the next round, until it comes down to one final vote.

Watch some highlights of Who Wants to Be in action at The Unicorn Theatre and the Chapelfield of Dreams

Funderstorm posters went up on bus stops all over Islington

The People Speak worked with Listen Up! at Islington Council to create this visionary programme - the biggest youth participatory budgeting scheme in the world as of 2010.

Funderstorm Team Training Programme

The programme started by training a team of 20 young people in running participatory discussion and voting events.

Listening Campaign

The Funderstorm Team talked directly to over 3500 young people in Islington (about 10%) through a series of young-person run public events at community centres, school assemblies, and public Talkaoke sessions, as well as vox-pop interviews and surveys.

Finally, young people facilitated an ‘agenda setting’ event at Islington Town Hall where all the issues raised so far were prioritised in discussion with young people, councillors and youth workers.

“I was impressed by the quality of discussion and ideas, not to mention the passion andenthusiasm shown by the young people at the launch event.”

Cllr Paula Belford

“Events like this give you a chance to see what other young people are interested in. Young people need to get interested in organising projects now, so they can learn how to be independent and not leave it all to the adults.”

Johanna, 14, Mt. Carmel School

Young people vote on their priorities at the Funderstorm agenda-setting event

The Funderstorm Voting Website

The Funderstorm Website was then launched, inviting young people to submit their proposals directly and transparrently, and vote on their favourites. Each project on the website was eligible to gain up to £5000 of funding. In the first two months the website attracted 59 proposals, and over 500 votes and comments, which was already a huge increase in participation and decision-making.

The Funderstorm Website - transparent voting.

Funderstorm Live Voting Events

More ambitious (over £5000) proposals went through to one of three live voting rounds, where young people and other stake-holders were invited to attend an event where proposals could be discussed, explored, and voted on in more detail.

• The voting process took into account both the priorities of young people and council-provided indices of deprivation.
• ‘Popular’ projects and projects that addressed a specific group (eg. disabled young people) would be voted on in parallel streams.
• A panel of young people and experts from Islington Council were nominated to give live feedback on the process.

Premature Conclusion:

Unfortunately, due to funding cuts and changes in management after the 2010 UK general elections, the Funderstorm process was prematurely halted just before the first live voting event, and then shelved before any of the larger projects could be funded.

Outcomes:

• £50,000 of the overall £400,000 was distributed to projects voted through online.
• Over 4000 young people were involved in a democratic discussion and participatory budgeting process.
• A brilliant team of young people were trained, and then facilitated some fantastic discussions.

However, given the premature conclusion of the project, the overall lessons that the young people involved learned about politics and democracy were not overwhelmingly positive.

What we learned:

• That it’s easy, fun and hugely rewarding to involve young people in direct democratic decision making. They are enthusiastic, full of ideas, and they are always experts at understanding the issues surrounding them and evaluating ideas about how to improve their environments.
• How to train people to involve their peers in discussions and decision-making, and developed a training programme that we are still using and refining to train young Talkaoke hosts.
• To make sure that funding for participatory processes is guaranteed and secure, and that there is full commitment from partners  to the whole process up to senior management level before the project starts.

There’s a lot more we learned, and a lot more detail to this project that we are very keen to share ideas and experiences with anyone attempting something similar.

Responding to Birmingham City of Culture 2013 – The Big Conversation

(in partnership with Birmingham Hippodrome and Fierce)

The Patrick Centre
POSTPONED! sorry for any inconvenience!

(No concessions available, no booking fees apply) call 0844 338 5000Who Wants to Be…? is a spontaneous, democratic, live theatrical experience where the public really do take control. People propose ideas, discuss, and then vote on how to spend the entire evening’s box-office takings: Donate it? Invest it? Gamble it? Waste it? Form a collective and make the best idea happen yourself? You, the audience, decide.

Who Wants to Be…? gives people an insight into the possibilities of their collective imagination. This special-edition is inspired by Birmingham’s bid to be named City of Culture in 2013, provoking a lively debate around people’s ideas of culture in the city.

NB: The show runs from 6:30pm – 8pm GMT (1 hour behind Copenhagen time), at DGI-byen. Details of how to get there are on the Climate Forum website

The mission: to have fun seeing if a group of people people having fun can make better decisions and raise more money than the politicians at Copenhagen!

Introducing the Planetary Pledge Pyramid from The People Speak on Vimeo.

Pledge your fiver and get access to the big event on Kickstarter.com:

Anyone can propose ideas and vote on the best ones – which will all go through to the final game in Copenhagen. You can get the ideas flowing by signing up on the Planetary Pledge Pyramid Facebook Application, or on the Uservoice site.

On the night as many Internet voters as we can recruit will join 300 people in the DGI Buyen building in central Copenhagen for the grand finale of the people’s Climate Forum.

As usual – anything could happen! But if you want to get a sense of how the show itself might look, check out these write-ups and video of the last ‘Who Wants to Be…?’ show in Newcastle.

See you in Copenhagen!

On the 13th November 2009, 107 people paid £10 each for their tickets, and gathered in the Cluny 2 theatre in Newcastle to decide what to do with £1070 in another dramatic, democratic game of Who Wants to Be…?.

“One of the week’s highlights with a hugely liberating and spontaneous night of audience autonomy.”

- Colette Bernhardt, The Guardian

Thanks to everyone at Cluny2, Wunderbar, Illana the Voice of Reason and the wonderful Film Bee for this video they made of the event and had online the very next day!

Who Wants To Be…? The People Speak from Wunderbar Festival on Vimeo.

Participants in the previous show in Cardiff had really helped to shape the rules of the game, and with the new ‘brainstorming’ format in place, ideas came thick and fast. We were also getting some great ideas in from people via twitter, which was an exciting addition to the action in the room.

We will be adding a full write-up soon, but for now, if you want to know what happened – you can read this fantastic write-up by Chris, a member of the audience who we did not pay to write this.

To get people ready for the show, we went to Newcastle and asked a few people what they’d spend the money on. Nobody mentioned anything about an electricity generator for a clinic in Zambia.

Grainger Market – What would spend £1000 on? from The People Speak on Vimeo.

This Who Wants to Be…? was part of the Wunderbar Festival please visit: http://www.wunderbarfestival.co.uk/programme/events/who-wants-to-be Or for more info on Wunderbar Festival itself: http://www.wunderbarfestival.co.uk

If for some reason you’re interested, you can download the press release about it here.

Previously on Who Wants to Be…?, after seriously considering using their money to make an attempt on the record for baking the world’s biggest crumpet, an audience of 200 decided to spend their £2000 commissioning an artist to create a ‘Democracy Bench’ for a local London park. You can read about that here.

This time, the ideas were no less varied. Early proposals included employing a ‘hugger’ to comfort people in the street, creating an innovation award for the festival, or building a well in an African village.

After the first few votes, the audience divided into political factions. One group of people, all of whom had spent the day at the festival at an unconference about the future of DIY technology, were determined to either give the money to analogue blogger Alfred Sirleaf, or to the team from Maker Faire Africa, both of whom were in the audience. The rest of the audience wanted to spend the money on a local project such as buying a wind turbine for Chapter, buying a dinghy for a local children’s boat club, or an environmental campaign to encourage cycling in the city.

This was the first time an audience had become so divided at a game of Who Wants to Be…? There were probably many reasons for that to happen. Audience member Eddo Stern pointed out that grouping ideas into almost arbitrary categories, and then voting on them early in the game eliminated whole swathes of ideas and the possibility of creatively modifying and blending them. This was also the first show in a cinema, where the audience were all facing forwards, rather than sitting in an amphitheatre, where they could all see each other, which may have isolated some groups at the front from those at the back who had a view of who was voting for what.

Finally, the audience narrowly decided to spend the money on a local environmental campaign to ‘green the city’ by re-enacting the famous ‘Turf the Street‘ direct action from 1996, where residents of Leeds’ Methley’s estate decided to lay 800 square meters of turf, turning a street into a village green for a weekend.

Despite making such a daring decision, very few people seemed happy with the outcome, and some felt completely disgusted by it. However, a few members of the audience did offer to help make it happen, and plans will soon be underway to find and returf an appropriate area of Cardiff!

We got some great feedback from people in the bar after the show, which you can watch below:

Feedback from ‘Who Wants to Be…?’ at Chapter, Cardiff from The People Speak on Vimeo.

The People Speak team recognise that there were some major problems with the structure of this event that made it possible for more than 50% of the audience to be disappointed by the outcome.

We would like to thank you all for your generous feedback, which has helped to evolve the rules of the game in the following ways:

• The game is now divided into two halves, one for brainstorming and one for voting (so that nothing is excluded in the first half).
• Ideas can be nominated to go through from brainstorming to voting rounds, and the audience have a quick poll to select the top 9 ideas.
• Someone has to stand by each of the 9 top projects, and offer to make it happen in order for it to progress to the voting round.
• During the break, people can gather around their favourite project’s representative and help prepare the pitch for the second half.
• In the second half, people pitch the top 9 ideas, they are then discussed and voted on, until a final run-off selects the winner.

These rules proved to be a huge success in generating greater audience satisfaction in the following game.

We would like to add a special note of thanks to Emma Posey, the
festival director, who took time out of her weekend after the festival
to give us some really excellent feedback on style, structure and
presentation.

Let the evolution continue!

It was a close-run competition – with Linda Hesh’s ‘For and Against’ benches coming in second by only a few votes, followed by ‘A bench to encourage democratic public debate’ by Stuart Haden.

This beautiful bench was commissioned by an audience of 180 people, each paying £10 and then proposing, discussing and voting on what they wanted to do with their £1800. You can read the whole story so far, or just watch the new video – hot off Rick’s workstation – below:

We will now be working with John, Southwark Council, and the great Parks team at Chumleigh Gardens to get the bench built and installed. More news soon!

We would like to thank all the artists who made such an effort to do these great designs, and provide the whole audience with something to talk, think and vote about.

After a fantastic two hour session of making proposals, discussing and voting on what to do together, they decided to commission someone to design ‘Democracy Bench’, to be installed in a local park. So, we found a wonderful location for the bench, and then sent out a call for proposals.

The response was phenomenal! We received some amazing proposals that are ready for consideration by the participants and you – the public. You can only vote if you attended the event and paid a tenner, but everyone can comment on the proposals, and the artists and designers have been invited to answer questions on their work.

Whichever bench has the most votes by the 5th April is the winner, and will receive the 1800 quid commission!

If you were at the event, but don’t have a login to the site, please let us know: bench@whowantstobe.co.uk.

The Call for Proposals

The People have Spoken! 180 people used a game of Who Wants to Be to decide to commission a ‘democracy bench’. download the commission brief here!

Background

On the 7th November 2008, 180 people paid £10 each, and gathered in the Unicorn Theatre, London Bridge, to decide what to do with £1800 of their box office takings in a game of Who Wants to Be…? – the ‘ask the audience’ game show. You can read about that here.

After much discussion and many ideas, they decided to use the money to commission a ‘democracy bench’ for a London park. This is the call for proposals. If you think you can design and build a bench for £1700 – please make a submission! If you know anyone who might be interested – please let them know!

The Brief

You can download the brief here (and forward it to people who might be interested!
The brief is very open – the audience wanted a ‘democracy bench’ in a London park, which could mean many things. They also mentioned commemorating the event with a brass plaque bearing audience member’s names, but that’s just an idea. Your bench might encourage them to talk, vote or to sit and reflect on their civic duties… Democracy is the theme, but your bench might be a satirical anti-democracy political statement – seating 2 people or 200 people. It’s up to you.

Materials

If it’s meant for a London Park, materials should be very durable – unless you want it to bio-degrade or something. In any case, please be considered about the materials you choose.

Location

London Borough of Southwark has very helpfully agreed to house the bench in the beautiful Chumleigh Gardens, an historic and much­loved public space, so do read up on it for further inspiration read about the park, or look at some pics.

Budget

We have raised £1800 for the commission, but don’t let that cramp your creativity. If your design is really great, but will cost more – tell us and perhaps we can raise it.

How to apply

Please send us an application to bench@whowantstobe.co.uk , including the following:

• A description of your bench, mentioning your approach to the requirements, materials and any location details.
• Please outline a budget – how much will which bits cost? Perhaps we can help with some in-kind support so let us know what you need to make it happen.
• Tell us about yourself! Are you the right person to make this bench? Have you got any experience of doing stuff like this before?
• Any images, links, drawing, video or other supplementary materials describing your bench.

If you would prefer to send hard copies, mail or bring them to:

Bench Commission
c/o The People Speak
17-25 Cremer St.
London E9 5PH

Timetable and selection process

What happens next: Once all the applications are in, each person who donated their £10 will be able to discuss and vote on their favourite benches in an online poll. The winner will be announced at the end of March. You can then follow the progress, design, build and installation of the bench on this website.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact us.

Audience members!

If you didn’t give us your email addresses, please contact us and we will give you voting privileges on the commission judging website. If you have any further comments, requests, or ideas, please feel free to post them as comments below, and you can vote on your favourite comments and ideas – to help the bench designers with their applications!