Lecture Notes: A New Model for Global Community Building (Prague Fall Season)

These are lecture notes of the talk A New Model for Global Community Building: Lessons from the Prague Fall Season by Irena Kotíková (Epistea) given at EAGxBerlin 2023.

Epistea

• Epistea: A relatively new organization based in Prague.

  Epistea

  An umbrella organization for projects focused on existential security and epistemics.

• Dual Role:

  1. Runs its own projects: Such as the “Prague Fall Season,” which is the main topic.
  2. Provides infrastructure: Offers support (know-how, staff, operations, fiscal sponsorship) to external projects and organizations aligned with its mission.

• Prague Fall Season: An Epistea project focused on global community building.

Defining Community Building

• Importance of Definition: References Łukasz’s workshop on productive disagreements, highlighting the need to define terms before discussion.

• Central Question: What is community building? It’s a frequently used term in the EA/Rationality space, and a core activity for many.

• Speaker’s Experience: 20+ years in community building across various domains, with the last 5 focused on EA/Rationality.

  Community Building

  Creating opportunities for people to meet, learn, and create new connections, things, and projects.

• Elaboration on Components:

  • Meet: Facilitating new connections (professional, collaborative, social) and strengthening existing ones.
  • Learn: Providing chances for learning and information sharing, often specific to the community’s focus (e.g., EA philosophy, specific cause areas, rationality techniques).
  • Create: Enabling the generation of new ideas, projects, and events. (Directly relates to the conference’s “getting things done” theme).

”Classic” EA Community Building Context

• This section contrasts the “seasonal” model with more traditional local group structures.
• Typical Characteristics of Classic EA Groups:
  • Location-Based: Usually centered around a University, City, or Nation. (Speaker implicitly contrasts this with global or online models like EA Anywhere).
  • Year-Round Operation: Activities tend to be continuous, potentially with natural lulls (e.g., academic breaks, holidays).
  • Stable Base & Gradual Growth: Often have a core group of members with a slower, more regular influx of newcomers.
  • Established Culture: The stability allows for the development of strong, shared context, norms, and culture over time.

Introducing “Seasons” as a Model

• Analogy: Starts with literal Earth seasons and their psychological impact (using personal experience moving from Central Europe to California).

• Core Idea: “Seasons” in this context are not literal but refer to periods of focused activity and priorities within community building or even individual life.

  Seasonality Concept

  A dynamic approach over time, allowing for varying timescales (weeks, months, years) and shifting focus. Applies to both individual goal pursuit and community initiatives. Can provide fresh context and concentrated effort.

• Individual Example: Having “seasons” in life where one focuses intensely on career, then perhaps health, then social connections, acknowledging you can’t optimize everything simultaneously.

• Community Application: This concept inspired the “Prague Fall Season” project.

Prague Fall Season - Case Study

• Origin: Conceived after EAGxPrague (May 2022).

• Motivations:

  • Positive feedback on Prague as a location.
  • Funding opportunities (initially mentioned FTX Foundation).
  • Inspiration to “think big” (attributed to Will MacAskill).
  • Desire to create an alternative hub experience outside the primary US/UK centers (Oxford, Bay Area).
  • Goal to be more accessible and inclusive, especially for mainland Europeans, and offer a different cultural context.

  Prague Fall Season Goal high concentration of people, events, and projects, in a limited time and space, making it more accessible and inclusive than existing hubs.

  Create a

• Key Components:

  • People:
    • Residency Program: Core component, required application. 27 residents in the first season, average stay ~9.2 weeks.
    • Visitors: Long and short-term visitors (~150 tracked) supplemented the residents.
    • Residency Support: Provided housing, office/admin support, a retreat, and a coaching program (with T. Barnett).
    • Resident Diversity: Included people focused on animal welfare, AI safety, forecasting, pandemic preparedness, community building, operations, communications, etc. Some had specific projects, others were exploring.
  • Events:
    • A high density of activities (over 70 tracked events/workshops/meetups).
    • Major draw: CFAR Workshop Series (4 workshops, 137 participants, 19 staff/instructors).
    • Other examples: AI Safety Camp, EE Community Building Retreat, regular meetups, smaller discussion groups, social events.
  • The Space (“Fixed Point”):
    • A dedicated villa in central Prague, set up specifically for the season.
    • Capacity: ~50 formal workstations (desk + monitor), ~70-80 people total including casual spaces (couches).
    • Features: Large social space for events, various amenities.

• Metrics & Scale:

  • ~357 people onboarded to the season’s Slack workspace.
  • Peak occupancy in the space was around 55-60 people concurrently (based on graph).
  • Graph shows activity ramping up, peaking, and then declining towards the end of the season (Sept-Dec 2022).

Challenges & Lessons Learned

• Challenge 1: Short Timelines

  • Decision made in May 2022 for a September 2022 launch.
  • Acknowledged the planning fallacy and the tight schedule.
  • Conscious tradeoff: Launch imperfectly and learn vs. wait 1.5 years for a more polished start.

• Challenge 2: Starting Everything Simultaneously

  • Launching the program (Fall Season), the organization (Epistea), and the physical space (Fixed Point) all at once.
  • Result: Intense workload, difficult to give adequate attention to all three pillars; something was always taking a back seat.

• Challenge 3: Maintaining an Intellectual & Stimulating Environment

  • A core goal but challenging to achieve consistently for a diverse, transient group.
  • Requires active effort beyond just providing the physical space.

• Lesson 1: Set up your processes beforehand.

  • Don’t underestimate admin/operational tasks (invoicing, reimbursements, policies, tracking systems).
  • Setting these up early saves significant time and friction later. They seem secondary but are crucial for smooth operation.

• Lesson 2: Set up explicit norms and culture.

  • Crucial for temporary, international communities lacking pre-existing shared context.
  • Covers everything from practicalities (e.g., cleaning schedules) to interpersonal expectations and community health policies.
  • Explicit rules reduce ambiguity and potential conflict. Epistea felt they were “lucky” to avoid major issues but recognized they weren’t fully prepared.

• Lesson 3: Set expectations and communicate them clearly and early.

  • Particularly important for program participants (like residents).
  • Feedback indicated a desire for more guidance and clarity on what was expected from them and what they could expect from the program.

• Lesson 4: Take care of yourselves (Organizers/Community Builders).

  • Community building involves significant emotional labor.
  • Requires constant interaction, attunement to others’ needs, and managing group dynamics.
  • Sustainability is key: Requires breaks, alone time, clear responsibilities, boundaries, and self-care practices to prevent burnout.

Conclusion & Call to Action

• Core Takeaway:
  • Balance the EA/rationalist tendency for careful analysis with the necessity of execution.
  • Acknowledge uncertainty but don’t let it cause paralysis. It’s okay to act imperfectly, learn, and iterate.
  • Have hypotheses and seek feedback, but ultimately, do something.
• Other Key Conclusions:
  • Communication is everything: Crucial both externally (with participants/community) and internally (within the organizing team).
  • Sustainability and Self-Care: Essential for long-term impact in demanding roles like community building.