The terminology

Title	Definition	See also
Absolute gaps	The lack of anyone in a group having an element at the level agreed as necessary for fulfilment of the core mission(s) of the group	single point of failure
ACHE	Activist Celebrity Hustle Experiences. The occasions in which some (super-annuated) activist living off (other people’s?) past glories uses you as ego-fodder, facilpulating and framing dissidents as scape-goats. We’ve all been there: well, some of us have.
Allotrope	Allotropes are different structural modifications of an element; the atoms of the element are bonded together in a different manner. An element might “mean” something different in different contexts!	elements, isotopes
Assessment resources	Assessment resources are resources – quizzes, tests etc – which enable an individual or group to have some sense of whether they are indeed functioning at a given level. They are indicative, not prescriptive	development resources
Buddy	You can try to fly solo, but you’ll probably go Icarus. A buddy helps, they really do…
Compound	A group of elements which interact, and should be taken as an interaction. e.g. writing press releases and forming relationships with journalists – you can have one without the other, but why would you?	elements
Core elements	Elements which are central to a group – the group will fail to meet its goals if it does not have these elements, and at the appropriate level	Elements
Development resources	Development resources are resources – found or created – which enable individuals and groups to either maintain a level or move towards a new level of an element	assessment descriptors
Element descriptor	A brief summary of ‘what the element is’ – often accompanied by a short thought experiment on what would happen if an individual/group did not have the element
Element Overview Essay	An essay which sets out why the element matters, what it would mean to (co)develop the ability to be at a higher level on this element, how to combat skill decay and spread the love generally
Elements	Elements are skill, knowledge, or more rarely relationships, which an active citizenship group might need to function. They can be either individual or group level. They are then described at existing at four levels	compounds
Group Development Plan	A plan for a group to identify its core and peripheral elements, assess its absolute gaps, single points of failure, and scope for improvement	personal development plan, absolute gap, single points of failure
isotope	Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element which differ in neutron number, and consequently in nucleon number. All isotopes of a given element have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons in each atom. So, different groups may define the element differently, and have different thresholds for what is novice, practitioner, expert and ninja…
Legitimate peripheral participation	Participation by supporters of a group, who may or may not be ‘paid up’ members in ways which are valorised, validated, and – as appropriate – assessed.
Level descriptors	Elements are described at one of four levels – novice, practitioner, expert and ninja. These are relational and provisional. Ninjas mostly don’t exist, and are a two-edged sword if they do
meta-elements	Elements which are about the construction, reconstruction and spread (?) of the Active Citizenship Toolkit
nongroup elements	Elements from the larger long list which simply don’t matter (at the present) to the group, and can be ignored
Personal Development Plan	A plan for an individual to maintain or increase their level at a number of elements, both for their own pleasure, but also to increase the robustness of a group (e.g. plugging absolute gaps and single points of failure)	Group Development Plan, Absolute gaps, single points of failure
Peripheral elements	Elements which, while nice to have, will only speed the group on its way to the sunny uplands. Not having them will slow things down, but not stop the glorious march of the proletariat
Scaffolding	The supportive structures in place to enable an individual/group to achieve an improvement (consolidation in one level or moving to a next), within an element.	Zone of Proximal Development
Sphere of ignorance	Knowledge is like a sphere, wrote the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1655/1973), the greater its volume, the larger its contact with the unknown. … Ignorance, from this point of view, is the shadow of knowledge. And being a mere shadow, ignorance is usually ignored.
Single Points of Failure (spf)	Only one member of the group has the required element at the required level, leaving the group vulnerable if they leave, fry, turn out to have been an undercover cop all along	absolute gaps
Skill decay	Inevitable (times’s winged chariot and all that) decay of skills because of either time, or because the task gets more complex and having a certain level of skill no longer makes you a ninja or an expert
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)	out of your depth, but with waterwings and a lifeguard hovering… “the distance between what a learner can do without help, and what they can do with support from someone with more knowledge or expertise (“more knowledgeable other”)”