Chris offers another succinct and useful “how-to” on using a social network for peer collaboration. Then his readers chime in with even more goodies. If you are asking the question “should I start a social network for my group, team, network, etc?” take a look at Enabling Peer Collaboration Using Social Networks .
Month: March 2008
NEXUS U Offerings
Nexus U OfferingsNexus U OfferingsLast week I blogged about Nexus for Change II March 29 – April 1 in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. The first two days are Nexus U, a chance to dive into particular methods and approaches to whole systems change. Gabriel Shirley, who is coordinating the “U” sent out a list of the “explorations” available on Saturday. He said this is pretty set, but there may always be a last minute change or two. (PDF of Nexus U)
You can pick two. Then on Sunday you put them to work. There are some cool people and this will be a chance to work with them in small groups.
- Arts Integration – Tim Van Ness
- Appreciative Inquiry – Diana Whitney
- Peter Block’s Community Engagement Model – Linda Fabe, Dan Joyner
- Community Weaving – Cheryl Honey
- Conference Model – Dick Axelrod, Emily Axelrod
- Dynamic Facilitation – Jim Rough, Deanna Martin
- Future Search – Sandra Janoff
- Human System Dynamics – Kristine Quade
- Open Space Technology – Peggy Holman
- Process Arts Framing – Brandon WilliamsCraig
- Self-organizing Systems: Creating the Capacity for Change – Myron Rogers
- Six Sigma – Tom Devane
- User Centered Design – Keith Innstone, Gabriel Shirley
- Visual Process Integration – Nancy White (an introduction to using visuals/graphics in your facilitation)
- World Cafe – Don Proffit
- Whole Scale Change – Sylvia James, Paul Tolchinsky, Beverly Seiford
Community building runs in the family
I’m thrilled to see my niece, Ayala Kalisher, a fire dancer, building community. Plus I’m just a damn proud Auntie. You go, Girl!
Playing With Fire – City on a Hill Press
“I saw it at a festival, and everyone out there just looked so cool, and I wanted to be able to do that,” Kalisher said. “They all looked like they should’ve been superheroes out of a comic book manipulating that fire.”
Along with the fact that fire performance is much appreciated by both sexes, Kalisher’s desire to spin fire “like a rock star” is a common motivation for fire dancing.
With a number of fire troupes based out of Santa Cruz, the area claims a mixture of professionals and hobbyists who freely collaborate and share ideas to progress their work.
One recently formed fire-dancing group, Fire University Santa Cruz, was created by Kalisher to try and get local fire spinners of all skill levels to gather weekly.
“I was inspired by the Fire University in Davis to try and build a fire community here,” she said. “When I moved back to Santa Cruz recently, a lot of local performers that spin fire in Santa Cruz told me that the public gatherings had disappeared and no one had any motivation to recreate them, so I brought Fire University here.”
If you read the article, you will see that Ayala is also her community’s technology steward, helping coordinate joint orders of material and making their own fire dancing tools. See, it isn’t just about online, eh? There is technology stewardship of many kinds in diverse communities of practice!
Watching twice and realizing I’m listening
I’m fickle.
I forget most movies the day after I watch them. Same for most books. Rarely do I want to see or read something a second time. So Monday’s video comes courtesy of a movie I have now watched twice and am actually thinking about getting a copy of the sound track and DVD – Across the Universe . (Sorry, I did not embed it. Tech issue.)
I was wondering why I like to hear music over and over again – a different pattern from books or movies. Then I realized Across the Universe is, in fact, a musical. And the other movies I have watched more than once have most often been musicals.
What is is about musicals?
If I look at the golden age of musicals they are often racist and sexist. But they, like our society, have evolved to convey real issues.
And they have music.
The music carries two things for me. One is emotion. I think of songs as the soundtrack of my life, and they bring both a deeper connection with the emotion of the text and they embed a memory deeper in my brain.
The other is the switch between dialog and music allows us to step outside of our daily concept of “reality.”
It is like when I’m on a plane, 30,000 miles above terra firma and I can reflect on the world in a way that is different on the ground. A step away that gives a step closer to clarity.
There is a connection here with my recent playing with visuals. The addition of a different type of aural experience changes how we perceive something. I wrote a while back about the impact of adding music as background to a focus chat. Facilitators often prime a room by having music playing as people arrive for a gathering. My dance and yoga teachers set the tone with their choice of music.
Is a fully lived life a musical?