Full Circle Associates

Ok, well, I did read one article on James' new blog because there was an interesting comment thread that relates to a post of mine from last week. IM, wikis and blogs for your business communication. The thread is on wiki communications traditions.

Tools may have been designed for use in a particular way as imagined by their designers, but their actual use can be quite different. What is particularly interesting is when a community starts explicitly defining their patterns and traditions. It is their "community view" of the tool and it's use. Appropriation and adaptation.

What is also interesting is when different communities start talking about the same tool they may be "speaking a different language" because of their individual community perspectives. Or are taken aback by the productive use of a pattern that they did not find productive. Have you ever seen people fall into the "threaded vs linear" argument about discussion boards? You know what I'm talking about.

For me it has been imperative to surface the perspectives first, before talking about the tool functionality or processes. Otherwise there is a large brick wall that appears in front of your face. Community perceptions and traditions are STRONG forces both in making technology useful for communities, but also in differentiating themselves. That can make it difficult to talk about tools and their use in communities.

It is easy to be tricked into thinking that X tool is always used in a certain matter. More often than not, the use is as varied as the users.

technologyforcommunities, CoP, communitiesofpractice, TechReport