Friday, June 11, 2004

Lilia on Weblogs as Social Ecosystems

I want to note this post as context for the meeting we'll both be at tomorrow. I'm hoping to talk through some of my experiences as a blog crazed woman. Weblog networks as social ecosystems (and all the wealth of links in this posting and the one right before it!)

 

In Amsterdam

...and already have been lucky to have an amazing conversation with some colleagues in the international development sector. On Sunday at the CPWeek gathering I'll get to meet knowledge bloggers Lilia Efimova and Ton Zylstra and others. I'm excited. Pardon my poor spelling. The jet lag has just set in and my body realizes it has had no sleep since Wednesday. This is probably it for today!

More travel and chocolate details in the TravelBlog!

 

Thursday, June 10, 2004

PixelBlocks: Digital Stained Glass

OK, this is totally off topic, but VERY COOL! PixelBlocks: Digital Stained Glass: Introduction. Another way we can represent ourselves?

 

Storytelling in Practice from Chris Corrigan

I'm just about to head to the airport so no time writing. Just wanted to post the links to the first of three parts from Chris on Story Telling. What is great about this and the subsequent two posts is how Chris grounds his thoughts in his practice. I can feel it.

Storytelling is one way to communicate context, which is critical in online communications. What Chris writes about applies online as well as offline.

 

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Stuart Henshal and Leadership in an Always On World

Stuart Henshal Moves Further into the Audio Dimension
Stuart has to be one of the most passionate advocates for voice communication in the distributed world. He turned many of us on to VOIP applications. I was reading his latest on the Online Presence Spiral Two when this bit caught my eye:

"Leaders facilitate conversations. We will only spiral the velocity and flow of conversations if we find ways to make encounters more appealing and integrate with the ways that people want to use them."
Ah, the lovely intersection between technology and practice. What does leadership mean in an always on world? Does it require that design savvy along with the more traditional leadership skills? Does it ask us to be always ready to improvise in changing, multi-modal situations? How do we gain and hone these skills? Who values them?

 

Lee Blogs Lilia : Weblog EcoSystems and Cities

Short and sweet:
Weblog EcoSystems and Cities. This blog entry is worth a read and is reflective of my new blogging experiences. Read down to the quote about introducing others to blogging.

 

Difficult Conversations (offline and online)

Heath Row blogs in his Fast Company blog some suggestions from Ellyn Traub on difficult conversations. These are both common sense (if we pay attention to it) and a craft that improves with practice. I'm copying all of them because it seems the world needs to see these things in as many places as possible (blogs being a useful tool here!)

* The "What Happened?" conversation. There is usually disagreement about what happened or what should happen. Stop arguing about who's right: explore each other's stories and try to learn something new. Don't assume they meant it. Disentangle intent from impact. Abandon blaming anyone and think in terms of contributions to the problem.
* The "Feelings" conversation. Every difficult conversation also asks and answers questions about feelings. Are they valid? Appropriate? Should I admit them or deny them? What about the other person's feelings, will I hurt them? What if they get angry? Often feelings are not addressed directly and so they interfere with the conversation even more.
* The "Identity" conversation. This is where we examine what's at stake: what do I stand to lose or gain? Am I competent or incompetent? What impact might this have on my career,self-esteem, our relationship? These issues determine the degree to which we feel off-centered and anxious.

She also recommends several steps to take when engaged in difficult conversations:

* Decipher the underlying structure: what happened, what the feelings are, how identity is involved
* Interpret the significance of what is said and what is not
* Identify the erroneous but deeply ingrained assumptions that keep you stuck
* Manage strong emotions, yours (you can only control yourself) -- remember people are just giving you information- it is your choice as to what you do with it (ie get angry, stressed).
* Spot ways your self-image affects the conversation, and ways the conversation affects your self image
* Look at what you can change instead of what you can't
* Listen to understand (not listen to argue)
* Ask questions to clarify and to move the conversation forward

How does this translate online?
The methods themselves translate very well online if the participants in the conversation are willing to engage in what is usually a more drawn out interaction, particularly if asynchronous modes are used. The common wisdom is to pick up the phone or go F2F in conflict mode, but in many situations that is not possible, so developing the skills to slow down and get in to productive, difficult conversations is valuable. For some, the more thoughtful and relaxed response times of asynch are a plus...IF we approach it with that intention. Intention. Hm, there is something worth more contemplation.

The difficult parts are pretty well exposed in the second list above. We either have to have ESP to pick up the subtle layers of communication (F2F embodied in tone, body language, style) in writing, or we have to take the time to be more explicit in our communication. We have to pack feeling, acceptance or resistance to an idea, confusion -- all in to our text. We have to slow down and read more carefully, more generously. For many of us, rushing and impatient, this is the point of failure. Above all, we have to ask more questions! I am in TOTAL agreement with Ms. Traub on that.

More Resources on Challenging Online Situations
* Avoiding Conflict Online, White and Moussou
* Online Interaction: Social Argument compiled by M C Morgan, Dept. of English, Bemidji State University.
* Dispute Resolution And The Global Management Of Customers' Complaints: How Can ODR Techniques Be Responsive To Different Social And Cultural Environments?
* John Suler's great article The Online Disinhibition Effect
* Conflict in Cyberspace: How to Resolve Conflict Online, by Kali Munro, M.Ed., 2002
* A Netizen's Guide to Flame Warriors - Mike Reed - a little humor to help the situation.

 

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Categories, Community, Collective and Individual Voice

In a work avoidance moment (dear reader, have you detected a theme from the blog-crazed woman?) I was cruising Scoble's blog and was pointed here: Community Blogs should be categorized. What was cool was not just the sensible suggestion in the post, but the diverse points of view in the comments. Harking back to my themes of individual/collective identity and experience, there were some great gems:

Darren writes:

Perhaps community blogs could expose “Global” categories and bloggers could choose to optionally post entries to them. This way I could subscribe to a community's feed for Exchange Server, Recruiting, Security or whatever, or I could subscribe to the sitewide feed or to individual bloggers feeds."

This might also be a group forming thing around common areas of interest. Group experience.

James Avery then comments:
"I think the problem is that with too many categories, and category specific feeds, you start to lose the personal aspect of it all. The main feed of weblogs.asp.net has the same problem, which is why I don't subscribe to it anymore. When I read a weblog I am usually interested in the person and what they have to say, whatever it happens to be about... for category specific stuff I usually just go hit up feedster or google. "

So, this leads us back to individual - context, identity, etc. (She mutters to herself, bridge, bridges...)

Back to work. I have to get all the resource materials for my presentation at eMerge2004 (Based in S. Africa/held online) done before I leave for the Netherlands. Am happy that both the presentations for that trip are MOSTLY done. Collaborating with 3 and 4 people is mind bendingly wonderful, but a huge time sink!

 

Let's Talk America and More Bridging

For my US friends:
Seattlite and friend Susan Partnow is one of the folks behind this effort to get people talking to each other, not just hurling one liners about who we like or who we dislike. It is F2F conversations facilitated through online connections - another example of a bridge. Click to Let's Talk America - sign up to host, volunteer or take part in a conversation in your local area.

This reminds me of the National Coalition for Dialog and Deliberation's "Calling the Question" project. The project is sponsored by the Mainstream Media Project and the Harvard Global Negotiation Project, in cooperation with MoveOn.org It is designed to impact call in radio shows here in the US, but I sense the technique is applicable in much broader ways and across other borders. They are using online asynch discussion boards (run by MoveOn) for feedback and coaching of the volunteers doing the radio talk show call ins and have developed a really great looking training program for the volunteers. Nice blend of web, phone, radio and F2F (I believe some of the local volunteer teams meet F2F.)

 

Blog Crazed Woman - the story continues (Netherlands Note)

I am jamming on work and upcoming travel, so my blog cruising and posting time will dwindle to nothing over the next 10 days. I am NOT abandoning the project, just letting life intrude. Good thing. (Side note: I'll be in Amsterdam and The Hague next week. There is an informal gathering at the Treehouse in Amsterdam on Sunday the 13th, speaking at Infonortics VC Mon-Tue, open for gathering on Wednesday! Email me.)

What I have noticed about sharing my experiences is that people generously offer feedback -- both on the online facilitation list, via comments and private email. It is like I'm getting free coaching from the universe -- QUALITY coaching. It's fantastic.

On the blog reading side I have of course been following blogs related to online interaction, KM, new techologies for interaction etc. But I have also decided to follow a few niche areas to see another view. I've been following a bunch of food blogs, blogs of women in technology and then some random cool voices. Which reminds me... I still haven't done the blogroll and it probably now won't get done until after my trip.

So in summary, I'm settling in. Calming down a bit. Enjoying the ride.

 

Sending Gmail Invites for a Good Cause

Have gmail invites? Want to use them in a way that gives out and up? Check this out: Do Some Good.

 

Monday, June 07, 2004

Visual Bridges: Feeds & Faces

Piers Young (who posted a great comment below) wrote a bit on the impact of a visual clue of a bloggers identity in a blog post. This reminds me that when I'm muttering about bridging, I have been focusing on bridging between tools and between the individual and collective experience. He reminds me in his thoughts about people's faces attached to their blog posts that we can bridge modalities as well. And the stuff we've been playing with here about audio. Is this bridging with modalities about forming shared experiences? Is this a way (or one layer of the ways) to help bridge the individual/community space?

Edit monday afternoon: Shirley has faces on her blog posts! http://shirley.blogdrive.com/

 

Chris Corrigan and Bridging Between Blogs and Wikis

I've been ruminating the past few days about the bridge between blogs and mailing lists. Then this morning as I was skipping down my bloglines list I saw this wiki page from Chris Corrigan. OpenSpaceWorldNET: DeeperOpenSpaceWeblog. Chris wrote:

I keep a weblog at my site called Parking Lot which is where I take note of the world around me and post thoughts about Open Space, among other things. Since starting my weblog, I have discovered people and places that were previously unknown to me, and I have noticed how weblogs extend the breadth of a person's online presence. But, even though I have a comments application on my weblog, it still misses depth. Weblogs are great at extending, but because they are time dependant, they aren't so good at being spaces in which people can drill down deeper into issues. Wikis on the other hand, do exactly that. Thus the marriage of a weblog that extends span and a wiki that extends depth seems to be the most holistic way to explore ideas in the online world. So this wiki is about topics raised at parking Lot having to do with Open Space.

In this way, it should be pointed out, the marriage of these two technologies create a situation not unlike those created by Open Space Technology. The weblog becomes one part invitation, one part bulletin board and the wiki becomes part market place, part small group discussion and part proceedings document.

This echoes Susan Nyrop and Lee LeFever's comments. So the pattern is getting consistent. We have these emerging patterns of practice associated with tools. We notice what is missing (the bridge) and we are experimenting with different ways to weave the experiences together when we want to move past personal reflection or publishing.

 

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Seb's OpenMind: Bloggers With An Interest In Community

Oooh, I almost wish I had not found this. I really need to clean the house! Seb's OpenMind: Bloggers With An Interest In Community (I fixed a few typos too)

 

Collaborative Music Play Lists: Playlistlogging

Seb, Lucas and I have been playing around with the intersection of shared play lists of music and online interaction. Lucas suggested the creation of a group playlist using a wiki and the "play this" feature of WebJay. So Seb started a wiki based list. From that page he pointed to a nice FAQ about PlayListLogging. This morning's list is nice ane mellow for a Sunday morning. Join us! Maybe one day we can do a chat with the music synched up and see what happens.

 

More on this "Individual/Collective" Thing

Sebastian Fiedler posted on the relationship between self-directed learning and the nature of blogs -- the way we "own" our blog. Now this was interesting and if you are looking at the role of blogs in learning, do read the full post. I think he's nailed something essential about blogs. But I want to take a small turn off on to a side road.

What I'm wondering about is how do we balance the amazing power of self learning, of the autodidact, with learning in community and things such as Communities of Practice? Again, I'm seeing this gap between the individual and the collective which online seems to be reinforced by the nature of the tools we use to do and express this stuff.

Blogs feel strongly individualistic. They publish. They speak outward. Wikis are communal and individual ownership can be blurred or obliterated. Discussion forums are great for divergent discussions, but require a degree of dedication for convergence that not many hang in there. Telephone calls create their own set of barriers. RSS has been suggested as the glue, but RSS connects. It does not create or "hold the space" for the negotiation of meaning between individuals ideas and knowledge.

Where's the bridge and what is the balance? Is this individual/collective thing something we should think about? Worry about? Devote resources for tools and processes?