Full Circle Associates

Week 1 Workshop Blog Post

I’m lending a hand for the CPSquare’s (http://www.cpsquare.org) “Connected Futures” workshop which started the last week in April. As part of our collective “end of the week activity,” we are all to blog a reflection either on the workshop discussion board, or on our own blogs. Since I am currently offline while I write this, my timing will be off, but I decided to share it on my public blog as a “peek in” to an ongoing experiment.

(Why am I offline? I’m currently at ILRI in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where I’m co-facilitating a face to face element of an ongoing distributed workshop on knowledge sharing in international agricultural research. The network is down. Who knows for how long…???)

The workshop is devoted to looking at the role and impact of new technologies on communities of practice, and how we steward those technologies (or technology stewardship. If I were online, I’d be linking all these things to previous posts and definitions, but that will have to wait until later!)

This is not a workshop for the fainthearted. In the first week we are asked to register and acclimate to a fistful of online tools, from wikis to blog readers. While we have a “home base” on a discussion board, our activities will range across tools and modalities so we have some real experience to reflect upon and learn from. But all this jumping around right off the bat, before we’ve all gotten to know each other, feels pretty challenging. The brave post that they are feeling confused and I suspect others are quietly nodding in agreement in front of their computer screens.

What facilitates coherence? Especially in a complex world? What enables some of us to feel comfortable with incoherence, ambiguity and incompleteness while others take it as natural? Furthermore, how do we reconcile these differences when we are intending to act “in community?”

For me, these questions are always on my mind when I am in the technology steward’s seat. (Or on that keyboard!)

Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice

Are you in, leading or interested in the development and support of cmmunities of pratice who want or need to use web based tools to connect and be together? (Some call these “social media.” I always squirm a bit because people can use media socially, but I don’t think media is inherently social. It takes us human beings, eh?)  What  role do technologies such as blogs, wikis and social booking might play in your community’s development? If these questions intrigue you and you are an explorer and learner, then you’ll want to check out this new learning event from CPSquare:

Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice

As Shawn Callahan so nicely wrote: We have been designing this event (which runs over 5 weeks starting in April) as a virtual field trip and experimental lab where you will engage your heads and your hands (and hopefully your hearts) and get a good feeling for these technologies and how they might support communities of practice.

You will be guided on this journey by the following practitioners:

Beth Kanter, Beverly Trayner, Bronwyn Stuckey, Etienne Wenger, John Smith, Nancy White, Nick Noakes, Shawn Callahan, Shirley Williams, and Susanne Nyrop. It is important to note: This is a constructivist learning experience. You will not be offered pre-chewed opinions. We’ll be exploring, testing tools and making meaning together. To get the most out of it, make sure you set aside an hour a day to participate. It will make a difference.

I’ll be stewarding the fourth week on creating a learning agenda for technology stewards with Etienne Wenger.

Consider joining up for the virtual expedition!!

My friends and colleagues over at CPSquare, the community of practice on communities of practice, are launching a member driven event next week, Platforms for Communities of Practice. Since I’m often rambling about technologies for communities, I thought some of you might be interested. Here’s some snippets about the event which is all online - from the comfort of you computer, in your jammies if you please…

We’re exploring a half dozen platforms together — attempting to look at the software through the eyes of a community that’s been on that platform for a while. Currently we’re expecting to visit:

* xPERT eCommunity (Q2learning)
* CompanyCommand - Eco (Tomoye)
* TBA - Web Crossing
* TBA - drupal
* CIARIS - Custom-made using Ruby on Rails
* Story-telling in Organizations - Ning
* Best practices in e-learning community - Moodle and Facebook

For each platform / community combination we’re having several levels of engagement:

* Read a post about the community and the platform, written by a knowledgeable person
* View a video that represents a tour of the aforementioned community
* Self-register to use a “play space” where you can get a sense of what the software is about and how it works
* Participate in a discussion on the platform itself with community members about their community and their experience of using the platform
* Participate in asynchronous discussions back here that summarize or reflect on all the foregoing
* Participate in a synchronous phone conference about all of the above
* (Might be follow-on summarization and reflection and meta-conversations)

Rather than asking which platform is “the best” we are asking, “what kinds of communities thrives on each of these quite different platforms?” We’re inviting community leaders, technology stewards, and software vendors to all spend three weeks together thinking about issues of common concern.

The event is organized by CPsquare members and is open to guests who register here. (CPsquare members who are presenting or facilitating can bring a guest for free.)

Just a note: if you are not a CPSquare member and can’t get in for free, you may want to consider becoming a member. Full membership is $150 with discounts for students and others. So it may be cost effective to join and then participate for free!