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Communication: I want more. How about you? - Internet Time

Tags: communication, ning, overload, social-networking, water-cooler on 2007-12-05 -All Annotations (0) -About

more frominternettime.ning.com

Reply by Harold Jarche Oct 13

My attention is spread between my blog, comments, other's blogs, Facebook, Ning, social bookmarks and a few other social spaces. My best (?) thoughts usually go on my blog. If you added up all of the aggregate conversations of these 165 members there is probably much more depth than we see here. Perhaps we just have too many online options today.
Permalink Reply by Andy Jones Oct 15

Finally someone has said it. I'm surprised (and pleased) it's you. You're right - this is a bit, erm, treacle like. I'm a full throttle, get involved, interact, shout, rant, think type of person (in case you hadn't guessed).

Internet time is where I put my ideas to the test of the community.

Because, as you said, there are some really good minds here (so what are YOU doing here I hear you ask) then I get some really good insite, ideas etc. If it wasn't there, I'd be going it alone.

We could become a stellar "think tank". STELLAR. With the knowledge, experience and wisdom sloshing around here then all everyone needs to do is contribute once every 40 days and we'd still get 4 new posts a day. Simple that way right. Imagine being able to ask the help of 167 other people from all over the world who are willing to help?

For those of you reading this thinking "but Andy, I can't write sparkling and witty prose like you". Spit it out and we'll work it out! Jay's made it clear that the rules are to play nice - so you're not going to get attacked or ridiculed (because if you did I'd be gone long ago - I once suggested that Lobster was a realistic currency - no seriously!).

Anyway - enough of the rambling. Jay - we're going to need to do some kicking but I think we're going to get somewhere.
Permalink Reply by Bill Bruck Oct 15
Permalink Reply by Bill Bruck Oct 15
I'd like to suggest three points for your/our consideration: technology, you, and us.

Technology

Ning is a nice platform. But I see it as more of a social networking platform (designed for weak ties and occasional interactions among larger numbers of people) rather than an online community platform (designed for stronger ties and regular interactions among a smaller group of people).
The affordances for the two types of platforms differ in subtle but socially important ways. Things like the ability to quickly and easily read all new posts, to participate by email (I was told that's so Web 1.0, but it's important to me at any rate, and would up particiption 100% to see and reply to things from my Outlook inbox); etc.
You

I've become convinced - and you've heard me say so in my talks - that self-organizing start-up communities just don't work very often. They need a strange attractor to get things going and build the momentum to where they have a change of being self organizing. They need a wedding planner - someone to take stewardship for creating a coffee shop and seeding it with some great discussion items. They need an event planner - someone to ask the equivalent of the leaning circuits "big question" of the month. They need a facilitator to ensure that every post is responded to - and not simply by the facilitator - so much facilitation is back channel, bringing in "ringers," etc.

Bottom line - I hate to be blunt about this - but this is your community. It's your social capital that has me taking half an hour of my time posting here, and coming back from time to time to see what's happening - but now less and less, and there's not much going on.
Us

That having been said, it's not enough to have a robust platform and charismatic strange attractor(s). The soil has to be fertile and the time right to plant the seeds. That soil is us, and I'm not sure how fertile a field we are. Harold said it already - he spends his time planting seeds in his own field.
I would suggest that a lot of it, in our field, is driven by the desire for personal branding. Folks want to make a name for themselves. In fact, for many, online personal branding is a (the?) cornerstone of building their own reputation in the field, and even generating visibility and buzz that will lead to consulting and other contracts.

I believe blogs are much better than participating in someone else's community for this.
So, I guess another question to ask or factor to consider is this: Of the 165 folks who include some of the best minds in learning - how much appetite is there actually to simply be an indian and not a chief? To be part of a community and not the start of our own one-person play?

How much to we want to sing together in a chorus (or have hilarious disagreements in the local pub) v. stand on our own soapbox in Hyde Park to proclaim our view of the world to passers-by?
I WAS, in fact, suggesting as a possibility that many of us "learning professionals" may, in fact, put our online posting energies into building our brand and marketing, and have very little left for participation in online communities that will offer less in this regard.

In know it's a rather bold statement, and in fact, may be offensive to some, for which I apologize in advance. But as I compare the sharing I experience in other online venues with what I observe in the learning community, it seems like folks have much more energy for posting where it will build their brand. I actually don't have a lot of judgment about this, but I do suspect it may be true.
active stewardship needs to take place in order to maximize the possbility that the community will grow.
This space is not a community. It's a community center - the online "building" in which a community can meet.

You probably have a commuity center near your house. But there's no one in it now, because there's no basketball game going on. Community centers - be they online or bricks and morter - need to have basketball games and other activities in order to attract people. And we're all busy folks. We need sometone to organize and structure these activities to build a vibrant community.
Reply by Jay Cross Oct 15
I particularly like Bill's suggestion that we fill the event planner role.
I'm surprised by this talk about each of us gardening our own plots. Indeed, blogs are a wonderful tool for self-promotion. But that's not what you come here for. This is not a blog; it's a place
To play on another of Bill's analogies, the basketball game is here. Be here now. You can sit in the stands or join the action on the court. I take part to improve my game.
Permalink Reply by Ignatia Oct 16
I like the idea of an active stewardship to boost the allround activity in the community.

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Impediments to Clear Writing

Tags: clarity, communication, email, writing on 2007-06-21 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.illinoistrialpractice.com

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Connectivism Blog : It's not about tools. It's about change. By George Siemens. 6/12/2007

Tags: change, communication, human-networks, incomprehensibility, learning, policy, schools, specialization, tools on 2007-06-15 and saved by9 people -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromconnectivism.ca

those of us in the educational technology space draw on terms and concepts straddling numerous disciplines - psychology, learning theory, technology, and social trends (Freire/Illich-type power issues with a smattering of democracy and undertone of power and opression thrown in) - each generally viewed to be fairly incomprehensible, but when carefully blended, is absolutely alien to the daily thinking habits of most people.
If your experiences mirror my own, chances are you have only a few colleagues within your organization where you can have a conversation of this nature. Most of your "intellectual colleagues" are probably part of a social network you have created through blogs or other social technologies. So, here we are - more optimistic than educators have been in a long time, feeling that many of the tools we have at our disposal represent the beginnings of a true revolution in education (though we are periodically rebuked by those "who have seen it all before" and are happy to remind us that the same conversation was happening with radio, TV, and whatever else).
But the victories feel a bit hollow. Teachers are talking blogs. We want them to talk educational reform. Administrators are talking about "learner-centric". We want them to talk policy, faculty contact hours, preparation time, and open networks.
We are at a point of transition - will our tools be absorbed by education systems, and then become part of the problem?
the language of our discipline will continue to render our activities impotent. Will the change come only from conference-tour academics that adopt current trends and present them without passion for change to an audience seeking to hear what's new in tools, but not what's new in process
I'm concerned that the current tone of talk about read/write web tools in the conference circuit is one of shoring up an approach to teaching and learning that is fundamentally at odds with how people learn and interact.
Or put another way - we are seeking a window dressing solution when it is the house that needs to be renovated.
Forget wikis...think collaboration. Forget podcasts...think democracy of voice. Forget RSS/aggregation...think personal networks.
It's the change underlying these tools that I'm trying to emphasize. Forget blogs...think open dialogue.
Parents understand the importance of preparing their children for tomorrow's world. They might not understand RSS, mashups, and blogs
Society understands the importance of a skilled workforce, of critical and creative thinkers. They may not understand wikis, podcasts, or user-created video or collaboratively written software
What would success look like if we achieved it? What would classrooms look like? How would learning occur? We require a vision for change.
What is your vision for change?
Elaine Garofoli:
My adult students are mostly open to my enthusiastic embrace of collaboration and the need for shifting to a "power to the people model", but they invariably come back with the realities of the limitations of the K-12, or corporate, or non-profit, or community college environments in which they are employed.
I am intrigued with David Weinberger's notions of the power of the "new digital disorder",inherent in which is a power shift from a centralized locale to a locus within the individual.