Susie Cambria's List: Collective Action

By 2015, technology and social networks will change the way people organize, a new report from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute finds.

The report, Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril and Potential of Networks (55 pages, PDF), draws on more than seventy examples to illustrate how networks are being used to drive transparency in government, better care for the elderly, and more effective emergency assistance in the wake of disasters. Part of Knight's Technology for Engagement initiative, the report imagines three scenarios of how society might change as a result of the evolving way people connect to information and each other. One scenario projects a world of distrust where concerns about privacy dominate and people retreat from the public space; another foresees a more trusting environment where residents are willing to connect to improve their communities at a local level; and a third depicts an extremely mobile society shaped more by personal preferences than place.

(From: http://www.ncgrantmakers.org/news/62431/Social-Networking-Tools-Will-Continue-to-Drive-Change-Report-Suggests.htm)

I'd like to thank all who participated in my study, "Networked Neighborhood: Hyperlocal Media and Community Engagement in Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C.", when I sent the survey to this list earlier this spring. I greatly appreciate the input of all who were willing to share their experiences with me, and now I'd like to share my findings with you. I presented my thesis in the form of a website, so you can visit it here:

https://commons.georgetown.edu/blogs/networkedneighborhood/

There are a few multimedia tools built into the site, including a news aggregator/visualization tool powered by Dipity, that I think you might find interesting, as well. There's also a chapter on the history of Columbia Heights.

The title says it all. Includes links to other ruminations about the topic.

This is a must-read - and the bonus is that it is a quick read.

Directly from the blog:
"Like death and taxes, one of the inevitable realities of organizational life is the periodic "team challenge." For such a project, the team is assigned to accomplish something beyond what they currently do or have done before. For a top management group, it might be the requirement to reduce overall expenses or headcount by 20%; for a sales or business development team, the goal might be to increase revenues by 10% in the next quarter; and for a product development team the focus could be on accelerating a market launch by two months. The varieties are endless, but the collective theme is that people working together — each with their own responsibilities — need to achieve a common result."

Asks some important questions and makes some good points about the challenges -- and benefits -- of collaboration.

An easy read.

A quick look at the 2006 research report by Julia Abelson and François-Pierre Gauvin for the (now defunct) Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN). The report, according to Intellitics,"is a helpful primer when it comes to better understanding the challenges of evaluating public participation: Assessing the Impacts of Public Participation: Concepts, Evidence andPolicy Implications (PDF)"