Based on the general requirements for a community of practice, and the short duration of this project (six months), three separate systems will be used. Each system has its unique attributes. All systems were compared with other available systems. ACollab was selected because it is open source, Canadian and bilingual. Drupal was selected because of its scalability and the existing knowledge base in New Brunswick (I’m using it, as well as some other companies). Spoke was chosen by default, as it is the only free access network of its type at this time. Spoke was recommended by Jay Cross of the Emerging Learning Forum in California.
Collaborative Tool Suite
ACollab is a bilingual, open source, collaborative workspace, for the more intense
sharing aspects of the community. This can be password protected and allows for document storage. ACollab is developed by the University of Toronto, and this project will help to introduce it and its LCMS (ATutor) to the New Brunswick Learning community. This tool suite may only last the duration of the project, but may continue, depending on the interests of the members.
Weblog
Drupal is a content management system with a powerful weblog capability. This weblog runs on Drupal. This weblog is separate from the collaborative site, and is open to the public. As the moderator, I will make posts, with comments open to anyone. The blog will likely continue for longer than the duration of the project (which is why it is separately hosted by Jarche Consulting), and will provide continuity, and perhaps a home for LearnNB related discussions. I am willing and open to move this blog elsewhere should the need arise.
Relationship Management
Spoke enables connections with other people through your existing contact list. It allows members to see who they know and how these people may be connected to others. A number of members of the NB learning community are already members, and Spoke may become the medium by which the NB “node” connects to other “nodes”, such as Silicon Valley. Comments on how to maximize the use of Spoke will be posted to the Collaborative site. The use of Spoke will extend beyond the limits of this project, but could be an interesting component of community-building. Those using Spoke will be members of a much larger community.
Both ACollab and Drupal will be tested, and should technical problems arise, other platforms may be used in their place.
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