Communities

communities of interest and practice

Boring is good

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I thought that enterprise top-down software was a thing of the past and that small pieces loosely joined was the new model, but I’ve been in learning hell with a community of practice platform that uses the walled garden metaphor to the extreme.

Christopher Sessums refers to Clay Shirky’s comment in Here Comes Everybody, that “Communication tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring” . Christopher adds:

In other words, it’s not the invention of the tool that holds value; it’s the tool’s ubiquitousness that contains the value which ultimately leads to profound social changes.

Similarly, the tools that support virtual communities probably won’t be very interesting until they become invisible, everyday components in our lives. For some, this is already the case and as such we are beginning to see new and powerful means to share, commune, and identify with one another.

Message to tool builders – you cannot be ubiquitous inside a walled garden.

I have spent a few days trying to figure out my client’s system. This will be a larger problem when a casual computer user has to make sense of all of the functions as well as the underlying model of the platform.  Having created several online communities and participated as a member and a moderator of many more, I can’t see how a community can grow if there is any difficulty in using the technology. The only case where a complicated system will work is when the option of not using it is unacceptable. The litmus test for any community software should be, “is it easier than e-mail?”, because that is what most users will compare it to.

Democratic Workplaces

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The WordBlu most democratic workplace list is out for this year, with several Canadian companies on it:

1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Axiom News

La Siembra

TakingITGlobal

As my “not-yet-published” bio for our Cafe society reads, I’m rather interested in democracy:

Harold likes to analyze situations, sense patterns, and make sense of them. He enjoys acting as “adviser of last resort.” He works at the convergence of business, learning, organizations and technology. He finds working with NGOs gratifying. Most of his work involves democratization of the work force. He establishes self-sustaining communities. He believes “Open,” broadly defined and including resilience, diversity, and ecological models.

I’m also reading The Great Turning, which offers an excellent review of the development of democracy, from the original Athenian experience to the American revival of democracy two millennia later. As David Korten states in the section, America, the Unfinished Project:

We think of ourselves as a nation of problem solvers. To solve a problem, however, we must first acknowledge it. To this end, the following chapters take an unflinching look at the realities and implications of our national imperial legacy, the imperfections of our democracy, our reckless relationship with the natural environment, and the real and inspiring struggles for justice of people of color, women, and working people, to whom justice has long been denied.

Democracy is neither a gift nor a license; it is a possibility realized through practice grounded in a deep commitment to truth and an acceptance of the responsibility to seek justice for all.

Community Building

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Note: See related posts at the Non-profit Blog Carnival: Social Media Roundup

Today is Earth Day so I thought I’d pass on what I’ve been doing at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute (AWI) where I volunteer as the Director Education, though I’m not limited to just educational activities.

We’ve been working on building a wildlife response network, first in Atlantic Canada and eventually throughout the country.

Effective response to wildlife emergencies requires coordination and commitment from diverse and sometimes divergent stakeholders. In order to build capacity to respond to wildlife emergencies across Canada, AWI envisions a Wildlife Response Network. When fully functional, this network will provide communities, industry, and regulators with standards and strategies for dealing with wildlife crisis scenarios.

No single organization, be it public or private, can hope to address all the concurrent challenges (habitat destruction, climate change, and the widespread use of pesticides and herbicides) of today. AWI’s approach is to build on existing partnerships with public and private sector businesses and academic institutions to create a gateway for sharing knowledge and resources.

One aspect of this network is to use the Web to connect with other groups and individuals. We were considering building a community using a content management system and then hiring people for data entry, but our budget was reduced this year. So a little while ago I figured that there must be a more Web 2.0 way to do this and set out to do it.

I decided to start a low-key parallel development project using free or very cheap resources and get as much data out there as possible. I opened a wordpress.com account and paid $15 for a domain name, atlanticwildlife.org, which is now live but only a shell. I also looked at what other platforms we could use for sharing. We are setting up a new Flickr Pro site (which is now free for charities), and I’ll transfer photos from my AWI set and then start uploading like crazy so we can share with the world. I also created my first Swivel data set and will get some more up. Instead of developing our own animal database, we will leverage and support the Encyclopedia of Life. We’ll connect with teachers and learners on Ning, which is in very early development. The biggest expense so far is time.

atlanticwildlifeorg.jpg

I’ll be adding information and data over the next few months and will then start the longer task of connecting to people and building a community. I’d appreciate any other recommendations for tools, applications and platforms that we could plug into the network.

Community of Practice Handbook – Company Command

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Company Command is the most practical community of practice (CoP) implementation guide that I’ve read so far. It traces the story of the development of an online community designed to share knowledge between US Army company commanders, past and present. If you can get over the military jargon (and even some acronyms that I, an ex-soldier, couldn’t figure out) the lessons in this book are transferable to civilian life.

Here is a summary of the key concepts from Chapter One:

  • Knowledge resides primarily in the minds of community members
  • Connecting members allows knowledge to flow
  • Relationships, trust, and a sense of a professional community are critical factors for an effective community
  • Content development emerges from needs expressed in conversations
  • A decentralized network is best

The books authors go on to tell stories about how the community grew and discuss the types of roles that are necessary for an effective knowledge-sharing community [I’ve changed to non-military terms].

  1. Initial Core Team of two or three people who desire to share knowledge.
  2. Early Adopters who are members of the community that you are serving, especially those who are already well-connected.
  3. Mavens with deep knowledge in an area that is valued by the members.

The book is filled with practical ideas and I’m sure that anyone involved in building online communities will find something useful here. I will be using much of the advice here to help start a CoP that a client is launching over the next nine months, and I appreciate that the folks at Tomoye, who provide the technical platform for CompanyCommand, passed on this book to us.

Being there

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The Web is great and lets me connect with more interesting people than I could have hoped for only 10 years ago. I usually work at a distance from my clients and colleagues and from time to time we’re able to get together. Often these times are busy trying to get lots of work done or attending conferences where there are many other interesting conversations competing for your attention. Sometimes I feel like a lone paddler:

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Even though I know that we’re all working together:

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Today, Jay and I had the opportunity to just wander around Ottawa, take pictures and talk. All this and the first signs of Spring in the frozen North. :-)

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Departures & Arrivals

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The Capitol Theatre will be presenting a bilingual presentation of Carol Shields’ play, Departures & Arrivals this month.

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Given all of the discussion about the need for bilingualism in the province, let me just note that our son, who is in the early French immersion program, is acting in this production which is showing on 18 & 19 April 2008 in Moncton. There is also a shorter and free show at the Moncton Airport on 27 April. Come out and support bilingual theatre in New Brunswick!

From the Facebook Group description:

Conceived through the genius of Carol Shields in 1990, this play demonstrates why she is among the most distinguished and honoured of all Canadian writers. To more closely reflect the cultural predispositions of people in southeastern New Brunswick, portions of the play have been translated into French by Jeanette Landry. The result is a fast-paced truly bilingual piece of theatre with its own percussive musical score created by Etienne Levesque. This play for the whole family is directed by Tim Borlase and assisted by Annie Laplante. It is the first time that a bilingual production has been mounted of this piece.

Ridiculously easy group-forming

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The title of this post comes from a quote by Seb Paquet in the book Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. This book is situated somewhere between the simplicity of Wikinomics and the complexity of The Wealth of Networks, which makes it a welcome addition to the field of social networks. Shirky’s analysis is excellent and is not just a repeat of the echo-chamber of the blogosphere. For example:

When we change the way we communicate, we change society. (p. 17)

You can think of group undertaking as a kind of ladder of activities, activities that are enabled or improved by social tools. The rungs on the ladder, in order of difficulty, are sharing, cooperation, and collective action. (p. 49)

It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming. (p. 105)

I saw social tools in action this week, when a parent/lawyer in Saint John, NB, was interviewed on the radio concerning the abolition of the early French immersion program in the province. The interviewer asked her what was the best way for other concerned parents to get involved. Her answer, “Facebook”. We now have tools for ridiculously easy group-forming, and these are being used at the local level by non-techies. Indeed, social media are getting close to “normal” even for those who are not so young.

Update:

Two groups on Facebook concerning EFI in NB (what Shirky would describe as “sharing”) have over 2,000 and 3,000 members respectively. The EFI Day of Protest has 104 Facebook members registered at this time (what Shirky would describe as “collective action”). As you go up the ladder, it requires more commitment, and you don’t get as many members. It’s interesting to watch this phenomenon and I’ll update the stats as time goes on, as well as confirm the actual numbers on the day of the protest.

efi-demo

Toward minimally cohesive utterances

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The quality of French by anglophones in this province will quickly slide to “minimally cohesive utterances” if the Minister of Education, Kelly Lamrock, has his way and abolishes Early French Immersion (EFI).

About 75 concerned citizens met in Sackville this evening to discuss how we can reverse this decision that was based on the seriously flawed Croll & Lee Report. Prof. Diana Hamilton, who teaches statistics, categorically states that, “Almost all of the math is wrong”, in this report. Obviously, Kelly Lamrock did not major in Mathematics.

The Minister has based his decisions not only on a flawed report, but in the face of tremendous evidence that EFI is more effective, is actually cheaper than the alternative being proposed, and in the words of his own Department; NB School District #2:

Will my child’s English skills suffer because of immersion?

This question has been studied extensively during the past 25 years, both in Canada and abroad. The conclusion is that, far from hindering English development, knowledge of another language is actually beneficial in improving capabilities in the first langauge [sic], and increases the ability to learn a third and fourth language.

There may be certain lags in English Language Arts when a child enrols in an early French immersion program. However, after the introduction of English Language Arts instruction, children quickly catch up to their peers. Students have shown consistently over the years that, by the end of grade 6, children in immersion programs perform as well as or better than their peers in the regular program.

If our children are having academic or other problems in French immersion, should we transfer them to the English program?

Research and experience have shown that children with problems can benefit from a French immersion program. They learn their basic sills [sic] at their individual rate, and still acquire competence in French. There are very few instances where transferring a child out of immersion benefits the child.

Many activities and events are being planned, and the Hamlit2008 blog will be the main site for information on events in our community. There are also several Facebook groups – Save French Immersion in NB, Save Early EFI in Canada’s Bilingual Province, and more. There was some discussion about a protest at the Legislature before the session ends on March 28th, so if any other communities are planning the same, please let us know.

CBC Radio is also organizing The Future of French Second Language Education in New Brunswick at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton on Thursday, March 27th at 6:30 PM. So far, the Minister has declined an invitation to attend. I guess he’s too busy doing remedial math.

Business social networks

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Social networks are everywhere and the “monetization” word is becoming part of the discussion, as this recent RWW post shows. I’ve used several of these networks, such as Spoke which I haven’t accessed for a couple of years. For business, the leader in North America is LinkedIn, while Xing has a solid presence in Europe. What I’ve found, though are that these networks that are focused on business don’t do much for my business.

View Harold Jarche's profile on LinkedIn

XING

So far, LinkedIn has been good for asking questions, as I received some excellent advice on enterprise wikis in very short order. My Xing profile gets more hits than LinkedIn, even though I only have 6 connections on Xing versus 98 on LinkedIn. I joined Xing (just the free account for now) to see if the connections or conversations would be different. Not much to report back yet, but I may upgrade to see if that makes a difference.

In terms of business return, my blog ranks the highest, probably because I’ve invested the most time in it. I have had a few cold calls for consulting work directly from my blog, as well as several requests for speaking engagements or journal articles. If you’re a member of ASTD there should be one of my articles in April’s edition of T&D, and for Atlantic Canadians, check out the piece on blogging for business in the Feb/Mar edition of Progress magazine. Blogging has been good for me. I’ve even had a client find me indirectly through Craigslist.

I’d be interested in knowing if anyone finds these online business networks of much value, especially if they also have a blog.

Self-determination

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There is almost an arms race quality to the way in which we are trying to save our current education and health care “systems”. I am coming around to the notion that the system is the problem. Much in the same way that The Support Economy diagnoses managerial capitalism as the primary cause of the disconnect between corporations and markets, I am seeing that [Ivan] Illich had it right over 30 years ago – we have seen the enemy, and it is us. Through our large, corporatist systems we have created self-perpetuating monopolies in both health and education.

I wrote this statement in 2004 and I haven’t changed my mind on our need for systemic change. Jon Husband recently reminded me of the book, The Support Economy, which I read several years ago, and his favourite quote:

Psychological self-determination is expressed in three different dimensions. In the first dimension people want to live their lives the way they choose to live it. This is the sense of sanctuary. The second way people express their psychological self-determination is in the widespread desire for voice: we want to be heard and we want our voices to matter. The third way we want our psychological self-determination to be expressed is in our desire to be connected: we want to be part of communities.

Our current corporate, educational and health care systems stand in the way of self-determination. We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves (community) but we also need to have control of our own lives. In our health, our learning and our work; self-determination is the key to resilience. We see this with the successful anomalies in the business world – W.L. Gore; Google; Semco – which allow more self-determination than their competitors.

I asked myself, which system has the best potential to change first? For those who agree that change is necessary, would it be better to concentrate on the creation of new business models and then let education and health care follow suit? I think so. Leadership seems to come from, or at least is deferred to, those who have the money or the means of production. So if you’re reform-minded, perhaps business reform is the most pragmatic avenue for your energies. Change the business models, change the world.