Online Groups: participation coaching
GroupServer, a-soon-to-be open space online interaction platform, had this bit on their site about Participation Coaching. I found this definition a specific segment of what I consider online facilitation. They define it as something different. "Each Online Group has a designated Participation Coach. The Participation Coach initiates and encourages effective participation in line with the purpose and participation protocol of the Online Group. The Participation Coach also manages publishing items to the Documents area.
There is more good stuff... click into it. But here is the distinction they note from facilitation in terms of roles:
All Members of an Online Group can act as Participation Coach. In fact, the more the role is shared, the better. This section of the Participation Guide is aimed at designated Participation Coaches and all Online Group Participants who wish to contribute to the success of their Online Groups."The Participation Coach:
* is the person who is most comfortable being in the Online Group
* assists the other members to become as comfortable in the Online Group as they are
* acts as "Keeper of the Faith" and maintains a vision of an Online Group that successfully achieves its purpose
* is not a "Facilitator" of group process or leader of task-oriented activities - their focus is limited to effective participation in the Online Group
Technorati Tags: facilitation, participation, coach, GroupServer
posted by Nancy White at 8:20 PM
2 Comments:
Yes, Nancy, my experience is that most groups have their own facilitator with respect to their shared task or practice. That person is not necessarily experienced in online participation.
I see participation coaching as a 'lower level' activity. Like the operating system rather than the application, perhaps.
It isn't necessary in room because people know how to use the door, floor, chairs, whiteboard etc. They know who's there and what's likely to occur. Online, many folks don't have much of a sense that they are 'in a place', let alone what it's like and how to be there.
That said, often the Participation Coach acts as an advocate for collaboration itself. The role boundaries are not always in the same place and need to be defined in each context.
GroupServer is now "quietly" out for download and testing among the highly technical among us.
See:
http://groupserver.org
And E-Democracy.Org's spin the features they help fund along with the final steps toward GroupServer's open source release:
http://e-democracy.org/groupserver
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