Month: April 2009

Common Sense and the Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work

Sacha Chua’s The Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work has a few things going for it. First, it is a great use of simple visuals. See you CAN draw! Second, it has a sense of humor. Third, it does a great job of communicating key ideas in 14 simple slides about how to use social media usefully as one transitions from school to work. Finally, at the core, the slides are deeply embedded with that fabulous magic, common sense.

There are two things I want to draw out of this video. The identity thing and the common sense thing. First, take a look at the slides.

The Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work

View more presentations from Sacha Chua.

Identity

I have been in conversation with Shirley Williams of Reading University about identity (see her cool site here) and she has been tracking the shift in social media use of her students as they began to explore their identity beyond university and into the workplace. This is also a topic of the CPSquare Connected Futures workshop. David Armano also has a nice post (and visual!) about this topic. What Shirley, David and others are surfacing is a skill set that might very usefully be embedded in both our educational and business organizations. A couple of weeks ago this was a key point to a presentation I made to educators in Estonia. This is a system level change. How is your organization changing to recognize how identity shows up in the era of social media?

Common Sense

Why not make a blog post about two totally different things, eh? Back to common sense. What ever happened to common sense? What the heck IS common sense? How do you define it? How does it show up in your world?

Sometimes I think the most value I bring when consulting is common sense. At other times I think I’m stating the obvious, like the village idiot. There seems to be an interesting overlap that might make us dismiss common sense as boring, not innovative, old skool. Common sense can also be our ruts, our outdated mindsets, even our bad habits. Or good habits grown irrelevant.

So how do we make the most of common sense? When is the village idiot useful?

Monday Video: Shawn’s explanation of the Cynefin Framework

It took me a while to fully appreciate the work of Dave Snowden and his Cynefin framework, but now I find myself whipping out pencil and paper all the time to show it to others and use it in a variety of ways. So I was happy to see my pal Shawn Callahan’s nice little video giving a very clear explanation of the framework. Anecdote: A simple explanation of the Cynefin Framework

Thanks, Shawn!

Co-Graphic Recording on Agricultural Sustainability

Last month I had the pleasure of co-graphic-recording with the amazing Mariah Howard at the ASI Agriculture Sustainability Symposium in Davis, California. I have some of the pictures here and am attempting a slideshow embed below!

First, I’ve been doing some work for ASI for about a year now and deeply appreciate their systems view of our food systems. It isn’t just agriculture – it is all the steps between the sprouting of the seed and your plate, and it includes a hay wagon full of policy as well. The people who care about this stuff are bright, engaging and committed. So it is great work.

The ASI team led by Tom Tommich had an ambitious three days planned, with the work from one day cascading and driving the next day. When Tom said I could bring in a second person, I said “A Graphic Recorder!” I had done some recording as I facilitated last year, but this time the content would be so dense and coming so fast, there was no way I could do it alone, nor do it justice. I’m still too new at this. So I sent a query to the International Forum of Visual Practitioners email list and found Mariah. I’ve known and admired her mom for many years, but we had never met nor worked together. So after one phone call I said “let’s do it!”

Now for those of you who have never co-graphically recorded, I have to say, it is not something everyone can do. It requires a very interesting collaborative dance and a certain “letting go” of one’s own habits and expectations. This dance is both physical (not getting in each others way), mental (co-processing the information as it comes in and deciding what to do with it), and for me, emotional (caring about the other person, respect, negotiate, push, pull, back off, drive forward.) It is an exquisite form of improv and I LOVE it. In this case, Mariah was a far superior artist, and I had a grasp of the content.

Over the first day we did 5 charts. We had spent a few hours the day before pre-planning and sketching out frameworks for each of the panels we were going to record. After the first panel – which was by far the toughest for me, we started letting go of our plans. By the third one we had totally let go of our plans and for me, things started to click. We also allowed ourselves the evening to finish off the panels and I’m VERY glad we did. They were still fairly raw at the end of the program day, but after some time adding color, connecting ideas and plain old “sense making” I think they turned out well. But the decision to “let go” of any pre-planning turned out to be critical, as was the simple act of getting used to each other as we worked. As a consequence, Mariah did most of the heavy lifting of key images, I did a lot of the content synthesis, and then we both colored and wove things together. But the images you see are far more her work than mine.

The content was dense so as you look at these, they probably won’t make sense as stand alone products. But they add a richness and can be very complimentary to the videos .

Mariah was a total pro and a champ to put up with “crazy Nancy.” I work fast, I switch directions on a dime and get really involved. I think it could be overwhelming to many. Not Mariah!

If you have co-recorded, what have been your experiences?

Communities and Networks Connection Hotlists

spring buds by choconancy on FlickrNow that we are a couple of months into the “signal sharing” of the Communities and Networks Connection, I wanted to share the top posts people have clicked into on the site (courtesy of the magic of Tony Karrer).  I find that sometimes I am paying attention to the site, and other times it is off my radar. But when I look at the top hit list below, I recognize many of the posts as ones I have read, so for me, personally, there is resonance with what other people are finding interesting. And I find THAT interesting.

The following are the top posts in March from featured sources based on social signals, with a few annotations from posts that I found useful.  Notice how many are about Twitter!

  1. Twitter Compared to IM, Email and Forums– Collaborative Thinking, March 2, 2009
  2. Social Media ROI: Measuring the unmeasurable?– FreshNetworks, March 22, 2009
  3. How to use Twitter for PR– FreshNetworks, March 15, 2009
  4. Tom Vander Wall Nails My Sharepoint Experience– Full Circle, March 23, 2009
  5. Circling Around To Enterprise 2.0 Again– Collaborative Thinking, March 12, 2009
  6. Understanding Communities of Practice– Collaborative Thinking, March 6, 2009
  7. Crowdsource as a way to create a community– Library Clips, March 15, 2009
  8. Team-based CoPs compared to cross-functional CoPs– Library Clips, March 11, 2009  (John and I have been having fun in the comments and writing on many related things lately. I like this kind of “juice!”)
  9. CoP Series #6: Community Leadership in Learning– Full Circle, March 10, 2009
  10. Twitter as Search Engine or Community Seed– Full Circle, March 6, 2009
  11. Twitter 3 years on, and why it’s the killer app!– Library Clips, March 4, 2009
  12. Twitter: Measuring clickthrus Social Media Metrics– Laurel Papworth- Social Network Strategy, March 16, 2009
  13. CoP Series #5: Is my community a community of practice?– Full Circle, March 5, 2009
  14. CoP Series #4: Practice Makes Perfect– Full Circle, March 3, 2009
  15. Examples of online communities in the financial services industry– FreshNetworks, March 17, 2009 (I deeply appreciate examples and cases)
  16. Why do people write reviews?– FreshNetworks, March 12, 2009
  17. Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Part Two – Content Monitoring– Portals and KM, March 10, 2009
  18. The ten commandments of managing online communities– FreshNetworks, March 7, 2009
  19. Future of Social Networks by Charlene Li– Elsua, March 20, 2009
  20. CoP Series #9: Community Heartbeats– Full Circle, March 19, 2009
  21. CoP Series #8: Content and Community– Full Circle, March 17, 2009
  22. Social media ROI – a calculator for not for profit campaigns– FreshNetworks, March 25, 2009
  23. Response to “SharePoint 2007: Gateway Drug to Enterprise Social Tools”– Michael Sampson – Currents, March 15, 2009
  24. Red-Tails in Love: Birdwatchers as a community of practice– Digital Habitats, March 28, 2009 (interesting that my post on our book blog did better than the same post on my blog!)
  25. Best Buy & Enterprise Social Networking– Collaborative Thinking, March 19, 2009 (This post also showed up as a shared link a lot in my Twitter stream.)
  26. McKinsey on Making Enterprise 2.0 Work is Reminder of Process Centric KM in Early 90s. – Portals and KM, March 18, 2009
  27. Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Part Four – Content Collecting, Assembling, and Creation – Potential New Approaches – Portals and KM, March 12, 2009
  28. Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Introduction– Portals and KM, March 9, 2009
  29. Team-based communities are about change, commitment and tasks– Library Clips, March 8, 2009
  30. Tinkering and Playing with Knowledge– Full Circle, March 8, 2009
  31. Turning Instant Messaging and Presence Upside-Down & Inside-Out– Collaborative Thinking, March 7, 2009 (I had not seen this one, but the title is so intriguing, I’m going to look at it next!)
  32. Twitter: Skittles does a twitter bomb– Laurel Papworth- Social Network Strategy, March 2, 2009
  33. The lies behind online ratings and reviews– FreshNetworks, March 27, 2009
  34. Examples of online communities in the not-for-profit sector– FreshNetworks, March 5, 2009
  35. Twitter for Business and Government and number of Australians– Laurel Papworth- Social Network Strategy, March 30, 2009
  36. How to tell a story about yourself without sounding like an ego-maniac– Anecdote, March 26, 2009
  37. Red-Tails in Love: Birdwatchers as a community of practice– Full Circle, March 26, 2009
  38. CoP Series #10: Stewarding Technology for Community– Full Circle, March 24, 2009
  39. Workflow 2.0– Library Clips, March 23, 2009
  40. Burton Group Field Research Study: Social Networking Within the Enterprise– Collaborative Thinking, March 18, 2009
  41. Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Part Five – Content Publishing and Archiving– Portals and KM, March 13, 2009 (OK, you guys, look at how many times “Enterprise 2.0” shows up.  And also see how multipart blog series – mine and others – are showing up on this list. Coincidence?)
  42. CoP Series #7: Roles and Scalability– Full Circle, March 12, 2009
  43. Does your story have impact?– Anecdote, March 11, 2009
  44. Enterprise 2.0 for an Enterprise of One – Part Three – Content Collecting, Assembling, and Creation – Current Approach– Portals and KM, March 11, 2009
  45. Impact of Social Software Within the Enterprise by Jon Iwata– Elsua, March 9, 2009
  46. Twitter in the Workplace– Collaborative Thinking, March 6, 2009
  47. Business Blogs Trump Social Networking Sites as New Business Drivers – Portals and KM, March 4, 2009

Here are the top  from April so far:

  1. A simple explanation of the Cynefin Framework– Anecdote, April 2, 2009
  2. Social search, Help engines, and Sense-making– Library Clips, April 1, 2009
  3. Examples of online communities in healthcare– FreshNetworks, April 8, 2009
  4. 45 provocative propositions about using social technology– Social Reporter, April 6, 2009
  5. Is cassette culture to thank for web2.0?– FreshNetworks, April 4, 2009
  6. Helping councils learn to share with social media– Social Reporter, April 5, 2009
  7. Extending the customer experience – the Zappos story– FreshNetworks, April 10, 2009
  8. Using Twitter for the wrong reasons– FreshNetworks, April 9, 2009
  9. Big brands in social media: Ford and Southwest Airlines– FreshNetworks, April 2, 2009
  10. Sources for social technology propositions – please mix your own– Social Reporter, April 10, 2009
  11. The Semantic Web is Now AKA Web 3.0 But is It Really?– Portals and KM, April 8, 2009
  12. netWorked Learning:connecting formal learning to the world– Full Circle, April 3, 2009
  13. Social networks: acquisition or retention tools for marketers?– FreshNetworks, April 5, 2009
  14. Are online communities all a game?– FreshNetworks, April 3, 2009
  15. Blog networking study: choosing channels– Mathemagenic, April 9, 2009
  16. Can you shift your organisational culture by introducing social media?– Joitske Hulsebosch, April 5, 2009
  17. IBM Lotusphere 2009 Highlights – Social Softwre in the Enterprise by Chris Reckling & Sandra Kogan– Elsua, April 3, 2009
  18. Using experts to get real engagement in online communities– FreshNetworks, April 3, 2009
  19. Hybrid ecosystem of narratives– Taming the spaces, April 12, 2009
  20. The Company as Wiki by Best Buy– Elsua, April 11, 2009
  21. The cultures of collaboration – Inside Knowledge– Full Circle, April 11, 2009
  22. Technology Stewardship and Unexpected Uses– Digital Habitats, April 9, 2009
  23. Spidergram to visualise community orientation, adoption, and requests– Library Clips, April 8, 2009
  24. Behavior Guidelines: Unblocking Social Media at the Firewall– Laurel Papworth- Social Network Strategy, April 6, 2009 (I enjoyed this one a lot)
  25. The Social Media Experiment Is Over by Adam Christensen– Elsua, April 3, 2009
  26. Grass roots inspiration from graduating social entrepreneurs– Social Reporter, April 3, 2009
  27. Winemakers’ Communities of Practice– Full Circle, April 1, 2009
  28. Blog networking study: establishing and maintaining relations via blogging– Mathemagenic, April 9, 2009
  29. User Adoption Strategies for Lotus Connections– Michael Sampson – Currents, April 8, 2009
  30. Why is word-of-mouth for brands so important?– FreshNetworks, April 4, 2009
  31. The Net Promoter Score and the value of Promoters– FreshNetworks, April 1, 2009
  32. Challenge: SharePoint and NGOs/NonProfits -go or no go?– Full Circle, April 10, 2009
  33. Technology Stewardship and Unexpected Uses– Full Circle, April 9, 2009
  34. Communities, e-participation, crowdsourcing, innovation, selling content: variegated links– eme ka eme, April 7, 2009
  35. The Many Meanings of Our Words– Full Circle, April 7, 2009
  36. Monday Video: Share– Full Circle, April 6, 2009
  37. Comments on Jeff McKenna’s Agile Development Blog– Portals and KM, April 6, 2009
  38. UC And Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0– Collaborative Thinking, April 3, 2009
  39. Digital Habitats Community Orientation Spidergram Activity– Digital Habitats, April 2, 2009
  40. Travel Budget Slashes, Meeting Crunch and Going Virtual– Full Circle, April 2, 2009
  41. Successful Social Networking for Business Collaboration by Ed Brill– Elsua, April 1, 2009
  42. Nancy Dixon’s Conversations Matters Blog– Portals and KM, April 1, 2009
  43. The Ultimate Question: The Interview– Community Guy, April 8, 2009
  44. Our top five posts in March– FreshNetworks, April 7, 2009
  45. Slides from SharePoint Master Class in Europe– Michael Sampson – Currents, April 6, 2009
  46. Have a disagreement? Resolve it virtually– Endless Knots, April 2, 2009

I can also sort out the top keywords, but I have to mess a bit with how they display, so I’ll save that for a separate time.

CPsquare’s Connected Futures Workshop

Flickr CC image by takuya miyamotoIt’s time to register for the Connected Futures Workshop that begins April 20.

I’m on the team again this time holding the fort on week 4. My partners in learning/crime are John Smith, Bronwyn Stuckey, Shirley Williams and Etienne Wenger. We are using Howard Rheingold’s Social Media Classroom as our home base this round (we vary each time to add to our own learning!) Note, you’ll get a pre-press copy of the now-infamous and as of yet still unpublished “Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for community” book, plus a 6 month membership to CPSquare. So be there or don’t be square. (Sorry, I could not resist!)

It should be fun. Holler if you’d like more information. Here is the boilerplate!

Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice is a five-week workshop for community managers, designers and conveners to explore social strategies and tools to support them (referred to by some as Web2.0). We anticipate offering it twice a year. This workshop is a hands-on, practice-shifting, dive into the use of new technologies to meet community needs. At the end of this workshop, participants can expect to:

  • Become more confident in managing and combining tools to support a community’s orientation and ongoing activities
  • Develop a deeper understanding of how new tools enable one another, are adopted and supported in communities
  • Have productive and lasting social connections with other participants, community leaders and community conveners.

New technology stewards are encouraged to join us. The workshop includes virtual field trips to successful communities and dives into the use of new tools. We will explore many readily available technologies, including web conferencing, teleconferences, blogging, RSS syndication, microblogging, social bookmarking and tagging, wikis, mashups, and social networking. Each aspect has the support of experts and leaders in areas such as organizational, educational, government and enterprise communities. Participants will work through a process of thinking through new social strategies and technologies to support the ongoing life of their respective communities of practice. Participants will also receive an advance electronic copy (PDF) of parts of the forthcoming book “Digital habitats: stewarding technology for Communities ” (Wenger, White, and Smith 2008).

See what previous participants have said about the workshop.

Requirements:

While this workshop is intended to be challenging, it is grounded in today’s reality for communities of practice, social strategies and new tools. We assume some experience with communities of practice and with technologies such as teleconferences, web forums or email lists. Our aim is to support practitioners: participants should be in a leadership role or intending to take one on, or be convening an existing community of practice.

  • Participants are expected to be conversant with basic notions such as domain, community and practice and have had experience participating in or organizing online events and learning activities (such as the Foundations of Communities of Practice workshop).
  • Participants should be willing to install, run and experiment with an array of tools (such as Skype) on their computers.
  • Participants should be confident to converse in English.
  • Participants commit to 20 to 40 hours of engagement over the 5 weeks. Since several phases and phase changes are designed into the workshop structure (we change technologies, modes of connecting, and frameworks), participants need to be attentive enough to make those changes with us when they are scheduled.

The workshop includes a lot of modeling by both workshop leaders and participants of learning interactions, stratagems, and tactics using a dozen different social technologies. We are all “teachers” and “learners.”

The workshop is designed to support:

  • Getting to know each other and each other’s communities (Community)
  • Creating “a workshop as laboratory” (Practice)
  • Exploring real communities, from an insider’s and outsider’s perspective to see community orientations & technology integration (Domain and Practice)
  • Considering the role and activity of the technology stewards in authentic situations (Practice)
  • Exploring the uses of social technologies to stay in touch with each other, as well as for sustained focus on a topic (Practice)
  • Experiencing the design of learning agendas and then configuring technology to pursue those agendas (Domain and Practice)
  • Articulate strategies to introduce new social technologies to a community (Domain and Practice)

We’re designing the workshop to support:

  • Getting to know each other and each other’s communities
  • Creating “a workshop as laboratory”
  • Exploring real communities, from an insider’s perspective to see community orientations & technology integration
  • Considering the role and activity of the technology stewards in authentic situations
  • Exploring the uses of social technologies to stay in touch as well as for sustained inquiry
  • Experiencing the design of learning agendas and then configuring technology to pursue those agendas
  • Articulate strategies to introduce new social technologies to a community

Readings from Wenger, White and Smith’s “Stewarding Technology for Communities” and several other sources on topics such as:

  • Communities of practice theory glimpse
  • Community technology stewardship
  • Tools and their Integration
  • Scanning the Technology Landscape
  • Orientations: community experience and configuration of tools
  • A More Distributed Future
  • A Learning Agenda

Tuition is as follows:

Standard rate $995
NGO, Non-profit employee $795
Student $595

Participants receive a free 6-month membership in CPsquare upon completion of the workshop.

If money is a challenge in this economy, write me directly to inquire about “FON” discounts. (Friends of Nancy).

Photo Credit: takuya miyamoto