Author: Nancy White

Harvesting knowledge from text conversations

Km4Dev wiki screenshotThis is the second in my latest series of online facilitation method tips and mini-podcasts. John Smith asked me to write up the practice some of us have been nurturing on the KM4DevWiki to encourage summarizing and harvesting of learnings from key community conversations in our email list on to a wiki. The podcast can be found here.

There are often amazing threads on email lists and web based discussions. Often they get lost due to the tyranny of recency over relevancy. We remember what we last read. How many times have you heard people say “hey, we discussed that before… where IS that conversation?” Some tools make it easy to search within message, but then you have to reconstruct a thread. There may have had subject line changes, interruptions, etc. It is hard work. That’s why it is useful think about practices to pull out useful stuff so it can provide wider and easier benefit.

One practice of harvesting learnings from text based discussions (in email or web forums) started as a small FAQ (frequently asked questions) project a small group of use did a couple of years ago as part of the KM4Dev community. KM4Dev is a global community of practice interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing in international development.

We initially intended to create FAQ’s out of key discussions to answer what we thought were some of the “big questions” that often came up in the community. You can read about the project at the following links.

What we discovered was that often something wasn’t simply a response to a question, so the FAQ format started to limit us. We moved into harvesting what we called “Community Knowledge.” This is the basis of the technique I know use regularly.

Now, on the the technique. (Did I say these were going to be short? I guess I goofed on that!)

  1. Role model the harvesting behavior. Our initial FAQs gave people the chance to experience discussion summaries. But the next step was to role model it around current discussions. At first we would notice a “hot thread,” summarize it then post the wiki url back to the email list.
    • Templates can make it easier/more comfortable for people new to summarization and/or wikis.
    • Cross promote the wiki on the list to keep it in the community “line of sight.”
  2. Ask others to try the behavior. Next we started asking people to create and post their own summaries of discussion threads that they started.
    • asking in a private email is friendlier, but sometimes the public request can add some useful “pressure.”
  3. Time the request well. Usually we made the request for summarization after we saw a thread really get going — and hopefully near the end of the thread.
    • I have made the mistake of suggesting that the thread be summarized too soon and people took that as a “stop talking” signal.
  4. Expect resistance. (And I’m tempted to say “resistance is futile, but that’s not really true!) Initially people did not summarize. So I would set up a wiki page for them, send them the url and another small request. (I think I started signing my emails from “wikipest.”) Some people would then summarize and post to the wiki, and some would send me the summary to post. That was fine.
    • Reminders are often useful. I do wonder if I annoyed some times…
  5. Encourage those who adopt the practice. After about a year, others started recommending a summaries to starters of hot threads. So the initial part of the practice was being picked up by others. More people were creating pages, but it was still a very limited group.
    • Don’t expect miracles
    • Do thank those wonderful souls who will do this important community work.
  6. Make the value visible. Last year we had the need to review our technical platforms and lo and behold, the wiki was getting more page views that the community’s older, established content management based site. This validated that people were finding and in some way, interested in what we had harvested. I believe this external validation helped motivate and maintain the practice.
    • Share stories of use
    • Make pageview data available
    • If the wiki has been useful beyond the community, get the other users to send a thank you as well.
  7. Reduce barriers and support from the side. Some of us still have to go in and link pages to the index page.
    • We have had to require registration for the wiki due to wiki-spam, which creates some friction and overhead – it is not as easy as I wish it were.
    • The wiki still needs a lot of overall attention to make things easier to find. (That is on my to do list – and has been for a long time. )

All in all, the practice is valued. We are making our knowledge visible and available to the wider world and inviting them to help improve it. There are 76 entries. The entries on knowledge sharing tools and methods have been spread and reused by members’ parent organizations. Value has been amplified. I think it was worth it!

For more on harvesting:

Entering and being in the network

Dove Loving.It has been a long week and I’ve posted a bunch so I am going to make this short. If you’ve asked yourself about what it means to be a blogger, about how to connect with others who care/blog about the things you do, about worrying if you are at the end of the long tail and what you write doesn’t matter, that only the A listers matter, read this post: Let’s meet them at the door « Educational Discourse where Kelly responds to the question…

How does the network open up for new people as most of the people mentioned refer to one another in their writing and their own network includes one another?

Then make sure you click in and read all the comments. This is what generosity, reciprocity and inclusiveness can look like. There are many gems of practices, especially for those blogging in the education world (a lot of teachers’ voices.) It is a great example of the Culture of Love. Thanks for writing it, Kelly Christopherson.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Globetoppers

Using “the clock” on telecons

Someone asked me the other day to remind them how to use the “clock” technique on telephone conference calls. So I dug out some old image examples and put this together and created a short (under 2 minutes) podcast. The lower images are based on a template one of the Online Facilitation alumni, Ray Guyot, made for us. Thanks again, Ray! Full pictures can be found on Flickr.

Teleconference Call Facilitation Tips

The Clock

“The clock” can be used on conference calls to help people get and keep a sense of place and participation in a disembodied conf call. It can be used with structured online chats as well. Ask every one to draw a circle on a piece of paper and mark the hours like a clock. Then, each person is assigned a spot on the “clock” as they join the group. So the first person is 1 o’clock, the second 2, etc. If there are more than twelve, start adding 1:30, 2:30 etc. Use this initially to create a speaking sequence for intros, and then use it to ensure everyone speaks. Participants can make notations by names and use it as a visual tool to match names/voices/input. If you are doing multiple rounds of “speaking” vary the “starting position” on the clock.

We want to use this in a workshop, so any feedback and suggestions for improvement are appreciated!

Edit: March 17th – Ray Guyot has graciously agreed to share his clock template. Ray Guyot’s Telephone Clock Template (pdf) Thanks Ray

Our learning edges

Surfing Picasso by Greg Robbins Yesterday I was interviewed about “making mistakes in public” and how that allows us to get feedback and learn from others. My friend Philip Tarlow mentioned this Picasso quote to me last week, and it struck me as being about our learning edges. Doing things we aren’t quite sure we know how to do. Taking risks in the name of learning and doing.

” Thus when we used to make our constructions, we produced “pure truth” without pretensions, without tricks, without malice. What we did then had never been done before; we did it disinterestedly, and if iti is worth anything it is because we did it without expecting to profit from it. We sought to express reality with materials we did not know how to handle and which we prized precisely because we know that their help was not indispensable to use, that they were neither the best nor the most adequate. We put enthusiasm into the work, and, this alone, even if that were all that there were in it, would be enough: and much more than is usually put into an effort — for we surrendered ourselves to it completely, body and soul. We departed so far from the modes of expression then known and appreciated that we felt save from any suspicion of mercenary aims. “

Picasso, reported by Jaime Sabartes, Picasso: An Intimate Portrait, New York 1948

Image by Greg Robbins

A post for parents and educators about the internet

Sanzaru TooAs some of you know, I’ve adopted the edublogging community as a collective mentor. This passionate network of people using web based technologies in teaching and learning constantly inspire and teach ME lessons that I carry to the non profit and NGO sector. So today when I got a tweet about a post from Australian edublogger Sue Waters reporting that Al Upton’s amazing “MiniLegends” classroom blog was given a shut down order, I clicked right in and read… Al Upton & The MiniLegend’s Blog Given Order for Closure | Mobile Technology in TAFE. Sue references Al’s blog shutdown notice here.

I think these are two very important blog posts to read, comment upon and write about for a couple of reasons.

  • Finding wise and useful ways to work with children online is very important. Balancing knowns and unknowns, dealing with the school and legal systems challenges (!!!) must not overtake the core issue of helping children become savvy, responsible users of digital tools and media. So we all need to be involved in both the practice and the discussion.
  • Wise and savvy digital kids become wise and savvy digital citizens, employees, entrepreneurs and innovators. If we stifle them in grade 3, what can we expect down the road. The internet is here. We cannot cover our ears, eyes and mouths like the three monkeys.

Take a read. Pop on over to Al’s blog and give your input. This is a VERY important discussion.

P.S. Here is Al’s P.S. on his post. Worth repeating:

Please Note … Let’s embrace this as an opportunity to promote the value of blogs and online learning generally. There is no benefit in looking for blame here, there is enormous value and potential in celebrating our voices.

Creative Commons License photo credit: St Stev