Category: community

Launch Day of Communities and Networks Connection

Communities and Networks ConnectionConnections make the world go round. I can’t learn and improve without the things I learn from my network and beyond. Especially the interesting fringes. This requires some sort of “line of sight” to that network.

With that, I’m pleased to announce the launch of the Community & Networks Connection.  This isn’t a community, and  not as loose and open as a network. It is in that juicy place in between communities and networks that helps to collect and organize useful content from blogs and other web sites, from people who care about, and are passionate to understand these phenomenon we call “communities” and “networks.”  The goal of this page is to create a place where it’s easy to find current and highly relevant content. And perhaps to stimulate a new connection between you and these brilliant people.

nancys networkYou can get a sense of the power of the site by visiting the site and clicking a keyword on the left.  For example, if you look at the page on Social Media you find:

  • Keywords on the left  ordered according to their relationship to the current term.  So you can see that Virtual Community, Tags, RSS, Facebook, Twitter and other such terms all relate heavily to the concept of social media.
  • The top of the page has the latest posts. What’s new?
  • Below that you find top posts based on various social signals.  As the site runs, it will get better at finding great content.

As a long-time blogger, I’m intrigued by a few of the specific features offered to participating bloggers. Tony tells me this will bring more trafic to participating sites. I need some lessons and stimulus, because I tend to ignore things that could bring more people to my site and that is pretty silly of me.  (Edited in later: for more posts about HOW this works, see Tony’s post, and John Tropea’s post. )

If you go to my blog’s content page, Full Circle, the page shows on the left the keywords that I write about a fair amount.  Keywords like Online Interaction, Technology Stewardship,  Catalysts are all pretty good indicators.  These same keywords are listed in the new widget in my sidebar provided by the site.

There’s also a page that shows the Best Content from Full Circle based on social signals.  These will improve over time. (Though I am the first to roll my eyes at “best” — but heck, it is a useful word at the moment. Do you have another suggestion as you use the site?)

smart, funny peersThe best part of this is this is not just about my content. In fact, I’m just a drop in the bucket.  I’m not alone.  There is quite a network that is participating in the launch – from people who are close friends and trusted colleagues, to interesting people I try and follow.

It’s fun to look at some of the differences in keywords for some of my fellow participants. For example:

All of this technology underneath the “hood” comes from Tony Karrer.  I know that he has more features planned.  Certainly, Tony and I would like to hear any suggestions you have for how to make this site better.  Comment here if you have ideas of other blogs or sites I should consider including.
Take a peek. Subscribe to the whole shebang or follow one key word. Lets find out what we can discover and learn together.

How are we building our “community soil?

Via Hyperlocavore, I watched this video on preparing an urban, raised-bed garden. It focuses on the building of raised beds, using rotating small animal waste, and hoop houses to get an early start on the gardening season. If you are interested in gardening, take a look at the video. If not, skip the video and hop below for the online community connection.

Last week, I pondered the agricultural metaphor for knowledge sharing. The idea of “gardener” as a community role is not new, nor is the ecosystem metaphor.

So what are the practices for communities that are akin to the late winter preparation for Spring gardening?

In the video, Gardening Girl talks about:

  • start with clean, well drained soil
  • use a modular design so you can easily take care of your garden
  • use all the creatures available – chickens and rabbit hutches rotated over dormant beds to do off season soil building (in other words, good s$%#)
  • take advantage of free stuff to build soil – leaves and grass clippings
  • cover unused beds
  • build  simple hoop houses to get an early start on the season (she even shows us how – it’s easy!)
  • raised beds take the back breaking work out of gardening, bringing the garden to you
  • intensive gardening saves water and increases yield

From an online community building perspective, this might translate to:

  • Clean soil – simple environment. Make sure the technology you use is aligned to the core needs of the community – what tasks do they need to do together. Other stuff can be added later, but if you start with a mess, you’ll end with a mess.
  • Modular – can tools, processes and content for or developed by the community be used easily in different ways? Can you repurpose something for another use if needs change or you need to expand or contract? Can you easily add and subtract activities and tools?
  • All the Creatures – who is already doing something similar? Are there early joiners who have something to add to the initial start up building and process? Use what is available! Be creative. Don’t let things go to waste!
  • Use the Free Stuff – Look around and see what free things can support (build the soil) your community.  Can you put up with some ads and use a free tool? Can you recycle existing resources (and save the earth a bit along the way). If you have a budget, where is it best spent? On tools, or the rare chance for a face to face? On technology, or chocolate? (well, I may be getting carried away.) Make recycled chic and focus your resources where they count – on people.
  • Cover Unused Beds – empty spaces create empty feelings. Is some part of the community technology configuration unused? Are there dead forums? Pull out the good content and recycle it elsewhere, and either archive of button up the empty spaces. But be careful about what you delete. See these threads on the ComPrac list about the dangers of assumptions about archives.
  • Hoop Houses for Early Starts – sometimes online communities need a smaller, protected space to germinate, build trust and get strong to withstand some of the buffets of the open world. This may mean finding an existing set of core members and gradually growing, or creating a little hot house to get things going.
  • Raise the Beds – like higher planting boxes that reduce stooping, bringing community as close to where people are now rather than making them go further out of their way to participate. Can you piggy back on their community rather than starting a new one? Are there some simple overlaps or complementarities that suggest some sort of cross community collaboration?
  • Intensive Gardening – good soil retains water and has greater yields. Good nurturing, leadership, stewardship and followership makes it easier for communities to focus on why they came together in the first place. This is not about control, but creating space and conditions for success. So a little extra work up front can go a long way. But like anything, don’t get carried away. Like a garden, a community has its seasons and it changes over time. Be as intensive as is right for the moment!

So is Spring approaching in your community? What are you doing to prepare?

How Could I have missed the annual Soup Swap?

Nerd's Eye Soup Swap Picture on FlickrI live in a place that is cold, dark and wet in the winter, something that can only be assuaged by good friends, more chocolate and soup. I am thinking about making split pea soup this very minute but instead, I was doing some blog reading catch up on Nerd’s Eye View – a Seattle blogger – and saw her post on a Seattle Soup Swap.

Waaah. I missed it. No matter that day I had just returned from 20 hours of international travel and was asleep by the time they started, but just the idea is delicious. It is such a community indicator. When people ask about the most important part of facilitating a F2F event, i say “the communal meals.” Even better if they are home made, pot luck, or if in a restaurant, family style. Where the sound level is quiet enough to hear each other converse, but not so quite you feel embarassed to guffaw out loud. Or worse, laugh with your mouth full of food.

While there is SO much we can do together online, I have yet to find the thing that creates the experience of a shared meal. I have been in online chats where each of us, at our distributed location, eats and writes about what we are eating. But it is a different experience. The hosting act of providing a tenderly cooked meal, or even sharing your store bought cookie, is a uniquely human, embodied experience. It ain’t the same online.

There is one ritual of the soup swaps that I find entrancing. Knox Gardner writes about it from the recent Seattle Swap:

It takes quite a while for the “Telling of the Soup” to get around the room when there are twenty-two soups, but it’s worth it. Without the Telling, it’s an empty power grab. With the telling, the humaneness of sharing food together shines right through. It’s essential.

Here is another soup swap post worth reading.

Want to set up your own Soup Swap? You can find all the how-to’s at Soup Swap

Photo from Nerds Eye View on Flickr

Watching the Inaguration from Overseas

Watching the Inaguration from AfarLast Tuesday I was in Rome at the FAO Headquarters for a three day “Share Fair” event. I was able to have the last session free so I could keep an eye on the inaguration, 6 time zones behind me, via the Internet. I frankly was a bit sad that I would be watching alone and sent a few tweets to that affect, only to be beautifully reminded by many of my Twitter friends that I was not alone.

But soon as the last session ended, a few of my fellow Americans (there weren’t too many here!) collected in the KM4Dev corner of chairs at the fair and we began to huddle around a couple of laptops. Soon other friends from other countries joined us. The ultimate experience was wonderful for me, to be able to experience this event with my global colleagues. As an American who works mostly with people from around the world, the last 8 years have been difficult. I have had the privilege of regularly experiencing American from outside our borders and learning others’ feelings and experiences. But it has been difficult for me, with my own political beliefs.

It was beautiful to agree with the incoming beliefs and agendas of my new president. It was one of the FEW moments in the last 8 years where I wanted to make my own political joy visible, and not try and diminish my political sorrow.  So thank you to all my global friends, online and in Rome that day, for sharing the moment.  I’m glad my community was with me. And the photo above is a great community indicator!

Photoo: Facebook | Photos of You

In Memoriam — Peter Kollock

Peter Kollock via UCLA TodayIn Memoriam — Peter Kollock / UCLA Today

Peter Kollock, 49, a professor in the Department of Sociology, was killed Saturday, Jan. 10, in a motorcycle accident near his home in Calabasas. Trained as a social psychologist in experimental methods, he was an exceptional teacher who provided his students with the analytical tools and life wisdom to reach new levels of personal and social understanding.

Peter, we never met, but through your writings, you were a teacher to me and your writings on how we are together in cyberspace has informed so much of my work and online life. You will be missed than perhaps by more than you could imagine.