Category: events

My Network Curates My Tool Choices

Thursday I’m a guest respondent for an ODI webinar on networks in international development. My friend and colleague Simon Hearn at ODI suggested a quick check of their online meeting room  my heart dropped a bit when I heard they were using GoToMeeting . While GTM tends to offer a lower price point, there is a cost. It is a very one way medium. There is no shared participant chat room. Questions go only to the moderators. Control of the visuals (which are pretty limited) are in only one moderator’s hand at any one time.

Now, does that feel right for a session on NETWORKS? I didn’t think so. So I challenged Simon for some options. (Boy, with friends like me, doing this at the last minute, who needs enemies?) I said, let’s experiment!

For example to facilitate loose connections so powerful in networks, let’s set up a parallel chat. My first choice these days is http://www.meetingwords.com – an instance of the open source Etherpad hosted by Peter Kaminski. But alas, I didn’t know if it can scale for 100 participants.

I personally like IRC but it is pretty geeky for the  unintiated. We were looking for something with little or no sign in requirements and easy, peasy interface.

Of course since I can no longer keep up with the rapidly growing and changing constellation of tools (volume and a 53 year old sleep deprived brain), I turned to my network — this time using Twitter as I find it a fast, effective environment for these quick, specific questions.

Within minutes the answers started coming from @lblanken, @qadmon, @band @livlab, @bmann, and @kabissa. I had three functional options within 30 minutes and Simon and I immediately started testing some of them.

Here are the options we are now considering:

Bottom line… my network curates my tool choices.

Could I have done this without my network? No way. That’s why understanding networks, having some sort of semi-shared language to talk about them is SO important. I’m looking forward to the ODI talk on Thursday.

If you are a network junkie, check out ODI’s two new papers:

Not Everything That Connects is a Network and Mind the Network Gaps.

Oh, and thanks to my dear Twitter friends!

(Edited at 10:40 am PDT to add another link)

Victoria Social Media Camp With Rob Cottingham

At a past NorthernVoice (2009), Rob Cottingham and I went “without a net” doing a live comedy/socialmedia/graphic recording mashup. It was crazy, exhilarating and “teh funny.” We did not plan it. I really had no idea what would happen. Well Rob and I are pairing up again at this year’s Social Media Camp in Victoria BC on June 3-4. And I have no idea what will happen, but I trust it will be ENERGETIC!

To give a sense of what the past brought, check out…
[blip.tv ?posts_id=1835617&dest=-1]

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

The question this time is what do we do? Rob suggests we actually switch off the talking and drawing, which sounds fabulous, challenging and fun. What would you suggest we do?

Community for the 21st Century Harvest

On April 1st, amidst all that was going on in my family, I had the chance to step into a different “space” and participate in WeDialog’s first online world cafe on “community.” Since this was a “audio” online experience, I grabbed my pens to try and add a visual aspect for myself. Here are my images:

But hold on to your socks, because Amy Lenzo also recruited two of the BEST graphic facilitators to listen and scribe what they heard, Nancy Margulies and Susan Kelly.

. Here is some of the text from the WeDialog official harvest page:

“Conversations for the 21st Century” launched on Friday, April 1st, with more than 200 people participating in a three hour conversation on the topic of “Community for the 21st Century.”   The series is a production ofweDialogue, the new partnership between Amy Lenzo and Ben Roberts, which was formed to offer online services for the World Café Community Foundation.

Participants came from around the world – the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South Africa, India and Australia, responding to email invitations from the hosts, conversation starters, special guests Heartland Circle, the Powers of Place Initiative, Berkana Institute, and the Tamarack Institute, our sponsors the World Café Community Foundation, and a wide variety of friendly networks and a robust social media campaign using Facebook, Twitter and various other blogs and online communities.  Over 550 people registered.

A 20 minute round-table of “conversation starters” (a term coined by Heartland in their Thought Leader Gatherings) – Peter Block, Maria Scordialos and Sarah Whiteley and Nancy White – set the context for the full World Café conversation that followed.

Together, the conversation starters offered a wide range of perspectives on what “community” means to them and the ways that they see it evolving as we create, in Peter Blocks’s words, “a future distinct from the past.”

There is a 22 minute audio file of the conversation starters’ words on the World Cafe community blog (for some reason the audio file wouldn’t embed here).

We were very fortunate to have experienced World Café graphic recorders Nancy Margulies and Susan Kelly with us – Nancy for the morning session and Susan Kelly throughout the whole day. Their gleanings from the conversation starters follow.

via Community for the 21st Century – The World Cafe Community.

I simply LOVE these harvests. Brilliant. And hosts Amy and Ben did a terrific job. I look forward to the next offering from WeDialog.

Understanding and supporting networks – May 5 online event

A heads up for what looks to be an interesting event on May 5th sponsored by ODI (Overseas Development Institute) and some good pals of mine. I’ve enjoyed working with Ben Ramalingam, Enrique Mendizabal and Simon Hearn over the years. I’m pleased to be one of the “discussants” with Rick Davies, someone whose work on evaluation I value and follow.

Understanding and supporting networks: learning from theory and practice


Thursday, May 5, 2011, 15:00 – 17:00 (London time, GMTT+1) (That’s 7am Pacific Daylight)

Speakers: Ben Ramalingam, Enrique Mendizabal and Simon Hearn
Discussants: Rick Davis and Nancy White
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/323577982
NGOs join them, researchers collaborate across them, civil society rallies around them, policy makers are influenced by them and donors are funding them. Networks are a day to day reality and an important mode of working for almost all of in the aid sector. They are increasingly being used as a vehicle for delivering different kinds of development interventions, from policy influencing and knowledge generation to changing practices on the ground. But how often do we pause and reflect on what it means to engage in a network or think about how networks work  and how they could work better?

This webinar will present two papers by the Overseas Development Institute that challenge the current ubiquity of networks and offer ideas and reflections for those facilitating networks. Ben Ramalingam will present his paper: Mind the Network Gaps, in which he reviews the aid network literature and identfies theoretical lenses which could help advance thinking and practice.

Enrique Mendizabal and Simon Hearn will discuss a revised version of the Network Functions Approach and how it can be used to establish a clear mandate for a network; and hence avoid situations where networks are established without consideration of the costs involved.

Following the two presentations we will hear comments and discussion from two experts in the field; Rick Davies, an evaluation consultant and moderator of the mande.co.uk website, and Nancy White, a expert on communities of practice and online facilitation and author of the book: ‘Digital Habitats’.

Title:
Understanding and supporting networks: learning from theory and practice
Date:
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Time:
15:00 – 17:00 (London time: GMT+1)

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Conversations for the 21st Century – Community on April 1st, 2011

My friend, colleague, teacher and fellow GiGee (Girl Geek) Amy Lenzo has launched a new venture, weDialogue. She has asked me to be part of a launch event, a free, wide-open conversation on “Communities in the 21st Century” on April 1st. I decided it was so exciting it was worth saying yes even though I’ll be in Australia and it will be 3am for me. That’s how easy Amy makes it to say “yes” to her! Seriously, how can you resist the invitation to talk about community!!

Here is the information:

“Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.”
~ I-Ching, The book of change
In association with the World Café Community Foundation, weDialogue is hosting a series of interactive online “Conversations for the 21st Century” designed to stimulate collective innovation and new patterns of thinking in response to the global challenges we face today.

Each session will focus on a different key topic–e.g. Democracy, Food, Money, Aging, Creativity, etc.– and begin with a round-table exploration from the perspective of three “conversation starters” who are making significant contributions in the field being discussed. Conversation starters are chosen for their diversity in order to give the widest possible “opening” for the dialogue that follows.

After the round table, we’ll move into a World Cafe format with three rounds of small group conversation, followed by a “harvest” when the whole group comes back together to share insights and experiences.  Conversations for the 21st Century will also feature a “Call to Action” where participants can learn about cutting edge initiatives related to the topic at hand, and how to get involved.

We encourage everyone with an interest in our subjects to participate – we all have something valuable to contribute. The World Cafe is based on the idea that we are wiser together than we are alone, that together we have the answers to any problems that beset us.  So, we believe it’s important to hear from all of us and that every voice is necessary for the re-imagining of a better future.

Conversations for the 21st Century are held over the telephone and you must register to participate. We’re pleased to announce our first session:

“Community for the 21st Century”
DATE: Friday, April 1st
TIME: 9am-12pm PST/12-3pm EST/5-8pmGMT / 7-10pm South Africa / 5-8am New Zealand

COST: Free (except for any long distance charges you may incur)
Your donations to the World Cafe Community Foundation, however, are very much appreciated:

REGISTER: Please use THIS LINK to register (you must be registered to participate).

“Community for the 21st Century” conversation starters:

Peter Block, author of Community: The Structure of Belonging, and The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods

Nancy White, co-author of Digital Habitats, and an experienced guide in the realms of online community and e-learning.

Sarah Whiteley and Maria Scordialos, co-founders of the land-based community Axladitsa Avatakia in Greece.

If you know someone you think should be part of this conversation, please invite them, too. Here is a downloadable pdf to pass on: C21C