Category: knowledge sharing

Communities of Practice Toolkit – slightly updated

It has been a while since I updated my little communities of practice (CoP) toolkit, which is essentially everything I have cribbed from all the smart CoP out there. It is part conceptual (what IS a CoP), and part operational (how to start/support a CoP). At one point someone wanted worksheets, so there are worksheets, but frankly, I think that is overkill 99% of the time!

Screen capture of first slide of the CoP Toolkit deck with title and figurative dancers.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTMcO_CwuDhGxdBM4USf15LHTeFLlPo_vNV2ktmDrNHefdocYzlV03mpSOfZTN6SaM4JVyXVgPt44Ud/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

What is new are the references to Bev and Etienne Wenger-Trayner’s use of social learning and social learning spaces as a container for things like CoPs. (See slides 12-14)

Have a peek, offer feedback!

From the Archives: Sharing Science Knowledge Through Music

Dang, now THIS looks like fun!

YouTube Video

One of the challenges among scientists is to describe the work they do in language the rest of us can understand. That’s the idea behind a new program at the University of Tennessee that uses music to bridge that communication gap.

The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, or NIMBioS, isn’t a place for intellectual lightweights. The whiteboards are tagged with the frenetic graffiti of advanced math, and the conversations are dense with the mysterious jargon of advanced science. So the last thing you’d expect to see there is an office door with a sign reading, “Songwriter in Residence.”

Jay Clark is one of five Songwriters in Residence who will move in and out of NIMBios this year. Each has one month to write two songs that put the scientific experience into words and music.

“A week and a half, two weeks ago, when I told someone about it, they’d look at me like, ‘What the hell you going to write?’ ” Clark says. “My answer would be, ‘You know, I’m not real sure yet. I’m just hoping it will come to me.’ “

The Songwriter in Residence program is the brainchild of NIMBioS director Louis Gross. Gross noticed that the scientists and mathematicians with whom he works aren’t always that good at communicating their ideas in a concise, accessible way. Moreover, he says, most people don’t really have the time or patience to wade through complicated explanations of scientific theory. As a result, we don’t always have a good sense of what scientists are doing.

“The better that we are at getting the ideas across without going into all the detail that often people are not that interested in, the better off we are as a nation and as a community of scientists,” Gross says.

via Scientists And Musicians Compare Notes : NPR.

Look Who is Blogging Again

Here comes a wander. Be warned.

There are some bulbs along our driveway that were here when we bought our house in 1984. In the Spring, they put up a bunch of large green, strappy leaves which dry and fade away as the Summer heat comes on. Then, come Autumn, large pink crocus-like flowers emerge. The surprise was delightful the first time and still is, 30-some years later. (Turns out they are probably Giant Colchicum – Autumn Crocus).

Image of an Autumn Crocus in full bloom against a neutral light blue background.
From https://www.gardenia.net/plant/colchicum-the-giant

So blogging… I’m not sure if it is because I’m paying attention differently, or if there is something emerging around personal blogging like the crocus. It is alive all year long. It sends up shoots in the Spring then disappears again, and then it flowers. Is a new cycle starting? People whose blogs I used to read consistently but who have faded out over the years are blogging again. There is crosslinking around the topic at hand. Look who is blogging again!! I’m so delighted. (AND: I need a better feedreader, email subscriptions are not as useful, help!)

Blogging is different than participating in social media for me. But it takes more time and attention. It is quieter for the most part. Sometimes solitary. Sometimes it connects. Sometimes it needs the permanency of a url so it can sit, and later, even much later, the flowers can emerge. It is NOT feed of the moment for me.

I wrote yesterday about my Blogiversary. One of the observations was the power of thinking out loud in a blog post and the tantalizing possibility that others may chime in, counter, improve or simply show they were “there” in a comment. As Chris Corrigan noted, the satisfaction is NOT like the (addictive, distracting, destructive) “likes” or “retweets” of FB, Instagram and Twitter. I feel something visceral in this. Cellular versus a visual stimulation that comes and goes in an instant.

Dave Pollard wonders out loud about the role of relationship in our blogging. About how relationships do or do not inform our sense of identity. Euan Semple riffs on the relationship and self knowing. ( I find Euan’s post today on non-identifying usefully troublesome and need to think about what is surfacing for me, about the down side of non-identifying when one is from a dominant culture, race, gender etc. Claiming non-identification can also be an abdication of the negative impact of privilege but that is another topic for pondering.)

What we all have in common is that we wonder out loud in our blogs.

P.S. If you don’t blog, and are INTERESTED, check out these suggestions from Chris.

From the Archives: X years of blogging and what’s next

Agenda from BlogHer 2005

May 1st, 2004 was the first post to this iteration of my blog. 18 years of writing blog posts in one place. The previous blog waffled, wandered and the digital artifacts are for the most part, lost. But even those four years were instrumental to my discovery and learning. (I used the first blog mostly to curate resources for clients!)

In 2017, my dear friend Lilia Efimova reflected on her blogging history. She is, happily for me, still blogging, as is Ton Zylstra, whose post triggered Lilia’s. Those two were pioneers for me, and their writing still inspires and teaches me. (The list of other people whose blogs were/are still dear to me should be added to this post. Someday, right?)

Ton’s post on 15 Years of Blogging made me realise that I had reached similar milestone last June. In this post I look into “more blogging, less FB” issues and outline several points to work on.

Lilia Efimova

Source: 15 years of blogging, FB and what’s next — Mathemagenic

Lilia reflected back then on the wider range of places we can write, share, post, connect and most directly reflected on the borg that is Facebook. The proliferation of other socially-oriented platforms definitely had an impact on blogging in general, and directly for me.

Ton wrote:

When I started blogging it was the source of a tremendous proliferation of new connections, a whole new peer network emerged practically overnight. Distributed conversations became face to face meetings and brought us to places like the Blogtalk and Reboot conferences. Many of the people I regard as a major source of learning, inspiration I met because of this blog. Many over time have become dear friends. That alone is enough to keep blogging.

Ton Zylstra

Back in the day blogging was so many things. It created an online identity, connected me with people who have been essential in my life and formation. It triggered F2F things like Blogging conferences (Northern Voice! BlogHer!)

For me blogging is still primarily a place to think out loud together. Since fewer people blog/read blog posts/comment, the level of connection has shrunk. There has been no group F2F for years. But the last four months of regular blogging have reenergized some of those connections. And reaffirmed the value of thinking out loud together. Thank you for reading… and happy Blogiversary to me!

From the Archives: Alice, Estuaries and the Edge-Effect ™

Alice MacGillivray has always had both a robust sense of that mysterious practice, knowledge management, and an exquisite use of metaphors. I tagged an interview with her back in 2014 in a conversation about boundaries – and her use of the metaphor of an estuary. Estuaries are one of my favorite places in the world, so of course it resonate. It still does. Take a read. Then look at the link to the lovely resources from the Global Oneness Project about river stories1

Knowledge Management Spotlight: A Conversation About Boundaries.

And for more.. . 

https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/articles/rivers-and-stories

Picture of dew dripping off a branch with the blurred landscape of the Skagit estuary in the distance.