Digital Habitats Nov09 Frameworks

Making sense of the technology landscape for groups & communities Nancy White Full Circle Associates Digital Habitats

Tech + Social: Technology has fundamentally changed how we can be together

Polarities

Togetherness Separateness Interacting/participation Publishing/reification Individual Group

TOGETHERNESS SEPARATENESS http://www.flickr.com/photos/angerboy/201582453/

community time community space shifting engagement….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldcafe/227358678 / INTERACTING PUBLISHING

Vocabularies, tools, concepts, methods, stories, papers, pictures, reports… Conversing, experimenting, practicing, learning, planning…

INDIVIDUAL GROUP

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/2918198742/in/set-72157603453505459/ Go Solo?

Fly with the flock?

Roam the network?

Many: Networks We: Communities Me: the Individual Personal identity, interest & trajectory Bounded membership; group identity, shared interest Boundaryless; fuzzy, intersecting interests

Many: Networks We: Communities Me: the Individual Individual learning, personal learning environments … Classes, informal learning cohorts, conferences, clubs… Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc…

Designed for groups, experienced as individuals Does not imply homogeneity Multimembership Attention

Togetherness Separateness Interacting/participation Publishing/reification Individual Group

Tech + Social: Technology has fundamentally changed how we can be together

What the %&*# is a technology steward to do? http://www.flickr.com/photos/dani3l3/364684710/ Nancy White Full Circle Associates

enable people to…
discover & appropriate useful technology
be in and use communities & networks (people)
express their identity
find and create content
usefully participate

Digital Habitats Orientation Spidergram Activity From: Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities Etienne Wenger, Nancy White & John. D. Smith, 2009 http:// www.technologyforcommunities.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/viamoi/3221971368/

… meetings … relationships … community cultivation … access to expertise … projects … context … individual participation … content publishing … open-ended conversation Community activities oriented to … Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

Meetings – in person or online gatherings with an agenda (i.e. monthly topic calls)
Projects – interrelated tasks with specific outcomes or products (i.e. Identifying a new practice and refining it.)
Access to expertise – learning from experienced practitioners (i.e. access to subject matter experts)
Relationship – getting to know each other (i.e. the annual potluck dinner!)
Context – private, internally-focused or serving an organization, or the wider world (i.e. what is kept within the community, what is shared with the wider world)
Community cultivation – Recruiting, orienting and supporting members, growing the community (i.e. who made sure you’re the new person was invited in and met others?)
Individual participation – enabling members to craft their own experience of the community (i.e. access material when and how you want it.)
Content – a focus on capturing and publishing what the community learns and knows (i.e. a newsletter, publishing an article, etc.)
Open ended conversation – conversations that continue to rise and fall over time without a specific goal (i.e. listserv or web forum, Twitter, etc.)
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith Orientations What do they mean?

activities oriented to … Example: The Birdwatchers of Central Park … open-ended conversation … meetings … projects … access to expertise … relationships … context … community cultivation … individual participation … content publishing Weekly bird walks, winter bird feeding fillings, irregular celebrations and events… Advocacy drives, adopt parts of the park, bird counts… The participation of the “Big Guns,” and “Regulars.” Mostly F2F Note when people missing… Invite people in Internal and External focus: Publishing, the “Register,” available to media… While everyone pays attention to the community, no centralized efforts… Anyone can bird watch, but sharing what you see/know is important…so the community accommodates both The “Register” (print) is central to community… Bump into another bird-watcher? Have a conversation… Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities, © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

activities oriented to … Community Name: KM4Dev global knowledge sharing network … open-ended conversation … meetings … projects … access to expertise … relationships … context … community cultivation … individual participation … content publishing Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith With only one meeting a year, large size and diversity, KM4Dev focuses on enabling individual participation. Community knowledge wiki, content management system to bring together resources. Email list is core of community activity Once a year and only about 10% do/can participate. When funding allows. E.G. supporting ShareFair Informally via the email list by asking/answering questions. Relationships mostly via meetings and core group. Strongly external – all resources public/shared. While everyone pays attention to the community, no centralized efforts…

activities oriented to … Birdwatchers and KM4Dev-ers … open-ended conversation … meetings … projects … access to expertise … relationships … context … community cultivation … individual participation … content publishing Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

What can we do with this?
Identify where your community/group/team is now to assess for design, facilitation and technology stewardship.
Refocus activities to increase engagement
Identify tools and processes to support current activities
Identify where your group wants to go as a planning tool.
Look backwards and forwards as a reflection tool.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

activities oriented to … Community Name: … open-ended conversation … meetings … projects … access to expertise … relationships … context … community cultivation … individual participation … content publishing Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith Put a mark on the arrow to indicate how important a particular orientation is to your community. The more important the orientation, the further out on the arrow the dot should be placed. Then draw a line between the dots. See the next example.

Meetings – Web meeting tools for online, shared calendars and wikis for planning, wikis, blogs, images/audio/video to capture and share during and after.
Projects – Email lists/forums to coordinate, shared calendars, project management trackers, blogs to journal/report.
Access to expertise – Online profiles, social networking sites, “yellow pages,” discussion forums, blogs.
Relationship – Twitter/IM to share small frequent messages, member directories, Skype/VoIp for conversation.
Context – Public, open websites for outward facing. Password protected for inward facing groups.
Community cultivation – Outward facing web sites to attract members, Twitter/IM to feel connected, Skype for voice.
Individual participation – RSS/aggregators, tagging, so people can craft what content they get, customizable settings on web tools, using synch and asynch
Content – content management systems, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, tags, video/audio, images, mindmapping.
Open ended conversation – email lists, forums, Twitter, chat.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith Orientations Picking tools? How?

For Reflecting Together…
Group form: small, pairs, or full group?
Visibility: Public or private?
Style: Format?
Editable?
Commentable?
Images?
What else?
Portability:
Export?
Republish?
Aggregate?

More? Nancy White [email_address] http:// www.fullcirc.com www.technologyforcommunities.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/poagao/527259905/

Digital Habitats Nov09 Frameworks

by Nancy White

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