Using social tools to support membership organisations Lyndsay Rees-Jones: Membership Services Unit, CILIP Ed Mitchell: community and engagement consultant Theory Practice Technology Findings

Whatever the tool, it’s there for the community "...with communities, the need to design for evolution is paramount. The community’s needs at the beginning of its life will evolve over time... Unlike the trajectory of a team, which can often be fairly well planned from the start, the life of a community is a voyage of discovery..." (Wenger, White, Smith et al, 2005, as seen at: http://www.technologyforcommunities.com)

"...with communities, the need to design for evolution is paramount. The community’s needs at the beginning of its life will evolve over time...

Unlike the trajectory of a team, which can often be fairly well planned from the start, the life of a community is a voyage of discovery..."

(Wenger, White, Smith et al, 2005, as seen at: http://www.technologyforcommunities.com)

Theory Context Membership organisation background, requirements and future Goals Real engagement, governance, advocacy People Broadly distributed membership: is it a community? A network? Does it have a common purpose? Where are the vested interests?

Context

Membership organisation background, requirements and future

Goals

Real engagement, governance, advocacy

People

Broadly distributed membership: is it a community? A network? Does it have a common purpose? Where are the vested interests?

Practice Organisation design Memsocs and modernity, community, governance etc. Social models Pre-existing and emergent People and multi-domain thinking Trust building through loops of multi-domain activity and feedback and responsive organisational interface

Organisation design

Memsocs and modernity, community, governance etc.

Social models

Pre-existing and emergent

People and multi-domain thinking

Trust building through loops of multi-domain activity and feedback and responsive organisational interface

Technology Forums originally tied with blogs for the CoP model Blogs originally tied with forums but then opened up in phase 2 Tags emergent interest and potential use for organisational knowledge Aggregation capturing the thoughts of those members outside Physical meetings conferences, workshops, inforums (MySpace, Youtube, flickr, secondlife, facebook, ning etc…)

Forums

originally tied with blogs for the CoP model

Blogs

originally tied with forums but then opened up in phase 2

Tags

emergent interest and potential use for organisational knowledge

Aggregation

capturing the thoughts of those members outside

Physical meetings

conferences, workshops, inforums

(MySpace, Youtube, flickr, secondlife, facebook, ning etc…)

Communities: phase 1 Department of Knowledge and Information Community leader Member Community Community hub CILIP membership Knowledge flows from Peer to peer Facilitator Expert

Communities: phase 2 Community leader Member CoP Community hub CILIP membership Knowledge flows from Peer to peer Expert Blog Mentors and Mentees using profiles Members with blogs RSS Other networks RSS Branch Group

Social model: facilitation Public facilitation: External blogs Responses Championing Advocating Marketing Attracting Internal facilitation: Editing Responding Finding people Finding knowledge Supporting Balancing Nurturing

Social model: facilitation Forums Blogs "... Where facilitation is withdrawn or inconsistent, community activity often decreases. Where it is pro-active, consistent and visible, communities tend to flourish provided purpose and expectations are clear and understood by the participants" (Research from Bristol University into talk2learn, NCSL's online communities)

Findings Process: Plan Measure-ables Facilitation Technology Pilot Roll-out Reflect Measurement Team business: seriously Hand-holding Common language Adapting to a new way of working

Process:

Plan

Measure-ables

Facilitation

Technology

Pilot

Roll-out

Reflect

Measurement

Team business: seriously

Hand-holding

Common language

Adapting to a new way of working

At the end of the day, we’re all humans… “… I don’t think there is much future in my doing this, as if I talked or discussed half of what is going on here on a blog then I am sure I would upset someone !!...” “… This initiative is easily, for me, the stand-out project that CILIP has undertaken in recent years, and I am proud to be a member of an organisation that is pushing forward into social software at this stage (2nd-generation adoption)…” (Backchannel member communications)

“… I don’t think there is much future in my doing this, as if I talked or discussed half of what is going on here on a blog then I am sure I would upset someone !!...”

“… This initiative is easily, for me, the stand-out project that CILIP has undertaken in recent years, and I am proud to be a member of an organisation that is pushing forward into social software at this stage (2nd-generation adoption)…”