Nancy White 8 Competencies A Ucompressed[1]

Knowledge Bank 2006 Online Conference: Stories in the Digital Age

The 8
Competencies of
Online Interaction

Nancy White – Full Circle Associates

1


Who is the story teller?

Nancy White
Full Circle Associates
Online facilitator
Blogger
Learner
Chocoholic
SEEKER
Literal picture, figurative image
IDENTITY online shows up in many ways

I'm an online interaction addict who fell down the rabbit hole in 1996 with
Howard Rheingold's Electric Minds. Since then I have dedicated myself to
understanding and practicing how we can successfully connect online.

Oh, I'm also a chocoholic. When I do this presentation live, everyone gets
chocolate. The drawing of me in this slide is by Honoria Starbuck. I took the
picture.

2


Context

•We live in interesting times
•Boundaries of mind and not place
•Map your network on the globe… how far does it spread?
•Breadth spread of internet connectivity
•Internet – move information fast and lots of it
•Connection
•Possibility
•Globalization
•Speed – change
•Blogs & wikis have accelerated this
•You have probably heard that proverb quot;may you live in interesting times.quot; So
many of us hopped online thinking wow, this is going to be great. But we didn't
see what lurked beneath the surface. We have this huge context: opportunity,
global reach, the ability to theoretically quot;do things fastquot; electronically, new
expanded boundaries of mind, not place. But there are a few surprises.
•Trolls under bridges… So knowing a few things can be useful.

3


At first the online world feels totally familiar. Then something is odd…
But it is a world where we are Working, Learning, Shopping, Convening,
Conversing,….across time and distance via the ‘net.
What felt familiar right away?
What quickly became familiar? What practices have felt productive?
Who have you learned them with and from?

•We care about competencies for this new, distributed world we live in because
they are both heaven and hell. We want more heaven, less hell.
•We start by looking inward.
•UNPREPARED FOR POSSIBILITIES AND CONSEQUENCES of a connected
world. Blogs and wikis have accelerated this
•We can’t expect to lead or design for these competencies for others without
having them ourselves.
•When we remix online interaction with diverse offline contexts, what happens?
•What if the bird flu takes hold and we must curtail travel and many F2F global
activities? Are we ready to move more fully online?
•How do our competencies with online technologies mesh with our competencies
with mobile phones?
•Note added after NorthernVoice presentation: consider how people use the word
“competencies” differently in different settings.
•This is important because the opportunity offered by online connection deserves
a chance to come to fruition. Blogging has greatly increased the number of
people interacting online, so the need to understand how we quot;do this stuffquot; is
even more urgent. 4


Picture courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/rollerboogie/

• Worried about your competency? What do we see when we look in the
mirror?
• What did you find? What did you do?
• How do we measure our competency for online teaching, learning, working in
this online world?
• What does competent mean?

5


•This online world is ruled by the quot;Goddess of Small Annoyances.quot; She is
powerful, passionate, colorful, forward moving, but full of little things that trip
you up. The one sock missing... She is forcing us into a new life. After millenia
of hardwired communications patterns, we have been challenged to quickly
develop NEW ones. To translate our offline learnings into this new space.
What are the challenges?
•Lack of skills
•Organizational barriers
•Scientist collaboration story
•Groups with insufficient practices to work and learn together online
•Challenges of boundary crossing

we are tested by challenges. Our poison apples may be thought of as things like:
* Speed = success and quality
* We are working with tools designed for a group, but experienced by an
individual
* Our actions are not mediated by a group as they are F2F
* Organizational barriers (and feeling threatened by technologies that more often
support horizontal action rather than top -down)
* Professional barriers (think of scientists asked to collaborate in a quot;publish or
perishquot; culture?)
* Lack of skills (reading, writing, etc.)
* Ego, jealosy, all those quot;7 deadly sinsquot; (grin) can also trip us up online. Just like
offline, we need to

6


…with heart…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/umbrellagurl/

But… do it with heart

The other interesting thing is this perception of technically-mediated
communication as somewhat less than human. I believe we can fully bring
ourselves online; mind, heart and soul. So I'll try and tag the quot;heartquot; element of
each of these competencies. (See heart icon)

7


…Emergent

•meld the theoretical with the practical
•For…individuals… learning community members…designers…Leaders?
•How to learn them?
•Design for them?
•What are they?
•Same?Different?
•Learn them?
•The future?
•These competencies are emergent. They reflect my experiences and those of
people I have worked with. You may have other competencies; other experiences
and perceptions.

8


2. Online Communications

F2F communication skills – ability to interpret and respond to non verbals now
translated in a new environment.
Volume
Multi literacies
Ability to improvise
Ability to listen
How do we learn to scan and comprehend? I WANT TO KNOW

Fluid
Fluent
Not flummoxed

9


….Scan…..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naveenjamal/578
77623/

WRITE! Draw
Vocalize
Image-inate

See patterns
Intuit

10


Listen…

11


3. Learning
Together

quot;To receive
everything, one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-tal/179390341/ must open one's
hands and give”
Taisen Deshimaru

Statue in Boston, info http://flakmag.com/misc/parkman.html

•Really.You can’t do this alone. So get used to it. REALLY.
•Huge design implications. Tools are designed for a group, experienced by an
individual
•Large practice implications
•Open hand…
•Learning as a practice
•Gift economy
•Collaboration
•Networks

12


Ramalingam:
6 Network
Functions
• Filters
• Amplifyers
• Convenors
• Facilitators
• Investors
• Community
builders http://www.odi.org.uk/Rapid/Projects/PPA0103/Functions.html

Value of networks: Ben Ramalingam ODI working paper
http://www.odi.org.uk/Rapid/Projects/PPA0103/Functions.html

13


Togetherness Skills
• Filter
– Search
– Tag, bookmark
– Annotate
– Blog
• Be un-knowing
• Reciprocate

Notice networking shows up again.
What role of technology?
What is role of practice?

14


4. Facilitation

• Relationship
• Identity/Reputation
• Presence
• Flow

Now more than ever

What from offline moves online?
How is this practice evolving?
How do we get the question right?
Network vs. hierarchy
Boundary spanning
Group variation

15


Facilitation
Skills

• Space-holding
• Improvisational
• Creatively
abrasive
(Leonard)

Meaning making
Role modeling
Talking about it
Classics informed by ICT

16


Convening
Conversations

• Invite
• Name the question
• Design for local
choice
• Nurture

Block, P (2003) The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters Berrett-Koehler

Convening conversations
Naming the question
Initiating new conversations
Sticking with strategies of engagement and consent
Designing strategies that support local choice

Some of this belongs in facilitation

17


5. Intercultural
Antennae

http://www.stc-jamesriver.org/King%20STC%20Jan04.pdf
Everyone needs cultural antennae
The cost of not having them is high
Professional and organizational cultures
Broadly defined
Beyond“Default” culture
Biggest challenge?
Sense
Understand (not all, can never)

18


Duck or
fish?

Stories in different cultures
Look ..read
Live/work/play
Fala! (speak!)
Bridge

19


Get used to it
Control is an ILLUSION

20


6. Tolerance for
AmBiguitY

Move forward
without certainty

A huge survival skill is being ok with ambiguity. Of small, incremental changes
for feeling secure, but knowing big leaps can happen and throw us off balance.
There is an element of faith here, to move forward, even in uncertainty.

OK with
“not in control”
not knowing

21


Ambiguity
Dancing Skills

• “Yes, and”
• Ask
• Shift
• Flow

Dancing with Ambiguity at the Online Ballroom
Impro book link

New advocacy

Doing this dance is about having some roots to hold you when the wind blows,
like your values and self awareness. The other part is about being open to whole
new worlds of possibility. We can connect with people so different, we have to be
able to open the window to their views, which may be very different than ours.
We have to shift from an advocacy of quot;my ideasquot; to the opening to a weaving
together of quot;our ideas.quot; Winning means something collective. It means that what
we know as quot;rightquot; today might be modified tomorrow not because we are fickle
and inconsistent, but because what we learn tomorrow changes our understanding
and world view.

A person who viewed these slides online said dancing is about losing your
balance and being able to find it again.

22


Engineer
Economist
Artist

How are you balanced between these three?
What do you need to strengthen? Tone down?
Engineer – problem solving, logic, clarity, knowing
Economist – cost benefit, measurement, fair exchange
Artist – heart, relationship, feeling, outsider

IDENTITY

Most of us identify with one domain, but in the online world, we benefit from
building our strengths in other areas as well.

23


7. Ability to switch
contexts

• Multi-membership
• Connectors
• Networkers
• Multiple perspectives
• Outsiderness

Beta and the VHS example

While we may have a strength in one area, we may be the engineer, we have to be
able to both build up our inner economist and artist AND to be able to embrace
the different approaches of people who come from different contexts.

Let go!
Cultivate
relationships
Know/use/ditch models
Be the jester
Remix

24


8. Technical Skills

• Love it or
leave it
• Know enough
• Be curious
• Experiment
• Have friends

25


Finally…1. Self-Awareness

Most important – online and offline. When I do this presentation F2F, I do this
one last as a launch into a conversation. But since we are unfolding our
competencies over 10 days, I thought we might put it back at #1. What do you
think, Tony?

The most important competency is self awareness -- online and offline. If we
cannot stop and see ourselves, we cannot see others. Nor quot;hearquot; them!

26


So what?

• Undeterred by
failure
• Care for the whole
• Willing to be
vulnerable
• Value the human
system first
Block, P (2003) The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters, Berrett-

Koehler

•Name the debate
•Focus on the human, whole system!

27


There are two ways of
spreading the light:

To be the candle or the mirror
that reflects it.

- Edith Wharton

Finally, when we think in terms of blogging, we can be the candle, sharing what
we know, or the mirror, reflecting attention and light on to others. Both are , in
my view, necessary. We can build on the knowledge of others.

28

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