Online communities are growing in popularity as more people participate and share information online. They provide ways for people to work together across distances, share knowledge and experiences, and communicate more effectively. Well-run online communities can enhance learning, improve services, and help build professional relationships and reputations by allowing free sharing of information in many formats. Individuals are taking more control over how and where they access information, often relying on online communities.

1. Why online communities? Others are (or soon will be) participating in online communities. Go where they are going!

2. Why should you care? Internet use / behavior is changing. The mindset is more of a “come to me” world.

3. So what’s changing? http://www.briansolis.com/2006/12/time-magazine-web-20-and-you.html Gaming Entertainment Learning Journalism Politics Commerce Business Marketing Mapping

4. What problems are OC solving? Work occurs outside of our offices Email overload - wrong method Unable to keep up Need to work together Need to include clients You (We) don’t know it all Communication failures

5. Online communities are about… Sharing Work Information Knowledge Experiences Interests Opinions

6. Also, they’re about… Enhancing learning opportunities Providing better quality services Communicating Building relationships Building professional reputations

7. Also, they are about the … Power of reading feeds bloggers’ & individuals’ influence learning from others (regardless of geography/status) relating any format, anywhere

8. Individuals decide how they want information. Individuals depend on their communities for information.

9. Blogging Share your Expertise Knowledge Information Thoughts Ideas Cool stuff Observations Opinions

10. Extension professionals Good bloggers’ characteristics

11. Before blogging 1. Seek Find feeds that interest you (look for the RSS feed logo ) Extension professionals may find these feeds interesting “Ten Steps to Web 2.0″ . Watch the archive from April 24

12. Before blogging 2. Lurk Stop surfing – read blogs using feed reader (i.e., Google Reader ) How to Use a News Reader Trying to Create a Listing of News Feeds Web conference archives Make Google Reader your home page

13. Before blogging 3. Converse Comment on blogs—this is your introduction to blogging.

14. Before blogging 4. Share Share your findings on social bookmarking sites del.icio.us or diigo . See web conference archives on social bookmarking

15. Following & contributing to existing blogs (conversations), you will: learn new knowledge & ideas advance the knowledge of others share what you learned with others

16. Beginners’ blogging tips Getting started in conversations Tips from a new blogger Make mine chunky (how to write a blog) Writing for the web Legal guide for bloggers Extension professionals and their passion Blogging : Stepping into the learning process Blogging : Build your professional reputation

17. Next steps Try at least 1 of the applications on the pages “Next Steps”. Then try another & another.

18. Next steps Stop editing large attachments – Google Docs Stop email madness – Wikis Instant messaging: AIM, Yahoo, MSN, or enterprise messaging SMS (text messaging)

19. Next steps Share by using wikis & Google Docs & shared resources: Slideshare Flickr YouTube etc.

20. Next steps Share your opinion vote on content Digg StumbleUpon Amazon etc.

21. Next steps Join a social network site Facebook MySpace Ning LinkedIn Join a virtual world Second Life

22. Other references Extension in Web 2.0 Trust in the online community Social networks in plain English More thoughts on Twitter