Digital Habitats Nov09 Frameworks

Making sense of the technology landscapefor groups &communities

Nancy WhiteFull Circle Associates

Digital Habitats

Tech + Social:Tech + Social:Technology has

fundamentally changed how we can be together

Polarities

Togetherness Separateness

Interacting/participation Publishing/reification

Individual Group

TOGETHERNESS SEPARATENESS

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community timecommunity space

shifting engagement….

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INTERACTING PUBLISHING

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INTERACTING PUBLISHING

Vocabularies, tools, concepts, methods, stories, papers, pictures, reports…

Conversing, experimenting, practicing, learning, planning…

INDIVIDUAL GROUP

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Go Solo?

Fly with the flock?

Roam the network?

Many: Networks

We: Communities

Me: the IndividualPersonal identity,

interest & trajectory

Bounded membership; group identity, shared interest

Boundaryless; fuzzy,

intersecting interests

Many: Networks

We: Communities

Me: the IndividualIndividual 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:Tech + Social:Technology has

fundamentally changed how we can be together

What the %&*# is a

technology steward to do?

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Nancy WhiteFull 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 communitiesEtienne Wenger, Nancy White & John. D. Smith, 2009http://www.technologyforcommunities.com

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http://www.technologyforcommunities.com/

http://www.technologyforcommunities.com/

… 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

OrientationsWhat do they mean?

activities oriented to …

Example: The Birdwatchersof Central Park


… meetings

… projects


… relationships

… context… community cultivation



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


Community Name: KM4Devglobal knowledge sharing network


… meetings

… projects


… relationships






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…


Birdwatchers and KM4Dev-ers


… meetings

… projects


… relationships






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.



Community Name:


… meetings

… projects


… relationships






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.


OrientationsPicking 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 [email protected]

http://www.fullcirc.comwww.technologyforcommunities.com

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Digital Habitats Nov09 Frameworks

Business

stewarding technology

expertise learning

technology landscape

technology steward

individualindividual

groups communities nancy

informal learning cohorts

nancy white john