Via Howard Rheingold, Face the Rear: An Illustration of Social Influence rings true like a bell. I love playing with "elevator etiquette" by not standing the way the group is. Last month at eLearning Africa in Dar es Salaam, our hotel had one elevator out, and tons of people moving in and out of their rooms on the same schedule. Yup, crowded elevators. I was on the 7th floor of my 13 floor hotel and each morning as I sought to descend, the door would open showing me a packed elevator. Overpacked according to standards here at home. Body to body. But everyone seemed quite comfortable, if hot. But I had to switch my tactics (because the lights were burnt out on the stairs, so that was a tricky option as well.) I hit the up button, got on as the car was going up in the morning and rode down 13 to 1 on the ever filling car. In the back. In the corner. Watching — you guessed it — how people behaved. How they accommodated a suitcase. What Africans did vs colleagues from Europe or North America. So when I saw this video, I was hooked. Watch the video. Then one more comment at the end… When I think of group dynamics both face to face and online, there is this dynamic of conformity. It is stronger in some cultural contexts and in my experience, stronger F2F. But it also exists online — despite all the talk that people act with less inhibitions online. Some people do. Not everyone. And for my US friends, Happy Fourth of July!

Essential Arts - Blog - What is a Community?. What is a Community? from Essential Arts on Vimeo. Here are some visions of New Orleans and Seattle, plus a critical question that Essential Arts is addressing through our program Bilocal, which also pairs NOLA and Seattle writers and artists. Support us this month via Kickstarter!. (Nancy’s note - I never posted this till months later. Sorry!)

The  Leadership Learning Community, a group of people dedicated to the practice and learning around non profit leadership, host a series of webinars. August 23rd they have June Holley and I’m up October 10th. Here are the deets… Presenter: Nancy White, Full Circle  Associates Topic: Communities, Networks and Engagement: Finding a Place for Action Date: Monday, October 10th 11:00AM-12 Noon PDT 2:00PM-3:00PM EDT We have so many online tools at our disposal to theoretically connect and activate engagement with others. But what happens when we say "were building an online community" but few engage? When is it worth the work and effort? What are our options? And if we build it, what are some starting points to help us work towards successful engagement? Join us as we explore our options and practices with Nancy White of Full Circle Associates. Nancy has been engaging in and facilitating online groups since 1996 - with her fair share of successes and failures. Registration here. via Nonprofit Leadership Webinar Series | Leadership Learning Community.

via Discover Your Twitter Character on Visual.ly | Visual.ly.

Nancy’s Note: In July Michelle Laurie and I ran another graphic facilitation workshop in beautiful Rossland, BC, Canada. In summer mode, I still haven’t written up my reflections. When I saw Sylvia Currie’s great post on her blog, I begged her to let me reblog it as a guest post (only the second in FullCirc history!) here. So THANKS Sylvia! I will follow up with my reflections and pointers to more of Sylvia’s great workshop videos.  Sylvia came to the RosViz 10 and returned this year as our social reporter. FABULOUS!!! Reflections on a fantastic workshop What happened at the 2011 RosViz Graphic Facilitation Workshop? I’m not sure where to begin! It was 2 1/2 days of pure fun, intense learning, lively networking, and the occasional emotional tug. I created this little video in an attempt to capture the experience, which of course will be most meaningful to the participants but hopefully will also give others a glimpse of what the workshop is all about. Following the introductory evening session and graphic jam we launched right into some activities aimed to, in Nancy’s words, "L O O O O S E N up", create the unexpected, and most importantly, raise questions in our minds about how this all feels. I mean, how often have you started a drawing with a sopping wet tea bag? Comments after viewing our gallery: I would have never created this if you had just given me a blank piece of paper and markers. Tea Bag Drawing Exercise Tea Bag Drawing Exercise Giving a starting point, a tea bag splotch, we started to see potential — familiar images formed in our minds from the shapes we saw in front of us. It was a very quick exercise, and aside from some drippy canvases we were ready for a gallery walkabout within minutes. The same principles were applied in another exercise which can best be described as musical chairs but without the chairs, and with markers and chalk. As soon as the music stops markers are lifted and on you move to the next canvas. By the time we were finished rotating through each station we had a collection of stunning art that, in most cases, was quite different from what the original artist envisioned. Questions continued to emerge through participation: What did it feel like to draw on someone else’s work? Musical Drawing Musical Drawing In keeping with Nancy’s approach to just dive right in, more challenging activities were interspersed throughout the workshop. Sure she was careful to lay a bit of foundation, but rather than gradually build up to the big crescendo (live graphic recording without any clues about the topic), these experiences felt more like check points. Wow, that was way more difficult than I thought it would be! And neat, look what I created in just 6 minutes! What really stood out after several practice sessions, debriefs, and plenty of opportunities to network (the power of the snack table!) was the comfort level in the room. We had evolved into quite the uninhibited group! Looking back on the graphic recordings of Matt Cutts’ Ted Talk: Try Something New for 30 days it’s astonishing to think that these images emerged from a talk that was less that 3 1/2 minutes long. (Violette Clark invites you to participate in her 30-day challenge — a portrait a day for the month of August!) TED Talk Graphic Scribes There were some surprises as well. For one of the graphic recording exercises Violette Clark told her story and for all workshop participants this proved to be the most difficult exercise. I wanted to honour Violette and her amazing story, and I was afraid that I wasn’t doing it justice in my drawing. During the debrief, Violette talked about how overwhelming it was to see her life story represented in all the the incredible drawings around the room. Through this exercise we all experienced how emotional this visual practice can be; I think most of us were fighting back tears at that point! Another useful practice session was the icon jam. It’s amazing to me how often I can think of the perfect icon while I’m listening, but the right image just won’t form in my brain. Oh! The recycle symbol would go perfectly in this spot. Then my mind goes blank. Others in the workshop shared this same experience. Nancy led us through a couple icon jams to tap into both sides of our brains. Here are some creations from a "throw out, throw in" activity. Nancy also offers an open invitation to contribute to this icon collection. We weren’t holding crayons every minute of the workshop. Our circle of chairs brought several debriefing conversations, a "fish bowl" activity, a chat with Susan Stewart from California via Elluminate (recording here) about her experiences using an iPad, and a final reflection on the entire workshop experience. This sounds like a lot over a 2 1/2 day period, and believe it or not I’ve left out quite a bit! Other reflections on the Graphic Facilitation are continuing to pop up: Graphic Facilitation Workshop 1 Graphic Facilitation Workshop 2 Workshop ends…community begins Also, the RosViz10 Facebook Group is bubbling, and you’re all welcome to join us. (Advance apology — we can’t seem to flip a switch to make this group public so you’ll need to wait for one of the admins to approve your membership.) Next, while the experience is fresh in my mind, I plan to write about social reporting. But for now I’d like thank Michelle and Nancy for the opportunity!

From the inimitable Howard Rheingold! A mini-course on network and social network literacy - howardrheingold’s posterous. I’ve become convinced that understanding how networks work is an essential 21st century literacy. This is the first in a series of short videos about how the structure and dynamics of networks influences political freedom, economic wealth creation, and participation in the creation of culture. The first video introduces the importance of understanding networks and explains how the underlying technical architecture of the Internet specifically supports the freedom of network users to innovate.

Sometimes I am a silly goose. I help sponsor a great aggregation site, the Communities and Networks Connection, but I lose track of it on my own radar. I do get the highlights via an email subscription (look at the right side of the page) and thought I’d offer a little glimpse, a temptation, if you will, to the site. Best of Communities and Networks Connection Week of July 30, 2011 Google Plus and Twitter How They Work for Me Hand in HandELSUA|MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011 It’s been over a month since I first started making use of Google Plus. Yes, me, too!, I still can’t believe I have been there for that long already! But I am back to Twitter. No, I haven’t given up on Google Plus either. Quite Quite the opposite! So what’s happening then? Yes, indeed! Of course, who wouldn’t, right? 24 Tweets Twitter: when less is more. Tips for (not) getting unfollowed.EMODERATION|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 The news that @barackobama has apparently hemorrhaged 35,00 followers in the past few days has set the social media world sniggering with schadenfreude. These were the followers who presumably didn’t appreciate being spammed with 113 tweets in the space of a few hours, exhorting them to tweet-lobby (twobby?) their local reps in Obama’s support. 12 Tweets Vertaisrahasto.fi (Peer Fund)P2P FOUNDATION|MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011 Vertaisrahasto.fi (literally Peer Fund&# ) is a new way of collecting and allocating funding for research. The idea is very simple. There are two roles for volunteer participants: donors and applicants. Everyone is invited to donate to the fund, the minimum sum is 10 euros. Donations are piled up during a predesignated time. 7 Tweets Made by Many teams up with Good for Nothing to support the East Africa famine crisisMADE BY MANY|THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011 Made by Many is partnering with ethical innovators Good for Nothing in a rapid and collaborative response to the East Africa crisis. One child is dying every six minutes, and fundraising efforts are struggling to keep up to fund the relief effort. And we count you all in that network, so please step in and get involved. We need your ideas. 33 Tweets Traditional Media brainwashing Australians about Social MediaLAUREL PAPWORTH- SOCIAL NETWORK STRATEGY|SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2011 NSW Police have been made aware of a Facebook page that has allegedly made disturbing death threats against baby-faced singer Jack Vidgen. Telephones don t stalk children, Social Media doesn t intimidate them either. People do. Investigate People. Don t blame the online community tools. usually don t bother clicking anymore. 51 Tweets Objections to participation in conferencesCHRIS CORRIGAN|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 I have great clients. Most of the people who end up working with me do so because they want to work in radically more participatory ways, opening up processes to more voices, more leadership. In conference settings this means scheduling much more dialogue or running the whole thing using Open Space Technology and dispensing with pre-loading content. 11 Tweets Community activist hub: right problem, wrong solutionSOCIAL REPORTER|SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2011 I m puzzled by the recommendation for a central information hub for community activists&# from the Government s Champion for Active Safer Communities, Baroness Newlove. I m sure that Baroness Newlove has good evidence of a demand for information from her work in local communities in recent months so, right problem. 8 Tweets Social Media at Work ELSUA MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011 Last week, upon my return from my last business trip, I was hoping to be able to resume my regular blogging activities and share with you folks some of the interesting conversations I have been engaging with and other interesting resources worth while sharing across. never ever blog whenever you are upset about something, or someone! 11 Tweets Hot-Desking: Good or Bad for Collaboration?MICHAEL SAMPSON - CURRENTS|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 New Zealand’s Stuff website asks whether hot-desking is hot or not? : " Once upon a time, an employee’s desk was a home away from home. Adorned with paraphernalia of hobbies and interests and obligatory family photos, it was as much a statement of identity as it was a place to perform a job. But this cosy space is slowly being taken away. 6 Tweets Living "A World Without Email" in Google Plus ELSUA|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 In the last few weeks a lot has been written about whether Google Plus is the ultimate killer social networking site of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or several others, you name it. still think it s a bit too early to be announcing the painful death of each of those social networking environments. G+ still needs to reach that level. Or not. 12 Tweets Book of the Week (2): David Graeber’s take on the fake economics and their Imaginary Myth of Barter P2P FOUNDATION|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 Facebook allows merging of community Pages into official Pages EMODERATION|THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011 Help Complete the Intranet-Digital Workplace Trends 2011 Survey PORTALS AND KM|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 How Come I Can’t Tune Klout? ALCHEMY OF CHANGE|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 Book of the Week: David Graeber’s First Five Thousand Years of Debt P2P FOUNDATION|MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011 Network Weaving: The 5 Kinds of Communities JOHN TROPEA - DELICIOUS COMMUNITY|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 How the internet creates ecological/relational forms of awareness P2P FOUNDATION|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 Instant Business Guide to LinkedIn THE BUMBLE BEE|THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011 Forrester Groundswell 2011 Awards: AT&T Proving the ROI of Social Media for Customer Service< ANT’S EYEVIEW BLOG|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 Arab Spring inspires Israeli social justice movement P2P FOUNDATION|MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011 High Performance Companies Collaborate | Podio Blog JOHN TROPEA - DELICIOUS COLLABORATION|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! ENDLESS KNOTS|THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011 Odd names and ordinariness NEIGHBOURHOODS|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 The snowflake model: Marshall Ganz on how technology has changed organizing revolutions P2P FOUNDATION|SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2011 Uploading to Youtube - it’s a snap (ha!) ENDLESS KNOTS|THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011 Together: a union approach to precariat P2P FOUNDATION|SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2011 Elinor Ostrom on Going Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons P2P FOUNDATION|TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 Police occupy Puerta del Sol #spanishrevolution #nopararemos P2P FOUNDATION|WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2011 The insuffficiency of efficiency P2P FOUNDATION |TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011 The P2P of Zion (2): Social Economy developments within the Mormon Church P2P FOUNDATION|THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011 From systems of co-determination to full industrial democracy? P2P FOUNDATION|SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2011

My friend and mentor-of-many domains, Barbara Ganley, asked me to offer a guest post related to my gardens sin her Open View Garden blog. This week I finally feel some inspiration — we’ve had more than a spattering of days that an legitimately be described as a warm sunny day here in Seattle. I debated about cross posting… What does gardening have to do with onsline communities, facilitation or technology stewardship, right? In fact at a metaphorical or den spiritual level, these topic have everything to do with each other. They are each about systems, about intent and improvising with whatever you are dealt. They are about finding regeneration, life and beauty wherever we look. So here is what I wrote for Barbara… Gratefulness: August Garden in a Cool Summer In mid July we talked about the number of MINUTES of summer we’d had so far. One of the coldest. One of the wettest. I was still in shock that I kept my poor tomato seedlings squished in the too-short cold frame well into June, stunting their growth and productivity. My pea starts grew slower than a glacier. I was morose and relished my week in the sunny warmth of North Carolina. At yoga class, were we try to practice a more positive, accepting attitude, we could not stop those little comments about the weather. (Have I ever mentioned that as I get older, I crave light, sun, and warmth more than I ever did before? I do. I"ll say it again. I do!) Now a month later I walked out into my garden and realized the abundance is there this year, but in a different way. I was just not looking at it through the eyes of abundance. So here is a little tour from our small garden. For those who don’t know my geography, I live in Seattle, in a neighborhood called Ravenna or Ravenna-Bryant (we are actually smack dab between three named neighborhoods. So identity is always a bit tricky.) Our lot is 50 feet wide and 100 feed deep. Our little house sits towards the back of the lot, so our front yard is both our front yard and our back yard.  We put in raised beds the summer after we moved here in 1984. Over the years, we’ve hacked back the overgrown shrubs, removed most of the lawn and replaced them with plantings, patio and deck, to enjoy "outdoor rooms" even though the weather here doesn’t always encourage our venturing forth. The lot is bracketed by three very large trees - so large that when you fly over the area on the way to a landing at the airport (approach from the North) you can spot our house easily. It’s the one you can’t see underneath the three big trees! To the southeast there is a huge old horse chestnut on the corner of our neighbor’s lot. It drops blossoms, chestnuts (watch your head!) and leaves in abundance. I only wish the darn nuts were edible. They keep the squirrels busy in the fall, burying and losing them. We have, needless to say, many small horse chestnut starts all around the place. To the east, directly behind our house, is a big old maple we estimate to be just under 100 years. It is our air conditioning in warm years, shading the house from the hot afternoon sun. In the cool, cloudy summers, I admit I curse her a bit. The arborist tells us the tree is healthy, but heading towards its natural decline as the trees usually live about 100 years. Ours has a lovely vase-branching structure, so there are no humongous branches to fall and crush things. Thank goodness. On the north east corner sits the sisters: two trees, one on our property and one on the neighbors, but growing root to root, trunk to trunk. Ours is an old Douglas fir which I estimate is about 80 feet tall. The other is a pine that is infected with some disease that is slowly killing it. These two so block the rain that the chicken cook beneath it stays dry unless the rain is blowing vertically from winter’s southerly gales.  Between these three grand dames, you can imagine … I have little full time sun on my garden and it is diminishing by the year. Our raspberries are less sweet. Our greens and peas less robust, robbed of sun. But our ferns and hostas are lush. Thank goodness for shade plants. But I want to talk about the food that comes out of the garden, and the flowers, like the huge, fragrant "Conc’d Or" (sp?) lillies on my dining room table, the raspberries in my freezer and the dozen eggs in the fridge, courtesy of "the girls" — our three urban chickens ensconced in their cleverly overbuilt coop. The dinosaur kale, the amazing Japanese cucumber that has thrived despite the weather. The clusters of small, green tomatoes on the vines in our "Earthtainer."  The few slender green beans that survived grazing by the chickens. (Oh, and the second planting of sugar snap peas totally destroyed by the chickens and my not so clever fencing…) As I look around, I see the horseradish loves the mild summer. That the growth on the apple trees and berries promises good harvests next year. That the hard work I did to amend the neglected soil over the winter DID pay off, even if the bounty is modest. I made two batches of jam this week with the berries, augmented with apricots and some rosemary I had to appropriate from a hedge on a walk, as mine were wiped out by a sudden freeze late last Fall. How glorious the jars look, how delicious the jam tastes. How appreciative friends will be when they receive them in the winter holidays. (If I can stop myself from eating all the jam up myself.) I think of the three rows of potatoes planted in my friend’s sunnier, larger yard north of Seattle, how we weeded and prepped the rows together, and how she has shared half the harvest. The first row is in and I have eaten creamy new potatoes with home made pesto - even if I had to buy the basil from the farmers market. I can sit out on my patio. The wifi even reaches there. Or the deck to the south of the house, where I also relish drying my laundry when the weather permits. It smells so good. I can eat bread and jam, jam and bread. I can talk to the chickens and listen as they talk to me. I can hear the scolding crows (who scare the chickens) and blue jays. Watch for humming birds on the cape fuschias. Holler out to neighbors, now that we’ve hacked down the 20 food holly hedge (not so friendly!) It is amazing what cutting down a hedge will do, or placing some comfy chairs around a small round patio made of bricks reclaimed from a neighbor’s chimney when they remodeled. There are signs of community everywhere. In nature’s community responding to a wet, cold summer. In the human and animal neighborhood. Opening my eyes, reframing my perspective, I see potential where before I saw dark, grey, soddenness. From mud to jam. Gratefulness is powerful. Apricot/Berry/Rosemary Jam Inspired from FoodinJars , Mrs. Wheelbarrow, and   Open View Gardens (for the French maceration approach) 5 cups apricots - sweet, mushy and pitted 1 cup of berries - raspberries, blackberries - -whatever juice of 2 lemons 3 cups sugar 1-3 teaspoons of finely chopped fresh rosemary. Yes, rosemary. Go light if you are shy… Directions Wash, pit, and measure fruit into a large glass or plastic bowl. Finely chop and add rosemary. (Doesn’t everyone like green bits in their jam?) Mush things around a bit and then cover and refrigerate over night. I forgot and let mind sit two nights. (I also made this without the maceration and twice boil method - just boiled the whole lot for 15 minutes. It was good too!) When ready to cook the jam, sterilize your jars, lids, rims etc. (Read good advice from others listed above for all the details!) Drain the liquid from the fruit into a large non-aluminum pan and gently bring to a boil up to 220 degrees F. Add back in the fruit, bring to a boil you can’t stir down and cook for 5 minutes or until the jam coats the back of a spoon thickly. Take off heat, pour  into your nice clean jars, put on caps and rims making sure your jar tops are wiped clean and process in a boiling hot water bath for 10 minutes. (Again, read their recipes for all the how-to’s. They all have great blogs) Take the jars out of the hot water bath (carefully), cool, label, share and enjoy! Full Garden photoset here.

I have lost track of my blog readers, buffeted by eddies of excess digital content. I stumbled back upon D’Arcy Norman’s blog this afternoon with pure delight. (The is one of his Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr … sometimes I prefer to just watch someone’s Flickr stream instead of read so much. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to set that up on an iPad for an idiot like me?) It has been a long time since I visited D’Arcy’s blog. I new Alan Levine was heading that way and since I’ve been following Alan’s trip, the time felt right. I did not head for one post, I just read and scrolled. Kismet. Serendipity. This seems appropriate during August, where I am cutting myself some slack, in anticipation of an insane Fall work schedule. (Thus the gardening posts and food themed Tweets.) My networks are now for the most part serendipity networks because they have become too large for me to track. When I need to research, interact, I can activate them for sure. But now they are like going to the candy store, staring at the counter for a few minutes, then picking a chocolate or two. Here are a few chocolates from D’Arcy’s recent blogs. he rides a steel cable. A link to a mind blowing YouTube video of a person who rides bikes where most of us can’t even imagine. I’ve watched it twice already. ds106 campfire jam.  Friends jamming F2F and online. photo(s) friday: dock life. Beautiful family photos. And my favorite, which is so good I have to copy snippets that D’Arcy quoted… Thanks, D’Arcy! on conformity through positive reinforcement. From Neil Strauss’ article in the WSJ: Just as stand-up comedians are trained to be funny by observing which of their lines and expressions are greeted with laughter, so too are our thoughts online molded to conform to popular opinion by these buttons. A status update that is met with no likes (or a clever tweet that isn’t retweeted) becomes the equivalent of a joke met with silence. It must be rethought and rewritten. And so we don’t show our true selves online, but a mask designed to conform to the opinions of those around us. and contrasting Like culture with the power of positive narcissism: "Like" culture is antithetical to the concept of self-esteem, which a healthy individual should be developing from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Instead, we are shaped by our stats, which include not just "likes" but the number of comments generated in response to what we write and the number of friends or followers we have. I’ve seen rock stars agonize over the fact that another artist has far more Facebook "likes" and Twitter followers than they do. and on freedom from Like culture: So let’s rise up against the tyranny of the "like" button. Share what makes you different from everyone else, not what makes you exactly the same. Write about what’s important to you, not what you think everyone else wants to hear. Form your own opinions of something you’re reading, rather than looking at the feedback for cues about what to think. And, unless you truly believe that microblogging is your art form, don’t waste your time in pursuit of a quick fix of self-esteem and start focusing on your true passions. Hallefrackinglujah. Indeed, Hallefrackinglujah. And let’s hear it for summer serendipity.

Bees, by kokogiak on Flickr, CC some rights reserved From the wonderful and amazing Seattlefarmcoop : Seattle Farm Co-op comes evidence of the power of online communities and networks. Look at the time stamps. 8a. bee swarm Posted by: "heatherleagr" (email revmoved) Date: Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:37 pm ((PDT)) My bees just swarmed!  I caught them and they have successfully moved into their new hive.  I wonder if it is too late for them to build up enough to make it through the winter, or should I combine them with their old colony.  Any beekeepers out there with suggestions?  thanks, Heather ________________________________________________________________________ 8b. Re: bee swarm Posted by: "Andres Salomon" (email removed) Date: Thu Aug 18, 2011 10:51 pm ((PDT)) Personally, I’d combine them with the old colony.  There *are* still drones flying (at least outside of my hives), but they’re dwindling. It would take a lot of luck (and heavy flows) for the old colony’s queen to mate, and the new swarm to build up quickly enough to put away 40lbs of honey for the winter. However, if the old hive has a huge amount of capped honey and you’d like 2 colonies, you could transfer food stores to the swarm hive. Recombine or purchase a new queen if the virgin queen fails to mate. Oh, and keep an eye out for afterswarms! When the domain — what people care about — is clear, the repetoire of a community can be nimble and powerful.

I often have a "deer in the headlight" look when someone asks me about evaluating communities of practice. I think that is because I have some stereotype in my head about evaluation. But in fact, when I let my common sense kick in, I know of and use many evaluation approaches. I guess I never called them "evaluation approaches." Recently my friends Etienne Wenger, Bev Trayner and Maarten deLaat wrote a lovely paper on "Promoting and Asessing Value Creation in Communities and Networks." It is lovely because in many ways it gives voice to the "common sense" practices I’ve used and seen around me. And it gave me confidence to say yes to an interview with the KMImpact Challenge earlier this year. The video came out today. Besides sounding like I’m on speed… what do you think? How do you evaluate your communities? via Nancy White of Full Circle Associates on CoPs - YouTube.

I believe in treating adults as adults. That doesn’t mean I, as a facilitator, cannot be inspired by techniques teachers use with children in their classrooms, right? Here are a few inspirations from Karen Moler of FlamingoFabulous in 2nd Grade. Facilitators, be inspired! And see if any of Karen’s challenges show up for you working with adults! Here is a tool I use in my classroom to "randomly" partner my students up for activities. I love giving students the opportunity to choose their own partners but there are always a few who just can’t work together well but insist on doing it anyway. I also pass out cards and find the match to find their partner from time to time. But sometimes you need a quick way to ensure that your students are paired up academically or according to behavior. Soooo…. I created the partner wheel. via Flamingo Fabulous in Second Grade: More Behavior Management and Freebie!. And more http://flamingofabulous.blogspot.com/search/label/Behavior Usually, I have the "turn to your elbow buddy" or use the partner wheel approach to finding thinking partners, but I wanted another mode for finding good thinking partners so I made this variation of  Paula Rutherford’s Feathered Friends or Clock Buddies. Students will take their paper around the classroom and ask classmate’s to be their thinking partners for specific days. So if Johnny wanted to be partners with Sally, and they both had their Monday box available, Johnny would write Sally’s name on his paper and Sally would write Johnny’s name on her paper. It would go like this until everyone has every box filled. If it is done right, there should be no overlaps or duplicates. From then on, all I have to do is say, "Today children, I’d like you to sit with your Friday thinking partner on the carpet."

This September, George Siemens, Stephen Downes and Dave Cormier are hosting another Massively Open Online Course, Change: Education, Learning and Technology. This time it is massive in soooo many ways. In length (September - May), in number of participants, in number of guest facilitators - of which I’m one. So it is time to prepare. And I have NO idea what I’m doing! Here are the three things they are asking for and here is my draft. Your feedback is NEEDED! 1. A 500-1000 word overview of your work, why it’s important, and what you see happening next in that field. (We will compile these in an ebook). Hm, of my work? That means I’d have to DEFINE my work. Without blabbering for hours, I’d say a couple of things about my work and I’m not sure it is entirely relevant in this context. I help people connect, communicate and get things done. And no matter how you slice it, these always involve learning but we are rarely talking about learning. So I decided the theme for my week would be "Triangulating, weaving and connecting our learning."  So I have to write 500 words on this. Hm. Let’s try this and get some feedback from you. It’s still 159 words over, but I trust you’ll help me. While we most often pay attention to "learning" in the contexts of organizations and institutions devoted to learning, the work I do out in the world is all about learning. Interestingly, we rarely talk about learning. We are learning as we work, play, and fulfill the myriad of roles in our lives. What I learn as a grandparent impacts my conversations with clients on organizational development. What I learn playing with my new iPad informs my graphic facilitation practice. Who I learn with in one context informs the other contexts. It is a rich tapestry of connections. What I’d like to explore during my week is how we become a little more conscious of these connections. What practices help us tap the richness of our multiple contexts and roles as learners in the world. From international agricultural research to the neighborhood garden patch, learning is everywhere. As a little background to these wooly wonderings, let me share three stories. That’s the best way I can think of to share my "work" and why it might have relevance for our conversations. 1. Connecting people accelerates learning AND  turns traditional structures on their heads. In 2000 I got involved in a small grant project in the Southern Caucasus, run by a small Vermont based nonprofit seeking to connect small business owners in three post Soviet countries using the Internet. In three countries with less than 10% internet penetration at the time. Two of whom were (and are still) at war with each other.  As you might guess, few of the entrepreneurs benefited, but the three country managers connected with each other in new ways, giving sufficient support to learn new things quickly and more easily than before, support each other in taking risks and rapidly iterating towards some amazing innovations.  Being connected changed their leadership experiences and increased their learning more rapidly than a typical "country program manager" might. They all went all to lead amazing programs there and in other places. At the same time their home office got a little freaked out… and they actually suggested (with some humor) that I had provoked a cult. But what turned things around was that their funders were so impressed, the home office eventually came around. But it turned things upside down for  a while… 2. Small things matter. The practices of connecting for learning abound in the era of social media. We have more opportunity than time or attention. So it is interesting to observe that big changes often turn on little actions. Someone introducing two people who might share an interest. A small, sincere thank you for a contribution to a network. A shift in web meeting scheduling to better accommodate diverse time zones.  I was at a gathering of one of my core international networks some years back and we closed the meeting by "going round the circle" to briefly share what we were learning. A woman I had just met said something about appreciating learning from me. I looked across this circle and thought "who is this woman?"  Now that woman is one of my key learning and working partners, even though we are half a world apart. If she had not spoken up the connection would not have happened. 3. Jumping domain and practice boundaries shines new light on our learning. Years ago I used to doodle to endure long, bureaucratic meetings that were part of my job. People started asking to have those doodles, as they reflected something in those meetings that resonated for them. Years later I have begun to do graphic facilitation - the use of visuals in group process.  By stepping into a new practice - litterally and mentally, it has changed the way I connect with others and make sense of my interactions with them. Changing modes has changed my learning. This shows up again and again as I work in new domains and parts of the world. Diversity enriches our learning. 2. A list of readings that you feel are important for people to read in order to understand your work and the field in which you conduct your research. Try to keep this list to your (the field’s) "top 5″ I’m thinking here of drawing a picture and being totally disruptive. I think this week is more about looking inward than outward. What do you think? 3. Suggested activities for course participants - i.e. what do you want them to do after reading your intro and the articles that you reference. Do you want them to debate a particular topic? create a concept map? produce a video? If you’re inclined, connect the activity to what others have done in the course previously so we can start to integrate themes. As I read number three, I realized I’m not so interested in focusing this week on reading, but on reflection and conversation about the everyday practices that support learning across boundaries. So now I have to think about what sorts of activities would support this. It also makes me wonder if this topic is either too thin, or too broad. What do you think? Lend a hand, please!

Browsing Rachel Smith’s blog today I came across this terrific idea. She was building on an idea of Dave Gray (of Brainstorming fame) to help people share their current state. Sort of a project emotional barometer. I love things that help us visualize and make discussable this often "internal weather." Project Map | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. I can imagine putting the image up on a webmeeting white board. John Smith introduced me to a barometer for the ongoing health of a community of practice which I really liked. What this one does is taking it a step beyond simple data collection and add the emotive element.

In a small way, I can share what Alan Levine, aka, @Cogdog, has been going through these past days after the death of his mom. Having lost my dad in March, I know the role that food, and  the generosity of our communities and networks play  in the path we travel known as death. Or grief. Or whatever. I am very happy to join in today for Cookielove - a day of baking cookies and giving them away in honor of Alan’s mom. (See Blown Away By #Cookielove - CogDogBlog.) It turns out Alyce made cookies every Sunday and dispensed them to whomever was in need, or who had done a good turn for Alyce or others. (You can listen to her talk about it here.) Today, wherever we are, we are baking cookies and giving them away in Alyce’s name and memory. A little community indicator. A culture of love. Reciprocity not to just one person, but out to the universe. Hey, you can bake and dispense as well. Share the love (and tag it #cookielove so Alan can feel the love.) Like Alan, my global network of people I’ve met, and those I’ve never met (fondly known as my "imaginary friends" according to my husband) are always just an electron away. These are amazing people. They are looking out for us even when we don’t notice.  They not only answer our questions and provoke our thinking, but they can and are emotionally connected to us, not just intellectually. I’ll share the recipe in Alan’s Storybox, but suffice it to say, I did NOT follow the recipe’s direction (I considered others here…). The cookies are full of multiple grains (locally grown and ground whole wheat, oatmeal bran, flaxseed meal) fiber, butter and chocolate. Let’s keep our food balanced right? So some butter and chocolate to soothe, some fiber and grains to make us strong (and the cookies with enough chew and crunch). We can’t erase the hole that is left when someone we loves dies, but we can continue to embrace the sweetness of life.

Well, I’m only five months late sharing this, but because some of you, dear readers, travel in different circles, you may not have seen this. It is worth a read for anyone interested in online interaction from the good folks at the Community Roundtable! The 2011 State of Community Management View more documents from The Community Roundtable

I thought this was worth sharing as I know many of you, dear readers, are as passionate about community as I am. Plus I’m preparing for a round of gatherings of communities that are very significant in my life in the coming weeks. In that spirit considers what triggers us to connect. What has catalyzed significant community engagement for you? To: nancyw at fullcirc dot com Subject: 9/11 & us Fellow Meetuppers, I don’t write to our whole community often, but this week is special because it’s the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many people don’t know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby. Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought local community doesn’t matter much if we’ve got the internet and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I hoped they wouldn’t bother me. When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they’d normally ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being neighborly. A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet — and grow local communities? We didn’t know if it would work. Most people thought it was a crazy idea — especially because terrorism is designed to make people distrust one another. A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months after 9/11. Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it’s working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups,Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups… a wild variety of 100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common — except one thing. Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me. They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and motivate each other, they babysit each other’s kids and find other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace together. They make friends and form powerful community. It’s powerful stuff. It’s a wonderful revolution in local community, and it’s thanks to everyone who shows up. Meetups aren’t about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it weren’t for 9/11. 9/11 didn’t make us too scared to go outside or talk to strangers. 9/11 didn’t rip us apart. No, we’re building new community together!!!! The towers fell, but we rise up. And we’re just getting started with these Meetups. Scott Heiferman (on behalf of 80 people at Meetup HQ)Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup New York CitySeptember 2011 Do something, Learn something, Share something, Change something - Meetup.

Today’s Monday video is a visual gift from Jim Denevan, an artist who takes the word "drawing" and turns it into a meditation of movement, beauty and empherality.   KQED Spark - Jim Denevan - YouTube. In the world of learning, knowledge management, organizational development, we see solutions that are "scalable" and "sustainable." But the gems, the breakthroughs, the insights, are most often a fleeting moment when something changes. We can’t capture that in a knowledge base, or "cook" it into a course design. It is lived, in the moment. It becomes the thing we reflect upon as we seek to apply it. But it is ephemeral. For those wanting an additional visual treat and one that relates to community and conviviality, look at Jim working with tables at a meal. He says (and I strongly agree) "The table is a magnet for stories."

Choconancy1 posted a photo: Nancy White nancyw@fullcirc.com

Choconancy1 posted a photo:

Choconancy1 posted a photo: Nancy White nancyw@fullcirc.com

This week I’ve been at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for the Agricultural Knowledge Share Fair. One of my roles was to facilitate a half day graphic facilitation workshop and then share a report to those who did not attend. (disclosure: I facilitated something like 8 sessions and thankfully some of my colleagues are helping me. Sophie Alvarez of CIAT has a great post on the communities of practice clinic that Etienne Wenger and I did together and Pier Andre Pirani is doing a post on the "chat show" we did on the application of social media in international development. Still to write are posts on the session on rural poultry, migration and land use issues for the Masaai in Tanzania, "making agricultural knowledge travel" chat show and… I think that may be it. Mamma Mia!) In living up to the "show, don’t tell" adage, there are some beautiful images created by the participants which I can share. More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/choconancy/tags/sfrome/ My goal was not to do a drawing class. Instead I wanted to encourage people to experience then joy of the physical act of drawing, then connect that joy to the power of visuals to encourage conversation and their use in a diverse set of group processes. After we experienced the joy of beautiful colored pens chalk and the liberation of drawing on large scale paper, we reviewed a variety of visual facilitation practices such as mind maps and mandalas, river of life, sketch noting and graphic recording, card sorting and hands on drawing icebreakers. Participants took turns with graphically enhanced flip chart note taking. Finally we did a quick graphic recording so each participant could begin their own graphic facility toolkit. They did amazing work. What was more amazing was to see enhanced use of visual practices in the following days of the fair, as people applied what they experienced. Ironically the next day dawned and the Internet access was out just before Rob Burnet of Well Told Story was to begin his keynote. This was particularly challenging to the Fair team because social reporting was part of the heart and soul of the Fair. So they asked me to graphically record the talk which was fun because one of Rob’s key strategies for reaching Kenyan youth was comics! In the end then wifi was back and the social reporters tweeted about the analog note taking!!

October is a month on the road… and one stop is Lyon, France, where I’ll be presenting at the third edition of the fOSSa Conference taking place from October 26 to 28, 2011. What is fOSSa? From the organizers: The aim of the fOSSa (Free Open Source Academia Conference) is to reaffirm the underlying values of Open Source software: innovation & research in software development. While the first edition aimed at providing valuable information on the Open Source model at large, the second edition focused specific key-aspects of FOSS such as development, innovation & research, community management & promotion, public sector, and education. The third edition will address in an open-minded style about - what tech people are actually doing and innovating? - which are the upcoming issues & challenges in the open development context? - how open activities, collaboration and knowledge sharing is beneficial to academia, education & industry? fOSSa 2011 program includes talks about Education, Online Community Management, New Innovating Development & Contribution Paradigm, Openness and OSS trends. fOSSa days are open to everyone and registration is free ! more information @ http://fossa.inria.fr So what am I going to offer? Here is my first draft: Twittering: Frittering or Connecting?  The role of transversal connections in online communities and networks. As humans, we have a long history of working in groups: families, local geographic communities, work teams. Today online technologies allow us to connect broadly using networks of all kinds. We might think of these as deep (groups) and broad (networks). The question is, how do we keep these two forms usefully knitted together? How do the emerging technologies work together as a useful habitat, and when do they actually make things harder? What are the online and offline implications? Lets explore the place of the "transversal!" I picked up the word "transversal" from Etienne Wenger’s talk a few weeks ago at the Rome Share Fair. It resonated with my observations about the disconnect we seem to experience between high level conversations in a domain and practice, between the breadth of networks and the intimacy of smaller groups. So I grabbed the word and I’m running with it, along with his term "social artist!" Yum. Plus I’ll weave in technology stewardship. So maybe this is about roles, eh? This week I also have a fabulous case to illustrate many of the ideas I’m thinking of sharing, the #Canlis4Free treasure hunt in Seattle. I took a ton of screen shots and uploaded them today.  But does one dare talk about one of the more exclusive Seattle restaurants when in the home of some of France’s finest cooking? Mmmm….

And now for a learning experience that aptly contributes to the pleasures of the feast. From the good folks at the Pantry at Delancey, I learned about pie. Most specifically, pie CRUST. Yum. via Becoming a Pie Ninja - YouTube.