Choconancy1 posted a photo:

As part of the Applied Improvisation Network World Conference in San Francisco, we divided up for three "field trips" on the first day. I was on the "Jazz" trip. 21 of us headed off to the Museum of the African Diaspora. We were given a fairly typical introduction to the museum and about the African Diaspora. But things started getting interesting when we viewed a short film about Howard Thurman, who talked about, among other things, the importance of being whole. (Read some of his quotes here.) This had so many layers of resonance for me, not just in terms of improv, but in every aspect of life. Then we entered the current exhibition, Choosepaint!chooseabstraction! Celebrating Bay Area Abstract Artists. From the moment I entered the gallery I was gobsmacked by color, emotion, ideas, layers… and eventually, some sense of wholeness. I’ve always loved abstract art. As I walked from one canvas to the next the power of both thought, intention and improvisation came across. Reading the artists quotes about the paintings, reading the titles, seeing that many of these artists were born in the 40′s was incredible. I regret not writing down more than a few of the quotes, after some assurance from the staff that they were online. Alas, they are not. No catalog either. But the resonance was around things such as "letting the paint speak," Arthur Monroe wrote: "If I had not been sanwhiched between jazz and Abstract Expressionists, I would have lost my way and may chances to paint." Museum of the African Diaspora :: Gone, 2005 by Squeak Carnwath While our host from the museum did some Q&A to elicit the connection between this art and improvisation, I kept circling the room. I was so moved. What an interesting start to a four day gathering on Applied Improvisation. MoAD gave me insights to my own practice of facilitation, communities and graphic facilitation. About wholeness, about being in the present, about color and beauty in every sense of the word. Simply Amazing.

Rebecca Stockley and Matt Smith led one of the most engaging workshops I attended at the Applied Improvisation Conference. I never totally connected the title "Shifting Resignation to Empowerment Workshop" to the activity until I slept on it for a few days and then was treated to a little "neuron connecting" via Viv McWaters. Viv blogged about the learning intersection between improvisation and facilitation. This probably was the door that allowed my thinking to go a bit further than a fascination with an applied improv method. In "Facilitation Tips for Improvisers" Viv gently reminds both sets of practitioners how much they know, add and, perhaps, don’t know about the other’s practice. I love how she teased out the mutual learning that is possible at the intersection of these practices and for me, thinking about how and where to use an improv exercise or method needs that practice-boundary-crossing. Then, after I drafted the first part of this post, Viv posted about the exercise. That made this blog post easier. Thanks, Viv. Bacl to Rebecca and Matt. They shared three improv exercises to help shift thinking, to get out of that "stuck" spot. To see possibility. They started with "Invocation," part of a more complex style of long form theatre improvisation known as "Harold!" (I’ll let you read about that yourself!)  After a little searching, it seems that the Invocation is often uses as an opening for longer form improv. But we were interested in the application of this form in business or organizational life. Here is how Viv summarized it (Viv, I hope it is ok I’m borrowing so boldly!) Here’s how it works. You start with an inanimate object. Anything really - a hat, a salt shaker, a cup,a book… There’s four rounds. In groups of say four people, you can throw comments in at each round. It’s okay to talk over each other, to jump in. The idea is to keep the comments coming. There’s no need to incorporate other people’s ideas, although that might happen. Anyone can move on to the next round whenever they choose. Once one person moves on, everyone else moves on too. Whether they’re ready or not. Basically you invoke the object as follows: It is… You are… Thou art… I am… You can discover things about yourself through objects. You can also do an invocation on fear, age, stress or something else you are wrestling with. We then moved on to Naikan, which comes from a Japanese reflective process. The form is: What have I received from ______ (name the person, thing, group)? What have I given _____? What troubles and difficulties have I caused ____? Clearly my upbringing in a guilt centric religion caused me to first experience this as GUILT GUILT GUILT! But I do appreciate it can, in its deeper form, be really useful. I would not use it in a meeting. No way. No where! But then they gave us a mashup between the Invocation and Naikan, the Nipon Invocation   and this one was more accessible to me and thus I can see using it. In fact it is already slipping into a few designs. Here is how Viv described it: And for people completely out of touch with their calling, here’s another one that Rebecca and Matt mashed up. It too is powerful. In fact, I think I like it even more. Rebecca and Matt demonstrated this as a pair. I think it could also be done in small groups, or individually. It’s a way of using improvisation to go deep with people - or with yourself. Let’s say the subject is ‘talent’, and I’m using this on myself. Here’s the script for the Nipon Invocation: My (talent) is… To serve my (talent) I… My (talent) has served me by… The trouble I have caused my (talent) is… Viv, I am your (talent) and I… Viv is experienced with improv, so I think she "saw" the application before I did. I had to experience the form, then muddle on it. Matt and Rebecca role modeled this form so brilliantly, I was a bit awed and intimidated by the high performance standards — both are seasoned improv actors.  But they assured us that "real people" do this to great results. While I still don’t quite see the traction for these methods in shifting from resignation to empowerment, I REALLY do see their application in unpeeling something to get at it from different perspectives.  As I said, I plan to use this. I love the APPLIED part of this whole improv thing! (Next step, take another improv workshop here in Seattle. Soon!)

I am preparing a background article for week 5 of our Hague Technical University "Project Community" course. I realize I have not written a general piece in a long time. As prep, I’ve started by scanning older articles I’ve posted on my blog and the very old stuff in my Online Community Toolkit. Here is what I’ve harvested from 2008 on when I moved to WordPress. I still have 2004-2008 to harvest. Mama mia! It is interesting - some of it has aged poorly, some of it rather well. I even listened to a keynote I gave in 2010 and found some resonance. I was pleasantly surprised. Any thing here you remember as useful? "This isn’t what I thought it was: community in the network age" http://www.fullcirc.com/2012/08/28/this-isnt-what-i-thought-it-was-community-in-the-network-age/ Facilitating Learning Online with Magy Beukes-Amiss (podcast) http://www.fullcirc.com/2012/07/09/maggy-beukes-amiss-on-facilitating-learning-online/ Reconceptualizing facilitation and participation in a network (MOOC) context http://www.fullcirc.com/2012/05/03/reconceptualizing-facilitation-and-participation-in-a-networked-mooc-context/ Relating Community Activities to Technologies http://www.fullcirc.com/2012/02/14/relating-community-activities-to-technologies/ Reflecting on my TAFE workshop approach http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/12/22/reflecting-on-my-tafe-workshop-approach/ = Transcript from Workshop Google+ experiment (advance facilitation workshop) http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/12/21/transcript-from-google-workshop-experiment/ and the slides http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/12/21/converge11-keynote-workshop-and-reflections/ Reflecting on #socialartists and #change11 http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/11/08/reflecting-on-socialartists-and-change11/ Follow-up from the Leadership Learning Webinar (Q&A on facilitation) http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/10/17/follow-up-from-the-leadership-learning-community-webinar/ Community and Social Media Policies and Guidelines http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/online-community-toolkit/community-and-social-media-guidelines-and-policies/ Carl Jackson on Supporting Online Communities in International Development http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/06/02/carl-jackson-on-supporting-online-communities-in-international-development/ Questions: a thread through current work http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/08/07/questions-a-thread-through-current-work/ The Role of Visuals in Online Community http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/04/14/debrief-the-role-of-visuals-in-online-community-management/ What does it mean to facilitate and online meeting? http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/03/25/what-does-it-mean-to-facilitate-an-online-meeting/ Useful Books for Online Community Building http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/03/12/useful-books-on-online-community-building/ References on Lurking http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/02/26/references-on-lurking/ Online Facilitation, Twitter, Backchannel and Keynotes http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/02/24/online-facilitation-twitter-backchannel-and-keynotes/ The History and Future of Online Facilitation http://www.fullcirc.com/2010/02/22/itc-keynote-the-history-and-future-of-online-facilitation/ My Old Online Facilitation Curriculum http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/12/30/my-old-online-facilitation-workshop-materials/ Designing and Facilitating Online Events http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/facilitation-resources/designing-and-facilitating-online-events/ Telephone Conference Call Tips http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/facilitation-resources/telephone-conference-call-tips/ Synchronous Trip Scheduling Tips from Jonathan Finklestein http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/facilitation-resources/synchronous-scheduling-trips-in-larger-distributed-groups/ D’Arcy Norman - How do you connect to people online? http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/11/30/darcy-norman-how-do-you-connect-to-people-online/ Social Media in International Development Podcast Series http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/09/30/social-media-in-intl-dev-sarah-blackmun/ Backchannel Resources http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/09/11/backchannel-resources/ What Do We Mean By Engagement Online http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/09/08/what-do-we-mean-by-engagement-online/ Raising the Bar on Online Event Practices http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/08/11/raising-the-bar-on-online-event-practices/ How I Use Social Media http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/08/04/how-i-use-social-media/ Skills for Learning Professionals http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/07/06/skills-for-learning-professionals-part-3/ Social Media Planning and Evaluation for NGOs http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/06/07/social-media-planning-and-evaluation-for-ngos/ Simon Hearn on Online Facilitation http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/06/03/simon-hearn-on-online-community-facilitation/ Facilitating Online Curriculum http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/05/22/facilitating-online-curriculum/ netWorked Learning: connecting formal learning to the world http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/04/03/networked-learningconnecting-formal-learning-to-the-world/ CoP Series #9: Community heartbeats http://www.fullcirc.com/2009/03/19/cop-series-9-community-heartbeats/ (with links to the 8 earlier installments) Faciliplay: play as an online facilitation technique http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/online-community-toolkit/faciliplayplay-as-an-online-facilitation-technique/ On-ramps to Online Engagement http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/09/03/onramps-to-online-engagement/ From Courses to Community http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/08/27/from-courses-to-community-a-personal/ Online Community Purpose Checklist http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/ (which I adapt and update all the time — but haven’t posted an update in a while! I should!) Free workshop: Facilitating Online Communities http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/07/24/free-workshop-facilitating-online-communities/ Thinking About "Slow Community" (particularly online) http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/07/08/thinking-about-slow-community/ Glossary of Online Interaction http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/glossary-of-online-interaction/ Musings on Community Management Part 1 http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/2008/04/28/musings-on-community-management-part-1/  and Part 2 http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/04/28/musings-on-community-management-part-2/ GEWR Online Event After Action Review http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/04/20/gewr-online-event-after-action-review/ Harvesting Knowledge from Text Conversations http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/03/16/harvesting-knowledge-from-text-conversations/ Using the "Clock" on Telecons (and webinars!) http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/03/14/using-the-clock-on-telecons/ Online Facilitator Humor http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/02/25/online-facilitator-humor/ Drawing Together Online http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/01/14/flnw-event-january-16-drawing-together-online/ Using Google Translate Tool in Wikispaces http://www.fullcirc.com/2008/01/10/using-google-translation-tool-in-wikispaces/ Online Community Toolkit http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/online-community-toolkit/ What are your most useful synchronous online facilitation practices http://www.fullcirc.com/2007/01/25/what-are-your-most-useful-synchronous-online-facilitation-practices/ The Masks We Wear http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/2007/11/masks-we-wear.htm Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/2007/11/whose-space-differences-among-users-and.htm

[<a href="http://storify.com/vivmcwaters/applied-improvisation-network-2012-world-conferenc" target="_blank">View the story "Applied Improvisation Network 2012 World Conference" on Storify</a>]Have you been intrigued by my AIN12 posts? Here are some more goodies via Viv McWaters - Applied Improvisation Network 2012 World Conference (with images, tweets) · vivmcwaters · Storify. Look at all the little gems, or perhaps more aptly, facets that the tweets expose. I think you had to be there for the gems. I think my favorites are: "‘Go towards the thing you’re scared of.’ Gary Hirsch#ain12" "@improvapy: "Trauma sucks people into the past. Laughter pulls people into the present." Genie Joseph#AIN12" #AIN12 @brentdarnell Traditional training is a conspiracy create by sellers of 3 ring binders #ain12 Matt Smith: "do what you can to get into a sense of gratitude before you perform" …or teach, or host, or lead, or… Adam Blatner: "I’d rather learn something new than be right" #ain12 "You have to find people who are broken and help them heal. Laughter is my weapon of mass construction." Genie Joseph #AIN12 Gotta love "laughter is my weapon of mass construction" from a woman who uses improv to help soldiers heal from the trauma of war. Mind blowing.

When I was in Singapore for KMSingapore, I was able to visit the offices of Straits Knowledge, where Patrick Lambe, Edgar Tan and Ng Wai Kong do amazing things to help their clients create and share knowledge. I’ve always enjoyed reading their Green Chameleon blog and have greatly appreciated (and envied, I must admit) Patrick’s sketching skills! While in the office, Patrick gave me a hands-on with their Knowledge Toolkit and I said, THIS IS SO COOL, let’s make a quick video to share. So here it is. Please forgive the typos on the text. You know me. Typo queen! I’m going to share this on KM4Dev as well, as i think my colleagues there will really like this as well. So GO SHARE KNOWLEDGE! via Patrick Lambe on Straits Knowledge’s Knowledge Toolkit - YouTube.

They have 20 free slots still open if you are up in the Vancouver area! JIBC is hosting a World Café style Speaker Series on Tuesday October 16th, 2012. Description: There are many practices from the field of facilitation that can engage individuals quickly and meaningfully into learning processes. When we shift process, shift the locus of engagement from "teacher to learner," we also shift away from simple transmission of information into discovery, ownership of learning and, most important, meaning making. Come experience some of these practices and see if they have meaning and application in your classroom. Facilitator: Nancy White is going to facilitate this great session. Nancy is the founder of Full Circle Associates. She helps organizations connect through online and offline strategies. She is internationally recognized as an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed learning, teams and online communities. For more information check out: http://www.fullcirc.com/about/about-nancy-white/ For registration contact: Tracie Gavriel, facultydevelopment@jibc.ca Date: Tuesday October 16th, 2012 Time: 5:00 - 5:30 Food | Refreshments, 5:30 - 7:30 Collaborative Session Location: JIBC Café. 715 McBride Boulevard, New Westminster, BC. via Practice for Engagement in Learning in the Classroom «.

We are deep into week 5 of the Project Community course. The course explores the role of online communities and networks in open, innovative design engineering. (See previous posts here and our shared Faculty blog.) Shahab, one of my co-faculty, and I did a Google hangout on online facilitation. Here is the short 12 minute version. You can find the longer 19 minute version here. I mentioned the Community Roundtable about half way in and want to share the link so viewers have an easy link to follow! The week’s reading on online facilitation is here. via Nancy white on Online facilitation - YouTube.

I am becoming obsessed with the challenge of "not enough time" that I am seeing with ALL my clients, friends and colleagues. We are doing more, and it seems, getting less out of this frenzy. I am riveted to the concept of "creative destruction" to help understand and decide what tot STOP doing. As a consequence, I’m seeing ideas everywhere. Here is one from Kevin Cashman from his book, The Pause Principle: step back to lead forward.  And expect to hear more from me on this topic! 1.  Pause for understanding.  Certain that you know the answer?  That’s a good time to step back, gather more information, ask another relevant question, listen to someone else’s perspective, consider alignment with values and purpose. .. 2.  Pause for growth.  Schedule time and invest in your personal leadership growth through self-awareness and learning.  Help others grow and develop their talent… Step back to reward risk-taking; celebrate and appreciate failure for the learning that emerges. 3.  Pause for teams. Lost your focus? Feel like you’ve gotten off track?  Take the time to give everyone opportunity to express concerns, share their genuine feelings, ideas and listen authentically in the spirit of real collaboration… 4.  Pause for resilience.  Step back from the hurried, hectic pace, the onslaught of information and demands for energy, clarity, and fresh perspective.  Go for a walk or run.  Sit by the river… New ideas and innovation emerge in the spaces between the doing. 5.  Pause for significance.  Engulfed in hyper-speed and productivity?  Next time you pick up your mobile device for a stream of transactions, pause and ask yourself, "What is really important today?"  When you step back to reconnect with what you really value, what will you choose to do or not do? via BK Communiqué Author Lists Blog: Five Non-Traditional Ways to Pause. Thanks to Christopher Robbins for creative-commons-ing his beautiful photo so I could share it again.

Too great NOT to share this from Amanda Gibbs… And now, at what I might call mid-career, all my assumptions about creativity, about who is a creative and a maker of meaning have changed. I’ve started to view creativity as the ability to support participatory spaces and in particular, a drive to support public participation in disrupting and shaping the places where we live. I believe that cities are the ultimate machines for creativity — people living and sharing ideas in close proximity. Urbanity — being an engaged, alert, connected citizen — can provide the perfect conditions for creativity. I am inspired by projects that unite people — design professionals (artists, makers, videographers, graphic designers, architects, urban planners, technologists and web specialists) with community-based advocates and researchers (organizers, government officials, academics, service-providers, policymakers, and citizens). I think there are some fancy new terms being thrown around for this work: social innovation, community-based social marketing, and public engagement. But at the end of the day, it is about creating opportunities to break down the complex systems that shape urban life and to share and create knowledge to make those systems understandable and useful to more people. via CreativeMornings/Vancouver • Amanda Gibbs - Profile and Q&A.

Choconancy1 posted a photo:

Choconancy1 posted a photo:

Choconancy1 posted a photo:

Oh how happy I was to come upon this on Sandy Schuman’s blog. I have long struggled with the perspective that facilitation must/should be neutral. I struggle with the fact that it is HARD as a human being to be neutral. In fact, I can’t pin down the range of practices required to be and stay neutral, especially when facilitating. Neutrality has long been preached by the International Association of Facilitators. I came to the conclusion then, that I was either a bad or a renegade facilitator. For me, it was about being AWARE of my influence, power, position and opinions and not letting them distract me from serving the group. And at times, yes, using my opinion, with clarity and transparency (I call it "taking off my facilitator hat and putting on my citizen/subject matter expert/Nancy hat!) Take a look… And thanks, Sandy. I knew I have been right to admire and learn from you all these years! via IAFNA2012 Fast Talk Sandy Schuman Facilitators should not be Neutral.mov - YouTube.

This past weekend I’ve been hanging out at the National Coalition for Dialog and Deliberation‘s national confab, NCDD2012. Synopsis? Amazing people. Also it was great to connect with folks I’ve met/known online and demoralizing to NOT connect with others who were there in the flesh. Not enough time or energy. Thursday I took part in pre-conference workshop using the fabulous Group Works Deck to map out the elements of a variety of group methods and processes. (I wrote about the deck a while back here. ) As we did the exercise, I realized that I needed the narrative with the map, so took these off the cuff videos, now debuting as this week’s Monday Video. via GroupWorks Deck Method Mapping at NCDD2012 - YouTube. What I noticed about the mapping was the more we did it, the more discerning we became at identifying the essential "spine" of a method AND,through reflecting on the other possibilities offered by the patterns in the cards, observed new ways of "fleshing out" the method depending on context. In other words, the cards enabled us to have great learning conversations about the methods. Very cool. I plan to use the cards a lot in the coming weeks of crazy work and travel! I also deeply appreciated all the knowledge in the room. As I learned about Participatory Budgeting from John Kelly, I was getting all kinds of ideas about how to reapply the basic idea to Knowledge Sharing/Budgeting (in terms of time and attention — which seems to be a big problem in my world these days!) At the meeting, I also was part of a fabulous team of visual practitioners who volunteered to do a visual capture of the plenaries of all three days as a unified product. Tim Corey helped us envision a 24 x 8 foot image and then we all figured out a) how to work together to b) make a coherent capture. I’ll write more about this later after our debrief, including links to all the fab people I got to work with. But it was great fun and a lovely learning laboratory.   Other NCDD Materials: NCDD 2012 Tweets (I hope someone Storify’s them or harvests them before they are gone. It was not a huge tweeting crowd, but there are some good captures!) My photos, including some not-so-great images of the giant collaborative graphic capture 8 of us worked on (better images to come)

[Edited Nov10 to note that at the bottom of the post, I've uploaded a PDF of the Google Translated version of the web discussion. I so appreciated the spirit of this conversation, even though we were working across languages with machine translation.] This week there is what looks to be (using Google Translate) a great online conference called UBATIC+, a virtual gathering about ICTs and teaching in higher education hosted by the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was great to be asked to offer a short (14 minute) contribution which Silvia Andreoli has captioned in Spanish. I’m impressed — I’m not always so easy to follow! via NANCY WHITE - YouTube. I’m trying to follow along as best I can — my video and discussion launches Friday and I wanted to have some context for the conversation. And to get used to Google translate’s view of ICTs in higher ed! Language always presents such an interesting barrier. I don’t speak Spanish, but because of my Portuguese, I can decode some things. But I still find it incredibly tiring. It is important to remember this feeling — at a gut level — because so often I’m the one talking a mile a minute in English to people who are trying to think through two or three languages! Updated: Here is a quick PDF of the web conversation. UBATICDiscussions

I had the great pleasure of leading a webinar yesterday with The Nature Conservancy on Strategic Communities of Practice. We focused on gaining some shared sense of what we mean by "communities of practice," a framework fo looking at them strategically, some of the basic roles involved in communities and a quick peek at evaluation options. There was some lively interaction in the chat. Many of these folks work in parts of the world where web based online interaction is not so great, so a wonderful thread on mobile-device-supports for communities emerged. If you know of any great examples, please share. ( I just found this one with a quick search and also suggested looking at http://www.mobileactive.org. I think some of the Twitter chats could serve as a model for a mobile-based distributed conversation by a community as well! Here are some examples in education.) In addition, the good folks at TNC said I could share the webinar recording. I’m not sure if you can bear 90 minutes of recording, but just in case, here is the link. I’ve put the slides below as well, but as usual, they don’t make a ton of sense without the narrative. Thanks to Olivia, Nicole and Gillian at TNC for being such fabulous hosts and webinar facilitators! Strategic Communities of Practice from Nancy White via Strategic Communities of Practice.

I’ve had a long association with the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at the University of Davis and I get the opportunity to lend a hand here and there on projects. The latest in the MacArthur Foundation funded  Digital Portfolio/Badges project that Joanna Normoyle is working on for the new Sustainable Agriculture major. The problem is this: I don’t really know much about this sort of thing. I’ve been a long time skeptic about badges, but Joanna sucked me in by asking about how we can build more reflective practices into the system and that, my friends, excites me. So the next thing I thought was — I need to tap my network! I sent out a tweet and pretty soon some terrific people responded. Of course, this was also when I was crazy busy so I decided instead of tweeting back, I’d start this blog post with an offer. How about it @soletelee,  @openbadges, @lbraun2000, @emgollie @eknight , @kwerb, @pblhq, @dlnorman, @carlacasilli from Mozilla,  @donpresant,  @VennLibrarian and @dajbelshaw ("the badge guy for Mozilla Foundation.") Care to jump into a little peer assist? Joanna and I wonder if you’d like to find 30-60 minutes for a Google+ Hangout where Joanna can show you the thinking so far and just get some feedback. Are you game? If yes, leave a comment here. Joanna and I will try and find some time in the next ten days. Update: Meeting time fixed!  Hi Everyone, Thanks for filling out the doodle. It looks like tomorrow, 11/27, 11:30-12:15 PST will work well. Here’s the meeting link and talk soon! Joanna 1. Please join my meeting, Nov 27, 2012 at 11:30 AM PST. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/357610317 2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone. Dial +1 (805) 309-0027 Access Code: 357-610-317 Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting Meeting ID: 357-610-317  

Hyderabad December 2012, a set on Flickr. I was a bit shocked to notice I had not posted on my blog since mid October. Since then I have been to Vancouver, BC, Italy, Washington DC, India and now back to DC. So at the least I thought I’d wave to y’all and share some pictures!

In between trips last quarter I had the pleasure of being a virtual graphic recorder for the SAaTC Cyber Cafe. My work was commissioned for NSF through weDialogue at http://www.wedialogue.com The day long event was structured with plenary and World Cafe breakouts. I captured two rounds of the afternoon breakouts — the topics were heady, so I had to work pretty fast. You can see captures from the presentations http://www.satc-cybercafe.net/presenters/ and the Cafe sessions  http://www.satc-cybercafe.net/potential-research-topics/satc-cyber-cafe-research-topic-breakouts/ The three I did are below. I’m experimenting with a gallery. Let’s see how it works!  

If you haven’t explored Brainpickings, DO. Inspiration galore. Here is one I grabbed late last year to share… Andy Warhol meditates:I broke something and realized I should break something once a week to remind me how fragile life is. It was a good plastic ring from the twenties. via The Best History Books of 2012 | Brain Pickings. So what am I going to break this week? This month? This year? Here are a few ideas percolating. Break some social media habits (like Facebook!) Break out of my blogging slump and try some new approaches to loose up some ideas that are circling in my head. Avoid circling the drain… Break some bad eating/lifestyle habits — typical new years stuff. But I’ve been making progress. Break out of some of my consulting habits (hm, breaking habits seems to be showing up as I brainstorm…) So how will this remind me about life and its fragility? It’s power? I don’t think I’ve fully "gotten" Warhol yet. What about you? What will you pay attention to breaking?

I just received a request for some quick suggestions for picking a web meeting tool. I cobbled a few quick thoughts here (really ought to edit this properly, but maybe later.)  I’d love any additional opinions and suggestions. My Selection Criteria OK here are the criteria I use for evaluating web meeting systems, followed by a few quick brand comments. But you need to know, I am very focused on interactive engagements, so I’m biased away from tools that are broadcast-centric and hierarchically controlled! Purpose, Purpose, Purpose! What are you going to do? First be clear on the range of purposes you need the tool to support. There is a big difference between a "broadcast model" and a small group working session. Some tools can’t handle that range, particularly at the more interactive end. For broadcast to large groups, you need a host that can support that many connections, so consider size range. Consider what types of content you need to share/host and what kinds of activities you need to foster. Related to purpose is cost — if something is REALLY important, does it also have a budget line or do you need to use just free tools? Specifics (in no specific order!) 1. Audio Connection Technology: Can it accommodate Phone bridge AND VoIP - this may not be crucial for you, but when I’m working internationally, it is. 2. Recording: Can it record calls? Do you need just the audio or do you need the audio and video? Do you need them separate? Can those calls be saved in a non proprietary format? (I.e. Blackboard’s web meeting is a proprietary file that has to be replayed via their web platform. It can be export to a common .wav  or mp3 (for audio only ) files but you have ot know how to do that. ) Is file size an issue? 3. Diverse Participant Roles/Controls: It has a chat room where participants can chat peer to peer and not just mediated through a moderator. Webinars create a pretty significant power imbalance when only the moderator(s) can allow anyone to do anything. For a broadcast situation, this is fine. For engagement, you need more options for devolving control and agency to participants in an appropriate process and with appropriate technology. This means: a peer to peer chat room (I MUST HAVE THIS FEATURE!!!) ability to easily pass moderator roles to a person or more than one person. (For example, if you have to be the moderator to use the white board, then can you make EVERYONE a moderator. sometimes having a private chat option is important sometimes a controlled/moderated question queue is important. (I don’t tend to use those myself…) 4. White board. I can’t help myself, I’m visual. Particularly I like whiteboards where everyone can participate. I also like it when whiteboard tools can be used to annotate slides. 5. Applications/screen sharing: For web tours, showing things, etc. 6. Ability to share slides: Both in-app and via screen sharing. Sometimes one is better than the other. That said, please don’t bore me to death with your slides! 7. Do you need video? Some platforms support one camera at a time, others (like Adobe connect) support multiple cameras giving that sense fo F2F conversation. (Called multi-point video display) 8. Bandwidth tools: Does the platform have technology to ameliorate the impacts of diverse participant bandwidth? 9. Polling tools:  I like these — and ease of use of the polling tool is important to check. I like both planned and ad-hoc options. Advice: Don’t believe the hype — TRY IT! Don’t just believe the marketing materials! Try it and try it with the size group you plan to work with! Tools I’ve Tried:> Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate) - Great whiteboard, very stable, proprietary recording format, good adjustments for different bandwidths, higher on the cost end… @thatchmo also likes this tool! Adobe Connect - good for multi-camera video, decent white board, chat room, etc. WebEx - there are different webex products - make sure you trial the one you are looking for. Some are more broadcast oriented, some are more collaboration focused. LiveMeeting - Very higherarchically controlled. I would not recommend. GoToMeeting - recently changed and I have not evaluated the newer platform. I’ve read that there are some challenges in recording meetings. MeetingBurner - for smaller, team meetings, but not so great for large groups I’ve also used Google+, Skype, etc, but I suggest you avoid systems where people have to have a username/password. These are, however, great for ad hoc groups and G+ recording and autoposting to YouTube is slick! We used it this past fall for an online course. @BonnieZink likes G+ Resources: Robin Good is always noting the most recent info in the field http://collaborationtools.masternewmedia.org/ - he is my first go-to resource http://webconferencing-test.com/en/online-meeting-home http://web-conferencing-services.toptenreviews.com/ http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2012/102212-desktop-videoconferencing-test-263197.html http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9234680/7_low_cost_videoconferencing_services_Which_is_best_for_your_meeting_ And if you for some bizarre reason want more to read on webmeeting process: http://www.fullcirc.com/2007/01/25/what-are-your-most-useful-synchronous-online-facilitation-practices/ http://www.fullcirc.com/tag/videoconferences/ Now, what are you thoughts? Criteria? Recommendations?  

Having been involved in online facilitation since 1997, I’m often asked for examples of "successful online communities." People want to see them, tour them, and understand what they can learn from them as they embark upon or support their own communities. Sometimes they are interested in technology. Sometimes they want to know about how things are structured and organized, both content and activities. But mostly they want to see examples where people really DO interact. This is always a challenge for three main reasons: How do we qualify "success?" How do we extrapolate lessons across diverse needs and contexts? How do we account for "success" as underlying technologies reshape the very nature of communities into less bounded, often larger networks? I’m preparing for another of these tours so I wanted to do some renewed reflective homework before I started building the tour. (I’ll say more about the actual tour process in a subsequent post.) Plus, by sharing this post today, maybe you, dear readers, will have some insights, comments or pointers I can include. And as always, you are welcome to use anything here if you are giving someone else a tour! Here are four areas I’m reflecting on to help me conceptualize,  frame and plan the tour. Community Indicators of All Sorts What do we mean when we say "successful" for an online community? What are the parameters  Are we talking about the success of a community’s online interactions, or the whole life of the community which is often a blend of online and offline? What are the boundaries? For some time I have been collecting examples of what I called "community indicators" the gave us some clue about the life of a community. (You can read more musings about community indicators here and some bookmarked examples here.) What are the indicators of community activity? In other words, as we observe a community, and (ideally) interview some of its members, what signs of life are we specifically looking for? There are the process indicators, both quantitative and qualitative that are most easily seen. Evidence of mechanisms and opportunities for community member participation (availability/opportunity). These are often predicated on the underlying technology and intentions of those stewarding the site. Sometimes community members bring in additional opportunities, something that is becoming more common in open networks and ad-hoc configurations. Types of interaction options: discussions, blogs, commenting, rating, personal/instant messaging, other synchronous and asynchronous interaction mechanisms, linkages to F2F or offline events, etc. What is useful? Appropriate? Evidence of appropriate choices about what is public/open and what is private as it relates to community purpose. Clarity on how members find out and learn how to use these mechanisms. (Communications and technology stewardship) Evidence of participation Quantified activity - number of posts, page views, ratings (thumbs up/down, likes), comments, and contributed content. Quality - what interaction patterns demonstrate that people are interacting with each other (vs simply publishing or broadcasting?) This could be looking for conversational threads, evidence of reading/responding to what others post instead of simply posting one’s views, how conflict is used either generatively or as a deterrent to further interaction. Recency (i.e when was the last substantial set of interactions?) So often we see the telltale signs of a dead community… Number of members - this gets a bit subjective as some communities are intended as small, others larger. Sometimes it is hard to find this data and the number of registered members rarely corresponds with number of active members. That said, most organizations want to implement an online community for a reason. The purpose should be the driver. So how do we relate those success indicators to the mission or goal of the community? In other words, how do we look beyond process to impact? What connection can we see between the activity indicators and community goals/purpose? How do we discern this connection in contexts of open-ended or very diffuse purpose? What happens when purpose shifts (as it often does)? What sorts of monitoring and evaluation strategies are in place (visible, or more often, invisible and we need to ask the community leaders!)? Taking a communities of practice perspective, what is the interplay between the DOMAIN of the community (what it is interested in), it’s COMMUNITY (who is involved and engaged, how they play out in relationships, etc.) and PRACTICE (what they do together and how they use what they do together back out in their own work/lives, etc.)? Finally, we are living in the era of networked social media. Rarely is "a site" the only vector for interaction. Many communities live and work on multiple platforms, or at the least, publicize community activity via other networks such as Twitter and Facebook. So we look for these connections as well, and try to understand if they support the community purpose. Or if they even dilute it. Again, it depends on the purpose. If a community is very inward looking, outward links would dilute. If it is really interested in sharing what it does/learns out to the world and bring in people and ideas from the world, then these linkages are critical. Tapping My Network for Examples We each may have an example or two of "successful communities," but the fact is, we need a broader scan than what is available in our personal realm, so my first step was to tap my network and see if I could surface any new examples. Some of my known examples are great, but old. Really old. Tweeting requests on December 23rd, however, is not so smart. But here is what I received on first query about vibrant online communities (with a special interest in Drupal based sites for this instance): The first concrete suggestion was the Buckminster Fuller Institute (http://bfi.org/). And that was the ONLY concrete suggestion. Cameron Cambell’s (@ronindotca) comment about following a Drupal Developer’s trail of tears may give you a sense of the challenge at hand! Looking at the BFI site, there is little evidence of online community interaction (see http://bfi.org/news-events/community-content). I don’t think Cameron’s observation is far off base! So back to my own set of examples, I compiled the following options. Share Your Story (http://www.shareyourstory.org) - a long time, well established community. (Technology:Webcrossing. Disclaimer: I was deeply involved w/ this site early on!) This is a great example of when an online community really fills a needed function that is not easily found elsewhere. And of loving community management! CPSquare (http://www.cpsquare.org) - private, must be member, but I’m a member! (Technology: WebCrossing and Disclaimer, I’m a member!) This is a private community so no easy peeking, but a good example of some deep learning events. BetterEvaluation (http://www.betterevaluation.org) - an example of a new, emerging community based on Drupal (Disclaimer: I’m involved w/ this site!) It is useful to see a site before it really launches its interactive features. (Beta) Knowledge Management for Development (http://www.km4dev.org) as both a long lived and multi-platformed global community which uses DGroups, an email centric tool, NING and mediawiki.  (I had been on the Core group from its beginning until late last year.) The KSToolkit Wiki (http://www.kstoolkit.org) which is about the artifact more than the community. A couple of Facebook communities RosViz - a community of interest on Facebook (I’m one of the community moderators) - open hearted resource sharing. A good example of focused domain in a very open, outward facing context. Network Weaving (just a member!) - Vibrant due to some passionate leadership and blending of synch and asynchronous interaction. SCoPE is another good one. This is their FB home https://www.facebook.com/SCoPEcommunity while their main home is a Moodle site. I asked for some other Drupal examples and here are a couple: A fairly new Trout Unlimited site http://www.troutunlimited.com/ with highly customized Organic Groups module for interactive elements. The interactive elements appear to still be fairly broadcast with little interaction. GratefulWeb http://www.gratefulweb.com/ a music fan site. There is some event activity, but little in the way of active discussions or groups http://gratefulweb.com/community/groups  They seem active on Facebook and Twitter, raising the cross platform issue. On a guess, I’d say that one or a few people keep this community alive… Extrapolating Lessons It is great to see a successful community and think what they did will automatically create conditions for success for a completely different community. We know this is rarely true. So we need some sort of mechanism to extrapolate the lessons. Perhaps a heuristic that says if X is your goal, patterns 1, 7 and 12 might be useful. This is much harder than it looks due to the lovely complexity of human behavior. Here is what I’m thinking so far, but I’d love your suggestions: What visual elements drew you into a site? What "turned you off?" Why? In terms of figuring out how to get involved, what was easy? What was challenging? What are the technical and communications aspects of getting people involved? What community activities could inspire your community? Which would you avoid? What community leadership/management functions did you note as important? Do you have time and skills (or someone else does) to fulfill these roles? What surprised you? How can you use that insight in your community? Reflecting on the Learning Journey The final bit is thinking about how we apply what we learn on a field trip to our own work. The questions above are one trigger, but the final part of the tour will ask each person to consider the following "next steps." What will be the first/next thing you will do to steward your community based on today’s tour? Why? Review your community plan draft and see if there is anything you want to change based on what you learned today. Pick one community (from the tour or one of your choosing) and explore it on your own. What else can you learn by digging in a bit deeper? Consider contacting and interviewing the community facilitator/leader/manager. What would you ask them? Resources for Virtual Online Community Field Trips CPSquare’s Virtual Field Trip wiki page http://cpsquare.org/wiki/CPsquare_field_trips_project and examples of their field trips http://cpsquare.org/category/quarterly-field-trips/. A particularly nice field trip report from a visit to KM4Dev.org http://cpsquare.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/KM4Dev-field-trip-report-may2011.pdf Relating community activities to technologies http://www.fullcirc.com/2012/02/14/relating-community-activities-to-technologies/ Communities, Networks and Engagement http://www.fullcirc.com/2011/10/17/follow-up-from-the-leadership-learning-community-webinar/

This is the second post about touring existing online communities as a learning journey for those building or sustaining their own communities. (Part 1 is here.) This one is about the nuts and bolts of doing a live tour of online communities. The first post laid out purpose, identification of potential communities to tour, and criteria for review and evaluation. So now lets talk about HOW to run the tour. This is nuts and bolts time! Planning Pick your web touring technology. For this sort of event, I like to have a tool with fairly easy screen sharing and a shared chat room for note taking. I use a white board or slides to share the initial overview and questions. Set the date. Let your "tourists" know date, time and any technical requirement. This may mean needing to be online, have a headset/mic or an appropriate telephone dial in option.Confirm your communities. Get permissions as appropriate if you plan to use your personal log in to tour any private communities! Set up a URL list that can work both within your web technology and on a separate web page as back up. Plan a SHORT intro narrative to each community. Decide what pages you will visit and why. See the first post!  I like to throw the URLs and short descriptions on to a Google doc and share it with the tourists in advance. Test your URLs within the web meeting tool. Should they be links? Preloaded? Do you need username/password to log on to any private sites? As backup, grab a basic set of screen shots of each community in case your web touring technology fails. Yes, it happens! Always have a plan B. If you have a co-facilitator, define each of your roles. It is often useful to have one person help folks if they have any technical needs, while the other runs the tour. Consider how you want to capture questions as you go — sometimes you will need to research and come back later with answers.  Encourage the tourists to take notes if that fits your culture! Send an email with the login information and any preparation you would like the tourists to do. I often send a short piece on community PURPOSE and some of the questions I mentioned in the  first post. Running the event Log in early and make sure everything is working. Have an email prepped to resend in case anyone contacts you saying "I lost the url/login/etc. If you decided to preload URLs on separate whiteboards, etc, get that all set up. Set up any polls or questions on other white board pages or have them handy to cut/paste in. If you are recording the tour, don’t forget to hit the old "record" button once you start. When you start with your participants, give an overview of the tour process. It might go something like this: We are going to look at X different communities today. I’m going to use the screen sharing tool (or whatever you plan) so I’ll be "driving" the tour, but please, if you see something you’d like me to click on, let me know. There is a slight lag with the screen sharing so speak up as soon as you can! I want to review a couple of questions we should keep in mind as we tour (then I review the questions.) Encourage shared note taking (I often use the chat room in the webinar tool). Do you have any questions? (Answer them..) Start… Pause often for questions, observations. Between communities, do a quick recap asking for observations and answers to questions. Sometimes it is worth going deeper and seeing fewer communities… Leave at least 25% of the time at the end for reflection and next steps. Follow Up If you are recording the event, capture the recording and share the URL. Clean up and share any collective notes taken during the event. Do you have any other suggestions or ideas? Resource pointers? Please, chime in!