digital habitats nov09 frameworks
TRANSCRIPT
Making sense of the technology landscapefor groups &communities
Nancy WhiteFull Circle Associates
Digital Habitats
Vocabularies, tools, concepts, methods, stories, papers, pictures, reports…
Conversing, experimenting, practicing, learning, planning…
Many: Networks
We: Communities
Me: the IndividualPersonal identity,
interest & trajectory
Bounded membership; group identity, shared interest
Boundaryless; fuzzy,
intersecting interests
Many: Networks
We: Communities
Me: the IndividualIndividual learning, personal learning
environments …
Classes, informal learning
cohorts, conferences,
clubs…Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia,
etc…
Designed for groups, experienced as individuals
Does not imply homogeneity
Multimembership
Attention
What the %&*# is a
technology steward to do?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dani3l3/364684710/
Nancy WhiteFull Circle Associates
enable people to…
• discover & appropriate useful technology
• be in and use communities & networks (people)
• express their identity
• find and create content
• usefully participate
Digital Habitats Orientation Spidergram Activity
From: Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communitiesEtienne Wenger, Nancy White & John. D. Smith, 2009http://www.technologyforcommunities.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viamoi/3221971368/
… meetings
… relationships
… community cultivation
… access to expertise
… projects
… context
… individual participation
… content publishing
… open-ended conversation
Community activities
oriented to …
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for
communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
• Meetings – in person or online gatherings with an agenda (i.e. monthly topic calls)
• Projects – interrelated tasks with specific outcomes or products (i.e. Identifying a new practice and refining it.)
• Access to expertise – learning from experienced practitioners (i.e. access to subject matter experts)
• Relationship – getting to know each other (i.e. the annual potluck dinner!)
• Context – private, internally-focused or serving an organization, or the wider world (i.e. what is kept within the community, what is shared with the wider world)
• Community cultivation – Recruiting, orienting and supporting members, growing the community (i.e. who made sure you’re the new person was invited in and met others?)
• Individual participation – enabling members to craft their own experience of the community (i.e. access material when and how you want it.)
• Content – a focus on capturing and publishing what the community learns and knows (i.e. a newsletter, publishing an article, etc.)
• Open ended conversation – conversations that continue to rise and fall over time without a specific goal (i.e. listserv or web forum, Twitter, etc.)
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
OrientationsWhat do they mean?
activities oriented to …
Example: The Birdwatchersof Central Park
… open-ended conversation
… meetings
… projects
… access to expertise
… relationships
… context… community cultivation
… individual participation
… content publishing
Weekly bird walks, winter bird feeding fillings, irregular celebrations and events…
Advocacy drives, adopt parts of the park, bird counts…
The participation of the “Big Guns,” and “Regulars.” Mostly F2F
Note when people missing… Invite people in
Internal and External focus: Publishing, the “Register,” available to media…
While everyone pays attention to the community, no centralized efforts…
Anyone can bird watch, but sharing what you see/know is important…so the community accommodates both
The “Register” (print) is central to community…
Bump into another bird-watcher? Have a conversation…
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities, © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
activities oriented to …
Community Name: KM4Devglobal knowledge sharing network
… open-ended conversation
… meetings
… projects
… access to expertise
… relationships
… context… community cultivation
… individual participation
… content publishing
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for
communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
With only one meeting a year, large size and diversity, KM4Dev focuses on enabling individual participation.
Community knowledge wiki, content management system to bring together resources.
Email list is core of community activity
Once a year and only about 10% do/can participate.
When funding allows. E.G. supporting ShareFair
Informally via the email list by asking/answering questions.
Relationships mostly via meetings and core group. Strongly
external – all resources public/shared.
While everyone pays attention to the community, no centralized efforts…
activities oriented to …
Birdwatchers and KM4Dev-ers
… open-ended conversation
… meetings
… projects
… access to expertise
… relationships
… context… community cultivation
… individual participation
… content publishing
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for
communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
What can we do with this?
• Identify where your community/group/team is now to assess for design, facilitation and technology stewardship.• Refocus activities to increase engagement• Identify tools and processes to support current
activities
• Identify where your group wants to go as a planning tool.
• Look backwards and forwards as a reflection tool.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
activities oriented to …
Community Name:
… open-ended conversation
… meetings
… projects
… access to expertise
… relationships
… context… community cultivation
… individual participation
… content publishing
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for
communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
Put a mark on the arrow to indicate how important a particular orientation is to your community. The more important the orientation, the further out on the arrow the dot should be placed. Then draw a line between the dots. See the next example.
• Meetings – Web meeting tools for online, shared calendars and wikis for planning, wikis, blogs, images/audio/video to capture and share during and after.
• Projects – Email lists/forums to coordinate, shared calendars, project management trackers, blogs to journal/report.
• Access to expertise – Online profiles, social networking sites, “yellow pages,” discussion forums, blogs.
• Relationship – Twitter/IM to share small frequent messages, member directories, Skype/VoIp for conversation.
• Context – Public, open websites for outward facing. Password protected for inward facing groups.
• Community cultivation – Outward facing web sites to attract members, Twitter/IM to feel connected, Skype for voice.
• Individual participation – RSS/aggregators, tagging, so people can craft what content they get, customizable settings on web tools, using synch and asynch
• Content – content management systems, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, tags, video/audio, images, mindmapping.
• Open ended conversation – email lists, forums, Twitter, chat.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
OrientationsPicking tools?
How?
For Reflecting Together…
• Group form: small, pairs, or full group?• Visibility: Public or private?• Style: Format? – Editable?– Commentable?– Images?– What else?
• Portability: – Export?– Republish?– Aggregate?
More?
Nancy [email protected]
http://www.fullcirc.comwww.technologyforcommunities.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/poagao/527259905/