Group items tagged

Great article by Joe Rominiecki, June 24, 2015 in AssociationsNow on the online community manager role; quotes the latest Community Roundtable report on how the online community management skillset is needed by many staff, not just one person. There is a big difference between lurking or contributing as an individual in Facebook or LinkedIn groups and mentoring/leading/supporting an online community. Supports our inclusion of "convening" as a vital digital literacy skill.

Really good article by Joe Rominiecki, June 24, 2015, AssociationsNow, on how online community moderation/support will become part of the role of more staff, not just community managers, in businesses, nonprofits, etc. Cites the recent Community Roundtable's report, too.

Interesting assessment of the value of volunteer moderators, July 7, 2015, by Ernie Smith on Reddit

Interesting article on how Reddit fired a popular staff person who facilitated the AMA (Ask Me Anything) guests going into different subreddit communities without notifying volunteer moderators of these communities ahead of time. Volunteer moderators closed their communities except to passworded members to show their unhappiness with Reddit executives' lack of early communication, etc. by Rich McCormick, July 2, 2015. Communities reopened within a couple of days.

Article by Robert Whipple, on how to overcome distance in building trust. "How can a leader effectively use technology to build trust and cohesion in a decentralized team environment? * Clarify a strategy for how communication should be optimized for their particular team dynamic. * Ensure all team members are trained to use all the different communication methods properly and have the proper equipment to use it easily. * Have a well understood policy for when to use each type of communication. What sorts of communications need a permanent record? When is it important to be able to see a person, face to face? Some decisions are not clear cut, but it is important for the leader to teach the team what to consider when making the choice of how to communicate. * Model the behavior you wish to see."

from Networkweaver.com Communicating in networks are not the same as communicating in organizations: in a network people are not in a single organization and are used to communicating on different platforms in different ways; they don't know how to initiate online conversations; network activities are usually only a small part of an individual's work; they don't know the people in the network; groups can be silo'd; they need to know how the network is doing and if it is indeed acting in a "networked" way

This excerpt from an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, PLP founder, captures critical points for PD online. "Will and I agreed that we would only work with teams of school-based educators because the research made it clear that it was collaborative teams within in a school, working together, that really brought about sustainable improvement. That would give us what we needed to anchor the virtual experience in a local context. We also wanted participants to experience a global community of practice-to be able to have conversations with people very different than themselves, with fresh perspectives. Our thinking was that if we put teams of educators who had different ideologies, different geography, different purposes and challenges, all together in the same space, then they could each bring what they did well to the table and people could learn from that. Ultimately that would mean public, private, Catholic, and other kinds of schools; educators teaching well-to-do, middle-class, and poor kids; educators in different states and nations, at different grade levels, and in different content areas and roles. What ultimately grew out of our brainstorming was a three-pronged model of professional development that emphasizes (1) local learning communities at the school/district level; (2) an online community of practice that's both global and deep; and (3) a third prong that is more personal-the idea of a personal learning network that each educator develops as a mega-resource for ideas and information about their particular interests and areas of practice. (These three prongs are described in depth in a new book, The Connected Educator, where PLP community leader Lani Ritter Hall and I tell the story of the evolution of our model and the very solid research base behind it.)

This article on Resource Link, September 21, 2011, captures the learning environments we wish to bring to businesses, nonprofits, and membership associations. "Social Media - what do you need to know? In the 21st century, learning networks are richer than ever before. Social media, including tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow connections with professionals to be developed in offline and online worlds in new and exciting ways. No longer are we limited geographically. Social media allows us to connect not only to those we know, but also to those who we don't know, but who share our passions, our interests and our profession. Despite never having met in the physical sense, it is now possible to share links, comment on educational research, debate, collaborate and create new knowledge with individuals no matter where they are working." Another excerpt: So….Social Media and Professional Learning Communities? What is the connection? A school which is a professional learning community focuses upon removing the walls between classrooms (metaphorically, in all cases, physically in some!), encouraging collaboration, dialogue, ready access to colleagues and an openness to challenge understandings and current 'accepted' knowledge. Excerpt: Roberts and Pruitt, in their book Schools as Professional Learning Communities (p3, 2009) quote research that suggests that the major obstacle for schools who wish to develop as learning communities is the provision of resources such as time to collaborate, leadership support, information and ready access to colleagues. Social Media is not the total answer; but in schools where money and time are in short demand (and which school isn't in this situation?), they can go part of the way in meeting these needs. 1. social media providing to time to collaborate 2. social media providing leadership support 3. social media providing information 4. social media providing access to colleagues

Great article on capacity building for nonprofit leadership and staff in communities of color serving people of color

website for Knowledge Communities. Look at this mission: Knowledge Communities trains community facilitators how to tap into the intrinsic motivation of individuals and groups to move a community or network forward toward more autonomy, productivity and sustainability. The outcome we aim for is improved practice. Over time, network members take over the role the paid facilitator has played, requiring fewer external resource to produce greater results. To learn more about our projects see our white papers.

study by Jane McConnell, Digital Workplace advisor and researcher. In the comments section by Rachel Happe, principal and co-founder of the Community Roundtable. "Awesome and congratulations on getting this out Jane. A must read for everyone in our extended network. In my area, community management, your assessment is spot on. We have long held that 1) community management is the future of all management 2) community management is like teaching - everyone does it and some people do it professionally and 3) it's a critical 21st century skill. Thank you for "

blog post by Vu Le, February 2, 2015--reflections on SeaHawks' loss to Patriots and tie-in to nonprofits' lessons And I found that the greatest thing about this sport where a bunch of dudes throw an egg-shaped ball and shove each other around, is the community it builds. The last two weeks especially have been great. People were nicer to each other. Everyone seemed happier. And the ice at any meeting could be broken with a simple "Go Hawks." Applied to nonprofits: One of the most important things that nonprofits do is that we build community. This is hard to measure and is not often funded. But we cannot take this for granted. When we do a good job, our organizations and programs instill in people-our clients, staff, board, volunteers, donors-a sense of belonging to a community that cares about them, where they are seen, where they matter. (See "An immigrant kid's reflections on community.")

Really good blog post by Brook Manville, 9/5/14, HBR on how the "thin we" becomes the "thick we" excerpt: To borrow language from the philosopher Avishai Margalit, the web is a "thin we" type of network. Participants tend to belong for individualistic reasons. They have little in common with other members, and they're reluctant to do much for the network. A big goal requires a "thick we" network - a community of people who feel responsible for collaborating toward a shared purpose that they see as superseding their individual needs. Members of a community - as opposed to a simple network - expect relationships within the group to continue, and they even hold one another accountable for effort and performance. When networks develop into communities, the results can be powerful. Look at the accomplishments of Wikipedia contributors, open-source software developers who find and fix bugs in Linux, or doctors who help each another with difficult diagnoses as part of the Sermo social network.

Blog post by Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner on leadership groups within communities as act of service to lead group process. September 14, 2012 Need to do something like this in setting up Studio leadership roles that could be period specific, event specific, etc. See excerpt: The practice goes like this: everyone at a meeting belongs to a leadership group - and each group stewards one part of the learning process of the whole group. In this way leadership of the community meeting is distributed over the entire event. Leadership here is seen as an act of service, that is, not leadership in terms of telling others what to do, but helping the group develop itself as a learning partnership. We've seen these groups lead to some transformational turn-arounds in group dynamics and the learning potential. (Notwithstanding the times they flopped - which led us to learn a great deal!) We gave playful names to the groups in the spirit of making it a fun and inventive way of leading the process: agenda activists, community keepers, critical friends, social reporters, external messengers, value detectives. Over the years we've come to see that these groups can work well in lots of different contexts including group meetings, conferences, and long-term community development. Anywhere, that is, where there is an intention for collective learning.

Connected Learning, a new research-driven initiative was introduced at the Digital Media and Learning Conference 2012. This blog post by Jackie Gerstein discusses its essence and includes TED video of Henry Jenkins and separate video of Mimi Ito. See excerpt on core values and principals of connected learning: At the core of connected learning are three values: Equity - when educational opportunity is available and accessible to all young people, it elevates the world we all live in. Full Participation - learning environments, communities, and civic life thrive when all members actively engage and contribute. Social connection - learning is meaningful when it is part of valued social relationships and shared practice, culture, and identity (http://connectedlearning.tv/connected-learning-principles). This initiative is being driven by the following design principles: Shared purpose - Connected learning environments are populated with adults and peers who share interests and are contributing to a common purpose. Today's social media and web-based communities provide exceptional opportunities for learners, parents, caring adults, teachers, and peers in diverse and specialized areas of interest to engage in shared projects and inquiry. Cross-generational learning and connection thrives when centered on common interests and goals. Production-centered - Connected learning environments are designed around production, providing tools and opportunities for learners to produce, circulate, curate, and comment on media. Learning that comes from actively creating, making, producing, experimenting, remixing, decoding, and designing, fosters skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and productive contributions to today's rapidly changing work and political conditions. Openly networked - Connected learning environments are designed around networks that link together institutions and groups across various sectors, including popula

Center for Association Leadership, FAQ page ASAE members primarily represent trade associations, and individual membership organizations or professional societies, organized under Section 501(c)(6) of the tax code; and philanthropic organizations, organized under Section 501(c)(3). In 2009, there were 90,908 trade and professional associations, and 1,238,201 philanthropic or charitable organizations. Associations are organized for all types of purposes, but there are some recurring benefits they typically provide their members, including: Education / professional development Information, research, statistics Standards, codes of ethics, certification Forum (face to face or virtual) to discuss common problems and solutions Service / mission oriented - volunteerism and community service Provide a community, network, "home", identity, participation What is the role or connection between ASAE, and the association community at large? A: ASAE is often thought of as the gateway to associations, because it is the largest organization of its kind working to advance and promote the association profession. ASAE represents more than 21,000 association executives and industry partners representing 10,000 organizations. Our members manage leading trade associations, individual membership societies and voluntary organizations across the United States and in nearly 50 countries around the world. The promise ASAE makes to members is to provide exceptional experiences, a vibrant community, and essential tools that make them and their organization more successful.

Interesting scale of factors for measuring community performance in relation to other communities

Great resource on Stage 1 (hierarchy), 2(emergent community), 3 (community), and 4 (networked)

Blog post by Brianna Crowley, Oct. 23, 2013 Excerpt "Then I found an online community of educators who taught in schools across the country and in classrooms ranging from pre-K to higher education. They were authors, keynote speakers, and policy advocates. This interdisciplinary and diverse community challenged me to adopt a new perspective: Rather than simply identifying problems in my district, my classroom, and the educational system, I should propose the solutions. The CTQ Collaboratory transformed my practice by allowing me to see myself as a teacher leader whose experience in the classroom should empower me to affect decisions outside of my classroom. With the support and encouragement of this teacher-leader community, I began to engage with other educator communities through Twitter, ASCD, and Edmodo. Through these networks, I found not only teachers, but principals, superintendents, and authors willing to discuss the issues I was passionate about: educational technology, educational policy, and reimagined schools"

Jessica Bennett of the NYTimes writes about how emoji are replacing words in emails. on twitter and other social media, even though it might be less time to type in the words. Although use is skyrocketing, communication by emoji is open to interpretation by the recipient. There are now sites, blogs, and a social network (Emoji.li) that uses only emoji for communication. A nonprofit devoted to emoji standardization across platforms (Unicode Consortium) has been formed. Examples: In their short life, emoji managed to find an exceptional cultural range: One Internet wit put out an emoji translation of Beyoncé's "Drunk in Love," and an emoji-only version of "Moby Dick," called "Emoji Dick," was recently accepted into the Library of Congress. Legal experts have even discussed whether an emoji death threat [gun and face] could be admissible in court. "I'm not sure you can really speak of it as a full-fledged language yet," said Ben Zimmer, a linguist, "but it does seem to have fascinating combinatorial possibilities. Any sort of symbolic system, when it's used for communication, is going to develop dialects."

I am certainly out of the loop on this one! A whole new language is developing - back to cave drawings but in a digital format?