A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark. -Annie Hall, 1977

Two blogs posts, What Adds Community Value and Ning Death Syndrome a/k/a the dead shark problem recently caught my eye.

It seems we can learn some lessons from these two posts on why online communities thrive and how you can attain that in your organization. (I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be a dead shark. It’s bathing suit season after all!).

How to set up a community that most certainly will fail:

• have no activity after initial contact
• have just a couple of members
• sporadically post
• don’t have a mission
• don’t post anything about provocative issues
• don’t give it time to grow

How to set up a community that most certainly will thrive:

• diverse opinions
• instant communication
• active participation
• sharing
• transparency
• quality content
• easy to use
• welcoming
• value

Sounds easy, no?

Ragan.com and PollStream did a poll regarding social media access at work. Interesting (or maybe not) is that fear drives managers to ban social media at work. What sites do managers keep employees from accessing?

Respondents were 400+ professional communicators from North & South America, Australia, and Europe. See what some respondents say are their great challenges and be sure to take a look at the comments too. What’s the policy at your organization? Is social media banned? Should it be?

Pipl is a ‘deep web’ people search engine. Their 5 facts about social networking sites based on data collected in November & December 2007 is interesting.

You are able to filter their data by location, gender, site, etc. Their methodology is posted here and they do have some notations about their Facebook data – namely, they don’t have it. I hadn’t even heard of Hi5.

If the age distribution charts don’t rock your world, then maybe this little slice of humor I received from my colleague Richard Nantel will.

I have this horrible tendency to close the door on what was old and move on. School, jobs, neighbors, etc. And I feel real bad about it.

At a workshop in North Carolina last month one attendee I was having breakfast with told me it was a trait of Scorpios (which I am). I looked it up.

“Part of the negative side of the Scorpio nature is a tendency to discard friends once they cease to be useful, but the decent native is aware of, and fights this tendency.”

Geesh. Cease to be useful? Sounds like an old shoe.. I guess if I ever gave up this platform (blogging) for communicating, you’d all be old shoes. Old Manolo Blahniks of course because you are all so very classy : )

Social Networks are Scorpio-friendly. They foster relationships and help you make and keep connections.

One example of this was an interview I conducted for the Qualitative Research class I took this past semester. I interviewed someone who attended our IiL07 conference in an effort to explore her experiences with the online community portion of the event. (We used Leverage Software and a Facebook group to support the conference).

She explained how at past face-to-face (f2f) events she ended up with a stack of business cards that went nowhere after she got home because she got busy with work. However, with online social networking she is staying in touch and feels this online element increases the likelihood of staying in touch with the people she met. The ‘tendency to discard’ is less likely. The effort it less.

Connections are a beautiful thing to support lifelong learning – a trait we hope our learners develop. What better way to continue the conversation- to continue learning – than to stay connected.

You may want to consider how social networks can work for those one-time events you coordinate at your organization – especially those that include people outside of your organization. Shortsighted maybe, but I never used them in conjunction with a one-time face-to-face event made up of people who seemed not to be otherwise connected. I imagined social networks being used in organizations more for established work groups (everybody in this department), for projects involving people across work groups (for those working on this new implementation), for those with shared roles (leadership), and for those working through a specific curriculum (bootcamp for newbies).

For example, I once coordinated a group event (that included some training) for a group of claims adjusters who were periodically called into service for a catastrophe – hurricanes, etc. This was a group from various companies, geographic locations, and levels of experience. I guess looking back my shortsightedness came from working in a closed environment. Outsiders (those that didn’t work for the company) were connected to the organization by email cc’s and that’s about it. Think how much employees would have learned from experts in the area of handling catastrophes had there been a community. And, it would have been therapeutic for working under those high stress conditions.

The increased sense of connectedness that has been suggested by the research around blended learning provides some credibility. Although my qualitative research project was not full-scale and by no means can be considered definitive, it does provide some interesting avenues for further research.

Perhaps this is all no-brainer stuff but with 1/3 of corporations blocking social networking sites like Facebook, bringing online social networking in-house is probably one of those battles you want to pursue even if you have to look for a behind-the-firewall solution.

If you’re trying to think of ways to illustrate and sell the whole 2.0 thing at your 1.0 organization, this “Meet Charlotte” slideshow from The Shed might do the trick. It’s downloadable from SlideShare. And, it looks like the nice folks at The Shed will let you customize it so long as you link back to the original. Nice.

[added after original post because I was blind enough to not attribute to the original creator : ( ]
The original inspiration for this style of presentation was “Meet Henry” from Ethos3 which officially reached cult status.

The popular” Meet Charlie” slide presentation by Scott Gavin, using the Ethos3 model is also excellent.

I’ve created one (below) for learning 2.0 reusing content from The Shed . You are welcome to use it/improve it but please attribute it to me, The Shed, and don’t forget the original creators at Ethos2.

| View | Upload your own

My feet are killing me! Working at home, I never wear heels so I am just not used to it. However, being a woman of very short stature, I always wear heels when traveling or attending a business function. Does it matter that one is 5′? What a riot, right? Like 5′ 3″ is an Amazon woman or something. Did I say ouch?

Anyway, I just finished co-facilitating a workshop in Davidson, North Carolina at Ingersoll Rand with my colleague Gary Woodill. We had a group of twenty (perfect I think) for a highly hands-on workshop. Ingersoll Rand University supplied everyone with laptops and loaded them up with many of the no-no’s of corporate America  Skype, Facebook, SecondLife, Blog and Wiki software, etc. As with high-heeled shoes, it’s easy to forget the discomfort of firewalls.

The last time I used a wiki at a workshop I failed to populate it with anything. I expected people to just show up and start partying. I mean *hello* who would come to a dead party? This time, I think I did a better job. I’m not sure why I think training folks are any different when it comes to learning how to use new tools. We need to provide context and reasons other than “collaborate.” All attendees got their own page to take notes and the entire agenda and all necessary materials were there – cocktail franks and all. We had a end-of-session contest and, as a facilitator, it was gratifying to see the wikis used in unique ways and one attendee spent the evening setting one up for his workplace. Suh-weet!

Blogging worked. Instead of taking an hour to get everyone set up with their own blog and then trying to pull them back into the conversation when they just want to write, I live blogged an activity on a big screen as they were presenting it and then they commented (nearly ALL hadn’t done that before and didn’t use a reader). When we returned from a break, someone outside the group had picked up the post and it provided a good example of how blogs connect people.

Of course the real reason the workshop went well was because the attendees rocked, Gary Woodill rocked, and Ingersoll Rand rocked!

I must publicly thank my new friend Charlotte Coyle of Ingersoll Rand University (along with the IT staff and Lynn Palefsky) for managing this event for us and hosting us at their state-of-the-art facility. The North Carolina-style barbeque we all had for lunch was a killer ending. When I finally get home, I’ll be dreaming of Crocs and Uggs, open access, and will be hoping for a chance to go back to Charlotte soon.

It all started with a Wiki. You know. You start one and it becomes all consuming. “Wow, it’s two o’clock already?” or “you guys are on your own for dinner” type of consuming. It’s like starting a blog.

The Brandon Hall Wiki we use internally (actually we have tried several over the past couple of years) is MediaWiki which was written for Wikipedia. This past week though, I’ve been busy exploring other Wiki platforms.

A class I am taking requires me to set up three knowledge bases on learning theories. Some people used PowerPoint, some used Word, a couple had pages on their Websites but I decided to use a Wiki even though this isn’t a collaborative project. I used pbwiki, a wiki designed for educators, and loved it. Nice templates for classes. Easy. (I won’t share my school wiki because I think it sucks right now. After I’ve been graded with an “A,” maybe).

I’m using WikiSpaces for some workshops on Emerging Learning Technologies. I like this platform too. I found that multiple people can’t edit at the same time though, so have set up pages for each attendee to work in. There’s some nice, easy to use plug-ins. I thought since others will be leading the workshop at different times during the year, it’s nice to get the agenda and content out there along with a place for people to work. It’s not done yet either. Of course, that’s the nature of a Wiki. I guess that’s what I like.

This “never done” aspect of collaboration raises some interesting questions when it comes to a class Wiki that is graded. When I turn the knowledge base assignment in (provide a link via the university’s Blackboard LMS dropbox), can I continue to work on it? When does the professor actually review it? It’s a roll of the dice for procrastinators. (I think it would feel like cheating).

My daughter (11) set up her own Wiki this week using WikiSpaces. She was home from school and watching what I was up to on the workshop Wiki. I had her act as a workshop participant and go through my little 10-minute explanation/demonstration on – you guessed it…wikis. I asked her, what do you think? She said, “Mom, can I have one?” (successful training!)

It’s always fun for me to watch a child  learn. She has excellent computer skills and her choice of uploading photos of Beefaroni and a Sphynx labeled ‘things I like’ cracked me up (those running for the award ‘Mother of the Year’ apparently feed children Beefaroni). I imagine she’ll have a fully functional Wiki to share with her friends shortly. (FYI for your kids…parental controls on our PC running with Vista allowed her to set up an account but not access her Wiki. WTF? Anyway, she was up and running in 10 minutes and I removed controls).

And, finally, I’ve been in the Complexive Wiki that George Siemens and Tony Karrer set up for the Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations online conference. It is also on the MediaWiki platform.

In the event you don’t know what a wiki is, here’s one definition:

A Wiki allows web pages to be created and edited using a web browser, usually by multiple people. Wiki software is classified as collaborative software; software that helps people work on a common platform. Wiki software runs the Wiki on a Web server and the Wiki engine implements the wiki technology. Most Wiki engines are open source meaning the code is openly available to the public.

(Here’s a nice comparison of Wiki software and Wiki farms.)

What’s your Wiki favorite?

I latch on to just about everything that comes across my screen on social networks and learning. I try not to get too discouraged by the number of new! social network services I’m invited to (or my hesitation at inviting other’ people) but instead get in there and have a go. I try to make connections: Facebook as an LMS? (I tried but doesn’t work for me in the corporate setting because it lacks reporting and, we know how important reporting is. A University would probably find value though).

Here’s one thing that caught my eye…Jay Deragon, in several posts, writes about the future of social networking and includes predictions from several social network executives. Here’s my synopsis:

• Ubiquitous: ‘Social networks will be woven into every product and thing we touch.’ (Karl Jacob, CEO of Wallop)
• Open: ‘We are pushing boundaries of what closed and open mean. It’s very necessary for people to take identities with them and supplement with content from elsewhere.’ (Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder or Facebook) “…portable profile that allows single log-on and pick and choose what to expose on different social nets.’ Rich Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media
• Profitable and targeted: business model integrates social networks using ads targeted from social graphs (Moskovitz). As well, the gap between total ad dollars and online ad dollars close. (Safa Rashtchy, from the investment firm Piper Jaffray)
• Fueled by wireless devices: mobile growth complemented by rich media like video will further grown social networking (Rashtchy, Deregon)
• Big chasing the small driven by the growth of user-generated content in niche areas, small players are driving acquisitions.

I agree with these – they’re not all that provocative. For helping people learn I see much discussion on how we can use social networks in new models of blended learning, the call for SSO (please! I’ve run out of password variations), targeting groups, wireless, multimedia, and how acquisitions impact corporate programs.

But what really interested me is Deragon’s idea on a missing piece-systemic thinking. Someone who wrote a bit about systemics and learning, Robert E. Young, writes about how systemics may recognize links between learning and motivation in his call for classroom reform. We can easily make a jump to apply this to corporate learning. An oft-quoted passage from his book in his book, Critical Theory and Classroom Talk, is:

…avoid a split between what men consciously know because they are aware of having learned it by a specific job of learning, and what they unconsciously know because they have absorbed it in the formation of their characters by intercourse with others, becomes an increasingly delicate task…

Don’t we do that? Split how we track what was learned? Is this motivating?

I think this delicacy is especially important in the performance-based training that is becoming common in many corporations. Driven by assigning learning interventions (which include training and other activities) to skill gaps under the umbrella of talent management, we can create a divide between I know what I know because (you told me) I learned it (or should learn it) and “I know what I know because I formed it with others. The latter is not tracked in the LMS. Instead, it’s our own measure. Is there some devaluation of the connections created through social networks because of how we traditionally have measured and tracked learning? Does is make social networks unappealing?

Since processes such as talent and learning management aren’t going away any time soon (quite the oppositve), I think it calls out for the need to keep many elements of subjectiveness attached to the processes associated with corporate learning and talent management and – more importantly – approach the process systemically by looking at the whole vs. the parts.

As “Jane Doe Researcher” I don’t want my performance to be evaluated on what someone else tells me I’ve learned and don’t want to be held to a list of competencies. I’d want my learning to be evaluated based on the character, depth, and richness of what I’ve learned alone and through my connections – globally, locally, within the corporation, and externally. {AND THANK GOODNESS IT IS!}. Does this make any sense whatsoever?

I’m taking a qualitative research class. It’s a condensed, one semester, class where we do a full QR project on a very small scale. I’m exploring the experience of being part of an online community when it precedes a face-to-face event. As part of my mini literature review, I ran across this study by Dianne Conrad called Deep in the Hearts of Learners. It’s also a small scale study but provides, I think, some good insight into what makes an online community.

(The author suggests) Participation in online learning activities exists before community, contributes to community, and is the vehicle for maintaining community, eventually becoming the measure of community health. Greater senses of community were not reflected by the learners in the online environment per se but the shared character and common purpose of the online community.

Critical difference lies in the nature of the enterprise. Shared character and common purpose—the glue that holds community together and forges an entity where there was none—emanate from an inherent affinity to purpose, passion, or pursuit.

In support of this, Conrad cites Wallace’s (1999) physical example a carload of elevator riders. “Their ‘groupness’ was not apparent until the car jerked to an unexpected halt between floors. From that moment on, a shared and immediate experience created a new social dynamic among them.” {see article for full cite}

When you hold this up to communities you belong to, or have belonged to in the past, does it hold true? My Master’s program was online. The University created an elevator which I paid to ride. Each class started with a halt and turned into a ride to the top with some stoppages along the way. The edublogosphere I think is similar. When you create your first post you get on the elevator…alone…start pressing buttons and doors to new communities. These are examples of successful communities I belong to.

The unsuccessful communities seem to be an elevator only. Sometimes with no buttons. Sometimes with empty floors. Usually you ride alone.

Creating an elevator is easy to grasp. Creating the ‘unexpected halt’ which serves as a catalyst for community is a bit harder for me to grasp.

Next week at this time I’ll be at the Innovations in Learning Conference in sunny Santa Clara. Yay!! Harold Jarche and I will be facilitating a pre-conference workshop (“boot camp”) on Sept. 24.

I’ve found in the past that when I’ve facilitated a ’101′/intro-type/boot-camp workshops, the e-learning readiness of attendees has varied greatly. It makes it difficult to plan. Plus, you generally don’t have a very good idea of who your audience is when you’re offering workshops to the public. To adddress this, Harold and I contacted several attendees last week and – as in my past experience and no surprise – found varied levels of readiness and interests.  We have decided to break many topics down into small chunks and offer them up menu-style to participants. Should make things very flexible and loose. In some ways we’ll be serving up the various dichotomies that we blog about – formal vs. informal, PLEs vs. LMSs, etc. Reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skits with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin…point – counterpoint but (hopefully ; ) without the “Janet, you ignorant *&%!…”

Harold and I have organized and collaborated using Google docs, box.net, email, Skype, telephone, and a conference community (you must be an attendee to be part of the community).

I’ve been getting the conference community up and running over the past few weeks and am happy with the amount of participation and interaction. I think connecting with people before a conference begins can really make a difference in the conference experience. With limited time, it can be difficult to network face-to-face. And that’s a big part of going to conferences. We’re using Leverage Software for the community. It’s exciting to see who’s coming and the people map helps make connections with those who have similar interests.

The people map puts you in the center. People with similar interests are closer to you and you can just hover your mouse of the pin and it’ll show you their profile. From there you can set up meetings, chat, send email, etc. The community also supports polling, chat, advertising, blogging, messaging, and groups. Blogging and group discussions have RSS and email support.

I’ll be blogging live next week – here, in the community, and on the Brandon Hall conference blog. Blogelicious. We’re also using a wiki, twittering, maybe a little Facebook sharing…whatever it takes to keep the the communication channels open. Yay!! You can register here. Here’s my quick connect card for those attending.

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