Wednesday, 25 February 2009
How different was the Web in 2006?
In his article "Jurassic Web" Farhad Manjoo in the online magazine Slade talks about how unrecognizable the Web in 1996 was compared with the Web today. He concludes that despite early trends which predate blogging and user-generated content, it was all fluff and nonsense.
I beg to disagree. In 1996 I was one of the Web generation, ordinary people who were creating websites, discussing digital creativity and applying it to real world challenges. We were creating early blogs - only we called them metajournals in those days. My first was on a site called LitWeb, which has sadly now gone, but anyone who usesLiveJournal or other blog/social networks would have recognised it.
Community and collaboration were the words that drove us in the early days of the Web - and it feels like it has turned full circle having taken a more commercial turn around the turn of the century.
For Manjoo to say that Geocities was the forerunner of user-generated content is to miss the whole ethos of the Web back then. We were collaborating, sharing information, in a way that would be recognised by the open source community today and we created websites which users were invited to contribute to and collaborate in developing the content for. Look at a project like the Noon Quilt (OK it was two years' later in 1998 but a development of what we were doing at the trAce Online Writing Community from 1996-2006)...
Our children's writing website Kids on the Net was invented in 1996 with a website launched in 1997. From the start it was a place for children to publish their own writing, safely with full moderation. It is still online today and still publishing children's own writing. There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of content generated by the children themselves.
Yes there was no Google, yes for a company to have a website was still unusual. But the Web wasn't all that strange compared with today, because those of us who experimented with the potential of the technology knew what it was going to become and created the forerunners for the modes and behaviours that characterise the Web today.Labels: 1996, collaboration, Kids on the Net, online community, trAce
posted by Helen Whitehead 2:44 PM
Monday, 12 May 2008
Technology stewardship
A post from 2006 in Learning Alliances defines the concept of "technology stewardship"
"Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community."
I guess that's certainly what I am - a technology steward - but if the phraseology hasn't caught on in the time since Dec 2006, then it obviously doesn't mean as much to the IT and community-using population in general. Neither has "e-moderator" caught on outside the UK, although it's a very similar role - while the e-moderator doesn't necessarily select and configure the technology, many do have this function and expertise, and I suspect they are of more use to a community if they do.Labels: communities of practice, e-facilitation, e-moderating, emoderating, online communities, online community, technology-stewardship
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:28 AM
Monday, 21 April 2008
Analysing communities for the key participants
There are all sorts of reasons why one wants to analyse an online community - finding out who are the busiest and most informative posters is one possible requirement. I just spotted an old article from New Scientist (well, July 2007) that describes how researchers at Cornell University, New York, and Microsoft Research in Washington State have developed a way to analyse postings and the relationships between them to find out who are the movers and shakers in a community. Of course as they studied Usenet groups, it isn't exactly cutting edge research, but it reminds me that there are many methods for analysing interactions, and i really should bring more of them together in a blog post some day.
Research as far back as usenet analyses let alone more recently has shown that the activities of certain influential people are key to the success or otherwise of a community. Anyone who has lost a community due to a strong individual or group stifling or driving off others, knows it can work both ways. Any community manager worth their salt will have developed ways to deal with such people.Labels: communities of practice, e-moderating, e-moderation, emoderating, online communities, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:18 PM
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
E:LESIG - for researchers of the student experience
I've just welcomed the 71st member to the new Ning community for ELESIG. It's great to see so many e-learning researchers and practitioners who have an interest in the learner experience. The take up for the community and for the inaugural workshop - was it only last week? - has been excellent and just shows what a need there is for a network of practice in this area.
Next job will be to get the directory of projects up and running - that's in pbwiki so that those associated with each project can edit and update the information about their work.
If you are interested in this Special Interest Group for studying the student's experience of e-learning, join us at ELESIG.NingLabels: elesig, learner experience, Ning, online community, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:48 AM
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Community cycling...
I've just found out that my local Freecycle group has changed affiliation. They are now part of Realcycle. The local group has left the Freecycle network for a variety of reasons indicative of a breakdown of community. I can see Freecycle's point of view - they want to "upgrade" the community to a centralised network. It's fairly inevitable that they will lose people on the way - it's a natural consequence - not everyone will agree with the ethos of the new community.
Groups that do not agree have every right to split off and find their own way. I must say I do also see the local group's points as well. A concept that started in America is probably not going to be right for British communities in the end.For community managers it is a message to manage volunteers very carefully. If you give the members ownership of their community, then they must be consulted and a democratic process must take place. If policies and structures are imposed then individuals and groups must feel free to reject them by rejecting the whole concept.
The departing group say:
- Many moderators are concerned about the recent Freecycle response to the DEFRA invitation. We do not believe that Freecycle UK should adopt a political stance other than its own remit to keep landfill waste down.
- Those moderators, who stated their wish that the Directors ofFreecycleUK should not take it upon themselves to put forward views that purport to represent the UK Freecycle membership (currently at 770,000), have been ignored.
- Freecycle is currently developing a new website. It is widely believed that this new website will centralise Freecycle groups so that the community aspect is diluted or even lost altogether. There may be no local point of contact, i.e. local moderators.
We are told that the transition to the new website will be entirely voluntary. Perhaps in the beginning, yes, but Freecycle will eventually insist that all groups migrate from their current Yahoo platform to the new site or lose their listing on the directory.- Throughout the Freecycle global community any moderators who question or offer an alternative viewpoint have found themselves on permanent moderation on Freecycle discussion groups or even had their groups taken from them.
- Freecycle is in a state of disarray and confusion at the present time. Many groups have been locked down, moderators removed from their groups (bear in mind that all mods give their time voluntarily and many have spent several years building up their groups in order to benefit their community) and there is no one central source of information.
- TFN's (The Freecycle Network) main sponsor in the U.S. is a company called Waste Management Inc. This company has, in the past been guilty of (and fined for) several incidents involving the illegal dumping of toxic waste.
- Possible breaches of YahooGroups terms of service.
Labels: freecycle, local communities, online communities, online community, realcycle, sustainability
posted by Helen Whitehead 3:50 PM
Saturday, 4 August 2007
E-books on online community
Useful resources, especially for beginners
Otis Online Tutoring e-Book
NCSL's e-learning facilitation toolkit and 70,000 heads are better than oneLabels: e-learning, e-moderating, e-moderation, e-moderator, ebook, elearning, emoderating, online communities, online community, online learning, online tutor, online tutoring
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:53 PM
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Blogs vs communities of practice
A community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:
- What it is about - its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members
- How it functions - mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity
- What capability it has produced - the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time? (Wenger 1998)
I've been reading an interesting post from back in 2004 comparing blogs and online communities of practice.
In summary:
What blogs provide that other web-based collaboration tools do not:
- Blogs are more respectful of their authors and of their audience
- Blogs are better connecting tools.
What Communities of Practice provide that a network of bloggers cannot:
- Communities are better social structures for problem-solving, knowledge stewarding and innovation
- Communities of practice are better social structures for learning
How blogs and CoPs live together?
- Blogger networks generate communities of practice (and communities of practice generate projects)
- Communities of Practice can use blogs to communicate with the outside world.
I wonder how that discussion would be updated now? Certainly you wouldn't talk about "weblogs" now! I might have a think about this and post my thoughts at a later date.Labels: blog network, blogging, blogs, communities of practice, emoderating, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:06 AM
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Ground rules for online courses
In my e-moderating courses recently we have been discussing whether or not ground rules are necessary to manage student expectations.
I'm a great believer in groundrules: I think people like to know where they stand, and if expectations are made clear at the beginning, then it is easier to manage complaints or disagreements at a later date.
Here's an example:Students are expected to:
Students can expect tutors to:
- have the basic technical requirements to access the course (tech requirements re type of computers, operating system and software are given in advance and are as wide as is possible, but if the system doesn't work on Vista, for example, that is made clear before people sign up)
- commit themselves to doing the work required for the course within the timeframe specified
- give feedback to at least two other members of the class (...in each e-tivity - or this expectation can be made clear in each e-tivity)
- take an active part in the online discussion board at least three times per week
- participate in evaluation and feedback schemes where required
- hand in assignments on time. Late assignments will be accepted only at the discretion of the tutor and only in exceptional circumstances.
- abide by our code of conduct (see below)
Copyright statement
- log on to the discussion boards several times a week and be regularly available by email or chat
- respond to queries and posts within a stated time (usually 2 working days)
- provide course material on time
- set each assignment at least a week before its due date
- provide quality course materials which fulfil the stated aims for each course (OK so that one's a bit woolly!)
Students are expected to be aware of the restrictions of copyright and not to breach the copyright of any other student, writer of printed materials, or source on the web. All posted materials remain the copyright of the person posting. Material posted on the discussion boards must not be quoted outside the course without prior permission from the originator.
The teaching environment is private to students and writing posted within your course is available ONLY to students and tutors of that course. It does not constitute publication nor will the material be available on the web permanently.
Example Code of Conduct
This one was developed by the trAce Online Writing Centre community:trAce exists to connect writers and readers around the world in real and
virtual space. As a professional and social online community, as well as a
learning environment, for writers, readers and other artists, and in support of
its purpose, the trAce Online Writing Centre has adopted three general governing
principles:
1. Principle of Tolerance
We are people of many nationalities, ages, cultures and artistic persuasions. We ask that everyone act with respect for others and recognize that effort may be necessary to avoid misunderstandings rising out of our differences.
2. Principle of Artistic and Intellectual Freedom
We are committed to:
a) supporting artistic practice across its entire range
b) recognising such practice as a basic means of expression
c) regarding as fundamental our protection and promotion of the artistic and intellectual freedom of the artists with whom we work.
3. Principle of Responsible Behaviour
We share not only a common sector of cyberspace but also resources, which are provided through real-life support, effort and funding and which are finite. Responsible behaviour is defined as that which conforms to netiquette standards and which does not interfere in the access and use of trAce resources.The above principles were drafted by a representative group of trAce
users in May 2000 and are supported by the organisation as a whole.Labels: copyright, e-facilitation, e-moderating, online community, online courses, online tutor, online tutoring, student expectations
posted by Helen Whitehead 2:00 PM
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
What is online community?
Community is not the same as commonalityPeople at a bus stop are not a community. people who go online are not a community.
"A community is a group of people who form relationships over time by interacting regularly around shared experiences, which are of interest to all of them for varying individual reasons." Jake McKeeLabels: e-facilitation, e-learning, e-moderation, nlabwomen, nlabwomen07, online communities, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:46 PM
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Online friends have problems just the same...
As you might expect, I am a daily user of forums. My favourites are a private board for a group of about a dozen e-learning consultants (we used to work together) and a hobby board, where I am in a "team" of 10. Breaking up a community into groups of about this size makes it much more manageable and personal to interact.
This week though, there have been a variety of crises striking my forum-mates, with serious health issues striking at all ages from brand new babies to elderly grandparents. We offer one another support, and I guess it's not that much different in effectiveness from getting on the phone to a friend.
I have tutored courses with students from around the world and run comunities with members worldwide and it seemed like whenever there was a major world incident I know someone caught up in it. From the serious - 9/11 and the Bali bombings spring to mind, to the silly - a fellow member of a forum is a relative of one of the current Big Brother contestants! (I don't watch it!)Labels: crises, friends, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:39 PM
