Nurture Networks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Networks are created, that is easy. But how are they maintained and how is it assured that they stay productive, mobilizing its members and achieving its purpose over time? This page is about nurturing networks. We consider here also Communities of practice or CoPs as a special case of networks.
Contents |
[edit] Starting your network
[edit] Types of networks
Communtity of Practice (CoP)
The concept of a community of practice (developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in the early 1990s) refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in a domain of their professional activities collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, expertise and knowledge, find solutions, and build innovations.
Communities of Practice exist without formal hierarchy; their structure is function oriented. Members participate mainly based on their own interest and motivation, less based on a clearly defined task of their organisation.
A Community of Practice is a relatively tight-knit group of people who know each other and work together directly.
Network of Practice (NoP)
The concept of a network of practice (developed by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid in 2000) builds upon the definition of the community of practice. This concept includes various types of informal, emergent social networks that facilitate learning and knowledge sharing between individuals conducting practice-related tasks.
A Network of practice consists of a more loosely knit, geographically dispersed group of participants engaged in a shared practice or common topic of interest.
[edit] Online communication tools
Wiki is an online database-driven website for simple, quick and versatile online publishing. A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIKI) The Different Types of Wikis:
Public Public wikis (like Wikipedia) allow anyone on the Internet to view, create, and edit pages. Although some public wikis require you to create an account before you can alter content, others let anonymous users add or change pages.
Protected Protected wikis, are visible to the general public but can only be changed by authorized users.
Private wikis are most often used for internal communications within a company or organization; only those who are authorized by the administrator can even view the wiki, let alone edit it. see: http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/kipa/
http://www.seedwiki.com/
Blogs - Web logs or blogs are a type of Web content typically created by independent writers (although some reporters for media companies create blogs on newspaper or magazine sites). Some are personal journals; others resemble newsletters or columns. Often, they contain links to other sources of content. What you can do: Publish your thoughts and ideas; Read comments visitors leave on your blog; Add pictures, video, music, games and more; Share your blog content via RSS feeds; Automatically archive your older entries; Allow other bloggers to link directly to your entries; Import an existing blog from many popular sites.
http://www.createblog.com/
WEBS- a document on the World Wide Web. Every Web page is identified by a unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator). What you can do: Super easy and quick site-building tool Absolutely no HTML required Choose from more than 300 templates Create a single page or a full site Add photos, videos, a blog and more Interact with visitors in a guestbook or chat room Open a store or collect donations or work or play, professional or personal use http://www.make-a-web-site.com/ http://www.freewebs.com/
Skype- a free Voice (voice over internet protocol) solution, use requires the ability to record and playback audio. The program and more information can be had at http://www.skype.com/. http://skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2006/11/how_to_create_skype_30_public_chat.php
Intranet- an internal use, private network inside an organization that uses the same kind of software which would also be found on the Internet. http://www.hyperoffice.com/hypermain/tour_Create_Your_Intranet.cfm
An Internet forum is a facility on the World Wide Web for holding discussions and posting user generated content, or the web application software used to provide the facility. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forums
Here you can see an example of an e-learning forum in ILIAS platform: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ikap2.JPG
ILIAS is a powerful web-based learning management system that allows users to create, edit and publish learning and teaching material in an integrated system with their normal web browsers. Tools for cooperative working and communication are included as well. ILIAS is available as open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
The current version of ILIAS offers the following features:
* Personal desktop for each user with information about last visited courses, new mail or forum entries * Learning environment with personal annotations, test, glossary, print function, search engine and download * SCORM 1.2 and AICC compliance * Flexible course management system supporting learning objectives and learning plans * Communication features like mail system, forums and chat * Group system for collaborative work and organising users and resources * Integrated authoring environment to create learning modules online * Support of LOM metadata for all levels of learning objects * Context-sensitive help system for learners and authors * User and system administration interface * SOAP interface for content and user import * CAS, SOAP, RADIUS, LDAP and Shiboleth authentication * Several system languages like Albanian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Serbian, Ukrainian http://www.ilias.de/ios/index-e.html
[edit] Great resources on e-moderation
Finding resources
Online networks use new media that allow synchronous and asynchronous communication over distances thus helping groups to work together towards a defined output. Human nature of interaction however sometimes runs contradictory to the electronically governed and often sightless communication modes
While basic aspects of moderating groups do apply, electronic moderation has a number of specific elements to consider during moderation. There exists a comprehensive collection of e-moderation guides under the 'E-Moderation - Training course for Online Facilitators and Moderators' at:[1]
For courses or other learning events, there exists a comprehensive electronic course platform at [2]. One has to register there to take part in a course. It allows for asynchronous learning on a range of topics.
[edit] Nurturing your network
Success Factors
Establishing networks is not an easy job, bur nurturing them and keeping them alive and functional is even more difficult. There is no ready made universal formula how to keep your network, virtual working group or community of practice fit. However, there are some important aspects that can serve this purpose, the so called success factors.
The core of each network is its members, if you wish a long successful life to your network, you must be able to identify and meet the needs of its members. Thus success factors are the issues that the members wish/need/anticipate from their membership in the network.
Here are some major points:
Mutual trust/ personal contacts/ warm relationsare crucial for the good functioning of a network, there should be room for personal messages or remarks. The e-moderator is supposed to create an ambient in which everybody feels comfortable to express him-/herself and in which the opinions of the single participant is rewarded and encouraged.
Recognizable added value for the members improving professional competence (learning) thus better career opportunities (if professional competence is key for career advancement)
access to information (e-library, for example)
improving career perspectives (if a network enjoys a good publicity and is well known for its professionalism. It may be a big plus on a CV to me a meber of such a Network)
gaining status (they can brief in team meetings what is happening in their network => they have something to say)
fun, something to do (if people work in dull environment and when the network orgnises interesting events and invites its memebers to nice places)
being listened to, seeing that one is heard (great advantage of posts => everybody sees and can read for a long time what somebody said)
Visibility
The more visible is the Network, the more are the participants interested to contribute. The silent networks lose their popularity with the time
Leadership/Secreteriat/some minimum formalities
It has to have a mandate/task ("forced" to do so through project contracts, TOR staff, reviews & evaluations etc.) The secretariat should perform as the motor of the Network, i.e. realizing the ideas into action. It belongs to the repertoire of a facilitator to bring others in charge and make use of all constructive power in leadership which is available in a group.
Purpose/Goal
Network should serve ulterior motive other than self-existence. The main issue, i.e. the reason why the network exists should be clear to everyone and it may need refreshing over time as external contexts and conditions may change
Feedback Culture
The moderator (Secreteriat) should invite the participants regulary to give feedback about the impact of network. It should stimulate discussions on their practical work/daily business. As a consequence, it might be possible that the topic of the network is reworded or affirmed. It is also important to regularly verify if the expectations of the participants are met.
Common values
The membership should not be too diverse. The memberes have to have a general common vision and interests. There needs to exists a somewhat streamlined perception of the underlying problem. Possibly issues on stake need to be reassessed from time to time by the network in order to avoid networks exisiting for the sake of networks.
Money
Networks cannot be self financing, they need external funding
Know the members
It is also important to know about participants, their tasks/function in their daily work. To assess how much time they can contribute or how to meet their individual needs. It will also help to develop an enhanced personal approach.
QUESTION AT HAND
The working question or the working hypothesis needs to be clear to the network. Such working question of hypothesis can change but need to be kept updated by the network.
- democratication, groupwork, holistic approach, problem solving, elegant way to separate content from process thanks to computer, freedom, elegant balance between individual and group (if asynchronuos), creativity, process, beauty.
- enabling a discussion with manifold aspects - by leaving doors wide open (That's a very good approach because it's encouraging, inviting, enabling to unfold thoughts, ideas.)
[edit] Life cycle
There are 5 stages in the evolution of a network or a community (based on Gilly Salmons 5 stage model).
1. Access and motivation: First of all, participants have to gain access to the website and become familiar with the new environment.
2. Online socialisation: Participants are starting to use the different means of online communication and start building relationships with each other. The community defines itself, sets up a structure and processes for how the community will operate.
3. Information exchange: Participants are experiencing the sharing and exchange of information and knowledge. Furthermore, they appreciate the whole range of information that is accessible.
4. Knowledge construction: The level of interaction within the community grows from the mere exchange of knowledge to the building and the production of knowledge. Participants work together to solve problems or to develop a common product.
5. Development: By the last stage participants are comfortable with online communication and group work. There is time for reflection if their expectations and goals have been met.
[edit] Group dynamics
Access and motivation
Important Aspects:
1. A common interest in solving a problem or exchanging on an issue. That communality needs to be developed beforehand. In many cases this may be given by working in the same professions or same projects together.
2. Access to online needs to be available. This may be no problem in US, Europe etc, but be more of a problem in least developed countries. Situation there is however rapidly improving by the establishment of internet points
3. A formation process for the group has to happen. Rough objectives and targets for the group need to be formulated, understood and accepted by members
4. The rudimentary shape for a working group so developed needs to be further refinded by:
a. the mutual clarifiation of expectations, work potentials and operational possibilities b. more defined task resp. problem description leading to the formulation of ToR
5. Discussion on and selection of jobs and mandates esp. the one of moderation
6. Moderation: needs to be able to establish a line of working and culturing a mode of interaction and find a balance between innovators and legards and involve free riders so to tap their potential
Group processes
7. The moderator needs to ensure supporting connectivity so not to allow technology interrupt the discussion. Possibly different people can be connected via various media (chat [3], interwise, email, skype). Early clarification of the technical possibilities is required.
8. the moderator, together with the Group needs to establish a 'culture of discourse' in order to ensure harvesting as much as possible from each participant. Method: moderator agrees with participants on rules of exchange, sequencing, responding to each other and interering with each other
9. Stop gap meetings in between make sure that participants are still 'on board'. Method: the moderator invites the group to reflect for a given time on the mode of groupwork and confirms the right track or implements suggestion for procedural improvement.
[edit] Troubleshooting
E-moderators are bound to face a variety of problems in their work.
1. lurkers, free-riders: some participants count on others to participate and be active in the network so that the can spare the effort of getting involved
2. online low: after some active time, the network experiences a slow down in activity and motivation
3.‘mission’ syndrome: there is a surge of ideas and initiatives but then the project collapses after the mission team has left
4. conflicts in online communication
5. [Etc.]
Here are some resources to handle these problems:
- [4] How to prevent conflicts and how to deal with them - in online communities (summary web resources).
- [5] Disturbances in online teamwork, reflect - prepare - react.
- [6] How to get lurkers and free-riders into the boat.
[edit] Visiting live networks
http://www.globalfn.org Global Facilitators Network.
[edit] References
- [7]. Information Management Resource Kit (iMark). Module of Building Electronic Communities and Networks.
- [8] Online Community Toolkit. Manual about online communities, issued by Nancy White's team.
- [9] Communities of Practice – from own to shared knowledge.
- [10] Hotpotatoes. Program-package with 6 "half baked" instruments enable learning, creative thinking, collaboration in a playful (unconventional) and attractive way. Realised hotpots (as matching exercise, cross, gap text, multiple choice...) enable to transport very sophisticated content.
- [11]. D.Film Moviemaker. Step-by-step self made movie maker to illustrate processes, create invitations, teasers...
[edit] Literature
- Salmon, Gilly, E-Moderating. The Key to Online Teaching and Learning, New York : RoutledgeFalmer, 2003.
- Lave, Jean; Wenger, Etienne, Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1991.
- Wenger, Etienne, Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Brown, John Seely; Duguid, Paul, The Social Life of Information. Boston, MA : Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
