Hosting Conversations about Questions that Matter
Opportunities - was Challenges :-)
Fellow Stewards for this online community space,
As the "site administrator" I am having some challenges that I'd like to see us address together as a stewardship group if at all possible.
I think Ulrich's idea of a "Charter" or clear statement of intent might be a good response to these issues, but here are a few examples of what is coming up for me:
There seem to be many people coming in to this community lately who are completely new to the World Cafe - posting events (tours of the SF bay), requesting that they might start a group (for everything from World Markets to the culture of the people in the Arabian Peninsula), or blogging (on Home Prices in America).
Many of these contributions feel out of whack to me - like the people making the contributions have no idea where they are, and have not been properly introduced. That's why I like the idea of a Charter, or clear statement of intent, as I think it may clarify things for new people from the beginning.
I have some concerns that, especially in this early time of seeding the World Cafe online community, it's important we don't just become another nondescript "FaceBook"-type space that covers everything and therefore has no value to the people who could build a real community of practice here. On the other hand, I really want this to be a hospitable space, and certainly it is not only World Cafe people who are welcome - for example, we are very much wanting to create the environment for mutual exchange with people from the Art of Hosting, Kaos Pilots, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, etc. and we want new people who are genuinely interested in the World Cafe or conscious group process to feel like they are welcome, too.
So, here are some of my questions:
Should there be any restrictions or criteria for who's able to start a "group"? We currently ask that people who want to start a group must be willing to care for it, but are there other criteria we should be using, like that the groups should be about the World Cafe in some way, or they should only be able to be started by people who are already in the World Cafe somehow?
Should we make this community invitation-only, so we know where people are coming in from?
What about people who only ever post their events and make no contribution or have no interaction otherwise?
Are there any limits on the kind of events/blogs/conversations/etc. we are comfortable having posted?
If there is a feeling that some kind of simple Charter or statement of intent would help with some or all of these issues, Would someone be willing to draft it for us to look at, and where should we put it?
On another level altogether, we've had some real challenges with the Buddies and Mentors process - mainly that there are twice as many people who want buddies than there are willing to be a buddy, and that many of the people offering to be Mentors are not experienced enough to really carry out the role.
So, in response, I've started offering weekly Phone Clinics for tech issues, and I'd like to encourage people who need help or information to post their questions in the conversations area, and people who know the answers to respond to them.
How does this sound? Any thoughts?
Warm Hugs, and appreciation for your co-stewardship of this space.
Amy
As the "site administrator" I am having some challenges that I'd like to see us address together as a stewardship group if at all possible.
I think Ulrich's idea of a "Charter" or clear statement of intent might be a good response to these issues, but here are a few examples of what is coming up for me:
There seem to be many people coming in to this community lately who are completely new to the World Cafe - posting events (tours of the SF bay), requesting that they might start a group (for everything from World Markets to the culture of the people in the Arabian Peninsula), or blogging (on Home Prices in America).
Many of these contributions feel out of whack to me - like the people making the contributions have no idea where they are, and have not been properly introduced. That's why I like the idea of a Charter, or clear statement of intent, as I think it may clarify things for new people from the beginning.
I have some concerns that, especially in this early time of seeding the World Cafe online community, it's important we don't just become another nondescript "FaceBook"-type space that covers everything and therefore has no value to the people who could build a real community of practice here. On the other hand, I really want this to be a hospitable space, and certainly it is not only World Cafe people who are welcome - for example, we are very much wanting to create the environment for mutual exchange with people from the Art of Hosting, Kaos Pilots, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, etc. and we want new people who are genuinely interested in the World Cafe or conscious group process to feel like they are welcome, too.
So, here are some of my questions:
Should there be any restrictions or criteria for who's able to start a "group"? We currently ask that people who want to start a group must be willing to care for it, but are there other criteria we should be using, like that the groups should be about the World Cafe in some way, or they should only be able to be started by people who are already in the World Cafe somehow?
Should we make this community invitation-only, so we know where people are coming in from?
What about people who only ever post their events and make no contribution or have no interaction otherwise?
Are there any limits on the kind of events/blogs/conversations/etc. we are comfortable having posted?
If there is a feeling that some kind of simple Charter or statement of intent would help with some or all of these issues, Would someone be willing to draft it for us to look at, and where should we put it?
On another level altogether, we've had some real challenges with the Buddies and Mentors process - mainly that there are twice as many people who want buddies than there are willing to be a buddy, and that many of the people offering to be Mentors are not experienced enough to really carry out the role.
So, in response, I've started offering weekly Phone Clinics for tech issues, and I'd like to encourage people who need help or information to post their questions in the conversations area, and people who know the answers to respond to them.
How does this sound? Any thoughts?
Warm Hugs, and appreciation for your co-stewardship of this space.
Amy
Replies to This Conversation
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Permalink Reply by Amy Lenzo on -
That's a great point Raffi - it's certainly possible that even a lively new platform like Ning could go out of business.
I know that there is a place in the management part of this community space that lets us export the data, so I assume that is a form of back up. We should start doing that regularly as a preventative for the kind of scenario you describe. Thanks for paying attention. -
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Permalink Reply by Raffi Aftandelian on -
Amy, I imagine finding a back-up mechanism would not be simple. I've looked at the support center for network creators and from a first glance that capability does not exist yet within Ning.
Of all the different facilitation virtual communities I know of, I find very interesting the choice of the Genuine Contact community to create a virtual home on private servers. I don't know if you're on the GC list, but it has been an enlightening conversation. -
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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on -
Raffi,
I'm not such a geek as Amy is, but do know a little bit of social platforms, but nothing at all about servers etc. Can you explain more? Can we follow the conversation you are referring to? (I'm writing as someone who is responsible for the Women Moving the Edge online community, and thinking of building a Ning site for the Art of Hosting community...). Thanks in advance! -
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Permalink Reply by Raffi Aftandelian on
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Ria, greetings!
I think there are many, many considerations and choices we are making that we don't even realize when we use a free (and proprietary!) platform like Ning (just think of all the private information that advertisers can use when we use this tool!).
Just a quick glance at the support site for network creators on Ning gives an idea of the range of challenges that seek to be met. And these challenges becoming more challenging when it is not clear how much the framework for engaging network creators is happening in a spirit of participatory leadership. n: )
You can follow the conversation I've been talking about by subscribing to the Genuine Contact listserv and then going through the archives looking for the "virtual home" proposal.
Parenthetically, the virtual home proposal itself is an interesting idea and I'm curious if any of our sister communities has implemented something like this yet. What it would - eventually- allow for is not only social networking within the community (on a dedicated private server) and the possibility of engaging new people, it would also allow real-time virtual collaboration, with voice, video, and text.
Ning, for example, as wonderful a tool as it is (and it is a great gift to the world!) does not yet have the capability to allow people to use wikis (like Wetpaint) within the space.
Hope this helps and hope we meet some day, perhaps at an AoH??
warmly,
raffi -
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Permalink Reply by Amy Lenzo on
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Raffi,
One of the issues that you haven't addressed is cost - to create our own self-hosted platform (on an open source Drupal or other base) that has features equivalent to what we enjoy on this Ning site would be financially prohibitive, difficult to construct, and give us a more limited "look and feel".
A self-hosted open source platform would also be open to the same kind of phishing that Ning is, unless it was a closed environment, and we could make this one closed too, if we chose.
By the way, there is a Ning plug-in available for Google docs (we have it now, in our "resources" drop down menu) and we could always put a Wetpaint wiki (or any other program that can be mounted) into it's own blank page here. I did not do so because the World Cafe community is struggling in many cases even to use the basic functionality of this site, and I don't want to overwhelm or confuse people. We have had several wikis in our community that have languished because people did not understand the technology, and I wanted to avoid that issue completely in this community site.
On another topic all together - there's another proprietary platform out there that looks very interesting - I didn't know about it when we were researching platforms for this place or it would have been a serious contender - it's called SocialGo. Do you know anything about it? I may consider using it for other clients. -
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Permalink Reply by Raffi Aftandelian on
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Amy, greetings!
Yes, cost is a very important consideration. I'm a member of the Genuine Contact community, so I'll be following this thread closely.
From what I have seen, the intention is to ensure that the costs remain within reason and to use open source software and php to the maximum degree possible in designing a system.
All of this thinking is making me wonder if there have been meetings between the leaders in the different sister process arts communities about what we are learning in creating and hosting online environments.
That's great that GoogleDocs has been added as a plug-in! I don't see how it can be used here, however. I clicked on the hyperlink. However I didn't see how I could create or upload something for revision.
And, yes, offering too much functionality too quickly is definitely a serious consideration. I'm still finding new things about Ning in its most basic form.
I have never heard of SocialGo. Thanks for telling me about it!
Amy, thanks much again for all your work in the ploughing, seeding, watering, and shining light on this space. And I continue to be amazed by how just a short conversation with you really framed and deepened our thinking for our online social network of Russian-speaking trainers, consultants, and facilitators. Indeed, we have a group called, "Co-spaceholders" for those caring for the whole community!
warmly,
raffi -
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Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on
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Raffi, your idea of
"All of this thinking is making me wonder if there have been meetings between the leaders in the different sister process arts communities about what we are learning in creating and hosting online environments."
would be great. As far as I know it didn't happen yet, but I know Amy quite well, and I think she knows Kelvy Bird, from the Presencing Community. If you ever call such a conversation, I'm happy to join (as host of Women Moving the Edge, and sometime in the future a Ning for Art of Hosting Community). -
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Permalink Reply by Amy Lenzo on
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I've had informal support conversations with the Community Tech Stewards for most of these groups - Ria and I talk, Kelvey and I have consulted from the beginning about her platform, and I've helped Cindy at Heartland Circle with her questions, etc. etc. - in fact the potential for collaboration was one of the deciding factors for me in choosing this platform, but as far as I know there have been no conversations among the whole group. I tried to initiate something a few months back but it's a very busy group, as you can imagine. :-)
Like Ria, I would be interested in such a meeting if it were to be convened. -
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Permalink Reply by Raffi Aftandelian on
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Amy, that's good to know.
I am wondering if having a conversation around the different spaceholders/stewards for various online virtual sister communities would be worthwhile, bringing together for example the Genuine Contact Program, the Russian-speaking "Professionals in Training and Development" network (which I'm part of) would be good.
I'm just wondering about the desired outcome/benefits of these conversations.
I know that just making these cross-network connections would be good and getting to know each other a little more creates new possibilties.
If there is interest, I can seed this idea to these other networks and see the response we get... -
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