Caring for this Online Community

Comment

Comment by Amy Lenzo on August 21, 2012 at 8:30am

:-) It's largely volunteer at this point, but thanks. :-)

I do feel passionately about this community, and the idea of "World as Café" that is sometimes embodied here. I love having forums where people are standing in so many different places on the globe, bringing such a rich diversity of perspective to any conversation.

To me all things are possible here. I am not so naive as to think it will all "just happen", but magically sometimes it does, and I do believe it can happen even more often with the right conditions in place. Many of the "right conditions" are referred to obliquely in your list of what motivates (or should I say what doesn't motivate) participation and engagement.

Thanks for the exchange... I am heartened by it.

Amy

Comment by Geof Warren on August 21, 2012 at 12:38am

Hello Amy,

Thanks for your reply and your comments. I just want to say you are doing a great job here, it must a full time job for you?

Best wishes Geof

Comment by Amy Lenzo on August 20, 2012 at 6:32pm

Geof,

What a beautifully thought-out note about what drives participation - whether online or off. How lovely to have your voice here.

The group has been a bit dormant for a while - which I take responsibility for to a large extent, as I have not had the band-width to take on much leadership for it.

As the "group owner" of this group I was touched, initially, by the number of people who were drawn to this topic, and I am still moved by those who step forward into active roles here in the online community at different times. Sometimes it seems to work almost like magic, although I think the points you outline are very apt, particularly in relation to the levels of need that are met (or not) through participation and contribution.

I love your comment about the way one cares on-line being taking an active interest in each other... and you've definitely piqued my interest! :-)

Thanks again for being here, and making your contribution!

Amy

Comment by Geof Warren on August 20, 2012 at 11:52am

Hi all,

In response to your message Amy about energizing the community. I am new here but I've always been curious as what causes people to commit or not commit to any organisation or group and actively participate in it. As one who has tried to set up groups in the past I know how difficult this can be.

Thinking about this now I have a few reasons why people don't commit and participate.

1) The individual's need is not great enough, that is to say they have a lot more going on their life and as a consequence are too busy.

2) A person does not have the confidence to actively participate.

3) A person does not see how much others might value their contribution.

4) Apathy.

5) A person is too self absorbed.

The title of this group speaks for itself but how do you care on-line? My answer to this is that one takes an active interest in others.

I feel sure that there are four cornerstones to happiness - a sense of belonging; being needed; contributing and creativity. Upon this everything else is built. Of course these can be attained from different sources. For example, a person is needed by their family; contributes at work; belongs to a social group and creates when gardening or some other interest.

However, judging by the incidence of depression, loneliness and anger around, I feel many people fail to achieve all four.

I have written more of my thoughts on my website www.lifelovedying.org

Geof

Comment by Jerry LaChapelle on January 18, 2012 at 9:13am

Being new to The World Cafe I'm not very familiar with hosting or suggested procedures. I am curious about something however; has anyone ever tried using www.meetup.com to setup a cafe meeting in your local area? I could see an up and down side to this. Thanks!

Comment by Amy Lenzo on September 10, 2010 at 9:35am

Welcome to the "caring for this online community" group, Utis!
I'd love to hear more about you and what interests brought you to this group...

Comment by Amy Lenzo on July 10, 2010 at 2:28pm

Thanks Christopher!

Comment by Christopher Smerald on July 5, 2010 at 1:17am

Amy,
I came across TWC while exploring ideas towards facilitating world self governance, initially as a toolkit item, but more so now as space to explore ideas, learn form others’ visions and experience, and hopefully help TWC community achieve its own ends. I am still learning what goals TWC has set for itself so some of the following may be off plan for TWC, but possibly of interest. As a medium I am particularly interested in
1. the making of TWC tools and skills accessible to an as broad and non elite group as possible,
2. exploring how the World Café process might
- be supplemented by deeper thinking components or
- made accessible in a less technology intensive format for areas of the world where bandwidth is more precious (intuitively I think deeper thinking and less technology may have some synergies)
3. The harvesting, concentrating and sharing knowledge gained from collective dialog. (N.B. Amy, here is a link to the Olivier Zara collaborative intelligence article I mentioned: http://www.axiopole.com/pdf/Managing_collective_intelligence.pdf -much is of interest in the paper, but skimming pages 28 to 42 and reading chapter 5 will give a good overview}. I know some of your members are more fully engaged with this topic and can give more insight.
4. Exploring the building of modern communities that do not spontaneously dissolve but thrive and provide real benefit.
5. Skills sharing/lending towards others' ideas/aims.

Comment by Amy Lenzo on June 23, 2010 at 5:33pm

Hi all,

We've been kind of quiet here for a while... perhaps it's time to jump in and test the waters a little bit about what people would feel energized by in relation to supporting this online community...

Benjamin has brought great heart and creativity to the community ... and we need all of us contributing our ideas and our actions to keep that cycle going.

One such possibility for energizing the World Cafe community is the series of monthly Community Cafes we've launched in collaboration with the Monthly Inquiry Circle. This combination was designed to explore what topics are really meaningful for people here and then host a World Cafe to delve deeply into that topic.

It's a way to get to know each other and cross-pollinate ideas, and it offers people who are new to the World Cafe a way to experience it for themselves.

We started the Community Cafe last month, and it was brilliant. People from all across this international community picked up their phones (or used their SkypeOut accounts) to connect with each other.

The 2nd Community World Cafe is scheduled for this Sunday. Adriano Pianesi will be our host and the topic of our conversation is Immigration. How do you feel about it? How have you or your family been effected by it?

I really want to invite people from this group to show up for these Community Cafes and participate in the monthly Inquiry group. Perhaps there are subjects you'd like to explore, and you may even want to host one of the Community Cafes yourself.

We all joined this group because we are interested in caring for this community, right? Well, participating in a Community Cafe is one great way we can do that.

It would be good to hear from others here... how would you like to care for this community? What does that mean to you? Why did you join this group?

Comment by Amy Lenzo on May 9, 2010 at 8:09am

Welcome, Christopher! Thanks for joining us here...

Most of the energy for this group was generated leading up to and during our initial launch, but the ongoing care of our community (or any community like this) is still an active thread, and one of my primary interests.

I spend a lot of time thinking about this, and wonder what others are noticing - what drew you to this group? What would you like to learn? What wisdom can you share?

For me, I would begin by saying how helpful it is to have the World Cafe principles to draw on in creating the conditions for meaningful dialogue and real connection. Have you experienced any of them at work here?

Warmly,

Amy

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