1. Digital Habitats Orientation Spidergram Activity
This activity comes out of a chapter in our book that looks at the activity orientations of communities of practice and how this might drive both the technology stewardship and the overall community nurturing and leadership activities. In this context, we are using it to explore the application of social media to a particular goal you might have.
From: Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities
Etienne Wenger, Nancy White & John. D. Smith, 2009
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2. Community activities oriented to …
… meetings
… open-ended conversation
… projects
… content publishing
Community activities oriented to …
… access to
expertise
… individual
participation
… relationships
In our research of CoPs we noticed 9 general patterns of activities that characterized a community’s orientation. Most had a mix, but some were more prominent in every case.
Image: Wenger, White and Smith, 2007
… community
cultivation
… context
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
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3. Orientations What do they mean?
Meetings – in person or online gatherings with an agenda (i.e. monthly topic calls)
Projects – interrelated tasks with specific outcomes or products (i.e. Identifying a new practice and refining it.)
Access to expertise – learning from experienced practitioners (i.e. access to subject matter experts)
Relationship – getting to know each other (i.e. the annual potluck dinner!)
Context – private, internally-focused or serving an organization, or the wider world (i.e. what is kept within the community, what is shared with the wider world)
Community cultivation – Recruiting, orienting and supporting members, growing the community (i.e. who made sure you’re the new person was invited in and met others?)
Individual participation – enabling members to craft their own experience of the community (i.e. access material when and how you want it.)
Content – a focus on capturing and publishing what the community learns and knows (i.e. a newsletter, publishing an article, etc.)
Open ended conversation – conversations that continue to rise and fall over time without a specific goal (i.e. listserv or web forum, Twitter, etc.)
Before you do the Spidergram exercise, read through the orientations and think of some examples from a number of contexts. I’ll offer two examples as well in subsequent slides.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

4. activities oriented to …
Example: The Birdwatchers
of Central Park
Weekly bird walks, winter bird feeding fillings, irregular celebrations and events…
… meetings
Bump into another bird-watcher? Have a conversation…
… open-ended conversation
… projects
Advocacy drives, adopt parts of the park, bird counts…
The “Register” (print) is central to community…
… content publishing
… access to
expertise
activities oriented to …
The participation of the “Big Guns,” and “Regulars.” Mostly F2F
Anyone can bird watch, but sharing what you see/know is important…so the community accommodates both
Here is an example drawn from the book “Red-Tails in Love: Pale Male’s Story -- A True Wildlife Drama in Central Park” by Marie Winn. Vintage Books, 2005
The book tells of a community of bird watchers in Central Park and exquisitely describes their practices. This is a predominantly face to face group that might use some social media, but not as their central way of interacting. They are a large, diverse group, but tightly geographically bound to Central Park in New York City. They might fill this spidergram differently than I might, but this is just an example!
Image: Wenger, White and Smith, 2007
Note when people missing… Invite people in
… individual
participation
Internal and External focus: Publishing, the “Register,” available to media…
… relationships
While everyone pays attention to the community, no centralized efforts…
… context
… community
cultivation
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Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities, © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

5. activities oriented to …
Community Name: KM4Dev global knowledge sharing network
Once a year and only about 10% do/can participate.
… meetings
list is core of community activity
… open-ended conversation
… projects
When funding allows. E.G. supporting ShareFair
Community knowledge wiki, content management system to bring together resources.
… content publishing
… access to
expertise
activities oriented to …
Informally via the list by asking/answering questions.
With only one meeting a year, large size and diversity, KM4Dev focuses on enabling individual participation.
KM4Dev ( is a global network of practitioners interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing in international development. Over 800 members are subscribed to the list which had it’s origins in July It is both a well established but loosely bounded network that interacts primarily online, with once a year meetings that a small subset attend.
Relationships mostly via meetings and core group.
… individual
participation
Strongly external – all resources public/shared.
… relationships
While everyone pays attention to the community, no centralized efforts…
… community
cultivation
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
… context
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6. activities oriented to …
Birdwatchers and KM4Dev-ers
… meetings
… open-ended conversation
… projects
… content publishing
… access to
expertise
activities oriented to …
You can see how different groups have different priorities. It is a bit like a community activity “finger print.” The next step is to think about what tools support the different orientations.
… relationships
… individual
participation
… community
cultivation
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
… context
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7. © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
What can we do with this?
Identify where your community/group/team is now to assess for design, facilitation and technology stewardship.
Refocus activities to increase engagement
Identify tools and processes to support current activities
Identify where your group wants to go as a planning tool.
Look backwards and forwards as a reflection tool.
What was interesting was that these orientations had implications beyond communities. They could be a useful analysis, diagnostic and measurement tool for the application of social media to an organization’s work.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

8. Orientations What tools? How?
Meetings – Web meeting tools for online, shared calendars and wikis for planning, wikis, blogs, images/audio/video to capture and share during and after.
Projects – lists/forums to coordinate, shared calendars, project management trackers, blogs to journal/report.
Access to expertise – Online profiles, social networking sites, “yellow pages,” discussion forums, blogs.
Relationship – Twitter/IM to share small frequent messages, member directories, Skype/VoIp for conversation.
Context – Public, open websites for outward facing. Password protected for inward facing groups.
Community cultivation – Outward facing web sites to attract members, Twitter/IM to feel connected, Skype for voice.
Individual participation – RSS/aggregators, tagging, so people can craft what content they get, customizable settings on web tools, using synch and asynch
Content – content management systems, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, tags, video/audio, images, mindmapping.
Open ended conversation – lists, forums, Twitter, chat.
Here are some examples of social media tools that support the orientations. Keep in mind that while a tool may have been designed for a specific purpose, people regularly and imaginatively use them in different ways.
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

9. Togetherness Separateness
Interacting Publishing
Sliders – as we think about how we pick, design and deploy technology, what sort of intentionality do we want with respect to these tensions? More importantly, how do we use them as ways to track our community’s health, make adjustments in both technology and practice.
Individual Group
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10. participation statistics individual profile page
addressing inherent community tensions
personalization
“new” indicators
Interacting
Individual
telephony/ VoIP
Q&A systems
teleconference
lists
videoconference
UseNet
Group
polling
instant messaging
discussion boards
subscription
networking tools
security
chat
subgroups
asynchronous
synchronous
participation statistics
presence indicator
buddy list
commenting
RSS
application sharing
blog
wiki
RSS aggregator
geomapping
whiteboard
scheduling
shared filtering
site index
tagging
calendar
member directory
newsletter
bookmarking
community public page
podcast
A tech steward may be called upon to make sense of all the offerings of the market, scanning and selecting for her community. They start paying attention to working with the tensions between the individual and the group, synch and asynch group, interacting and publishing.
Image credit: Wenger, White and Smith
document management
interest filter
content rating
scratch pad
content
repository
version control
Publishing
search
individual profile page
2007 Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John Smith
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11. activities oriented to …
Community Name:
… meetings
… open-ended conversation
… projects
Put a mark on the arrow to indicate how important a particular orientation is to your community. The more important the orientation, the further out on the arrow the dot should be placed. Then draw a line between the dots. See the next example.
… content publishing
… access to
expertise
activities oriented to …
What would your Spidergram look like? Think of a specific group or project that you want to explore. What activities do you need to support? Which are more important than others? Put a mark on the arrow to indicate how important a particular orientation is to your community. The more important the orientation, the further out on the arrow the dot should be placed. Then draw a line between the dots.
Clarification: For context, towards the middle means a more inward (private) orientation and towards the outer edge a more public/open orientation.
Discuss the spidergram with your group or community. Do they see it differently? Adjust your image to get the fullest view possible. Then, and only then, start thinking about tools. Always start with WHAT you want to do before the HOW!
… individual
participation
… relationships
… community
cultivation
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
… context
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

12. activities oriented to …
Community Name:
… meetings
… open-ended conversation
… projects
… content publishing
… access to
expertise
activities oriented to …
Here is a blank template for you. You can do it in PowerPoint or print it off, do it by hand then scan or take a digital image to share back online with the rest of the group. Put a mark on the arrow to indicate how important a particular orientation is to your community. The more important the orientation, the further out on the arrow the dot should be placed. Then draw a line between the dots. See the next example.
… individual
participation
… relationships
… community
cultivation
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
… context
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

13. activities oriented to …
Community Name:
… meetings
… open-ended conversation
… projects
… content publishing
… access to
expertise
activities oriented to …
Here is a blank template for you. You can do it in PowerPoint or print it off, do it by hand then scan or take a digital image to share back online with the rest of the group. Put a mark on the arrow to indicate how important a particular orientation is to your community. The more important the orientation, the further out on the arrow the dot should be placed. Then draw a line between the dots. See the next example.
… individual
participation
… relationships
… community
cultivation
Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
… context
For phone access, dial and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

14. More. Nancyw@fullcirc. com http://www. fullcirc. com http://www
Image: cc