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 http://www.technologyforcommunities.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/viamoi/3221971368/ For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities, © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

activities oriented to … Community Name: KM4Dev global knowledge sharing network Once a year and only about 10% do/can participate. … meetings Email 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 email list by asking/answering questions. With only one meeting a year, large size and diversity, KM4Dev focuses on enabling individual participation. KM4Dev (http://www.km4dev.org) is a global network of practitioners interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing in international development. Over 800 members are subscribed to the email list which had it’s origins in July 2000. 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 For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

© 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 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 – Email 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 – email 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 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

participation statistics individual profile page addressing inherent community tensions personalization “new” indicators Interacting Individual telephony/ VoIP Q&A systems e-mail teleconference e-mail 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 For phone access, dial 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

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 1-866-915-8780 and click on phone icon below to get your unique PIN

More. Nancyw@fullcirc. com http://www. fullcirc. com http://www Image: cc http://www.flickr.com/photos/viamoi/3221971368/