I came back from the workshop for Knowledge Board SIG leaders (I'm a member of Quaerere interface team). This was good learning and networking event.

Somehow I realised only now that I'm in "community leader" role, which feels quite strange. I wouldn't say that I've learnt many new things about supporting a community, but face-to-face discussions definitely have raised the level of my motivation. I hope this will help me to overcome lack of time problem :) I believe in learning that comes out of actions, so this is a great opportunity for learning-by-doing about communities of practice.

Seb Fiedler mentiones the importance of face to face interaction in a very recent post. This is a challenge for educators be they separated by oceans or highways, is to find time primarily and funds. The real point is that face to face meetings over a life of a project (s) is important even though we are pushing for the development of virtual communities and more digital collaboration.

One of the most interesting for me things was a discussion about public vs. private discussions in communities. Richard McDermott (he was facilitating the workshop) gave a number that 70% of CoP communication happens in a private space (e.g. e-mail, phone, face-to-face) and then suggested that outcomes of those private discussions can be posted back to a community. 

But my mind is triggered by another question: Why this private space is needed? In the Quaerere group we use several ways to communicate: SIG area at KnowledgeBoard, boogie web-site, closed QuickSpace site, e-mail, phone, face-to-face... I believe that most of our discussions outside of KB SIG area could be interesting for a wider audience, so I thought of several reasons to stay "private":

• trust and safety - even if you talk about "open for everyone" things, it's much easier to talk to the audience you know.
• speed and easy-to-do - we all busy and we jump into using tools that save us time without even thinking that it could be more beneficial to have public discussion.
• ownership - like with blogging, we want to be sure that nobody can take it from us.

The funny thing is that Angela is talking about something similar suggesting a combination of formal and informal KnowledgeBoard.

I would love to see some studies on this...

Just as there are public and private places... George Siemens reflects on best uses of blog and wiki spaces to support online communities. Here the question revolves around moving back and forth from from establishing a personal identity on a personal blog.. and moving to a multi-author space where a shared identity around a theme or mission is established.. this is truly the commons. http://www.bayareawritingproject.org/eBn/discuss/msgReader$14#23 

10:42:24 AM