Technology: the homemade podcast

For people who'd like to record and upload an audio file to their blog: here's how I did the podcast, only using free tools! It took me an incredible amount of time though, about 3 hours (4 if you'd include the interview), so I prefer recording and posting videos. On the other hand, next time it may be much faster. It will definitely be much faster if you don't do any editing and post the entire interview, as reducing the interview from 33 to 9 minutes took a lot of time.

1. For the interview we used skype to communicate and audacity for recording the call. We did a short test (both recording the call) and found out that you hear your own voice clear enough, but you don't hear the other party's voice clearly. Instead of figuring out how to solve this, I decided to use Bill's recording instead (thought I don't need my own voice). I had sent my 4 questions beforehand by email, but Bill had not seen them yet. The whole interview was 33 minutes. In audacity you have the option to export it as an mp3 file to reduce the size.

2. As the file was too large to send by mail, Bill used you send it to give me access to the mp3 file.

3. For editing the interview I used wavepad. I decided to listen and and mark each episode with beginning and end time, before deciding which parts to keep and which parts to delete. I ended up just deleting the parts I did not want to include, and did not reverse any order. I did not bother too much on nice transitions, that would make it really time consuming.

4. For uploading the interview to the internet, and making it accessible from my blog, I used gcast. I had not figured this out beforehand, and tried googling on 'posting audiofiles on your blog' etc but couldn't figure it out. But! Fortunately I had my delicious tag on podcasting and hence found Brit Bravo's post on how to make a podcast. She explained that she chose gcast because you can easily embed your podcast in your blog or website. (thanks Brit and long live blogging and delicious!). This was really easy and straightforward to do.

Practical examples: Interview with Bill Williams on ILO/CIARIS experiences in lusophone Africa

I did an interview with Bill Williams (ESTBarreiro, Setubal Polytechnic, Portugal) who talked about linking participants from courses run by ILO/CIARIS for Portugese speaking practioners in Africa working on combating social exclusion in a guest blogpost. I was interested to know more (and to my surprise I found out Bill is not a Portugese national as I assumed, but originally from Ireland). In a separate blogpost I will explain the technicalities of producing this podcast. It took more time than I thought, so I see the advantage of doing a text Instant Message interview as I had originally in mind!

The interview can be found both here, as well as on the right-hand side of this blog in the sidebar where it's called joitske's podcasts, under my profile. It can be listened to by clicking on the triangle. It takes a little while before the interview starts. The whole podcast is less than 9 minutes. A summary of the main content:

1. The point of creating a community of practice from a course situation is to achieve a situation where the learning is going on and there are people who have a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge, which can be useful to people working on similar problems in similar languages.

2. The two principal issues to address while trying to create ongoing links between course participants are (1) to establish the medium, platform or instrument for maintaining contact and (2) to create a sense of community of practice and habit of exchange, which depends a lot on motivation.

3. What is needed to create a successful community of practice is an ongoing structure, somebody to nurture the CoP (with the necessary time and support), a mailing list, a concrete task and the right incentives.

Technology: motivation to try something new

I finally started using flickr. I never saw the advantage of uploading my pictures, till I saw the captioner used by Beth. This was more than a month ago, but I kept it in mind, and I kept it in my delicious account tagged by cartoon. This will be my new favorite tool!

Communities of practice: Sil on knowledge sharing

One of my big questions at the moment is how to distinguish between different types and levels of knowledge in a useful manner. 'Knowledge sharing' is such a container word. The distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge is already useful, as I find the distinction between single/double loop learning introduced by Chris Argyris, but I still think we need more subtleties.

One day in the taxi, my daughter was talking about her new class in school, but I did not understand what she meant, so I asked her to explain again. Then she got annoyed and replied: 'Mom, you don't understand, so I don't want to explain to you'. I think this is an example pointing to a fundamental interpersonal process which determines the depth of knowledge sharing between two people: it is only when you feel that people understand you, that you are invited to share more. I believe it is not a matter of trusting or not trusting, but a matter of having the feeling that someone understand the issues you are grappling with.

Hence, communities of practice with more homogenous groups of practitioners may find it easier to connect, albeit the danger of not stimulating enough innovation. And it stresses the importance to create space for people to connect on a one-to-one basis as well.

Culture: unexpected reactions

During my holidays I didn't miss blogging, but now some of the things that happened or conversations I had run through my mind, shaping themselves into blogposts and offering an excuse to upload more of my pictures ...

One story someone told me was very interesting with regard to adapting to different cultural habits. A Dutch person lived in France for 15 years and came to a Dutch party after all this time. A person asked her to dance, and she was surprised to find that he was dancing 1 meter away from her! Though she could remember that 'dancing together' means for most Dutch people dancing separately, she had completely forgotten it. So it gave her an unexpected surprise.

I had similar experiences after I had lived for 10 years in Kenya, Mali, Ethiopia and Ghana and came back to the Netherlands. You remain Dutch ofcourse, but I had troubles trusting appointments and felt an enormous urge to reconfirm an appointment one day ahead of time (which I surpressed, because I knew rationally appointments just work in the Netherlands, but emotionally I didn't trust this as I grew used to reconfirmed all meetings and appointments.

On a similar note, I used to feel a small shock in conversations when people would go immediately into the topic/business at hand, after maybe one line of introduction. My natural feeling for the length of time of introduction and relationship building by exploring side topics had changed. To get used to this habit of diving straight into the topic, took me almost one year I guess.

I think it shows that living in different cultural environments changes you, at least if you really engage with the environment and don't remain in a subgroup of your own culture. And even if rationally you understand reactions of other people, you may have an emotional reaction, in the form of surprise or feeling uncomfortable.

Technology: RSS beats censorship

Back to blogging! I say an enormous thank you to John and Bill for blogging here during my holidays. It was really great to read their ideas on my blog; it makes me realize how much a one person blog is written from one -your own- perspective. It stimulates me to ask more guest bloggers and do more interviews, as my topic is communities of practice for development and I have blind spots (like we all do).

In China, I tried to access my blog from 3 different cybercafes, a hotel and a home connection, but I couldn't access it. It makes me think it may be censored (like the BBC :)). Though it would be nice to think that the chinese are scared of the immense influence of my blog, it may rather be the use of the words Tibet and China in this blogpost, as my friend had accessed my blog earlier on from China.

But good news (or bad news for censors): I was able to read all my RSS feeds (even the BBC) and I could even add my blog to bloglines. But ofcourse I couldn't comment. So spread RSS in China! (otherwise I miss out 1.3 billion readers...)

NB picture is me and my children climbing the wall. Unfortunately we have seen Beijing only in a dense fog, which only became denser by the day, so I wonder if it will not disappear completely from the world in one big mist.

Toolkits: good, bad, ugly

Why do I have such a visceral reaction to certain toolkits? It's certainly a laudable thing to collect knowledge and information about how to do things -- especially subtle things like cultivating a community of practice or gathering tools for communities or reflecting on the experience of developing communities...

Here are some very different resources along these lines:

• Very positive: http://www.humanrightstools.org/index.htm (Seems practical, open-ended, and useful to all kinds of different communities.)
• Medium: http://pioneersofchange.net/services/CoP%20Handbook2.pdf (Has inspiring drawings, but most of the ideas are based on reading, not experience)
• Medium: http://www.odi.org.uk/Rapid/Publications/Tools_KM.html (Broad coverage, so gives a lot of context.)
  
• I've seen some terrible toolkits -- not just because they are toolkits, but because they collect words, not experience, and put them together in a way that claims expertise where there is none.
  

Blogs, forums and their metaphors

John, your comments and suggestions relating to my previous entry have made me think a bit about the nature of a blog itself and it's metaphor: I see your feedback, and likewise my response to you, located off in a space apart from the original entry whereas to me this theme merits an ongoing conversation between 2 or 3 or more people and blogs aren't really set up for that, are they?

The metaphor underlying blog architecture is like that of an journalist article with some space for brief comments by the reader whereas a topic like this could usefully lead to an ongoing conversation which I suppose is better supported by something like a forum or community software designed more around a conversational metaphor.
Not that you can't go on and have a conversation down through a chain of comments, of course, but its not ideal, is it?

Training courses, linking people and community

I have been involved in country-based online training courses run by CIARIS/ILO in the area of Social Inclusion in Lusophone African countries over the last year or so. The issue of creating links between practitioners in different countries and also maintaining links between course participants after the course finishes (normally after 6 – 10 weeks) is one that has had me scratching my head more than once, I will confess. I would like to relate what we have attempted so far and invite comments or suggestions.

1) On the basis that initial contacts are more likely to be made when there is a specific motive for one or both parties to cooperate, we included a contacting task in the final part of a course for practitioners and university students in Mozambique. So, groups of participants had to collaborate in preparing a brief questionnaire on experience of Organizational Partnership which they were to send by email to organizations in their particular field (HIV/AIDS, Rural Poverty or Social Exclusion) and post the results online in the course space. We provided the lists of organisation and respective contact people from organisations who had collaborated with us in the past or from participants on previous courses.
The response rate was somewhat disappointing: of 10 emails with accompanying questionnaire sent out to organisations in Cape Verde, S Tomé and Guinea Bissau , only two received replies giving detailed information (both from previous course participants), one generated a brief social reply and one a promise of detailed response which did not materialise. This was after we had previously contacted these organizations requesting their cooperation.

The biggest problem, though, is that I don’t see these even these initial contacts generating much in the way of ongoing knowledge exchange and, at the same time, knowing the people involved on both sides and the quality of the work they are doing, I can see tremendous potential for collaboration.

2) We arranged for people on our present online facilitator training course in Mozambique to be enrolled in the e/merge 2006 international online conference currently being run by the University of Capetown right now. Our participants encounter 2 difficulties in this type of online situation:
language of communication (English)
Net access – sporadic and slow even for people based in the capital, Maputo.

Even so, they are resourceful individuals who have adapted rapidly to collaborating online during the course, so I am curious to see how this conference participation works out for them.

3) On a course in Cape Verde we had planned for alumni from a previous online course in Guinea Bissau to enter as invited visitors and comment on coursework etc but in practice logistical problems arising from very limited Net access of the Guinea people and the time constraints of coursework, led to us having to abandon this strategy on this particular course. However these courses have been running for a short time and with time we are building up a list of interested and Net-savvy people in the African Lusophone countries.

I know that the kind of steps described here are not in themselves going to build a knowledge sharing community or CoP but they could serve as pointers perhaps.

In general I believe that two key issues revolve around the Whys and Hows:
Why?
People need motives and incentive to maintain online contacts when they have to overcome logistical problems of slow and difficult Net access and also the low priority given to this type of online community building in organisations in Southern countries.

How?
Which tools are most appropriate for people in this situation: e-mail (usually Hotmail or Yahoo), d-group, Google-group, LMS (Moodle), Portal, Blog, Wiki .


I realise that this entry has run on a bit so I think I’d better stop here but, as I said above, all observations and suggestions will be gratefully received.

Bill

Dynamic communities supported by hobbled donors?

Etienne Wenger has commented that it was a bit of a surprise that businesses became interested in the idea of cultivating communities of practice more quickly than schools. I think that creative destruction has something to do with it. Businesses have had to accept the idea that they need to make an effort to accelerate individual and collective learning -- and a community of practice approach is both natural and actionable.

While the idea of creative destruction describes dynamic change at an economic level, we've probably all experienced how smaller-scale change is going on in the communities in which we participate. Topics change, new people join, leaders come and go, etc. But communities are very much affected by the change (e.g., creative destruction) or resistance to change that exists in their surrounding environment.

What does this have to do with development? I was at a lunch meeting today sponsored by the Northwest Education Cluster, a community of people and businesses in the Portland area that are involved in education. A young woman sitting next to me described the project she was working on; she said it was a difficult project because it involved bringing foundations together to talk about how they could work together on a set of knotty issues. I asked her why she thought that was so difficult. She suggested that many foundations are restricted in specific ways by their articles of incorporation, and that goes beyond the normal tendency of every organization to become set in its ways. That got me to thinking about how foundations, like governments and other non-profits, can be hobbled by explicitly stated goals that might seem to be too narrow or limited for a business. On some level businesses have to be committed first and foremost to survival in an environment of creative destruction, and that may require them to change their goals, composition, structure, or methods of working.

And that got me to thinking about foundations that support communities of practice. Their donations may come with strings attached that could be problematic for communities. Governments (local or national) and other non-profits may need to impose requirements at the same time that they offer to provide some (much needed) support for a community of practice. From another point of view, once a community is established, it may be a good idea to look at the characteristics of a donor and ask:

• Does the donor have to impose restrictions that will limit a community's growth in terms of membership, topic focus, or style
• Can those restrictions be renegotiated? Are they unconscious, perhaps?
  
• Is the community more exposed to more environmental change than the donor? (That is, creative destruction affects community member's practice in ways that the donor might find problematic?)
  
• And perhaps most importantly, is the donor's support going to be withdrawn suddently or at a planned point in time?
  

Each one of those questions could be a starting point for conversations within the community (or within the community's leadership group) that could lead in many different directions:

• The relationship with the donor might be perfect. Carry on!
  
• The relationship might be problematic, and needs to be renegotiated.
  
• The community needs to figure out how to function with no external support.
  
• The community needs to find additional or replacement support that will meet its needs in the future.
  

Creative Destruction and CoPs

I've been thinking about creative destruction recently because of a speaker I was recruiting reminded me of the term. It's both the subtext of a series I'm organizing for my local Organization Development Network community and, by encouraging the use of a wiki for community note-taking, I think I'm engaging in it a bit. "Creative destruction" is not exactly a term that most organization development practitioners embrace with enthusiasm, however, especially when it brings up images of downsizing, mergers and acquisition or red in tooth and claw capitalism.

I think that all of us have a bit of an aversion to change, and the term creative destruction brings it right out. Despite the negative images, creative destruction is about the degree of change and people's reaction to it. Joseph Schumpeter, who proposed the term, argued that you couldn't stop it, it is a natural consequence of economic activity, and that it is beneficial in the end. Kind of like how our kids grow up: they leave behind childish ways, whether we like it or not and we can't really speed it up or slow it down too much.

Communities of practice have a developmental aspect that could be described as "creative destruction." Once they are actually working, they seem to grow in unpredictable ways -- but you can't really stop or reverse the clock. Several elements that move this process forward are:

• New members -- as new people join a community, asking new questions, questioning old assumptions, holding different values, the membership changes but so does the collective thinking. And old members leave or die.

• New tools -- new technologies can change the funamentals of how a community does its business, making old ways of meeting or of solving problems seem antiquated or wasteful. Old techniques or technologies are abandoned and forgotten.

• New ideas and new problems -- as problems are solved, ideas become obsolete or outmoded and the very substance of a community's knowledge changes over time.

I think that the way Joitske has invited us in as guest bloggers is feeding creative destruction in a way -- it could push the discussion forward in certain ways and maybe even close off certain topics as a result. Creative destruction might be too grandiose a term, but I think that inviting guests into your community is a small-scale action that in the end can have large-scale consequences.

I've got some observations I'll share about how creative destruction might play out in communities of practice for development.

Technology: holiday guest bloggership (blog worse than dog?)

I was so happy that we don't have a dog (even our 'walking branches' = 'wandelende takken' died), and now I suddenly have a blog to look after during my holidays .....

If you are going on holidays and have a blog, there are seven things you can do. And I decided to test the guest bloggership. So good luck, Bill and John! (uhm, not allowed to gossip).

I thought I'd introduce the guestbloggership, otherwise you might wonder why starting tomorrow there are suddenly blogposts in my blog without the usual spelling mistakes or with unexpected brilliant analytic thoughts and ideas :)

Practical example: Experiences with communities of practice in India

SCD and Intercooperation have commissioned a study called
Experiences with communities of practice in India, an important resource published in december 2005. It is a good study looking at exisiting CoPs in the development sector in India.

A wide variety of groups and networks were studied, like a farmers group producing a journal, an exchange programme, a listserv and email discussion group, and information sharing group on livelihoods and gender equity and a group championing women's rights.

The important features of the groups has been the leadership provided by a few individuals or organisations with the energy and time to contribute, not only with regard to initiation, but also for continuation. This feature was more important than financial arrangements. Most groups did not cite the need for financial resources as the major concern, most concerns were centred on roles played by the core group and alternatives to share the burden or succession arrangements (very recognisable from my experiences in Africa as well).

The study first looks at CoPs in the Indian private sector, before moving onto the development sector. The example which struck me was the example of the MBTI synergy group:

The MBTI Synergy Group was a spontaneous creation of all the people
who attended the MBTI accreditation course in April, 2004. (MBTI is a
personality or psychological type inventory developed by two
psychologists). It was built up as an e-group, participants being from 10
different Indian cities. The goal was to keep in touch with developments
and experiences of members as they continued their practice of MBTI.
The group started with around 30 members – of which most were active
through the first 6–8 months. There was no structure, as such – just
people who were excited about learning and practising MBTI and wanting
to keep in touch with each other. One of the more experienced persons
in the group took on the mantle of guiding the group including moderating
the exchanges, and another member volunteered to set up and manage
the e-group.
This community worked entirely through the electronic media. The
moderator suggested once or twice that people in the same city meet
up, but timing was an issue and this did not happen. Most were happy
posting their queries in the initial weeks. Since the moderator had more
hands-on experience than others, a lot of the questions were aimed at
getting his advice for specific issues. At times, the moderator took the
initiative of posting some tips that he thought people would find useful
– and always got a rich response in terms of others joining for a
‘conversation’ over a period of 10–15 days each time. The frequency was
almost daily in the initial weeks; from the third month onwards, it declined
to once a week or so. By the end of about 8 months, it became infrequent.
There was a visible shift from ‘practice’-oriented dialogue to more of
‘conceptual’ dialogue over a period of time, finally leading to dormancy.
The ‘group’ still exists (August 2005) but now has perhaps only one
exchange in several weeks.

Source: Bharat Krishnan, Note for CoP Study, Aug 2005

The interesting conclusion is that this group was not sustained beyond a certain point because the members could not practice what they were discussing. The 'tool' might also have been too specialised a subject for this group to make it a community of practice, or else the domain could have been defined much wider.

The paper ends with some lessons learned, comparing CoPs to 'Learning alliances' where a CoP would regroup peers and a learning alliances a wider diversity of people. I think this is semantics, and you'd have to find the right balance in drawing in a sufficiently wide diversity of people also within a CoP, so that you have sufficient innovation going on.

In the conclusions there is a useful distinction between the different types of knowledge that we are talking about; encoded, embedded, encultured and embrained knowledge. (cited from Blackler, 1995) Understanding the predominant type of knowledge will help to determine approaches and techniques for knowledge gathering and sharing with a CoP.

Technology: web2.0 writeshop

Just wanted to ask my colleague for some photos of the web2.0 writeshop, when I saw it on my RSS feed from the npk4dev tag!

IICD and Euforic organised a writeshop this wednesday and thursday to develop web2.0 training modules which will be shortly available on itrainonline. Since it was my last day in the office before the holidays, I didn't have time to participate (had to do all kind of boring reports and emails :(, . When I saw them working, I really regretted it. I think it was a very productive and creative process!

Advising communities of practice: using stories and metaphors

There is a lot of talk about story-telling in knowledge management circles "Pretty much everyone interested in knowledge management knows that storytelling can be an effective knowledge-sharing technique, largely because it conveys context, causal relationships, and emotional content more effectively than most other modes of communication."

In the plane I managed to read a whole book (and on top of that I learned that Scottish people take their quilts even while travelling to Ghana :)). Long live travelling by plane! The book is called: op verhaal komen by Wibe Veenbaas and I received the book during a two-days course I took last year on storytelling and the use of metaphors.

His take on the usefulness of stories is slightly different from the ordinary focus on letting people tell stories instead of only linear presentations: he stresses the use of stories and metaphors by trainers/advisors. He indicates that a metaphor works at various levels which circumvents the 'blocking' mindsets or frames a person or a group of persons may have in reaction to direct advice. Hence, its power to create room to find new solutions.

What made an impression on me during the training was his huge belief in everyone's capacity to tell, but also create new stories (so not only telling what you experienced, but creating new stories) and the fact that he could easily detect certain underlying patterns in stories- in that sense he was a real expert. Somewhere during the training he said it doesn't matter which story you tell, because in the end everyone tells roughly the same story again and again; his or her personal story (in different forms).

Technology: Pathuis cartoon

A cartoon from intermediair by Pathuis: "I used to ask my wife in the evening what she thought about my fusion plans, but now I have videoconferencing: Trudy do you hear me?"

Communities of practice: expertise in CoPs

While reading my bloglines back in the Netherlands, I came across this post by Anecdote. It was so relevant to me that I decided to crosspost it on my own blog. In Ghana I had the impression my 3 years of work experience in Takoradi, Ghana, is still helping me in my work in Ghana, even though my current work is with different partners and in a completely different field (ICT4D). But I would have a hard time if I'd had to pinpoint to where it changes my practices/interventions. (beyond the occasional encounters during which I drop the fact that I lived in Takoradi, and it immediately creates a enthusiasm- 'oh, so you are a Ghanaian!').

I also had a car conversation during my stay in Ghana about professors and how you recognise a good one. People were impressed with a certain professor in Ghana because he could give clear examples and he could explain things in an easy way, which makes complex things easy to understand.

Here it the anecdote excerpt:
Expertise is more than simply possessing a skill. Summarized from Klein:

1. 
   Patterns: with experience experts can discern patterns that are invisible to novices. They have a good sense of what’s typical and can therefore detect the extraordinary.
2. 
   Anomalies: experts are surprised when a key event is absent while novices don’t know what is supposed to happen and therefore don’t pick up on the anomaly.
3. 
   The way things work: experts have mental models of how things work—how teams are supposed to work, equipment is supposed to function, power and politics is normally wielded.
4. 
   Opportunities and improvisations: Experts can imagine possibilities that contradict the prevailing viewpoint and data. They can also apply patterns from one context to a new situation creating new approaches and techniques.
5. 
   Past and future: experts can predict what might happen in the future. Just ask a grade 5 teacher about what the kids will be like at the beginning and the end of the year.
6. 
   Fine discriminations: experts can see differences which remain invisible to novices. Just think of expert wine tasters.
7. 
   Self aware: experts are aware of their own thought processes.
8. 
   Decision makers: experts can make decisions under time pressure.

I wonder if being able to distinguish between the larger picture, what's important and details shouldn't be part of expertise as well? (would that be number 6?)

And also being able to act by intuition without having to think first (and then being able to reason later why it was a good/bad move)?

Culture: the functioning of networks in Ghana

As I said in an earlier blogpost, Mr. Boateng who is a board member of GAPVOD, the NGO umbrella organisation of Ghana, gave an excellent and inspiring talk about networks in Ghana. Though not all networks in Ghana have learning at their core, as communities of practice have, I think it is interesting to explore where these dynamics stimulate or inhibit communities of practice within networks. Hence a summary of what he discussed (any reformulations may be mine):

o There are ad hoc and institutionalised networks, the latter help members to do their work in a more competent way. Ad hoc networks come together and dissolve after the work is done.

o In Ghana lots of networks compete with their members for project implementation as they start to do projects, rather than helping member to do their work eg. GINKS should not educate people on ICT4D, but rather help members to do so.

o Networks are expected to engage in advocacy to remove bottlenecks impeding member’s activities, create a conducive environment. Members need capacity to advocate. A network is credible in its advocacy attempt when it not only shows what’s going wrong, but also ways of moving forward. If a network criticises too much, it get a troublesome name and will be seen as ‘opposition’ hence closing the ears of people who should listen.

o For funding you can also look into the network. Members can put something on the table as well. Combine strengths to provide the necessary materials for the work.

o It is important to have strong people to be part of your network. The strength of a network is in its members. Executives don’t have to be everywhere, an executive doesn’t have to move to Tamale to do a project, while a member is there.

o Commitment and dues: if executives have to use their own money to travel it is demotivating, while there are members who can work. Dues are very important to sustain the work, either annual or monthly dues. Donors come to support what you are already doing, but most networks are donor-driven. “No representation without taxation, no taxation without representation”, dues also create commitment.

o Leadership, leaders who become employees of the network is a threat to the network. While choosing leaders, it is important to check the background of these leaders and monitor. Audit reports should be presented to the general assembly meeting.

o Local networks must appreciate that they are local and base decisions on its functioning on that. For instance, while choosing an office, how do you sustain the office rent? Development partners will not always help us.

o Information should flow, not only between the coordinator and the secretary. An audit report should be presented to all, so that people know about it.

o Look at your allies and supporters. Eg. the village chief. The chief has to give his support to get to work in the communities, this is something you have to respect.

o Network challenges are funding and fundraising, proposal writing, and making use of local assets. Everybody has limited resources, so be the link with others in the community. You need strong people to take the network off.

o Institutional structure. Talked about members and blocking information for the members, so that people are voted back in office. The constitution should not be manipulated. If people don’t understand things, you have to repackage it so that they can understand.

o It is important for network to identify the strength of its members. Eg. can use SMS to get quick feedback on issues. Have the right people managing the right positions, and partner with the media as important allies. Try to weave your way into the political leadership. ‘Who can I use? Where is he going to church?’ And tell them about alternatives. When presenting something, think about ‘what’s in it for me’ while packaging your advocacy message.

Culture: different meanings attached to the same word

Yesterday I experienced a nice example of different meaning attached to words. Ibrahim asked me, when we were going to have breakfast in Bolgatanga: "which tea do you want.?" "Uhm with milk?" I said, unsure of what he was looking for. I wanted to know whether you want lipton (=tea) or milo (=chocolate) or nescafe (=coffee) was the response. So for Ibrahim "tea" means either coffee, tea or chocolate, whereas for me tea = tea. (and yes, if it would be your first trip to Ghana, you might not know that milo is chocolate and lipton is tea either..)

By the way, this is a great way of using SMS: for typing the idea quickly, and cleaning up the blogpost and adding any pictures and links later!

SMS To Email

this is a Blogpost by mobile phone ..feels weird not to be able to see the result . Dorine asked whether this will make any sense but i guess this is part of experimenting .an important habit to stimulate innovation. As you see this post is already longer than my last as i am now more Confident that it works....

Culture: A presentation in Ghana

I will add a picture later! Yesterday we had a meeting with GINKS members interested in discussing network membership and sustainability issues. We invited Mr. Boateng, board member from GAPVOD, a Ghanaian umbrella organisation for NGOs to talk about his experiences with networks in Ghana, so that GINKS can benefit from these lessons.

When he came in (in a hurry) without any support materials, saying he doesn't need a beamer or flipchart, I was a little worried. But when he started talking- he talked for 45 minutes with any break, in a loud voice- he had a his audience glued to his lips. His stories were so to the point, recognisable and honest that it got everyone attracted. (I made notes, so can share some of his points later). What's making me think all the time, is how he violates all the 'presentation rules' (at least the ones on visual aids) and still has a great presentation. I think some of the ingredients that contributed to the effect of the presentation were: the fact that he knows his topics by heart from many practical personal experiences with networks and network management, his passion for the topic and the fact that all present had a huge interest in network membership issues (if not, they would not sacrifice their saturday to it) and the use of very practical, recognisable examples.

It has happened to me before in Ghana, that various speakers had nice powerpoints, but the best presentation was by the person who excused himself that he had not had time to prepare a powerpoint, and he scribbled his ideas on the overhead sheet while talking.

Practical example: Ghana 22nd of June 16:15

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Communities of practice: we leren allang alleen niet bewust

(cartoon by Mark de Koning- who was the cartoonist present during the workshop on organisational learning and made cartoons based upon what he overheard!)

This is our week of fame as I figured in the article we leren allang alleen niet bewust by Vice Versa, the volkskrantbanen and my daughter was interviewed for stadsblad about her views on the playground. (the last is not available online). The article talks about organisational learning for development organisation- is it a hype or not. Unfortunately, no mention of the role of communities of practice. But probably I should have brought that up as functional CoPs can play an important role in fostering learning processes and innovation within organisations.

Quite some media experience suddenly, and I think the volkskrant experience worked best (a face-to-face interview- represented by a column in the article). For Vice Versa, I was interviewed for almost an hour by phone (in the train, but that was my own fault) and only three quotes are taken from the interview for the article, which quotes various others (now can't believe why I actually said those silly things, but I remember I did, so that's also my own fault). I felt very dependent on the journalist's mercy and very powerless even though I got to see the text before it was published. She decided not to link to my blog for instance, even though I suggested this. But it makes me even more aware of the power of blogging (web2.0 thinking) versus old media (web1.0 thinking). Why didn't they tape the whole interview and make that available online? Why not provide as many links as people may find interesting?

By the way in the same Vice Versa there is another article which sounds interesting: cultuur en ontwikkeling een missie in het eigene? Another thing I don't understand about Vice Versa is why they publish in Dutch while talking about development cooperation. Several of my own colleagues will not be able to read it.

Technology: supporting decision-making

Many articles (like this one by Wenger have written about the waves in knowledge management, the first focussing on technology, the second on people, the third on strategic capabilities). Nancy Dixon in Does your organisation have an asking problem? also talks about the challenges of software-based knowledge systems, and how to combine it with access to tacit knowledge in the heads of colleagues.

While planning our holiday in China (with a friend who lives in Beijing) I experienced a nice example of how technology (information from the internet) and people (talking to friends) interact for decision-making. Though we originally planned to visit Tibet from Liyang in southern China, a friend (met by coincidence in the train) alerted me to altitude sickness. I then started discussing it with my friend in Beijing and starting reading lots of things on the internet about altitude sickness (facts, like the name of a medicine, etc and personal accounts). Still it was hard to make a decision because the information is hard to evaluate and translate into a good decision (and information is sometimes contradictory). Till we talked to friends who have lived in Nepal. They have never been to Tibet, but were able to tell many stories about altitude sickness, what matters (for instance sleeping at the same altitude is very different from when you go up and sleep at a lower altitude). Knowing the friends, their experiences, their seriousness, etc. made it much easier to make a decision. So we are not going to Tibet and I'm very happy with our (well thought-through) decision!

Technology: more media and interaction

I was interviewed by Volkskrant banen as 'spouse' of someone who has worked abroad. (now my husband has spent more time as spouse than I have, but OK, let's face it, I'm the woman :)).

I thought it would just be an article in the paper, and it is, but it also available on the web. There you can click through the separate parts of the interview, like my interview you can react to the full article (title: 'Nice, work abroad, but what to do with your partner') and there is an animation which is funny. The animation highlights that people (read men) used to take the wives abroad, and the wives would decide to have the children there (see picture), whereas nowadays women want their own careers (and I did 15 years ago).

Now that I touched on gender roles; this morning we discovered that we have an overkill of women in our tagging experiment- and noticed that though men dominate in technical ICT things, women seem more predominant in web2.0?? (nothing scientific, could be a coincidence). So if you are male, interesting in tagging knowledge management for development sources, you can apply for participation...

Communities of practice: Naava's example of the role of a facilitator

Naava Frank posted a comment on lurkers and I asked her if I could repost it. (thanks!). I liked the story as it demonstrates the role of a CoP facilitator (or weaver as she call it) in connecting people and stimulating private exchanges within the CoP, not only public- for all- meetings or discussions.

Below is a story from my work about a lurker who becomes a former lurker. The lesson I take from this is: Systematically reaching out to peripheral members of a community may have unexpected positive outcomes.

The Lurker
I was seated at a national conference session eight months after the HoS (Heads of School)community had formed, and a man came in and sat down in the seat next to me. When I looked at his name tag, I noted that he belonged to the one school in the area that had not participated in the HoS community to date. I had recently reached out to that school by making a call to a staff person who was not listed as the primary contact for the school but who had been identified by a friend as a promising audience. I introduced myself to the man at the session and asked him if he was familiar with our work, to which he responded:“I am a lurker. It looks like things are really moving along nicely.”He explained to me that he did not want to take the formal position of the primary contact, the Head of School, because someone else was currently holding that position. I mentioned that there were members of the HoS community who held other titles at their schools. He mentioned that he had talked to a friend about the CoP and about his hesitation to attend because of the potential issues of competition between his school and others, and that his friend had encouraged him to try it out. It was quite evident in our conversation that he had been reading the materials I was sending to him over the course of the HoS community’s development. This man was quite engaged with the community, though he had not to date attended any group events.

I saw the Lurker at another session at that same conference and introduced him to my co-weaver, and we all agreed to have lunch together. Over soup and salad, he filled us in on what was going on with his school. He told us about its special and unusual warmth and that he was working on how to grow and professionalize the school without losing that warmth. I asked what would be helpful to him in doing that and he said he would like to speak with “someone who has done it - or an expert.”I was impressed by his decisiveness and sophistication. As I sipped on my soup, I noticed at the table ahead of me another head from Boston, D, a very thoughtful and articulate man who had been through a similar process and who is very generative. After lunch, I introduced them and they exchanged contact information. A point of interest about this pair, and about the relationships that are often developed through Communities of Practice, is that the two men have very different backgrounds, coming from different religious streams.

Less than two weeks later I received the following email from the “former” Lurker: I met last night with B and had a nice chat over dinner. Thanks for the connection.

Technology: the tagovates

Picture by Beth Kanter using a picture by Ed. I may start using flickr. So far I tried to avoid signing up everywhere... Though I did sign up for the famous Tagovates

I found this via the references on my sitemeter- the best feature on my blog to know why I'm blogging! (apart from comments). The references indicate how people have found out about your blog, and it is a way to see where your blog or a blogpost got mentioned (blogger blogs don't have the trackback function, but this is good enough).

Communities of practice: legitimate peripheral participation and lurking

56 (!) messages ago I asked a question in com-prac, refering to a paper by Miguel Cornejo 'Revisiting Communities of Practice' who observed that "a person can participate in a peripheral way in a community without it implying a lack of qualification: the person can be engaged as a core member in other communities." I asked how people see lurking (the picture is a lurker :) ) versus legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) and how we can ensure the adequate participation of 'experts' in online communities?

I want to use my blog to capture what I gathered from the whole discussion. Legitimate peripheral participation is an analytical perspective (LPP) that has to do with opening the practice to someone who is not a core member and who has something if not a lot to learn about the practice. So can lurking on a discussion list be said to be a way of opening up the practice of a community of practice to new entrants? David Gibbons proposed to call lurking "legitimate peripheral non-participation", as it is not about participating in the practice, but rather reading in on discussions about the practice, which sparked a whole thread about the role of lurkers in online discussion forums. Lurkers participate by reading posts. This may be a form of LPP, but different from the real participation in the practice (like fishing, advising or training).

John Smith pointed out the 'Net extends the periphery and makes it larger, but it also creates more tenouous forms of participation. It's up to community leaders and facilitators to be looking for correspondence between the talk and the walk (or the fly casting or the teaching or the policing or whatever the practice)'. Madalena Pino Santos added to this by saying that the ideas that are discussed in an online forum like com-prac are also discussed in our minds, with our closer peers, so there are activities going on, even if not always visible in digital form and in a local space (this one). A side conversation on the blog of Nancy White brought in the criteria of changing practice: "The conclusion I am drawing is that these labels are only useful in context if we want them to define a boundary. In theory, they are handles with which we can talk about participation. If I learn from reading and it changes my practice, that counts as participation in a community of practice for me." Whereas Beverly Trayner brought in the aspect of identity and accountability; if people identify with the community of practice behind a discussion list and have the aspiration to learn and grow, lurking may be a way of LPP. (but hence not in all cases, a lurker is brought into the practice of a community of practice).

The discussion then shifted somewhat to how to draw in lurkers into the conversation of the community of practice (and a discussion of whether com-prac is a cop or not plus a question whether the institutionalised term lurker should not be replaced with a more positive term).
Pierre Gagnier then brought the ideas of potentiality and actuality to bear. Lurkers may feel some deligitimizing pressures (often self-generated) about their contributions, as when for example they are faced with the challenge of inserting themselves into an established space with established experts. So how open is the community of practice to new contributions and how are new or different perspectives welcomed? Followed by some very useful posting on why people may/may not move from lurker to poster. (check it out, or maybe I should summarize that in a separate blogpost).

Concluding, I think that communities of practice may use a variety of means to communicate, work and learn together. A discussion list may be one of the more public means of that community and may provide a low-threshold space for people to get interested in the community of practice. (a form of LPP?). If they identify with the community of practice, they may move on to other forms of communication/participation. So not all lurkers may actually aspire to become really part of the community of practice, you may use it just to fish for links (like I do with some discussion groups). But for a community of practice it is unlikely that the discussion group is the sole means of interaction (though it may be the most visible part for outsiders).

Technology: RSS, tagging and back to work!

Beth Kanter calls for nonprofit tagvocates (she writes tagovates, but yeah, I think I can read her mind), to use tagging for social change, not just for personal information management. The netsquared conference had interesting sessions, I still want to check it out more through their podcasts (just don't know when!).

I've used my delicious account for a couple of months now for my personal information management (just like an archive) and it's proven very handy. To use it for team, organisations, or across organisations (in communities of practice) is new to me, and I'm involved in two experiments (one is the km4dev list on the right); one across organisations, another in my own organisation. What's very clear is that it's really hard to explain/imagine/dream up for people who have not experienced social bookmarking and/or RSS at work. As it was hard for me to imagine when I first heard about tagging.

In terms of information management for professionals: I believe RSS alone has the huge potential to bring some space back into the worklives of professionals sweating to work away their email inboxes. I have transfered three email based discussion lists into my RSS reader and that gives so much more fun and energy back to read the lists when you feel like doing so!

What happened (and I think this happens to lots of people) was that I subscribed to a discussion list in a crazy mood or because it is recommended by a colleague and ended up going through all these mails in your inbox as a 'to do list', which kills my interest, fun and creativity. I have the impression lots of professionals are now struggling to keep up with their inboxes and this duty because heavier and heavier.

Transferring more to RSS feeds (and this can be topical feeds from joint unique delicious tags tagged by colleagues too) will shift the feeling of having to read to reading when you are ready, interested and available. Much more interest driven, user-centric. Leaving professionals to do their work and not mix it with potentially distracting mails. This is a huge shift RSS/tagging can bring into the workspace.

Going back to tagging for social change: that's a whole different topic: I haven't seen how tagging could really work for social change other than bringing the right information together in faster ways? The other observation I can make so far on our tag experiments is that it doesn't foster any exchange/conversation, unless you combine it with reading your co-tagger blogs...

Technology: blogging popular amongst arab women

(Photo: Wereldomroep) Oneworld had an article (in Dutch): webloggen populair onder Arabische vrouwen. Women in the Maghreb and the Middle East, especially young women, are starting en masse to blog. For the women they are a chance to express themselves publicly, and for the public it's a chance to know what arab women are thinking and experiencing.

It gives the example of an Iraqi women blogger, blogging under the name Riverbend who used to work as a programmer, but had to quit her job because of the war. "Three years and the security situation has gone from bad to worse. The country feels like it's on the brink of chaos once more- but a pre-planned, pre-fabricated chaos being led by religious militias and zealots."

When women started blogging in Iran, some spoke of a social revolution, but now enthusiasm has waned as not much seems to have changed for women (said the press release- I wonder, I'm sure it will have brought about lots of changes in terms of connecting women with like-minded ideas).

Technology: David Maister on blogging

From Maaike Smit I got this interview on blogging with David Maister on Management site (normally in Dutch, but this time in English). He took on blogging and says:

At first, the thought of putting something relatively new or fresh down many times a week was scary, but now, three months later, I find it
exhilarating. It’s a perfect place to share “smaller” thoughts that do not yet deserve an article, and quite frequently, you get really helpful and stimulating reactions from people around the world. I am learning a lot.

There’s an old writer’s joke that says “You don’t know what you know until you write it down.” I am finding that to be true. The mere act of committing to writing on a regular basis is forcing me to think more clearly, and also more deeply about my work experiences. I am now writing at least once a month, and posting a blogpost four or five times a week. Readers can subscribe to these at no cost by registering on my website.

I definitely share his experience of learning/organising your thoughts by writing them down. Especially writing down what was capturing in an article is very useful. But probably that depends a lot on your style of learning.

Technology: Netsquared conference

Britt Bravo asked me to post this on my blog about the Netsquared face-to-face conference, but you can also participate remotely:

On May 30-31st in San Jose, CA the NetSquared Conference will convene early adopters, technologists, corporations, philanthropists, and nonprofit and non-governmental leaders to discuss and take concrete steps towards using social web tools like blogging, vlogging, tagging and podcasting for social change.

You can participate in the conference remotely in 3 ways:

1. Participate in the NetSquared chatroom where speakers like Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons, Scott Heiferman of Meetup.com and Robyn Deupree of Bloglines will be sharing info. and answering questions.http://www.netsquared.org/remote#chat

2. Chat it up in the Conference Hallway chat room. We're using Gabbly.com for both chats which is super easy and user-friendly.http://www.netsquared.org/hallway

3. Post a question to be asked at a conference session, or write a blog post to start the conversation online. Just peruse the conference sessions (link below) and click on a theme and session topic that interests you. At the bottom of the session description you can add your question or blog post.http://www.netsquared.org/conference/conference-sessions

Also, we will have folks recording the conference for you on our blog: http://www.netsquared.org/blog podcast: http://www.odeo.com/channel/41065/view and vlog: http://www.netsquared.org/tags/vlog/so you don't have to miss a moment!

For more information contact net2@techsoup.org

So I'll definitely try to get involved somehow if I find some time, if only view the podcasts

Communities of practice: from fishermen guilds to the global village

Miguel Cornejo Castro has written an article called Revisiting Communities of practice, from fishermen guilds to the global village. He attempts to revisit the basic concepts of communities of practice with the goal of updating it, to ease the fitting in of contemporary communities (specifically refering to online communities of practice).

Going online changes the breed of communities by virtue of the following changes:
- Shrinking cost of communication
- Rise of information longevity
- Universal access
- Differentiation and competition in the global village

He describes various changes which are characteristic for (large) online communities of people who find each other via the internet.

I agree with the described changes, on the other hand, I don't think it is either/or. I think he describes a particular kind of community, which works for people who are fast working online and know what they are looking for (and probably works best for explicit knowledge). I think there will still also be other types of CoPs (smaller, localised, closed). So I'd disagree with tagging one type of CoP as 'traditional' and the other as 'modern'. And of course there will be a hybrid model, of communities of practice using both face-to-face and online media (open or closed will make for a large difference). What will be the difference in influencing the practices of a community of practice?

It's a good question whether the basic theory of socially-constructed learning is useful for the changes brought about by the internet and web2.0 'thinking', which comes with imported trust, more openess and faster exchange and networking. Is it still useful to talk about CoPs or are the dynamics so different that the theory looses its explanatory and predictory value?

Communities on flickr: the finished mural

On the sidebar of my blog I have the photos labelled with community (see on the right side). I often click on interesting pictures, and many times it was related to a mural. It is now finished. I don't have a clue about the mural, but it's become a beautiful piece of work!

Culture: stereotypes

From Dorine Ruter I got these stereotypes in my delicious inbox! I just stumbled across my own inbox because Jack Vinson had a game whereby you have to post an interesting resource in his inbox (which I did of course, mention game and off I go..).

There are no stereotypes about the Netherlands in the map. Probably because it is so special, you can hardly stereotype it. That americans dislike walking is new to me. The german punctuality is a stereotype the germans in Berlin really confirmed when most of their answers included 'punktlich' (which seemed to be there first criteria for measuring something good). So a stereotype map is useful while travelling!!

Communities of practice: online workshop in Dutch

I'm working with Maarten de Laat and Marc Coenders to prepare a Dutch online workshop about online communities of practice in September. We meet every month face-to-face to talk through the design, which is slowly cristallyzing. We involve two mentors and former participants in the design phase. In between, we use the online workshop space and skype sessions to discuss. Marc and Maarten have already facilitated an online workshop together, but I haven't, so we really need this time to get used to each other and become a team. What helps, though, is our common base in CPsquare as our own community of practice which seems to represent a sort of being at ease with chaotic, creative processes; apart from a shared base in theory of course.

Even though I get worried at times whether we are suffiently on the same line of thinking I do think we are a strong team in terms of complementary and overlapping knowledge areas. This is something I start to recognise in good teams: people not only complement eachother, but there should be a right balance in shared knowledge and complementary knowledge. Through CPsquare we can tap into the experiences of other online workshops as well.

Interestingly, the reaction to the price (1250 euros for 7 weeks) are very mixed. Some people think it's cheap, others think this is amazingly expensive. It probably depends what you compare it with. If you compare it with the experience of a face-to-face workshop (which I do) it is reasonable. If you compare it with online course, which are self tutoring and where you download standard materials, it may sound expensive. This workshop is a completely different overwhelming, highly interactive experience, which demands intense facilitation.

Culture: Hirsi Ali/Magan

There has been a lot of commotion in the Netherlands around Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I don't want to describe all the ins- and outs of the case, but I do like to point out to an intercultural aspect of the whole affair. For the Dutch people, it was a shocking detail to see that she had changed her name (from Hirsi Magan to Hirsi Ali). In Somalia, there is no such thing as a family name, but there is a long line of names going back to your descendency. As she explained in a press conference "I am Ayaan, the daughter of Hirsi, who is the son of Magan, son of Isse, son of Guleid, etc." So there the use of names is much more fluid; and using a different name may feel less of a 'crime'. (I actually think the timing of the news and her general position played a much bigger role than this -minor- intercultural element).

Naming conventions differ alot. This weekend my friend could not check in because they had booked her on her first name (booking done in China) rather than her second name. I had many problems in Ethiopia where they could not understand that my passport has two Christian names (Gerberig Johanna) rather than my 'roepnaam' Joitske. So I became very careful in using my Christian names in all official communications.

Technology: Electronic conferencing and gender

There are gender differences in the use of internet. The potential and use of electronic conferencing: a study of women's involvement in a global context looks at steps that can be taken by e-conference organizers to promote greater participation by women in the south. The article starts from the premises that there is a link between information and empowerment, and women should not miss out on the benefits offered by the information revolution. The internet is seen as a male tool with opportunities for women to adapt it for their own uses and benefits. In one case girls involvement in classroom discussions was enhanced by using electronic media, as there was time for reflection and they could determine the pace of the discussion in spite of their more dominant and outspoken classmates.

The study looks at e-conferences in the field of water supply and sanitation in Kenya, Columbia, Russia, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, India and Ghana. 41% of women had subscribed to e-conferences but never sent messages, as compared to only 17% of men. On a positive note though, 3 women from South Africa felt that they enjoyed a greater degree of confidence online as compared to a physical forum. The hurddles were that women would be the last to be given access to the internet (physical access), women's percepton was that e-conferences were male dominated domains, and lack of confidence as e-conferences were seen as a large public arena. Technophobia was perceived more as a problem for women than for men.

So there is a potential strength in the medium of e-conferences to draw in women, but it needs careful attention, starting from the promotion stages. Female chairpersons and moderators may be of help as well as skillful facilitation by prompting women. I can also think of using smaller groups in which women may feel safer.

Communities of practice: creativity and innovation

My uncle-in-law (or how do you call the uncle of your husband?) is a piano player in the Dutch Swing College Band. The fact that we have never gone to hear them play will show how much we care about jazz music... (he is the fourth from the left side). If you want to listen to their music there's a webcast from their appearance on Barend en van Dorp. The person who forced us listen to jazz was Nii Ofuso in Takoradi, who was our Fanti teacher and had an hour jazz on the radio on Monday evenings. He would often tell us to listen because he would send us greetings on the radio.

But that's a long introduction to a really great article on Creativity and improvisation in jazz and organisations (I forgot where it was posted; I printed it and took it later from the pile of papers). I'm intrigued by the power of CoPs to stimulate innovation and creativity (it may even be the only reason why I'm so attracted to CoPs). And Frank Barrett neatly unpeels some of the dimensions of creativity in jazz and translates that into very solid recommendations for organisations. His parallels are really good.

He looks at
- provocative competence
- embracing errors
- shared orientation towards minimal structures that allow maximum flexibility
- distributed task
- reliance on retrospective sense-making
- hanging out in a community of practice
- taking turns soloing and supporting
(but these terms will not tell you much unless you read the paper).

For instance, the deliberate attempt by jazz musicians to guard against reliance on habits and patterns that worked in the past is his inspiration to point at the compentency trap: the tendency to become competent as an organization and to loose the edge of experimentation. Breaking routines (and that's what some technologies can do as well!). Organisations should encourage small disruptions and incremental re-orientations to sharpen perceptions and activate thought processes.

He also notes that most studies of organizational behaviour have a rational-cognitive orientation. The experience of synergy etc. would warrant further study, for instance the role of supportive relationships in drawing out one another's latent capacities.
" To foster learning, organisations must see beyond conventional, anonical job descriptions and recognise the rich practices themselves." I thinkthis is true for so many professions today, where managers are not sufficiently in touch with the practices or fail to see them.

He provides all kind of advices for organisations like "organisations must go beyond merely inviting new voices, but must also create processes that suspend the tendency to criticize, judge, express disbelief that might kill a nascent idea"

I will definitely add this one to my favorite articles. In a meeting somebody suggested a delicious tag called top10; I could start using that to be able to trace your favourites easily over time.

Technology: automasites

Via the bytes for all yahoo group I found
Automasites

"It seems to be a very useful tool for civil society groups. They allow to created one's own
website by filling a simple online form. The form will automatically send an e-mail to one's email address, containing all the information
necessary to proceed. The application is based on the free and open source software (FOSS) publication system Spip."

I really feel like trying it out, but then suddenly I would have a website...? And would need to update it? Anybody interested to have a new website?

Culture: organisational learning masterclass with Nancy Dixon

Sarah Cummings blogged about the masterclass with Nancy Dixon we both attended. This photo is from the vodcast I did with her afterwards. Reading Sarah's ideas, I thought it would be nice to blog my own. First of all it is so different to attend a master class as compared to reading one of her books called common knowledge. Even though I could relate very well to the book, the 'live' stories made me see different things, as I started comparing them to the way we often work.

The underlying principles of her organisational learning work are:
* Problem-based- working from a specific issue or problem (not learning for the sake of learning)
* Peer to peer - most learning takes place between peers
* Conversation-based rather than written (same reason as above, most learning takes place through conversations)
* Learning before, during and after- an event of sequence of events
* Working with small groups- for effective learning
* Using life connectors - necessary to connect and link people, rather than using databases
* Have a sufficient understanding of the industry- in other to be able to understand the ways they work

I was particularly struck by the different of working from problems- onwards to learn as compared to the regular organisation of workshops and trainings around themes, as is customary in development work. Working from actual situations, learning is so much more situated in practice automatically.

Then I was triggered by the remark she made not to link learning processes to monitoring and evaluation processes meant to account to stakeholders. In development, a lot of effort goes into thinking how to combine the two- with the obvious inherent dilemma that evaluation processes for accountability purposes undermine trust and focus on what doesn't work. So I found it refreshing to hear a completely different opinion.

Finally, at the end of the Master Class everyone was asked to present one thing they learned during the session back to the group. The answers were so wide apart... So you learn (and take out) in connection to your own learning questions. Since this group of people hardly knew each other (uhm.. apart from some people- was nice to meet some of the ecollaboration people!), the answers will logically be wide apart. In the case of a session with a mature CoP- the answers would likely be closer.

Practical examples: birthday cakes

Actually I just want to show off the birthday cake I made for my daughter's seventh birthday (it's an awful lot of work for 5 minutes before it's eaten), but since I have such a serious title for my blog I'll make a story out of it..
The cake is a nice example of how practices spread- when we came back in the Netherlands, we were at a friend's children's party with a home-made coloured 'moon' cake. So we borrowed the cake books and the coloring stuff for our daughters' birthdays. They choose their own cakes (now it was not a moon or football, but barbie etc.). Since then it has become a tradition (including the borrowing of books and coloring stuff); long before their birthdays they start asking each other which cake they will choose from the book and my sister-in-law has purchased the same books to be able to do the same.

Similarly, at a cousin's party, the girls played a game to determine turns in present giving. The visitors all had their names on a paper inside a balloon. The host then let one balloon burst to see whose turn it was to hand over the present. Since this was such fun, we now do it as well, and it got copied again by several friends at their parties. Let's see if we can spread this across the ocean to Beth's kids.

Advising communities of practice: Process consultation revisited

I reread Process consultation revisited by Edgar H. Schein. When I first read it some 5 years ago, it was one of these books that seemed to describe what you are doing (or rather trying to do ...) but would never have been able of describing it this way. I just reread it. I actually never thought of linking it to communities of practice, but I starting realizing that advising communities of practice deserves its own stream in my blog. The reason is that I'm exploring what it takes to advise a community of practice in such a way that it will grow to be more effective in fostering learning and innovation. Knowing the theory is one, but advising CoPs/CoP leader is another.

There is often confusion on what a process consultant does, and Schein explains that very clearly by contrasting it with the expertise consultancy. Process consultation is the creation of a relationship with the client that permits the client to perceive, understand and act on the process events that occur in the client's internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client. The principles he outlines for a process consultant are:

1. Always try to be helpful
2. Always stay in touch with the current reality
3. Access your ignorance
4. Everything you do is an intervention
5. It is the client who owns the problem and the solution
6. Go with the flow

Particularly number 2 is important for capacity building in development; lots of workshop allow people to reflect and talk outside their organisations about their organisation, but Schein argues that a consultant cannot be helpful for a client system if there is no diagnostic information to the client and consultant about the here-and-now. The here-and-now means talking about actual situations and giving feedback, which translates in actually sitting in and observing eg. meetings in an organisation (in contract to just talking about meetings).

He moves on to explain that in human communications we have a strong, learned sense of what is an appropriate and fair exchange ('learned rules' for communication). Face work is what both parties engage in if the relationship should be sustained in spite of an disappointing interaction (eg. laughing when someone makes a joke). The reason for face work is to reassure one another that we are acceptable; without face work, the world would become too unpredictable and dangerous for people. It is important for a consultant to be aware of his/her own filters/biases - in order to be able to build a trustworthy, constructive helping relation where the client can discover their real problems. Often this problem is unfolding itself only after a longer relationship. If the consultant is not aware of his/her filters, there is a risk to misinterpret the situation. (I actually think doing a lot of work across cultures helps to sharpen this awareness of your own filters- you become more flexible in postponing judgements in a situation).

Schein labels some major groups of interventions in the service of learning: deliberate feedback and process interventions covering task processes and interpersonal processes. Schein argues that there is the most potential for help in the processes (task, decision-making, boundary, interpersonal), as this is where most organisations derail as process effects on the quality of content discussions are underestimated. This is where I think the whole set of interventions (and considerations of where to start) would apply for advising communities of practice and you could probably 'translate' them towards that specific situation. I think an external advisor can help a community of practice on a process level, rather than on the content level. Often, a process consultant will start from the task process (reason for being called in) but intervening at the other levels when there is clear evidence that they are harming the group's effectiveness.

It might be a nice (but thorny) exercise to make an inventory of consultant interventions with communities of practice. I get the impression there are more books and articles analyzing and describing the beast (CoP) rather than critical interventions to make them work better (which is what I find myself struggling with now).

Last but not least the book is full of great examples, which are both recognisable and make the theory very practical.

Practical examples: CoPs in Ghana

In the vodcast with Nancy Dixon, she said that the theory of communities of practice derived from various anthropological studies and hence is not a Western concept. Afterwards we discussed whether the concept may have touched upon some universal principles of learning, which might also explain why it has become such a popular concept. John Smith commented: Doesn't it take a really deep understanding of the concept to transfer the external trappings of a community, though? The way we organize and support a community in different settings varies a lot! I agree there and think you should not only understand the concept but also the ways of working and learning of the professionals you work with. Sometimes I have the impression the ways of working and learning of professionals varies almost more between professional groups and sectors than between countries.

When I work in Ghana I am conscious of the fact that I don't know the context as a Ghanaian would and try to give different options when I propose something and ask for ideas and feedback. During the tech forum in Ghana I did a presentation on communities of practice and
we asked for questions and examples of CoPs in Ghana.

The participants could easily identify with the idea of social learning and mentioned various examples of CoPs in Ghana:
* Accra Linux User Group- people with an interest in the same thing come together voluntarily
* Informal women’s groups – shea butter, micro-credit (informal networks, meet to discuss issues)
* Ghana Agric Information network System (GAINS)- researchers sharing information on agriculture, open membership, voluntary, not just libraries

We also asked them what makes CoPs in Ghana work successfully and got the following ideas:
* Common goal exists
* Driven by a common interest
* Varied levels of experience at member’s disposal
* Willingness to share and learn – go out of your way to share
* Belief in what you are doing- I tried this and it worked, so why don’t you try?
* Linking to others that what you know can help
* Learning from masters of work- others can solve the same problem in a few minutes
* Ability to derive social or economic benefit from participation: social- identification/association with the group; economic: learning new skills enhance your economic outlook
* Identification of an issue that people have been struggling with- advocacy and campaigning together eg. linux as alternative to Microsoft
* Clear need to find innovative solutions to solve common pain

Questions we discussed were:
- What is the difference between CoPs and Dgroups?
- Looking at power relations with regard to being a custodian of information, how do communities of practice relate to this part of the world? – ICTs for democratizing information
- Open versus closed membership structures
- Can associations such as GNAFF be considered as a community of practice – an organisation with formal structures versus an informal organisation with learning objectives
- Guilds impose standards versus CoPs defining own standards based on shared practice, expertise/experience

Technology: offline tools

Now that I have a broadband connection, I almost forget how I used the web in Takoradi (with an unreliable dial-up connection). Basically doing as much as possible offline and hoping you'd not have large attachments (or when there were large attachments, hoping the connection would not be broken).

Via Kwami Ahiabenu I this information about a tool which enables you to search the net while being offline. It sounds very appropriate for unreliable internet access situation, and is called Webaroo. Kwami said: "You need to download packs of data into your library. I downloaded the "world news" pack (about 64MB), then disconnected my machine from the network and did a few quick searches. Firstly, most of the news was sourced from the US or UK, with most major news outlets were present in the search results. Secondly, what was quite handy is that Webaroo keeps a cache of the full-story pages so you can see them as they appeared on the site they come from. You can set your account preferences to update automatically when your computer is online, so that takes a lot of the hassle out of the update process. Webaroo also supports mobile devices. As a frequent traveler to places with little or no connectivity, this is a great tool and I see myself using it a lot. "

Nynke Kruiderink shared another tool which allows you to search the web by email: web2mail
"Web2Mail Lite even enables you to search the web by email. For example, to search for "peanuts" send an email to www@web2mail.com with the subject "search peanuts" in your email message. We will use a popular search engine to perform your search then reply to you with your search results, usually within 5 minutes. "

Communities of practice: IMARK course building electronic communities and networks

From Nathaniel Heller I got the link to the new Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) which has a new module on building electronic communities and networks developed by CTA, APC and FAO. You can register and do the module for free at your own pace (total is 26 hours).

It looks very practical. I registered and did one question: Trupti needs help getting information and staying informed about a wide variety of issues related to her work in women's economic empowerment and bamboo. Which of the following things would be useful for her? (to be very honest I got very annoyed when I had the answer wrong for about 4 times.)

I actually think the self-tutorial mode of teaching goes against the principles of learning in a community of practice by, and I don't think it would work for me personally, I think it might work for other people. It's good that it's available online and you can also request a free CD-rom with the same tutorial.

Culture: Nancy Dixon on the transferability of the concept of communities of practice

Thanks to Dorine (encouraging me) and John (helping formulate my question) I had the guts to ask Nancy Dixon the following question: "What are your ideas about the transferability of a Western concept like communities of practice to other cultural settings and situations?"

This time I'm not going to summarize what she said because I think you have to listen to it yourself- it's great and really helps me in my thinking. I will just make you curious by revealing she uses an culturally appropriate example :). So a million thanks to Nancy Dixon for being willing to respond to such a question without any preparation during a hectic week in the Netherlands.


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