I was thinking about my own community engagement on #CLMOOC when I annotated this post. I am not picking on Susan and Janis. The questions I ask here are ones I ask of the whole community. I will ask them here and on G+ and Twitter and Facebook. I will continue to ask them as what I perceive is my changing role as facilitator on #CLMOOC. I need to be looking at how we work together there, how we do good and how we do ‘not so good’, and how we can do better for each other and the tribe as we connect and learn.
I am beginning to think of myself as an “Angry Walter lite” looking to protect Donnie from the nihilists in The Big Lebowski only sometimes I am hapless Donnie and sometimes the stupid nihilists and other times Walter asking “Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero!” My goal is to ask some hard questions of myself first and then of us all. If I am not harder on myself than you, then you need to channel the Dude and say, “You’re not wrong, Walter. You’re just an asshole.” And if you aren’t getting all the Lebowski references then that just proves you need to watch The Big Lebowski.
Okay then.
Here is a Hackpad if you prefer to discuss there instead of the comments below (I am beginning to prefer this funky hacked up form of commenting, more flexible and fun and freewheeling–the three F’s of community sharing):
Hi Terry,
I found your post on Facebook, followed it here, and will go and look at the hack pad. I’m not sure if you also posted this on Google plus. You’ve demonstrated a tremendous degree of commitment to the community by mapping this single conversation and tried to inspire others to think about it. Of the 225 members on the FB group, I wonder how many will find the time to read it, make the time to think about what you’re writing, and then take the time to respond, in your blog, on FB, and in the Hackpad.
I suspect it will be very few. I love the way you mapped this conversation. You’ve seen my maps, and how passionate I am about them. Yet, I face the same challenge that too few people are actually taking the time to read them, think about them, and then share them with others.
I spend a lot of time asking “what can I do to change this?” and “Is there any reason to continue to try?” The answer to the first question is to continue to engage. The answer to the second is “If not me, then who?”.
Terry, you know I feel your pain on this one. 🙂
One thing that is interesting is that I am planning to use online community (maybe CLMOOC, maybe one of the others I work in, maybe an abstracted version of all of the above) as my system to deconstruct or whatever this week. Maybe we can play with that together.
I also have a post in draft about the whole “leaderless” thing and will look forward to your thoughts on that too.
I am happy to work with you anytime, Karen. Are you thinking of using an analytic tool of some kind to do the deconstruction. Unpack this for me because it sounds intriguing and I want help if I can.
Honestly I have no idea. My first thought was to map out (paper and pencil sketch) of a community “system” (inputs, outputs, ??). Maybe I’ll try something and then share for your thoughts and iterations.
maybe paper wireframe an ideal open replacement for all this that we are doing on the various platforms, just thinking out loud here. I have an idea that might be junk, but it is funky and I will send something tomorrow morning.