After completing the previous post and taking some time to think a bit more about what “community” is , it occurred to me that there are some additional observations I want to include.
A community that is “online” presumes a certain level of technical sophistication. While some communities may encourage people to have some common knowledge [...]

Continue reading...

“Communities can grow anywhere communication occurs.”[source]. This statement (quoted from an O’Reillynet.com piece struck me as a good place to start when attempting to define “community.” People who wish to communicate with each other and, presumably, have a specific topic (or group of topics) form a “community” by agreeing to focus on the topic(s) at [...]

Continue reading...

After some hours of focused effort I managed to complete the following tasks:

Created a “course expectations” entry on my blog for FOC 08
Established a new blog for FOC08, adjusted it, added links and then decided against using it
Transferred all the new content over to my existing blog after realizing it would be silly to try [...]

Continue reading...

The idea of learning how to effectively contribute and lead online communities is a skill that I believe to be essential for my professional development. I have been involved with online communities as a member and a community manager (in one case). I recognize that I need to develop a better operational understanding of what [...]

Continue reading...