A development worker responsible for building a regional network of people involved in local social, economic and environmental projects (known as regeneration in the UK) got in touch today to explore ideas for using online tools. The network already has a content management system for its website, but needs day-to-day interaction and buzz.
A few years back I would have bubbled with enthusiasm for various possibilities.
Instead I found myself saying "well, there are a lot of things that you can try but you'll probably find they don't work very well..." Fortunately she was fairly well-versed in the field, and had a strong sense that the hype was fading, so it was a useful conversation. Here's some bits of it, and other things I thought of later.
* Email newsletters work well if they are tightly written with good links. Clearly popular since the Nielsen Norman Group can change nearly $300 for its design guidelines. Or just Google and finds lots of free advice.
* You could then just try setting up a mailing list, but as noted earlier they can have their ups and downs.
* Nancy White is generous in the many links and articles that she provides in her online community toolkit, with much on the role of facilitation.
* However, you need to think about a mix of different media - face-to-face, print, phone, as well as online - so you might want to try a network development game designed by Drew Mackie and I.
* You can download my short guide to developing networks
* I offered ten traps facilitators (and network developers) should avoid
* Explore platforms that host other networks. Two of my favourites are Networks Online, for non profits, and ecademy for business.
* If you have the money, a specialist firm like Sift will customise to your needs
* Of course, the latest buzz is around blogs.... so you could try building clusters of bloggers
* Read the Headshift blog, where's there's lots on knowledge being stored in social structures and networks rather than databases, including this reference
Phew... there's a day or two's browsing there already. What's the bottom line about what works, and what doesn't? Where to start?
Looking back through earlier items here about knowledge sharing and networking, a recurrent theme is to start with the people, not the tools. Networks are about relationships born out of similar interests, having conversations, doing things together. So...
* Start with, or mix in, face-to-face meetings
* Think about people's needs for information, communication, collaboration and publications - and the tools that meet these needs. I offered a matrix in this item
* Remember throughout that life is messy - and while you need to plan, it never works out like that.
I learned a lot from the conversation, because I had to assemble ideas from different places, refining them as we went along. Some things you can only do on the phone, or face-to-face. But if I weren't blogging, I wouldn't have written it down to share more widely, hoping for wiser contributions.
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