Dec 03 2008

Action Notebook

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Download a PDF version our Action Notebook (Chapter 10 from the book) – a practitioner-oriented summary of the book that you can download for free. (See  details on accessing a recently added Google Docs version that could be easier for you to use and be more flexible than the PDF.)  The chapter is couched as an “action notebook” in the sense that it summarizes dozens of practical steps you can take to support your community.  With checklists, tables, and questions, it takes you through the steps of stewarding technology and outlines what to keep in mind at each step.

While a summary, this chapter does not follow the order of the book. In the body of the book chapters are introduced in an order that reflects conceptual prerequisites: which concepts need to be introduced first so that the rest of the text makes sense. Here we revisit what we have said, but it an order that approximates better the way in which these ideas can be put into practice:

  • Preamble: reflection on the role of tech steward
  • Step 1: understanding your community, its characteristics, orientation, and current configuration
  • Step 2: providing technology: choosing a strategy, selecting a solution, and planning the change
  • Step 3: stewarding technology in use, in the life of the community and at its closing

Of course, the actual work of stewarding technology for community is not quite that linear, but it is still useful to think about it in terms of these steps. For each heading, we provide the reference to the chapter(s) where the material is discussed.

9 responses so far

9 Responses to “Action Notebook”

  1. […] Notebook, Digital habitats: stewarding technology for communities by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John D. Smith refines the role of technology steward, an […]

  2. […] their forthcoming book, Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John Smith describe the role of the community technology steward. […]

  3. […] their forthcoming book, Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John Smith describe the role of the community technology steward. […]

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    an action notebook…takes you through the steps of stewarding technology [link to post]

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    an action notebook…takes you through the steps of stewarding technology [link to post] (via @interfaced)

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    detailed considerations for establishing the technology for CoPs – Digital Habitats [link to post]

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  7. […] We imagined that people would copy pages of the book and write their responses on paper.  And we published a PDF version that you could print out and write on as well.  But we’ve found that it’s useful when […]

  8. […] We imagined that people would copy pages of the book and write their responses on paper.  And we published a PDF version that you could print out and write on as well.  But we’ve found that it’s useful when people […]

  9. […] from Digital Habitats (pdf and copy-able- Google Docs with instructions […]

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