Dec 11 2010
Long Live the Evolution!
Technology for Communities Before and After the Current Big Thing
The three of us are doing a presentation about Digital Habitats at The eLearning Guild on December 21, 2010 (10:30AM to 11:30AM Pacific Time) as part of their thought leader webinar series. Here’s what we said we’d talk about:
Technology stewards, who attend to the technologies that support distributed communities, can’t just jump on new technology bandwagons without paying attention to their community’s history, composition, orientation, needs, and tolerance for change. In fact, it’s helpful when technology stewards step back from the moment to consider how our sense of being together is changing and what we need to do to influence technology adoption in our communities as well as what new technologies offer. Hear how a new interweaving of social learning and technology implies a new literacy as well as a new future.
Please join us!
8 responses so far
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After reading “Digital Habitats” and dog-earring many pages, I am deeply convinced that the technologists need to work closely with individuals and groups who are creating communities but who are not necessarily concerned about any specific technology. True, the stewards are needed just like I need a plumber when I have a sink problem or a mechanic to check my car for brake problems.
However, the members of any community or digital habitat should be taking the lead, not the stewards, for the success, stability, and sustainability of the habitat. I am currently conducting a pilot for a membership association whose members are all CEOs of emerging companies. Designing the human infrastructure is equally as challenging as designing the technical infrastructure.
I love my technologists because they can define minefields for me to avoid. The special people know they are one group of my partners but not the only group in a much larger collaboration of expertise.
That’s fascinating, Virginia. Is there a tech steward role for day-to-day life of the group? In other words, will the technology be “fixed” or unchanging over time? I’m finding that putting on events involves many decisions and that each even turns out to have some wrinkles that need some careful thinking that mixes up facilitation, learning, technology, access, budget, and other surprising issues.
Will the event at the E-learning Guild be delivered virtually?
Yes, and that reminds me. There were some really interesting issues that we bumped up against when we first encountered the technology that the e-Learning Guild uses for its webinars.
Hello John,
How did your presentation go, is there any follow-up, what did you learn from the experience?
Cheers,
David
PS. I bought Digital Habitats and I am enjoying diving in. Thank you for this helpful guide!
Thanks, David. It seemed to go pretty well: I had some challenges connecting to the Internet from Bogota that morning. And we were using a platform that kept us pretty distant from the “audience” — not exactly our style. I grabbed some screen prints and was thinking I’d post a reflection about the experience (now that you’re reminding me of it). Cheers!