After Three Weeks of Ning Communities, I'm Learning a Few Things

My latest shiny Web 2.0 toy is Ning. Up until about a month ago, I'd only dabbled in it, mostly visiting and joining other Ning communities, but in the last few weeks since I started Building a Better Blog, I've had Ning on the brain. I've since started Beyond the Glass Ceiling, as well as two other networks for clients I'm working with. So I'm getting a lot of experience with it and thought it was time to jot down a little of what I'm learning. This may turn into something longer/more comprehensive at some point, but I'm following Amy Gahran's advice right now to let my blog be my "back-up brain" So here are some of my preliminary thoughts:

• It's a lot easier to start a community when you have a group that's formed for some other reason. Both Building a Better Blog and Beyond the Glass Ceiling are supporting/extending projects that began in other ways. By that I mean I can't imagine just throwing up a community and hoping that people stop by. I think that there has to be a real sense of common purpose for it to work, and that purpose will probably have to develop elsewhere before moving it to Ning.

• Finding the balance between facilitating conversation and running the show is hard work. Every day I find myself wondering if I'm doing too much or too little to keep conversation flowing. Do I look like a control freak or am I not providing enough support? Sue Waters and I have discussed the issue of needing to seed your community with conversation starters and I think that's really necessary to keep things flowing. At the same time, you have to encourage other people to be taking ownership and starting the conversations, too. I hate it when I see my photo next to too many forum posts.
  

• I think it's important to use the "push" and the "pull." Ning networks are destinations that you have to decide to visit, (the pull). But I've decided that I still need to "push" messages out to the community to remind them to come visit and talk. So at least a few times a week I'm sending out broadcast messages to the groups, letting them know what's going on and giving them reasons to come visit (I hope). I'm not just relying on the "pull' of assuming that they'll come to the site when they need/want to use it.

• Which brings me to another point, which is what attracts people and keeps them engaged? I've realized that an online community like this isn't like a party where you just invite people and they'll start talking. Somebody has to be the conversation starter. But then you also have to come up with conversations and activities that engage the community members. One thing that I think is working well with Building a Better Blog is having the Weekly Challenges. That gives everyone a reason to keep coming back. It's task-oriented, which I think is something people like to have, too. I think that part of what engages people is having things to work on, preferably as a community.

• Last thing I'm thinking about tonight--developing a sense of community, which is huge. How to do this? In Building a Better Blog, in addition to having the Weekly Challenges, we're taking turns leading them, too, which I think is good because in a community, you have responsibilities to other members. I also have tried to personally "greet" every new member as quickly as possible so that they feel welcome. I know that a lot of the other members do this, too.

Another thing I've been gratified to see is how easily people who weren't involved in the original 31 Day Challenge have been absorbed into the community. At this point I'm not sure that you could tell who did the original challenge and who didn't, based on participation, which is excellent. I was a little afraid it would be a problem. I've also been really happy with how supportive everyone is, taking the time to review people's work and comment on it. It's a beautiful little community of practice that's emerging and I want to keep finding the ways to continue building and nurturing that environment.

So that's where I'm at right now. I have to say that I'm finding the process incredibly rewarding and interesting. Another personal learning experiment that I'm glad I started. Although I may collapse soon.

Photo via niallkennedy

Comments

[Sarah Stewart]

Hi Michelle, thanks for the comments which were very useful as I am currently thinking about how I can 'encourage' a learning community as a teacher. cheers Sarah

[Michele Martin]

Hi Sarah--I'm glad this helped. The thoughts are pretty raw. I'd love to hear about your experiences, too.

[Nancy Riffer]

Michele,
I read Amy's post when you referred to it. I like the way you've used your blog as your back up brain. Your ideas are clear and it's fun to know what you are thinking "now". I'm also trying to get more immediate in my posting.

I think you're right about the importance of having a group with prior experience and a common interest.

I check back to the Blog Challenge group periodically but I'm new to ning and this type of social site. I'm still struggling with how to find things. I don't get the overview of how to navigate. (Maybe I've overlooked a resource?) I usually use the most recent comments to check out some of what's going on.

Your photo is a shot of the top portion of a locally (Syracuse) created poster with great ideas about building community. It is from a watercolor by Karen Kearney published by Syracuse Cultural Workers. It's available at:
http://www.syrculturalworkers.com/catalog/catalogIndex/CatBuildingCommunity.html

[Sue Waters]

Ning is definitely my favourite new shiny toy and I can relate to "although I may collapse soon". Agree that having a community that is already working well together makes it considerably easier to set up a community.

The challenge format works really well for the Better Blog community because it is a nice fit. If you look at my community etools and tips for educators it is made of inexperienced people who do not manage their information with feed readers and experienced people who are busy. This will be a tough mix to crack. However it is starting to happen.

I definitely do have some work to do on community aspects but really worn out at the moment so may have to wait.

The other good aspect is that it has inspired others to form Ning communities.

Sue
PS if I made no sense -- sorry am tired.

[Michele Martin]

Thanks, Nancy--You make an excellent point that Sue echoed in her comments--that when people are new to things like Ning, it can make it more confusing and difficult to move around and it's a challenge to community-builders to figure out how to make it easier to navigate.

Sue--It's hard work, isn't it? I think you're right about how it's hard to work with a less web-experienced population in Ning. The Beyond the Glass Ceiling community is much slower to get started in part because I have a lot of technological neophytes there who are reluctant to jump into conversation, etc. I'm still trying to figure out how to draw them in, but like you said, I'm feeling pretty wiped right now. :-)

[michael jones]

I completely agree with you! I just want to say thank you for the help because your article was very important to my reseach about the Blog Communities!

[Michele Martin]

You're welcome, Michael--glad this helped!