More CoP Resources Online

Online Resources

Collaborative learning environments sourcebook:
http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/v.mv?d=1_1


Communities of Practice: Fred Nichols provides a primer in getting communities started.
http://home.att.net/~discon/KM/CoPOverview.pdf

CLII Communities of Practice: Original Educause inititative has morphed into CLII. CLII supports communities of practice to facilitate innovations and enhanced collaborative efforts among educational researchers and practitioners, whether they are a faculty member, education technologist, or learning designer. CLII explores and communicates how shared pathways of collaboration, process and methodologies can help bridge academic technology and learning theory to innovatively design and deliver improved capabilities and services in higher education. http://www.fipp.net/

Community 2.0 Conference: Blog Coverage
http://www.community2-0con.com/?p=238

Kaneva: An Alternative to Second Life
http://www.kaneva.com/

Patty Seybold (Past digitalNow Keynote speaker) blog on John Hagel’s keynote address at Community 2.0
http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/pseybold/2007/03/community_20_co.html

Wales Rules: CEO of Wikia, commenting on the company's mission

"We are a for-profit company, but our investors and employees are equally focused on the social mission," Penchina says. "We hope to prove that you can build a sustainable business without copyrights, to serve our communities, and to enable advocacy on important topics like politics."

The article also has a great sidebar called "The Wales Rules for Web 2.0". There are 5:

1. Be Proactive
"I find the term 'crowdsourcing' incredibly irritating," Wales says. "Any company that thinks it's going to build a site by outsourcing all the work to its users not only disrespects the users but completely misunderstands what it should be doing. Your job is to provide a structure for your users to collaborate, and that takes a lot of work."

2. Be Transparent
"When you build a social network, you're asking people to use your facilities to build a community," Wales says. "If you have a lot of secret mechanisms that regulate your site, people aren't going to feel comfortable. It's about building trust."

3. Be Frugal
"You don't build a community by just pouring money into it. It takes time. You have to grow it in a healthy way," he (Wales) says.

4. Be True to Your Brand
"Really successful businesses and organizations build something so that people immediately know what they're about," Wales says. "You're building a level of trust so that people know what they're getting."

5. Be Trusting
"Some sites have a lot of controls to prevent bad behavior," Wales says. "But they end up preventing spontaneous good behavior."

CommunityNext; Conference on Online Communities and Social Networking. The next generation is about “niches.” http://www.communitynext.com/

Kiva: Online micro-credit capabilities (means “unity” in Swahilli). Lenders visit Kiva’s web site to find entrepreneurs from developing countries looking for a small loan. Kiva posts the funding needs online and anyone who wants to help can. To date over 40,000 people have used Kiva to lend money to over 5,000 borrowers in transactions totaling over $3M.
http://www.kiva.org/

Second Life (abbreviated to SL) is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.[4][5] Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

http://secondlife.com/

Whyville: Whyville is an educational internet site geared towards preteens and teenagers. Its goal is to teach students about science and business through games and roleplay. It is, similar in part to the popular site Neopets in that you control a character and live in a virtual community, where you can interact with other players.
http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice

~DigitalNow 2007: April 11- 14 at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts~

SOLD OUT! DigitalNow- the proven leadership conference for associations - has officially sold out - again! Conference materials, workshop notes, survey result information, and up-to-the-minute on-site news will continue to be available before, during, and after the conference. Visit the conference web site at http://www.fusionproductions.com/digitalnow