Are you a Yes2.0 or a No2.0?

Just as organisations and funders have come around to the idea of online platforms for communities of interest or practice, doubts are setting in among technology stewards and others charged with getting it done. You can build the systems, but getting people to use them is something else. A more organic process is needed. But try explaining that to those commissioning them.
Bev Trayner sums it all up neatly in Are you a Yes2.0 or a No2.0?:

A not uncommon scenario for me is to be asked to roll out the recipe for building an online community of practice. What software/platform should we use? What are the steps? There is usually funding for a platform, and, increasingly, some funding for training and facilitation as an add on to the platform.
Dave Snowden talks of something similar in Natural numbers, networks and communities. "...in the early days" a portal was installed, a taxonomy created and you sat back and wondered how you could get people to codify their knowledge. Another rule was you rolled out the plans, templates and processes to build a community of practice and wondered how to motivate people to engage.
Snowden advises not to spend money on roll out programmes, but to use it on training super-users among the opinion leaders. In my own proposals I have called these people "champions" and budgeted for involving them in the choice of selecting tools and helping them to use them. In other words, look at what is already there and, as Wenger, White and Smith say in the Communities of Practice Tech report (soon to come out) - see how you can support and extend what they are already doing.
The problem with this process is that it can look messy, unstructured and not controlled. And it doesn't forefront a glitzy super site that will impress the funders. On the contrary this approach even suggests that simple tools could do the job.

Bev then refers to the workshops Beth Kanter and I ran yesterday - actually in Birmingham:

Beth Kanter has a great PowerPoint presentation on "Demystifying Web2.0 tools" that she and David Wilcox did in London on Monday. In it she suggests how you can tell if an organisation is ready for Web2.0:

YES 2.0

• you want to express the human voice of your organisation
• you want to enable easy ways for people to share knowledge and information
• open source thinking - willing to share ideas in progress and let others join in and help it
• can deal with the messiness
• you already have the basics covered.

NO 2.0

• you are obsessively controlling
• if your organization is not ready for some changes in how you work
• your audience is not online
• everything must be vetted by central authority
• your copy or campaign messaging is written in stone, not electricity
• you aren't prepared to assist people in learning a new skill and the time to make it an organizational habit.

Bev adds:

I can think of two more things I would add to No2.0: 1) you are expecting to spend most of your budget on tools and technology; 2) you haven't thought of a budget that takes you to events and processes beyond the launch of a platform.

Beth and I ran a social media game yesterday that aimed to get people talking about a range of tools that can be used for online communities and organisations. I think we need to develop it with more emphasis  on outcomes, the messy processes that may be needed to achieve them, and the supreme importance of people in different roles.
In addition: this item on Drupal considered dangerous for startups? with associated comments explores the pros and cons of using a flexible but complex content management system, compared with, say, starting with a simple blog and growing out from there.

Comments

[Stephen Blyth]

I really appreciate you sharing the presentation and thinking on this topic.... I would have liked to attend the conference but it was a bit too far to come by carbon dioxide emission friendly transport from Wellington, NZ.

The city council here have funded web hosting for community and voluntary groups for many years and as part of a cyclical review (3 yearly) they're asking is this all you do? Well, no but even if it was I believe supporting over 600 organisation to have a free website and access to support is brilliant. However, we do need to take some more steps to promoting more powerful use of the Internet. We're doing some blue sky thinking on extensions/innovations on services offered", and I think using social networking tools are the way to go.

We're just beginning this conversation so I'll be watching what's happening in the UK with interest.

Stephen

[Beth]

David,

I'm still in catch up mode -- but this conversation thread is fascinating. I wonder what our colleagues Nick, Miles, Paul, Paul, Steve, Susie, and others think?

[Beth]

Stephen: Do you have a blog? Would love to know more about your project and the issues/challenges/opportunities.

[Nancy White]

I think Bev is on to the issue.

What are the transition points for orgs from their older ways to new ways? What of the old should be preserved and how does it mesh with the new.

Classic change issues! ;-) Technology is changing faster than our orgs can. That's the juggling challenge!