I am working on a project to create a networked information and resource tool for web developers on our campus. This is a real grassroots, distributed effort that aims to create a community owned and operated system. Think self-organizing, organic, leaderless, spontaneous, emergent. There is a general plan, an intended direction and we’re working to develop a shared vision. I’ve made a couple of presentations to various groups, done a couple of small brainstorming sessions, and have a big presentation/workshop planned with the web developers roundtable next Tuesday, who make up our core group. Here is a basic, rough-draft overview:
Who: Initially targeted at the needs campus people interested/involved with web information/application projects that utilize Drupal. Eventual expansion beyond this group is an expectation.
Concept: The Campus Developers Network is a web-based information tool that allows individuals to store and access elements of their own work, find similar examples from other members, and engage in discussion and communication with the member community.
Goals:
- Encourage small, frequent contributions through multiple channels
- Easy to search/find my stuff and other people’s stuff
- Allow individuals to self-organize informal groups/ private conversations, but default behavior is to share community-wide
Through this process I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, research, and looking at other social/professional networks evolving at other campuses. I’ve been looking at these as falling into two basic models — a top-down, help site type model, such as help.yahoo.com and a bottom-up, community type model such as developer.yahoo.com . A more member-focused example in higher-ed can be seen in the faculty/grad student network at commons.gc.cuny.edu/ . At MIT the new Hermes site is a help desk resource, making it feel more top-down, but it also allows end-user contributions which adds a community aspect. Which makes me realize that this simple black-white, top down/bottom up view might be too simple.
A recent post on the PR-squared blog discussed three models — distributed, centralized and coordinated. It is a useful way to think about the issue, but I don’t find it entirely satisfying. The Coordinated still feels a little too centralized to me, but the Distributed is too chaotic. So I propose a fourth model, Structured:
This model strives to harness the spontaneous energy of the distributed model, and provide a level of coordination while still retaining a de-centralized structure. The elements of the model (in case you can’t read it) are de-centralized, connected, organic and emergent. And that is the model we’re using as we move our professional network plans forward.
Social Media in Corporations: Pros & Cons of Organizational Models
Clearly the coordinated model in Jeremiah’s slide is the one to espouse. It’s beauty is that it is simple, reasonable and effective. Guidelines are set (simple). Monitoring and reporting mechanisms are deployed (reasonable). Everyone gets to play, but knows the rules-of-the-road (which will evolve as new lessons are learned), and also knows that there are consequences for derailing the company’s brand online (effective).
InYourClass.com – CUNY student network -
We wanted to do something different, something that isn’t the norm for online communities. Our mission is simple, create social value by simplifying the way information is processed.
Nercomp 2010 – Presentation Focusing on Hermes Knowledge Base (Hermes)
IT support providers and end users both want similar things: fast and easy access to up-to-date IT information and solutions. Why not contribute to and share the same IT knowledge resource? At MIT, we did just that. In 2008 a project was launched to broaden an existing Help Desk internal knowledge base to an Institute-wide IT help system
ADD YOUR COMMENT
Comments are moderated.
Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
New articles are normally posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. Subscribe to the RSS feed or the email update to keep current on the latest posts.
Past listings from 2004 to the present
Need a home (or better home) for your website? I highly recommend HostRocket -- they are the best!
