Blogging from the Backroom event, CILIP event

Tomorrow I'm speaking at an event run by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Blogging from the Backroom. I'll be talking about my experiences with the Project Managers Knowledge Cooperative shared blog. Also on the programme are Drugscope, St. George’s Medical School, University of London, Home Office and the National Library for Health (NHS). You can see the full programme here.

I'm looking forward to being able to enthuse about the power of blogging, after all, I think blogs are the notebooks of the 21st century, a fantastically flexible tool, but I'm also keen to point out the problems of using blogs for knowledge sharing and learning.

My key points are that

• Knowledge alone is nothing, it's how it's applied that matters, so a blog is merely an enabler for improved practice
• A blog can aid reflective practice as by the very act of writing about experiences, people create a concrete example onto which to hang theory
• Collaboration is key in a group blog - if only one person posts, and few people comment, the value of the group element of the blog is lost and it becomes a different animal
• Trust and confidence are vital for participation, if this is lacking, and a culture change is required, it will be an uphill struggle to gain benefit from a shared blog

I'm sure it will be an interesting and thought provoking event and despite a few nerves (I've not presented on this area before, as my research isn't complete) I'm looking forward to it.

Trust and Participation - and there's more

Another model, developing the theme of trust and it's impact on participation (see my post on Time, Trust and Participation for 3 level model of trust), this time from Terry Nolan in his paper Individual trust and development of online business communities. (again, can't find a free link...)

It aligns with the economic based, information/knowledge based, identification based levels of trust, but looks at it from the standpoint of the component parts of trust, rather than the types of trust behaviour which align with participation.

Nolan identifies what sees as the component parts of trust. In his words:

• Risk - associated with providing information to unknown participants and acting upon information received from them



• Benefit - an overall perception that involvment will provide individual gain



• Utility value - measured by high information quality such that it can be absorbed into immediate practice



• Interest - indicating an inherent interest in the system and the information available



• Effort - the effort exerted to acquire information



• Power - an individual's ability to influence others
  

He believes that participation is dependant on the combinations of variables, ie

Interest vs Utility value
If interest exceeds utility value, then you have a Community of Interest, rather than a Community of Practice

Risk vs Utility
If the risk of participating outweighs the usefulness of the information, the likelihood of participation is lessened

Benefit vs Effort
If benefit outweighs effort, the individual is more likely to participate

Power vs Interest
Power gained through the possession of expertise that influences the practice of others. To participate fully, an indivual must have more than a mere interest in the topic


So the following diagram, reproduced from fig 7 in Nolan's paper, shows that the interaction between the above variables will determine how much an individual participates.




Assessing individual perception of the component elements of trust in relation to an online community appears to be a great way to identify barriers to sharing, but I'm still no further on with a strategy for facilitating the change of an individuals position from one of non or part participation to one of full participation and membership of an effective community of practice.

Time, Trust and Participation

If someone came up to you in the street, and you had a packet of crisps in your hand, would you let them have one?

If you wouldn’t share your crisps, why not?

Maybe because we generally don’t share things with people until we know them (or we’re just plain greedy/hungry).

Maybe because we don’t generally share things with people we don’t trust – you don’t tell someone a secret unless you know you can trust that person not to then tell your secret to everyone they’ve ever met...

In this very simple scenario, the two dimensions that clearly affect sharing are knowing someone and/or trusting them. The fact that degree of trust in information, individuals and technology and length of time people have known one another can affect knowledge sharing shouldn’t be that much of a surprise.

If we are to engender trust and encourage participation in online communities, then:

• On the time side – we need to develop relationships, sustain them, and not assume that people who don’t know each other will share.

• On the trust side – we need to be honest and transparent in our dealings with people, trust is a delicate thing – who is going to trust someone who keeps things back? Who is going to trust a system that isn’t secure. Who is going to believe information when the last thing they read was untrue or inaccurate?

• On the relationship side – trust is developed between people, organisations can only leverage relationships that are trusting.

As Kevin Dwyer from Build Your Own Business notes

Trust is personal. It is between two people. When organisations “trust” each other it is a result of trust between individuals in the organisation.

An interesting article from WeMedia says

From the consumer's perspective, it's easy to place trust in an established institution such as The Wall Street Journal or even MTV, but how does the audience learn to trust a stranger (or group of strangers), to evaluate the information they are providing, and to collaborate with them?

Thinking primarily about business based communities, it seems to encourage participation, we need to more fully understand how we can cultivate trust whilst at the same time acknolwedging that it takes time to build.

Maybe the first step is to assess readiness to share in terms of trust. Hsu, Ju, Yen and Chang from Taiwan have developed a very interesing model (sorry, can't find a free link to this paper) based on Social Cognitive Theory which measures multi-dimensional trusts.

• Economy based trust – based on economic benefit or violation of trust ie the termination of a relationship or the likelihood of retribution
• Information based trust – knowledge based trust, the belief that behaviour is predicatable and and uncertainty is reduced
• Identification based trust – parties understand one anothers wants and mutual understanding is developed

They found that certain trust dimensions have a positive effect on others ie

• Economy based trust has a positive effect on information based trust.
• Information based trust has a positive effect on identification based trust
  

Taking the crisp sharing scenario as an example:

• Economy based trust – sharing must give you some sort of benefit ie not being hit
• Information based trust – to share you believe what you expect will happen – and they won’t give the crisp to their dog
• Identification based trust – you share because you can see they are hungrier than you

To examine the level of trust someone has toward a particular group or system would help identify the barriers that continually prevent sharing. Individual differences are clearly important in understanding why some people share quickly and without pontificating, whilst others need to see individual benefit to take part.

I feel this model may help us to understand what it is we need to do to encourage diverse participation in our online communities. All we need to do then is work out how to help people move from where they are to where they need to be to effectively share and learn.

Shouldn’t be too hard...

Quotes on sharing

In an attempt to really impress the academics and gain valuable brownie points for my dissertation by reading both deeply AND broadly, I developed a cunning plan for finding authors outside of the immediate learning, knowledge sharing, knowledge management type literature - check out some quotes on learning, sharing, knowledge etc.

This cunning plan is based on the premise that if they've been quoted talking about something, maybe they know something about it.

It's working, I just have to keep focused and not find out everything there is to know about the politics of Barbados or the principles of environmentalism...

Must...control...inquisitive...nature...

Here's some good sharing quotes - seems only right to share them...

Great leadership does not mean running away from reality. Sometimes the hard truths might just demoralize the company, but at other times sharing difficulties can inspire people to take action that will make the situation better.

John Kotter, Change expert

Often, we are too slow to recognize how much and in what ways we can assist each other through sharing such expertise and knowledge.

Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados

In today's environment, hoarding knowledge ultimately erodes your power. If you know something very important, the way to get power is by actually sharing it.

Joseph Badaracco, Business Ethics specialist

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.

Leo.F. Buscaglia, he was really into Love

If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

Rachel Carson, Environmentalist

You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.

Albert Camus, genius existentialist philosopher

Web 2.0 video on the socio-political nature of the web

I think this is the most amazing video to describe Web 2.0 and it’s impact.



Maybe it's the Manga films I’ve watched like Ghost in the Shell, maybe it’s my anarchist tendencies, but this videos socio-political statement, that we ARE the machine, really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

Thanks to Clive Shepherd and Brent Schlenker for the link.

Right, no more posting over the weekend, really must do some studying and stop getting distracted by all the really interesting but not completely relevant conversations going on in the blogosphere...

Roll on August 28th when I hand in my dissertation!!!

More on video for learning

Having merely been pontificating whilst on the train about the value of video demonstration for learning, which prompted me to post yesterdays acclamation , I noticed that there’s a buzz about video and learning going on in the learning/e-learning/KM arena...

Dan's post on his blog Learning Rocks talks about TV and video as learning tools…citing Donald Clarks blog in Feb 07, who says of YouTube, GoogleVideo etc:

“Why does videocasting matter in learning? Education and training, by and large, delivers second-rate content using second-rate techniques at top-dollar rates. But why settle for second best when you can have the best content using great teachers for free? “

Must be something in the water :-)

Friday Photo

In the spirit of the honourable tradition of Friday Cat Blogging, I thought I'd share a photo I'm proud of with you each Friday. I'm almost as passionate about photography as I am learning, but I'll control myself and only post one pic a week.

This one was taken in the centre of Angkor Wat, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. A fantastic place, regarded as a masterpiece of Khmer architecture, it was built between 1113 and 1150. I'll not go into huge detail or I'd get carried away and have to start a travel blog (now there's an idea...)

Cambodia is primarily Buddhist and this lady had dressed one of the statues in Buddhist garb and was asking for change (for her, for the temple, no idea, don't speak Khmer). It made for a really atmospheric photo displaying the colours and religion of Cambodia.





I've entered it in the Digital Camera Magazine Photographer of the year 2007 competition, but I don't think the editors selecting the pics rate it...oh well, I do :-)