Julia,
Had an interesting conversation today with my friend and colleague Gary Gomes.
We have been involved in various initiatives re broadband regionally, and with the High Tech Consortium. Among other things.
We were dancing around the question of what makes online community work, and what makes a volunteer organization work. I was talking about all the parts of people that are involved in those endeavors, and what is it that distinguishes a successful online community or offline community from those that don’t succeed. (In a perfect universe, I’d take your online community class again this fall…)
Are people there for the social interactions, are they there to be a part of something meaningful, are they there to learn, are they there to make connections, are they there because it’s something others are doing, were they attracted by good marketing, or a good idea, or by their friends etc etc. And what keeps them involved and what makes the community thrive and grow? What is the “value” for the participants?
Gary brought his background in business organizations into the conversation….saying that it’s not just the paycheck that stimulates people to really bring their full contribution to an organization. Someone needs to provide “leadership”…
And I keep asking myself what you have or did that made the community part of Cel460 work pretty well. My answer has something to do with your personal involvement, your caring for the students, and a kind of implied leadership by example, and by supporting others. Which I think, among your capabilities, clearly stands out.
And thinking about that reminded me of a teacher you had, and told me about, that was a great example of this hard to quantify or define quality. I think perhaps he wrote something on leadership? My memory isn’t quite retrieving that data for me.
I would hazard a guess that leadership comes from somewhere…some people have it…how did they “get it”? I would also assume that in the end, as with most things good about life, it comes down to some form of faith.
I pass these thoughts on because I think we are trying to work on some of the same problems in online community and social networking, and because I value your thoughts.
John
