Community Development Models?

Community Development Models?

by Elizabeth Wallace -
Number of replies: 3

I've been asked to make a short presentation on online communities of practice and would like to show a diagram that explains the stages of community development (from planning and initiation to growth, maturity etc).

I've been dipping into some of my favourite texts (Wenger et al., 2002; Preece,  2000) but I'm wondering if there are some new models that have caught the imagination of the "community enthusiasts" in this forum. I'm on the applied end of things, and would really appreciate input from those of you who study the theory of communities more than I. BTW, shameless promotion of your own papers and published works is definitely encouraged!!!

In reply to Elizabeth Wallace

It depends on the level of detail

by John Smith -
Liz,

Warning, thisi goes beyond the "one diagram" idea! :-) Your favorite texts are current as far as I'm concerned. I hear people referring to this one fairly often:

http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/gongla.html

The presentation that I gave at the E-Learn conference talks about an approach to launching where people need to get acquainted and become more adept with technology:

Weaving Together Online and Face-to-face Learning: A Design from a Communities of Practice Perspective

Another perspective is here: http://technologyforcommunities.com/
(especially see the CEFRIO chapter, which again focuses on getting the technologies to work for a community: http://technologyforcommunities.com/CEFRIO_Book_Chapter_v_5.2.pdf

And will you let us all know how your presentation went?
In reply to John Smith

Re: It depends on the level of detail

by Deleted user -
hi liz:

All of the presentations that we have done at knowplace about online communities (and many other topics) are here in our knowplace activity library

All original work - but there may be a slide or two that are useful to you.
In reply to Elizabeth Wallace

Re: Community Development Models?

by Elizabeth Wallace -

Thanks, John and Frances, for your swift replies.  You've pointed me to some very good resources, and I appreciate the help. The links you sent will be on my weekend browsing list.

Right now, as you may have noticed, I'm moderating the Scheduled Seminar here in SCoPE on the WebCT/Blackboard learning management system "merge". If we want to talk communities, those two have huge followings. As Frances can attest, there's also a strong development community around Moodle, which is a major challenger.  I posed the question in the seminar about why people get so emotional over particular technologies, so if you have views on that, please step in.

Yes, John, I'll let you know how my presentation pulls together.