Here are some strategic questions -- we want your opinions, ideas, thoughts and past experience with being in networks.
• What is possible when there is a network of committed leaders?
• Will a network of our graduates and other concerned global citizens produce meaningful collaboration?
• How can we make this network valuable and, as importantly, self-sustaining?
Communities and networks are basic components of society. In a global context, they are more important than ever as they must expand to be inclusive of participants worldwide. Fortunately, the technologies that have contributed this global awareness also provide the means for meaningful collaboration without direct physical interaction. So, yes, absolutely! Not only are these networks possible, valuable and potentially self-sustaining, they are essential to the future of GWLN.
ReplyDeleteIn this tweet: http://twitter.com/TaraAgacayak/status/45786031370416128 I reference an article that discusses what NPR learned about (how it failed in) managing its online community - which is that the community needed a good set of rules governing its operation (structure) and strong moderation/management (leadership).
ReplyDeleteWhat connects GWLN now is an ideology: the power and importance of women's leadership. If we were a local network, it would be easy to bypass technology in order to gather, work, share, grow, etc. Since we are separated by geography, we depend on tools to connect us through our IDEAS, not our spaces. We are a disconnected global network that needs to get connected through the web. As we are now we are growing separately, not together - kind of like a married couple that works on opposite sides of the country and just sees each other once in awhile.
I have a client in the US who is working with textile artists around the globe and she says she's enjoyed using google translate to work with group members who don't speak English. She can still support them even though they are separated by space, time and language - what connects them is love of textiles and how they use technology to gather.
Having built our own online community of geographically disparate members I know the power of web tools and the "cloud" to erase the physical borders and connect people through other common languages - food, fashion, feelings, expatriatism, etc.
In this article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18brooks.html, David Brooks points to studies that found "groups have a high collective intelligence when members of a group are good at reading each others’ emotions — when they take turns speaking, when the inputs from each member are managed fluidly, when they detect each others’ inclinations and strengths." All of this is possible with online work groups that are set up well and managed properly.
Look into hiring an online community manager or similar expert to work with you to design this framework and get it up and running. I think you'll be amazed at what the network can accomplish when it becomes connected through web technology.