Comments for Communications Community of Practice http://comcop.wordpress.com Creating a Culture of Sharing in Global Action Networks Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:10:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU Comment on Geneva Agenda Comments by Neil Sorensen http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/agenda-comments/#comment-50 Neil Sorensen Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:07:59 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/agenda-comments/#comment-50 Per our meeting just now on Elluminate, one of the things I'm interested in seeing is the actual interface of each organization and how it's being used. For example, I use WebEdition as a CMS, and I could show what we are doing. I would like to see the interfaces of other organizations as well. Per our meeting just now on Elluminate, one of the things I’m interested in seeing is the actual interface of each organization and how it’s being used. For example, I use WebEdition as a CMS, and I could show what we are doing. I would like to see the interfaces of other organizations as well.

]]> Comment on New pbwiki features - Spreadsheets, voice chat, event-planning, calendars, & video upload by Jim Starky http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/new-pbwiki-features-spreadsheets-voice-chat-event-planning-calendars-video-upload/#comment-41 Jim Starky Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:13:47 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/06/27/new-pbwiki-features-spreadsheets-voice-chat-event-planning-calendars-video-upload/#comment-41 You should try www.agreeAdate.com if you like meeting wizard. This is much more flexible and the invitations are professional with the option to add your own branding. You should try http://www.agreeAdate.com if you like meeting wizard. This is much more flexible and the invitations are professional with the option to add your own branding.

]]> Comment on Share your Elluminate experiences here! by GAN-Net ComCoP Blog http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/elluminate/#comment-33 GAN-Net ComCoP Blog Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:53:11 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/share-your-elluminate-experiences-here/#comment-33 1. Name: GAN-Net, Steve 2. Length of meeting: 1 hour 3. Primary purpose: demonstration of elluminate 4. Number of people participating: 2 5. What worked: had a good meeting, and moved through all the various capacities 6. What did you have trouble with: Neil had trouble downloading the software...got a message saying it can't find a file on the java website - error 1606 could not find a network location. He rebooted and after about 30 minutes the "put your name here" window came up and he went through the usual sign-in process. I think he didn't have java yet and it took a long time to download it. Subsequent comment from tech support: A quick google search of the error message suggests that the problem may lie in your users Windows Registry. I would STRONGLY recommend not attempting to fix this. Instead, please see if the user can download the latest version of Java manually at http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp To see a description of the error message refer to: http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q110724 7. Any other comments: Also discovered that when you are at one URL you can't switch to another without using the pulldown menu and putting in a new address. 1. Name: GAN-Net, Steve
2. Length of meeting: 1 hour
3. Primary purpose: demonstration of elluminate
4. Number of people participating: 2
5. What worked: had a good meeting, and moved through all the various capacities
6. What did you have trouble with: Neil had trouble downloading the software…got a message saying it can’t find a file on the java website - error 1606 could not find a network location. He rebooted and after about 30 minutes the “put your name here” window came up and he went through the usual sign-in process. I think he didn’t have java yet and it took a long time to download it.
Subsequent comment from tech support: A quick google search of the error message suggests that the problem may lie in your users Windows Registry. I would STRONGLY recommend not attempting to fix this. Instead, please see if the user can download the latest version of Java manually at http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp To see a description of the error message refer to: http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q110724

7. Any other comments: Also discovered that when you are at one URL you can’t switch to another without using the pulldown menu and putting in a new address.

]]> Comment on Share your Elluminate experiences here! by Tobias Eigen http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/elluminate/#comment-32 Tobias Eigen Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:19:14 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/share-your-elluminate-experiences-here/#comment-32 Hi Steve! Thanks for adding this blog post, which will really facilitate our shared learning about this nifty tool. 1) Name: GAN-Net ComCoP; Tobias Eigen 2) Length of meeting: 1 hour 3) Primary purpose: Meeting to review options for web2.0 "platforms" 4) Number of people participating: 4; several others planned on attending 5) What worked: I gave everyone a tour of the blog and wiki, which appears to have worked quite well. Participants added pictures of themselves to the white board. One participant was new to elluminate and yet had no difficulties at all participating, raising her hand, using the instant messenger interface etc. 6) What did you have trouble with: Two people ran into technology problems and couldn't get into the elluminate system. One was blocked from accessing it from his hotel room - an interesting limitation to keep in mind for the future when planning calls. I don't know if others have had this experience, but it is sometimes maddeningly slow to push the microphone and start talking - it takes a good couple of seconds before I can talk, and sometimes I have to start over again! 7) I think it's good to note that elluminate works well with this small number of people, even when some are not familiar with it (as long as they are tech savvy). I was struck by the fact that it's extremely important to have a backup plan - perhaps next time we could have the conference call number ready and posted on the wiki in case people are cut off from the meeting because of a software problem. Cheers, Tobias Hi Steve!

Thanks for adding this blog post, which will really facilitate our shared learning about this nifty tool.

1) Name: GAN-Net ComCoP; Tobias Eigen
2) Length of meeting: 1 hour
3) Primary purpose: Meeting to review options for web2.0 “platforms”
4) Number of people participating: 4; several others planned on attending
5) What worked: I gave everyone a tour of the blog and wiki, which appears to have worked quite well. Participants added pictures of themselves to the white board. One participant was new to elluminate and yet had no difficulties at all participating, raising her hand, using the instant messenger interface etc.
6) What did you have trouble with: Two people ran into technology problems and couldn’t get into the elluminate system. One was blocked from accessing it from his hotel room - an interesting limitation to keep in mind for the future when planning calls. I don’t know if others have had this experience, but it is sometimes maddeningly slow to push the microphone and start talking - it takes a good couple of seconds before I can talk, and sometimes I have to start over again!
7) I think it’s good to note that elluminate works well with this small number of people, even when some are not familiar with it (as long as they are tech savvy). I was struck by the fact that it’s extremely important to have a backup plan - perhaps next time we could have the conference call number ready and posted on the wiki in case people are cut off from the meeting because of a software problem.

Cheers,

Tobias

]]> Comment on What are the key ingredients of a useful and sustainable global online community? by Tobias Eigen http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/what-are-the-key-ingredients-of-a-useful-and-sustainable-global-online-community/#comment-26 Tobias Eigen Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:10:49 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/what-are-the-key-ingredients-of-a-useful-and-sustainable-global-online-community/#comment-26 Neat - thanks for the link and observations, Steve. On the topic of issues vs organizations, I have also noticed that there is an impulse many people (perhaps mostly young people but not necessarily) have to want to use blogs to "testify" or to publicly "sign up" to lend support to issues they are passionate about. It's sometimes impossible to resist this impulse and that creates a dynamic effect that is very publicly visible and grows over time. Most recently I saw this with the <a href="http://www.strike911.org/" rel="nofollow">9/11/07 General Strike</a> campaign which is spreading like wildfire in blogs and on social networking sites like Facebook. Tens of thousands of people have been signing up in the last few days in droves - it's happening very quickly and I am getting invitations from all quarters to participate. Somebody is leading this campaign and certainly the organizations involved will be able to generate support and interest through it. However it won't generally be possible to garner this level of public energy without a real, already energizing issue and a compelling campaign surrounding it. Cheers, Tobias Neat - thanks for the link and observations, Steve. On the topic of issues vs organizations, I have also noticed that there is an impulse many people (perhaps mostly young people but not necessarily) have to want to use blogs to “testify” or to publicly “sign up” to lend support to issues they are passionate about. It’s sometimes impossible to resist this impulse and that creates a dynamic effect that is very publicly visible and grows over time.

Most recently I saw this with the 9/11/07 General Strike campaign which is spreading like wildfire in blogs and on social networking sites like Facebook. Tens of thousands of people have been signing up in the last few days in droves - it’s happening very quickly and I am getting invitations from all quarters to participate.

Somebody is leading this campaign and certainly the organizations involved will be able to generate support and interest through it. However it won’t generally be possible to garner this level of public energy without a real, already energizing issue and a compelling campaign surrounding it.

Cheers,

Tobias

]]> Comment on What are the key ingredients of a useful and sustainable global online community? by stevewaddell http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/what-are-the-key-ingredients-of-a-useful-and-sustainable-global-online-community/#comment-25 stevewaddell Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:16:55 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/what-are-the-key-ingredients-of-a-useful-and-sustainable-global-online-community/#comment-25 <strong>Understanding Web2.0 Power to Motivate</strong> Maybe part of people's reluctance to put energy into web2.0 development is their lack of understanding its importance. My friend Jem Bendell in Geneva sent me an interesting link: http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/social-sofware-and-social-chan.aspx The author, Charles Leadbeater, is looking into "social network" and technologies that support social change. He comments that "Social networking appeals to young people. An NGO sector that is not good at it is not connecting with that demographic." Charles also refers to an American article that looks at NGOs (nonprofits) and web2.0. In comparison to email, it points out, blogging leaves a trail and a relatively complete capacity for online communication. This allows direct expression of passions that are often suppressed in traditional organizations (including NGOs), and provide a wonderful way for NGOs...and GANs...to identify and utilize passion. However, as the author points out, people are passionate about causes rather than organizations...and the implication is that issue/cause-driven NGOs actually should benefit more from web2.0 than corporations. Understanding Web2.0 Power to Motivate
Maybe part of people’s reluctance to put energy into web2.0 development is their lack of understanding its importance. My friend Jem Bendell in Geneva sent me an interesting link: http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/social-sofware-and-social-chan.aspx The author, Charles Leadbeater, is looking into “social network” and technologies that support social change. He comments that “Social networking appeals to young people. An NGO sector that is not good at it is not connecting with that demographic.”
Charles also refers to an American article that looks at NGOs (nonprofits) and web2.0. In comparison to email, it points out, blogging leaves a trail and a relatively complete capacity for online communication. This allows direct expression of passions that are often suppressed in traditional organizations (including NGOs), and provide a wonderful way for NGOs…and GANs…to identify and utilize passion. However, as the author points out, people are passionate about causes rather than organizations…and the implication is that issue/cause-driven NGOs actually should benefit more from web2.0 than corporations.

]]> Comment on Culture of Sharing online: how can we understand the “stages” of development? by Patrice Barrat http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/culture-of-sharing-online-understanding-the-stages-of-development/#comment-23 Patrice Barrat Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:22:29 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/culture-of-sharing-online-understanding-the-stages-of-development/#comment-23 At this first stage of my personal development , I just have to say I am happy to be able to access and use the GAN NET COMCOP blog. The second stage will be my comment on the notion of the culture of sharing...Before the end of this week. At this first stage of my personal development , I just have to say I am happy to be able to access and use the GAN NET COMCOP blog.
The second stage will be my comment on the notion of the culture of sharing…Before the end of this week.

]]> Comment on Culture of Sharing online: how can we understand the “stages” of development? by Tobias Eigen http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/culture-of-sharing-online-understanding-the-stages-of-development/#comment-22 Tobias Eigen Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:11:08 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/culture-of-sharing-online-understanding-the-stages-of-development/#comment-22 Hi Steve - Good questions you are asking. This topic came up in an article on Kabissa and web 2.0 I am working on for ICT Update: <blockquote>While access to the Internet allowed African organizations to deepen their impact, the Internet in those days was still fairly two-dimensional. The speed and ease of communication and information retrieval was unprecedented, but the needs being met were essentially the same as they always had been. The arrival of Web 2.0 over the last two years changes all that. Rather than replicating traditional modes of communication at a faster rate, Web 2.0 provides people and organizations that embrace it with a multi-faceted presence on the Web. They are now able to participate in – and indeed drive – global conversations about social change issues that affect them. </blockquote> E-mail is really not that different from traditional modes of communicating/working - though it is faster and brings us closer together. Web 2.0 technology opens up completely new ways of doing things, and I think the video Thomas shared in July about <a href="http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/social-networking-in-plain-english/" rel="nofollow">social networking in plain english"</a> speaks to this. Thanks to these new tools, people otherwise disconnected and disempowered are now able to join up and speak up on a global level. That's the hype anyway. Cheers, Tobias Hi Steve -

Good questions you are asking. This topic came up in an article on Kabissa and web 2.0 I am working on for ICT Update:

While access to the Internet allowed African organizations to deepen their impact, the Internet in those days was still fairly two-dimensional. The speed and ease of communication and information retrieval was unprecedented, but the needs being met were essentially the same as they always had been. The arrival of Web 2.0 over the last two years changes all that. Rather than replicating traditional modes of communication at a faster rate, Web 2.0 provides people and organizations that embrace it with a multi-faceted presence on the Web. They are now able to participate in – and indeed drive – global conversations about social change issues that affect them.

E-mail is really not that different from traditional modes of communicating/working - though it is faster and brings us closer together. Web 2.0 technology opens up completely new ways of doing things, and I think the video Thomas shared in July about social networking in plain english” speaks to this. Thanks to these new tools, people otherwise disconnected and disempowered are now able to join up and speak up on a global level.

That’s the hype anyway.

Cheers,

Tobias

]]> Comment on With apologies to Stallman: the WordPress.com hosted service is free as in beer, while the WordPress.org software is free as in freedom by Tobias Eigen http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/with-apologies-to-stallman-the-wordpresscom-hosted-service-is-free-as-in-beer-while-the-wordpressorg-software-is-free-as-in-freedom/#comment-20 Tobias Eigen Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:14:16 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/with-apologies-to-stallman-the-wordpresscom-hosted-service-is-free-as-in-beer-while-the-wordpressorg-software-is-free-as-in-freedom/#comment-20 Another 'bug' I have noticed, which is probably the same for both .com and .org versions, is that the picture next to a comment does not change when you change the author info for the comment. The first person to comment on this post below is not me, though the picture is of me! I created the comment and then changed the author info, and this is the result - I have no idea how to fix it on wordpress.com though I'm sure I would have been able to find a way to fix it using a self-hosted wordpress. http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/what-are-the-key-ingredients-of-a-useful-and-sustainable-global-online-community/#more-37 Another ‘bug’ I have noticed, which is probably the same for both .com and .org versions, is that the picture next to a comment does not change when you change the author info for the comment. The first person to comment on this post below is not me, though the picture is of me! I created the comment and then changed the author info, and this is the result - I have no idea how to fix it on wordpress.com though I’m sure I would have been able to find a way to fix it using a self-hosted wordpress.

http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/what-are-the-key-ingredients-of-a-useful-and-sustainable-global-online-community/#more-37

]]> Comment on With apologies to Stallman: the WordPress.com hosted service is free as in beer, while the WordPress.org software is free as in freedom by Tobias Eigen http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/with-apologies-to-stallman-the-wordpresscom-hosted-service-is-free-as-in-beer-while-the-wordpressorg-software-is-free-as-in-freedom/#comment-19 Tobias Eigen Wed, 08 Aug 2007 05:20:26 +0000 http://comcop.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/with-apologies-to-stallman-the-wordpresscom-hosted-service-is-free-as-in-beer-while-the-wordpressorg-software-is-free-as-in-freedom/#comment-19 Hi Ankur - Thanks for checking in. I'd love to have Gregarious on this blog, and obviously I think it would be very handy for any wordpress.com bloggers. Thanks for pointing out the inline preview issue - that's disappointing.. I've become hooked on that feature and it may delay my upgrade to the latest Wordpress on my saidia.org blog. Cheers, Tobias Hi Ankur -

Thanks for checking in. I’d love to have Gregarious on this blog, and obviously I think it would be very handy for any wordpress.com bloggers.

Thanks for pointing out the inline preview issue - that’s disappointing.. I’ve become hooked on that feature and it may delay my upgrade to the latest WordPress on my saidia.org blog.

Cheers,

Tobias

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