1. Steve Dale Director Semantix (UK) Ltd Congreso Internacional EDO 2010

2. Who am I? An evangelist and practitioner in the use of Web 2.0 technologies and Social Media applications to support personal self-development and knowledge sharing. Steve was the business lead and information architect for the community of practice platform currently deployed across the UK local government sector, the largest professional network of its type, and continues to play a key role in the support of virtual communities of practice for value creation in public services. Stephen Dale (Steve)

4. What is a ? What is a Community of Practice?

6. A successful CoP needs certain ingredients

7. A community

8. A domain of interest

9. A place to meet

10. A facilitator (or moderator)

14. But what’s new about Communities of Practice?

16. Royal Guild of Cloth makers Guild of St Luke (painters) Guild of Goldsmiths

17. Over 800 Worshipful Companies www.wordle.net

20. What is a ? Evolving from conversations to collaboration

21. Degrees of Transparency and Trust Join our list Join our forum Join our community Increasing collaboration and transparency of process

22. Collaborative Working – some distinctions KIN, Warwick Business School Purpose Members Adhesive Duration Formal work group To deliver a product or service Employees who reports to the group’s manager Job requirements and org structure Until organisational restructuring Project team To accomplish a task Employees assigned by senior management Project milestones and goals Until project completion Social networks To collect and pass on information Friends and acquaintances Mutual needs and interests As long as people have a reason to connect Community of Practice To develop members’ capabilities; to build and exchange knowledge Members who select themselves Passion, commitment and identification with the group’s expertise As long as there is interest in maintaining the group

24. Levels of engagement Level of engagement Type of engagement Browse, search, learn (Anonymously) Comment (with attribution) Ask a question (with attribution) Write a blog Become a mentor Become an expert Register Comment (Anonymously) Waxing and Waning Interest

25. Patterns of contribution Ref: Jacob Nielson http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html Number of participants Number of contributions 1% active contributors 9% occasional contributors 90% readers (aka ‘lurkers’) The 1-9-90 rule

27. But have we forgotten how to have conversations?

28. Is this what we asked for or what managers think we need?

30. Understanding your community: Culture and Behaviours

32. It’s more about the people than the technology

36. Members of an active community occasional transactional peripheral active facilitator core group lurkers leaders outsiders experts beginners

37. Your community’s life-cycle From: Cultivating Communities of Practice by Wenger, McDermot and Snyder Plan Start-up Grow Sustain/Renew Close Level of energy and visibility Time Discover/ imagine Incubate/ deliver value Focus/ expand Ownership/ openness Let go/ remember

38. The community will go through cycles of activity Activity

39. What makes a successful community?

42. A Facilitator/Coordinator cultivates the community

43. A Good Facilitator/Coordinator?

45. ACTIVITY: WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF A GOOD FACILITATOR?

47. Communities of Practice in UK Local Government www.communities.idea.gov.uk

48. There is a growing recognition but not yet a consensus about integrating Community of Practice (CoP)-style working in the everyday practice of public sector programmes and services.

50. Over 700 Local Gov Services

52. For some it’s a culture shock

53. Building an environment to support collaborative working Find and connect with experts Find and connect with your peers Threaded discussion forums, wikis, blogs, document repository News feeds Event calendar News and Newsletters

55. Evaluating success (and ROI)

58. Understanding the community profile Observers Power Contributors Contributors Inactive

59. What to measure (everything!)

60. Network maps provide insight and prompt questions “ I frequently or very frequently receive information from this person that I need to do my job .” Hutchinson Associates 2005

63. What is the value to the individual Ask the CoP members ….

68. Measuring value by productivity

69. Benchmarking Source: Knowledge & Innovation Network, Warwick Business School

71. Lessons Learnt

74. Know when to let go!

76. "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you got." Albert Einstein, 1879-1955 Evolution of Knowledge

77. Thank you! http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevedalexxx http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendale/ http://twitter.com/stephendale stephendale http://stephendale.net [email_address] http://friendfeed.com/dissident http://www.delicious.com/stephendale http://steve-dale.net