Crowd Wise 3d: Does size play a role? (Group Identity)

Friendship is a plant of slow growth

Mark Twain  

According to popular statements regarding the ideal size of a community, the number 150 pops up frequently, however many, if not most, groups aimed at global teachers exceed this number.  

However, many, if not most, blended-learning communities made up of students fall significantly short of this.

When it comes to the e-communities you run or have joined, which do you prefer?  Why?

What happens when the online community is too big?

What happens when the online community is too small?

Is there a just right?

How about the speed of growth?

When a tribe grows rapidly do you feel ignored, your needs unmet or unnoticed?  Alternatively, have you even been frustrated by communities which seem to be growing slowly?  Why?

Best,
Karenne

Update 15.02.10
Nice link, hat tip @lclandfield: Seth's Blog, Viral Growth trumps lots of faux followers

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:

http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Crowd Wise 3b: Rules, Rules, Rules (Group Identity)

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules
George Bernard Shaw

Some groups have protocols set in place for when one of their members turns into a troll, becomes overly aggressive, spams or generally threatens the community's ecology. 

Yet most of the time the idea of setting and following lots of rules makes us shiver and think of... school or worse:

Many think rules spoil fun.

Others are threatened by chaos - anyone doing whatever it is they'd like to on their site.

In your experience, do you think community members can create and define rules themselves, organically, or should the community leader(s) state these right from the offset/after a specific conflict occurs?  How rigid do these need to be?   What do you do when a rule is broken?   Do you step in each time?  Does there need to be a person with this specific responsibility?  

If you run a site which has avoided setting rules, did you discover unspoken norms somehow setting in over time?   Are your newcomers expected to develop their own sense of how things are done 'round here?

And, 'fess up, have you ever broken a rule or a norm yourself?
What were the consequences?

 

TED Organizer Breaks Rules

Best,
Karenne

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Crowd Wise 3c: Going Public vs Staying Private (Group Identity)

People have less privacy and are crammed together in cities, 
but in the wide open spaces they secretly keep tabs on each other a lot more.Sara Paretsky

Deciding to make a group accessible to anyone in the world vs taking the decision to restrict membership to only a specific type of educator, people who belong to a teaching association or to your own personal group of students is one of the toughest decisions online community leaders make.

If you are your group's moderator what did you decide to do?  Why did you opt for this? 

If you don't run a community yourself however you belong to one (or many), which do you prefer - those with anonymous members or spaces where you can easily read the profiles of the participants, see what they look like, what sort of things they're interested in?

How do you personally feel about sharing your very private details with others?

When running e-communities with students, have you noticed a marked difference in activity on public, google-searchable-sphere groups vs private groups?   Does the culture and country of origin make any difference?

If you have noticed this, why do you think this is?

Best,
Karenne


This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:

http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!

Crowd Wise 3a: Mission's vision (Group Identity)

Data is not information, information is not knowledge, 

knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not wisdom.
Clifford Stoll

Amy Jo Kim refers to online communities as:

A group of people with a shared interest, purpose or goal, who get to know each other over time.

Do you agree?  Should online communities have a specific purpose for gathering?  Is it important to state the mission and/or vision for being together publicly or privately, right up front?   If you run a e-community what was your approach - how did you articulate this ability to meet their unmet needs?

Are any of the groups you belong to made up of people from a specific niche?

Think about some of the groups you belong to versus others, was the function made immediately clear to you or did it look like they were just collecting people?  Can you give any concrete examples?   

 

Knowing how to reach people is not the same as knowing the membership's needs nor is it knowing why they are there with you, nor even if you're providing them with what they want.  

And on a slightly different note but similar theme, how about badges or the various other ways members show their team colors to the world - are these good for developing group identity? 

Best, Karenne

This posting is part of the Crowd Wise series and is in part my preparation for the swap-shop I will be hosting on web-based communities at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, April 8th 2010.  Your answers, as brief or as in-depth as you'd like to be, is very much appreciated!

To subscribe to all the posts within this specific series, copy and paste this url:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/crowd-wise  into your reader.  

Note: if you would like to participate in this conversation anonymously, please do feel free to do so.  Alternatively, if you would like to specifically mention an online educational community when making reference to your experiences, adding your group's name and/or its URL, you are most welcome to!