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Appreciative inquiry: What is the best experience I have had of a vibrant online community, and what made it possible?

Submitted by Helen Titchen Beeth on March 20, 2008 - 22:05.
Please share your positive experiences of online community with us, and explain what it was that made them possible. This will help us to distil the principles that will help us to achieve our purpose together.

Online Community

Submitted by Amy Lenzo on April 26, 2008 - 21:18.

Goddess, Helen! Your words are SO TRUE and really strike a chord in me. I remember that feeling too, of the adrenaline pulsing through me before posting for the first time, Embarassed deathly afraid of BEING SEEN. But on the other side of that feeling ACTUALLY being seen and accepted anyway. Laughing What a rush!!!

 

This point really can't be emphasized too much - we never get over the need to be heard and seen with generosity. And especially when we're new and meeting people for the first time. 

 

Another thing that's kind of related to this is the fear of looking foolish that keeps people from asking for help with the technology. So the technology has to work EASILY, and there has to be ways to learn what one doesn't know, ways that aren't intimidating or overly difficult.


~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~
The BEAUTY DIALOGUES:
http://www.beautydialogues.com/

“... all experience of beauty is experience of cosmic wholeness, of harmony. Beauty is microcosmic intuition of macrocosmic reality.”

Long live lists!

Submitted by Helen Titchen Beeth on April 26, 2008 - 20:37.

Wow, Amy, this is great!

 

I realised as I was reading your experiences that the points you make are very much true for me, as well.

 

I remember clearly the very first steps I made into participating in conversations on the internet - rather than just lurking and reading other people's contributions. I remember being as nervous as if I was going on stage, and pressing th "send" button provoked the same kind of physiological sensation in me as imagining the prospect of putting a bullet into my own head!

 

And i remember the responses I got were so affirming and glowingly positive! I felt so nourished, that for the next few weeks I was contributing for all I was worth, like a lab rat with cocaine... So that's another thing I would like to add to our list: affirm the contributions of others, whenever possible. Particularly welcome newcomers! Smile

 

 

Best Experiences with Online Community

Submitted by Amy Lenzo on April 26, 2008 - 19:48.

Great question, Helen.

 

I have had so many great experences with online community... let me share some of the things I think made the difference when they worked best. I aologize for it being a list rather than a story, but there would be so many of them!

  • My best experiences with online community have happened when the group has been united around a shared passion, or intention. When the group's reason for being wasn't something "extra" - but focused on something intrinsic in my life. That made the conversation stay vibrant, attractive and relevant over time for me.
  • Meeting in person, face to face, has always made a huge difference. Even if it's only some of the people, and even if it's only once or twice (and if that can be a meeting over a few days, or at least overnight, in a shared house, so much the better).
  • Agreement, whether implicit or explicit, about what behaviour is ok and what's not - i.e. disagreement is ok, personal insults and attacks are not. In my experience this works best when it emerges naturally as a collective response to someone going over the line, rather than being posted as a rule.
  • Knowing who's in the community - having member lists posted where people can see them. In some cases this has entailed limiting the size of the group, or assimilating new people slowly by mutual agreement, while in others this issue of size or visibility has not been important.
  • A core of at least 4-5 people who participate regularly. There has to be some kind of collective velocity or this communication format can feel "dormant" and bogged down.
  • At least 1-2 kind and gentle souls who pay attention to the emotional energy of online interaction and are willing to step in and unobtrusively mediate if things get sticky.

Anyway, these are some of my initial thoughts...

 

Amy

 

~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~
The BEAUTY DIALOGUES:
http://www.beautydialogues.com/

“... all experience of beauty is experience of cosmic wholeness, of harmony. Beauty is microcosmic intuition of macrocosmic reality.”