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7 Principles For Cultivating Communities of Practice

Sylvia Currie's presentation on her 7 Principles For Cultivating Communities of Practice (an annoying Slideshare page) is definitely worth a look. Although you really can't get that much out of a deck of slides, you'll learn a little about each of her principles. They are: (1) Design for evolution. (2) Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives. (3) Invite different levels of participation. (4) Develop both public and private community spaces. (5) Focus on value. (6) Combine familiarity and excitement. (7) Create a rhythm for the community. Posted: 9/8/09; 5:21:22 PM #

Manifesto for Community Philanthropists

The Community Foundation Network's Manifesto for Community Philanthropists (cover page for Word document download, unfortunately) reads less like a manifesto and more like a collection of interesting ideas. These include: using new government equity in financial institutions to influence banking policies, funding seed capital for the IT infrastructure to support giving, nurturing a culture of giving in the schools, and funding children's gift accounts (to give them real world experience with giving). The document is aimed at government in the UK, but the ideas are useful anywhere and at almost any scale. Posted: 9/8/09; 5:14:49 PM #

Cloud Intelligence
	Sessions from the recent Ars Electronica Symposium on Cloud Intelligence are now available online. Sessions include: Stephen Downes on collaboration, the African diaspora, "slacktivism", and mapping. Posted: 9/8/09; 5:04:54 PM #

Thinking Systemically

In Thinking Systemically, Bob Williams offers a great overview of the role of a systems approach in capacity building. He touches on inter-relationships, dynamic systems, nonlinear systems, massive entanglement, along with various methodologies, such as Systems Dynamics, Soft Systems, Activity Systems, boundary analysis, and Critical Systems Heuristics. But the most important thing about this overview is the essential frame of reference: Capacity building without systems thinking is like poking around in the dark with a stick. Posted: 9/8/09; 4:49:40 PM #