Proud Connections to the Blue Cloud People

"Looking at Your Connection Network with New Eyes"

So last week when I saw that you make a visualized map of your connections on Linkedin I thought excellent, I want to see how mine compares to the example they show.  And voila here it is.

Compared with examples I was kind of embarrassed on how small mine was.  It didn't look very dynamic or exciting at all.  How was I to share this with #CCK11?  Look how few connections I have.  I need more peers!!!

So I decided to keep it to myself.  Don't let anyone see how "unconnected" I am.  Then I re-looked at it today with a new set of eyes.

Let's give some context  here.  I'm in the middle of the network.  The green dots represent some of my organizational development contacts.  The orange dots are some colleagues from an improv troupe I once belonged to.  The pink dots are some of my colleagues from work (I'm adding to that).  The red dots either don't have a category or fall somewhere into the ones represented.  Then there is the large blue cloud of dots. That represents my elearning network of peers.  Some of these people I've met in person once or twice, but very few of them have I every laid eyes on.  These are my connections I have made purely through social networking.

Now that is a powerful statement.  I'm more connected to people I've never met face to face then I am to co-workers in my on organization and there are 2800 of them (there's about 15 dots represented by organization staff).

So several things come to me from this diagram.  Thinking from a career and work perspective I have more in common with the Blue Cloud people then with the people I interact with daily at my place of employment.  In fact to be honest I believe I interact with the Blue Cloud people more on a daily basis.  (face to face is over rated ;) - I jest).

The connections within the Blue Cloud are astounding.  There are so many interconnections within that network.  Truly a group of peers that connect and related to one another on many levels.  The links between the people are so great that they are almost solid.  I know many of these people here have a great number of further connections to other Blue Cloud people so the network I have represented is probably 1/10th the number of people that are actually in that cloud if with expanded it further and further to second connections.  Most probably my connections are 1/1000th of the secondary connections of those people, maybe more as I am only guessing.

Another very striking observation for me, and this is in light of some of the controversy at our organization about social networking and social learning, is that I am a bridge between those that I know are using and getting the significance of social networking and those that do not.  The people in the Blue Cloud my not understand it (and many might as they are a part of CCK11 or past CCK's), but they are all apart of my connected knowledge.  These are the very people that I connect with daily.  These are the people that are finding information, reworking it, retooling it, re-purposing it, sharing it back into the network for more of the Blue Cloud people to find, rework, retool, re-purpose and share back into the network.

This extremely tight network, and I say that because I have observed over the past several years that anyone with in this network can ask a question or look for feedback and some part (people) of the network always responds immediately.  Not an hour from posting the question and not a day, almost instantly someone answers back.

If I could post my Twitter network in a visual display such as the Linkedin one my Blue Cloud people would be more accurately represented.  The image above does not show the 900+ people in my Blue Cloud (elearning peers) network.  That is my place for connecting my knowledge to them and they to me.  That is where we share and learn together.

Small representation of twitter network - not great.

So the diagram above that bridges me between those that get it and those that are trying to understand, I believe will be a very powerful tool as I move forward in my organization being a champion for social learning and reasoning behind the need for connective knowledge.

It's what makes the elearning community so great!

It struck me again yesterday and once again today about what makes me love the social community of which I'm a part. Specifically I speak of the folks that are part of the elearning community.

What is it that struck me you ask? It's the generosity that "oozes" from everyone. It's the comradery. It's the constant learning and sharing from one another. What is incredible and wonderful to experience is something that is so different from the commercial world and that's the quality of what is shared.

It's one thing to get a 10% coupon off of a coffee and it's something completely different to get an entire coffee for free. Two such examples of this shared quality are from Sasha Scott (@SashaScott) from Brighton, UK and the other is Olivia Mitchell (@OliviaMitchell) from New Zealand. (side note: I love that I'm learning from people that are "practically" on the other side of the world from me)

Scott this week shared his third in a series of PowerPoint templates for creating some interesting and engaging visual learning to be using in course creation. Here is where the "full cup" comes into play. He could have just showed the community what he did (10% off), but that's not what OUR community is about. He also explained in great detail how he did it (Free Cup of Coffee). AND THEN he shared a link to the ppts so that we could use them ourselves in our own course creation (FREE POT OF COFFEE).

Olivia has followed the same path and shares on her blog tips and tricks to presenting effectively (10% off). She then follows the same premise that Sasha has done by sharing an free ebook "How to present with Twitter (and other backchannels)" (Free Cup of Coffee). Then this was where I was reminded again today of the sharing/learning/nurturing nature of OUR community; when you open the ebook the second page clearly says "You can post this eBook on your blog or email it to anyone who you think would get value from it." (FREE POT OF COFFEE).

We might still be in a world where "nothing is free", but it's truly wonderful to know that the people within my Personal Learning Network live by "you teach me and I'll teach you, you grow with me and I'll grow with you". The piece of information, template, clipart, etc that you share with me today, turns into me sharing something right back with you tomorrow.

An ENORMOUS THANK YOU to my/OUR social community.

How many social networks does one need?

Every other day it seems another social network has popped onto the scene that is suppose to be bigger, better, more connected than the last one. True enough many of the features of those coming out are indeed very intriguing. Sure I may try one out and think it's wonderful and far surpasses any that I have previously been using. But....then what?

So now I love this new tool. All my contacts are on the old one. Now I have to somehow convert my 200+ friends to drop the one they are on for the new one. Now I'm a "sales rep" for the new network. Some how I need to now convince all my friends that their old tool, that probably took them ages to get use too, is missing some great new features. Most of my friends aren't too technically inclined. They like using the tools, but haven't got time to be trying out everything to find the best one out there. On another hand, what might be a great set of features for me might be useless for my friend "Joe".

I do seem to find that my "Blogging Friends" tend to move around from tool to tool. There are the early adapters that find the tools, there's bunch of us that read about them on their blogs, then we try them out, start talking about them on our blogs, and then one of us inevitably presents on them at a conference. Finally, the rest of the e-learning community gets on board and someone then decides to write about another new tool they have found and we start all over again. My "Personal Friends" on the other hand...stick with the tools they know, that they have used for quite some time now, and are frankly quite happy with regardless of the silly videos, pictures, and chain messages that fly around.

I now have come to the realization that I am one of many that are trying everything out in the hopes that I can keep up with the latest trend regardless if it only lasts a day.

How does one use Facebook for learning?

My new e-friend Cammy, suggested to me that she wanted to find a way to use Facebook as a learning tool. Since then I have been thinking about her idea and wondering just how does one use Facebook for learning. So far for me and my friends it has only been, just as intended (I think), for fun. We share photos, news, messages, and miscellaneous nonsense. Mostly nonsense. As for learning from one another on it, so far I've learned several things perhaps I shouldn't post on there and embarrassing photos of you will surface periodically.

I'm sure there could be some seriousness to the network. You certainly can create groups that truly are driven by a purpose and I belong to a couple. I've also come up with the idea that it could possibly be used for online class work by having students connect with one another and using it as an "offline" discussion area for class/group work. When that element of interaction is missing from an online many facilitators try to find a way to compensate for that with discussion boards within the learning platform. I have always found these to be very dry and I lose interest in my fellow classmates quickly. A Facebook network may be a way to get the class to interact more continuously in a fun manner outside of the elearning platform.

I'm open to any other ideas and suggestions for utilizing this particular social network tool.