Do you need a technology steward? Are you one already?
Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John D Smith are black belts in social learning and online community formation (as well as longtime friends of ours). Their new book, Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, focuses on how communities and technology intersect, with practical advice for the stewards — the people with enough experience in the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs.
If you are a member of a community (who isn’t?) and you’ve made use of a mailing list, wiki, web conferencing system, Skype call or other collaboration tool, you’re probably curious already.
With Etienne, Nancy and John, let’s discuss:
- How has technology changed what it means for communities to “be together”?
- What is the role of a technology steward? the key skills? the new terms of art?
- Where can we see these stewards in action? How can we learn these skills?
There’s also a site for their new book, here.
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[...] common vocabulary, and an extraordinary willingness to share insights. Last week during the Yi-Tan Tech Call 274: on Digital Habitats, I noticed LaDonna Coy tweeting about it. Afterward I wrote here, [...]