frank@lone-eagles.com
Morino Institute's Public Access Network Directory
http://www.clir.org
The Emerging Association For Community Networking
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/afcn
Executive Director Madeline Gonzalez madeline@rmi.com
(I strongly recommend you co-sponsor this association just to have access to their
expertise and resources!)
Lone Eagle Community Networking Clearinghouse
http://lone-eagles.com/community.htm
by Frank Odasz, founder of the late Big Sky Telegraph
Brian Vidic's book "Community Information Service Management Guidelines"
$49.95 http://www.infowks.com
vidic@infowks.com
University of Michigan School of Information's community networking newsletter:
http://www.si.umich.edu/Community/currents
(A community networking primer written for AT&T by Frank Odasz is recommended reading
at this site.)
One of the most developed web-conferencing systems around is the web version of CAUCUS; See http://screenporch.com and http://www.tmn.com (Look for the Virtual Civicnet discussion archives!)
You're welcome to the grant templates and community networking articles posted at http://www.tmn.com/~fodasz and http://members.aol.com/AkMomof3/pubpage.html/Frank's_Place
(NOTE: David Woolley maintains and EXCELLENT clearinghouse of Internet collaborative software options!!)
From: "David R. Woolley"" <drwool@SKYPOINT.COM> Subject: Re: Conferencing To: COMMUNET@LIST.UVM.EDU Status: RO At 08:08 PM 9/11/97 GMT, Nancy Willard wrote: If some folks who have been participating in these conferencing discussions would be willing to fill me in on your opinion of this technology and its usefulness in facilitating dialogue I would be very appreciative. I would also be interested in hearing from other folks who have used different conferencing systems in other circumstances. I am interested in the following issues: >What particular software system has been used? >How well does this software system work to foster dialogue? >How easy is it to learn to negotiate in the conferencing environment? >Does anyone have experience with different conferencing software systems that they would recommend as a more effective alternative? >Have the discussions been moderated? >What training has been provided to the moderators (if any) to foster dialogue? >What strategies have worked well and what have not worked very well? Whew, that's a tall order. I could write a book-length answer, but instead I'll just give you a few quick comments and pointers. Good conferencing software is important. But good moderators/facilitators are much more important. This is a fairly rare skill, unfortunately. People who have a natural talent for it usually pick it up pretty quickly once they start using a conferencing system regularly. A lot has been written about facilitating online conferences. I've collected links to the best pieces I've found on this page: http://freenet.msp.mn.us/confdoc/hosting.html I also maintain a comprehensive index of Web-based conferencing software: http://freenet.msp.mn.us/~drwool/webconf.html On the above page you'll also find an article entitled "Choosing Web Conferencing Software" that will give you some tips about selecting from the dozens of products available. And finally, if you'd like to see conferencing in use at a community network, the Twin Cities Free-Net's conferencing center is at http://freenet.msp.mn.us/conf/
From: Amy Borgstrom <amyb@SEORF.OHIOU.EDU> Subject: Conferencing resources To: COMMUNET@LIST.UVM.EDU Here's a good list of resources that begin to address online facilitation and conferencing thanks to Amy Eunice and Lisa Kimball at Metasystems Design in DC. Charlotte Hunter's new organization which is called The Virtual Team.(http://www.thevirtualteam.com). Notes on Going Virtual, by Ray Grenier & George Metes http://www.tfriend.com/cop/n-govirt.html Communities of Practice: A Review of the Literature This site has a review of the literature on Communities of Practice and some other useful links to related articles and sources. http://www.tfriend.com/cop-lit.htm The Fun Factor in Groupware Design and Implementation Introduces the idea of building groupware systems which are supportive of collaborative learning, decision-making and creativity. http://www.california.com/~meetings/funfactr.htm Check out Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz's website. It's loaded with great stuff. Note particularly the paper, Humanizing Distributed Electronic Meetings_(March 1995) http://www.awaken.com/ Here's the outline for how we tried to lead the online course on Conferencing: Virtual Facilitation Training Outline http://www.tmn.com/~amye/faciloverview.html Fostering Reflective Dialogues for Teacher Professional Development http://www.hub.terc.edu/terc/LabNet/Guide/Fostering_Refl_Dialogues.html Three online courses, including one on "Mentoring Online; How to Create and Teach an Online Course" are available at: http://www.wmc.edu/acad/rfts/rfts.htm
If you have any questions or comments e-mail frank@lone-eagles.com