Online Communities: How social are they?
Okay, so back in the spring of last year, I really wanted to get involved on a team doing a podcast.
Sitting at a conference, I heard Pixelcorps was creating a wonderful podcast opportunity for people to join teams and learn the art. Wow! Great timing!
Not that I knew anything about it. I had been a producer so I knew some of the ins and outs of putting together a program technically. But I lacked the confidence to do so from start to finish.
So, I joined. Now, there are an impressive number of individuals with similar dedication to learning. Still, the one thing that people remind you of is that you have to be active toward your own involvement. Fair enough.
Since the online community at Pixelcorps is so impressively developed (there are forums, and video tutorials and weekly challenges and a whole host of things), it can take a bit of time scoping out the territory. Pixelcorps considers itself a guild, which, by way of its mission and structure, suggests there will be significant interactivity and communication in the service of learning.
After a bit of time, I felt ready. I contacted two team leaders who were leading podcasts and asked if I could join the team. I sent them information about me, and although the initial response was “yes, we’ll definitely find a place for you”, the communication fell off midway in the process from both groups, and quite soon after, I felt like I was talking to thin air.
All the worries about not being good enough, saying the right things, using the tools in a fast (read manic) enough way (my perspective) came up. But essentially, the question was: what went wrong? Why did it start with a bang — a great fit between need and opportunity, and end with a disappointing, not-so-social-opportunity-after all, finish? Interested in what happened next? Stay tuned.
Introduction: Online Social Communities: How Social Are They
All you have to do is turn that corner of 45 or so, and you begin to see it, where social banter becomes ego-boosting faster than you can see boo. It’s fine, actually. Since exploring the enigmatic puzzle of the online social world takes time and direct experience anyway, I prepared myself for a lot of sifting through the future ideal and what’s actually there for someone not a youngster.
I am looking forward to your comments, more than you know, because I hope to represent the professional interested in networking and online learning who is a bit seasoned, and hear from you too. What are your experiences? How have you arrived at them?
I’ve now checked out about 5 communities, though somewhat tentatively, as I feel rather idiosyncratic sometimes, and have to put that out there so you are not misled. In other words, is it just the odd way I’ve come to view the world, or is how I see things coming to be the reality of many?
I’ll start exploring just a handful then and some which I consider hybrids of community, networking and involvement: Pixelcorps, Lynda.com, and Linked-In, to name a few, then follow that up with others.
Onboard? I hope so. What was your starting point experience? And What do you think?
Introduction:
Welcome to Lost and Finding.
This is a place to experience transitions. To accept the place in between and not judge yourself for taking the time to inhabit this space, no matter how foreign or uncomfortable.
I’ll be sharing my experiences——those peppered with frustration as well as feelings of many doors opening. It won’t be a rant primarily but an expose of floating through not belonging to figuring out how to belong to something, hopefully something that becomes the home of “you”.
I’ll be taking in the new (such inventions as social community online even if I may not join the throngs in the way they classify it) and the old (that would be me; the part that has a hard time knowing in which direction to let change in) and settle, I hope, somewhere in between.
That’s it for now. Join me.
