The new Ning community - some central questions

Wed Nov 18 10:45:04 PST 2009

i am amazed and delighted to hear that ning has so many signing on so
quickly.  earlier this morning i have added a link to the ning site from the
homepage of openspaceworld.org.  when the announcement came out yesterday, i
blogged it at osw as well, but forgot to make the homepage link.

so to your question about oslist vs. ning discussion platform, holger...
here is how it might be accomplished... simply make one list a member of the
other.  this does require making one primary to the other, because without
this decision the work around will cause permanently circular bouncing
replies.  maybe 'primary' isn't quite right.  it's really a question of
where the action will be and where the action will be also reported.

for instance, set up a gmail account that receives all the ning activity and
forwards it to the oslist, as a member of the list.  oslist members would
then be able to see all of the postings, probably best in some sort of
digest form, at the new ning space.  so you could use the ning space, but
report everything through gmail back to the list.  this would, in effect,
create a running invitation to the ning group.

i'm not familiar with the mechanics of the ning platform, but obviously
there is more there than email list.  it seems impractical to not use the
ning discussion tools in concert with whatever other tools are there.  you
could use the same forwarding membership mechanism to report everything
happening on oslist to the ning group(s), but i think that doesn't work as
well.  it doesn't make sense for oslist to be continually dangling that
invitation into the ning community.  the direction of flow seems to be from
oslist to ning, opening into a bigger, fuller-featured space.  google wave
might very well be the next opening after that, but ning is happening right
now.

so the key point seems to be that we can move into new spaces without
destroying or abandoning the old things that have served us so well, so
far.  i will come back to this in the other thread, perhaps yet today.  but
for now, i'd propose one way forward is to use all of ning and make oslist a
member so that the list collectively can see what is happening.  running
this through a separate osw-ning at gmail.com email address would make ning
alerts easy to spot (to read or ignore) and  a daily digest function seems
essential so as not to blow up the oslist.

m

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.ronanparktrail.com
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
http://www.openspaceworld.org

312-280-7838 (mobile)

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Wendy Farmer-O'Neil <wendy at xe.net> wrote:

> Hi friends,
> I'm just starting to explore and learn Google Wave.  I think there are a
> few of you out there a bit ahead of me on the curve for that.  Isn't
> integration of these various info streams what it is designed to do?  Once
> it's out of beta, won't those who choose to use it be able to pull OSList,
> facebook, twitter, ning, etc streams into one OS wave?
>
> I support open source solutions in parallel with commercial solutions, and
> also recognize that they take not only passion, but money, time, and
> expertise as forms of responsibility in order to realize them.  If this
> conversation results in a group forming to create that for our community I
> will gladly support it with my participation as that is the only form of
> responsibility i currently have available to contribute.
>
> Many communities are having this conversation.  The explosion of social
> media has created tremendous diversity and the potential that accompanies
> that.  The conversations over which tool, which platform, etc are raging all
> over the place.  What I see beginning to emerge is a recognition of the new
> need to help users make the most of this diversity by creating tools that
> allow for the integration and management of these diverse information flows
> rather than the monopolization and control of them.
>
> What has always mattered most to me about OSList and why i continue to read
> and contribute as i can, is that it continues to be the most accessible
> platform for a global audience.  There are many out there who still don't
> have the kind of connectivity and bandwidth that most of the new tools
> require.  It matters to me that some of the most vital conversations about
> OS happen in a forum that the lowest tech amongst us can access.  (And there
> are a number of us out here who keep our own archival copies of everything
> that happens here.  So if the main archive was suddenly shut down, i'm sure
> it wouldn't take us very long to stitch together a new one elsewhere.)  I am
> also aware of the fact that this conversation happens in English and of the
> colonial history and privilege of that.  So i support the emergence of an
> online space where we can see conversations happening in other languages
> simultaneously.  The Ning platform appears to be doing that at this time, so
> i feel glad in my heart to see that.
>
> And please, while we have this conversation, would we keep our respect and
> care for each other uppermost.  I try to always envision us sitting in a
> circle together in an OS space having these conversations.  To hold each
> precious presence with care matters to me.  Whether i agree with you or not,
> like you or not, have been hurt or harmed by you or not, is irrelevant.  I
> still hold each of you essential to our community.  I support the call for
> an end to personal attacks and a return to responsibly stated personal
> contributions. Email can be a hard medium for passionate conversation. It's
> easy to be misunderstood and misunderstand.
>
> Love to all,
> Wendy
>
>
>
> On 18-Nov-09, at 1:54 AM, Holger Nauheimer (Change Facilitation) wrote:
>
>  It is really fascinating to see how quick the new Ning group is growing
>> (http://openspaceworld.ning.com/). I predict that in 2 weeks, we will
>> have
>> like 200-300 members, and growing. In particular I like that we will have
>> country specific subgroups, and that might be the main focus of the Ning
>> group in the future. But it might also be that it will become the major
>> platform for our community.
>>
>> However, the Ning group raises a central question: in case, the group will
>> convert into a major network platform for the OS community, what will
>> happen
>> with the OS Mailing List?
>>
>> As I have posted on the Ning today, I vote for maintaining this Listserv
>> for
>> quite a while, and continuing to use this as the main discussion forum.
>> People got used to it, and in my experience, the OS folks are among the
>> most
>> change resistant people that I have met in my life.
>>
>> In order not to divide the stream of discussion, I am in favour not to
>> have
>> a discussion feature at the Ning platform (or, only for the subgroups).
>> Otherwise, people will be quite confused on where to post.
>>
>> I hope that in future all the national / language specific groups will
>> move
>> to the Ning platform (however, in the German community there is some
>> strong
>> resistance to that).
>>
>> What I would love to see is an integration of this list with the Ning
>> platform. The ideal would be that one can post from here and it appears in
>> the Ning platform and the other way round. I am pretty sure that this is
>> technically feasible but I have no idea how. It seems that the Listserv
>> does
>> not support RSS feeds (and I am not sure whether RSS feeds are the
>> solution,
>> probably not).
>>
>> If we would agree that integration is a good step, I would do some further
>> research and also engage a developer to help us out. Ideas?
>>
>> *
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>>
>>
> Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
> CEO Prospera Consulting
> wendy at xe.net
> 1-800-713-2351
>
> The moment of change is the only poem. -- Adrienne Rich
>
>
> *
> *
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>
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>

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