24 June Civilizing the City (...communities...)

[Paul Terlemezian]

The assertion here is that growth in the industrial era of the 20th century was created via "explosive" growth in government and business.

 

He calls for increased citizenship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship which includes a blend of rights and responsibilities.

 

Governments and businesses are bound by legal matters typically focused on financial considerations. Communities are bound by voluntary participation and perhaps by peer pressure to do the "right" thing or the "accepted" thing.

 

It is interesting to see the emergence of social communities and learning communities. As of this moment - Linked in has over 70 Million members and http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory?results=&sik=1277062529...= over 639,000 groups. LinkedIn restricts its members to membership in 50 groups and ownership of 10 groups.

 

None of us are forced to join linkedin, facebook or any of the other social communities and yet we do - and then we create subcommunities. All of this voluntary community establishment work is creating value that is also voluntarily contributed. We don't want government control of these groups and we shun those that use the groups for commercial advertisement.

 

The training industry can facilitate the knowledge era by fostering the growth of learning communities. I believe that this means a shift from content creation and content promotion to:

 

Stimulation of conversation

Participation in the conversation

Moderation of the conversation

 

...and I believe that moderation will be the most challenging as its mearning will evolve.

 

What do you think the role of the learning organization will be as learning communities continue to expand as the become increasingly supported by technology?