Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Wikis and Cohousing Website Members Area, etc. (was, ironically: Very Quick Question)

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

Thanks for your input.

Coho/US has put the goal of formally "documenting best practices" on hold
until we are better resourced... I'm sorry the content on website doesn't
adequately reflect that shift in our plans. We have no immediate plans to
offer "a true knowledge base" as I understand that to be. As we discovered
the challenges in actually delivering on the goal, we decided to focus on
doing the very best we can with the services that we can provide today, and
taking incremental steps toward new offerings intended to help, e.g. the
Members Area with Blogs, Interactive Forums, etc.

Today, several of our programs, such as our Annual National Conferences, Bus
Tours, and Magazine share a variety of cohousing best practices on a wide
variety of topics. The Conferences and Bus Tours have provided cohousing
expertise and direct experiences to thousands of people. They enable dialog
to many who are hungry to learn - and are generally quite satisfied with
what we have been able to provide with our small, part-time staff and
volunteers.

Recently, 97% of the people who took the Post-2008 Conference Survey (over
one-third of the Conference participants) indicated that they would
recommend future National Cohousing Conferences to their friends. The level
of satisfaction with the event overall was very high and we're absorbing
specific feedback on ways to improve in our current 2009 Conference
planning.

Its unfortunate that the forms of these services are not what you want.
Perhaps somebody will emerge to create the "true knowledge base" that you
desire - I know of no specific project of that type. Perhaps the Cohousing
Website will evolve to fill that need over the coming years... it all
depends on how people prioritize their limited resources and the scale of
the resources.

Craig

On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 6:46 PM, John Faust <wjfaust [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> As Craig points out, few participate in the building of collaborative
> documents (e.g., wiki documents). There seem to be two reasons beyond the
> usual constraints of time and inertia. First, there aren't many members
> familiar with wiki editing. Second, it takes a certain mindset to convert
> inchoate information into organized knowledge. The first can be easily
> overcome but maybe the second suggests there are specific roles in this
> knowledge-building process.
>
> The way I imagine it might work for Coho US is this. A dialogue emerges on
> the listserv that has piqued broad interest. There are two choices. It can
> continue in dialogue form until it wears itself out or it can evolve into a
> more useful form--a collaborative document. Unless the latter happens, the
> dialogue is destined to be repeated as others new to to the list encounter
> similar problems. Perhaps more importantly, if the dialogue's loose
> collection of opinion and fact isn't consolidated, our understanding of the
> problem won't advance because there is nothing solid to build on.
>
> Do I imagine everyone engaging in this consolidation effort? No. Actually,
> I would envision there would be a relatively small number on this listserv
> who (if they understand wikis and are were not too burned out) would be able
> and inclined to move a discussion from dialogue form to document form. An
> initial draft is all that's needed--something others can react to. Once it
> is available, others will find it easier to add/correct/perfect/reorganize
> or at least comment on the content. Furthermore, most collaborative
> documents support page subscription. That means anyone can continue to
> follow the changes closely. When a change is made, they receive an email
> informing them.
>
> I'm not entirely sure what the goals of the Cohousing Association of the US
> are. There is a somewhat ambiguous mission statement 
> here<http://www.cohousing.org/association>and a list of projects on the same 
> page. One of those projects is "document
> effective practices". To me, that suggests something more than providing:
>
>    - a website,
>    - a listserv,
>    - blogs and bulletin boards,
>    - a monthly publication,
>    - a directory of cohousing communities,
>    - links to other resources,
>    - annual conferences, and
>    - ad space for cohousing professionals.
>
> All valuable services but I don't think they singly or jointly "document
> effective practices". A true knowledge base is one that is fully connected
> and capable of revision as understanding clarifies (e.g., Wikipedia). The
> Intentional Communities site seemed to have had a knowledge base in mind
> with their IC Wiki that Craig and Rob played a major role in populating.
>
> Perhaps the problem is one of unrealistic expectations. If you expect many
> to participate in the building, you will be disappointed because some won't
> see the need, some won't know how to start the process and some won't have
> the essential skills. Wikipedia has been built by a relatively small number
> compared to of those who actually use the site. Nevertheless, it is heavily
> used and a tremendously valuable asset to most of us. The same would likely
> be true of a cohousing knowledge base.
>
> I think the cohousing membership would benefit from coherent presentations
> on important issues like:
>
>    - community-developer 
> relationships<http://wiki.cohousing.org/Community-Developer_Relationships>
>    - legal entity choices by phase and state
>    - consensus styles
>    - accessibility
>    - modular construction
>    - demographics
>    - affordable cohousing
>    - what is cohousing
>    - work vs pay systems
>
> and a host of others. All of these appeared on the listserv this year. Our
> understanding of these issues won't advance until we make the effort to
> capture that information in a useful form. From what I have observed on this
> listserv, there are enough *writers* here to make it happen.
>
> John Faust
>



-- 
Craig Ragland

Coho/US executive director
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org

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