Sense of Place on the Internet: A Brand New Community Ecosystem

Are you in?

If you feel you belong to an internet community, or have been feeding off the Mea Ho‘okipa there, I think it is time to re-think your old thoughts about lurking and protecting your privacy:

Say thank you by granting some trust,
stepping into the community sandbox,
and acting like you belong there.
Let people know you are reading,
and may be ready to contribute in some way.

Collaboration and social synergy just doesn’t happen all that well with shadows in the dark. A true community ecosystem needs you to be “all in” and not just hanging around in the parking lot.

“There really aren’t many secrets to how things work in social media. There are skills to learn, and then there are human traits to re-learn. And yet, when people jump into this space and try to get results for their efforts, they’re sometimes surprised and frustrated. Sometimes, when we’re rushed, we forget the “nice” parts of things, and yet, in a community ecosystem, that’s what will drive your results.”
—Chris Brogan: The Community Ecosystem

I love what Chris has written.

“There are skills to learn, and then there are human traits to re-learn.”
Niceties that come with being a good guest, and welcomed visitor.

It got me thinking about Sense of Place, and how our cyber community spaces constantly challenge us:

• Can we get as ‘grounded’ and place-connected ONline as we do OFFline?
• Just how close can our emotional connections with people globally, get us to those physical sensory connections we have with the places we actually feel under our feet?

Now we could get all idealistic about this, however an overly-generous inclusivity and profession of love for our fellow man would be kind of a cop-out to the discussion. Lets dig in and really think about this.

Physical place has this huge advantage; it surrounds you —you are enveloped IN it. On the other hand, we leave our virtual places so easily, simply switching off our connectivity and walking away.

When there are other people in our physical places they cannot be ignored or lightly dismissed. On the internet, the people we read and visit with regularly, and may even have come to know, reaching out to them personally, can pour their hearts out in an article or blog post, and we won’t think twice about ignoring them completely, often neglecting to leave a simple one-liner that says, “I was here for you.”

Communicate When You Can

“The Zulu greet each other by saying “Sawubona,” translated literally to mean, “I see you.” It means, “I know that you’re there and I acknowledge you as another person.” The response back is, “Ngikhona,” which is literally, “I am here.”

Visiting people’s websites and/or just reading their RSS feed isn’t enough all the time. Make a point of commenting, of saying “I see you.” Sometimes (okay, often) I receive email from people saying that they don’t get any comments on their website and they wonder why they should bother. MANY people have the feeling they’re out in the wild doing nothing important. You might be contributing to this feeling by not commenting, even on occasion, on some of the places you visit.

So when you can, share a little “I see you” with the places where you interact. Because it will matter. It does come back to you. People do care.”
—Chris Brogan

When I say “we” I mean me too… kinda wondering here just how flippant and careless I have been with some of my online connections. Just how fresh, vibrant, dynamic and healthy is my own community ecosystem anyway?

An ecosystem is defined as “a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.” The interaction part has got to be there.

This was once a tree trunk, enveloped in a sudden lava flow, leaving its shape in the solidified rock.
Now we have a beautiful fern garden inside... a self-contained ecosystem...
Found on Flickr by Quarrion (David), taken at Lava Trees National Park, Big Island, Hawai'i.

Is that the difference?

Offline, the interaction part has to happen. Online, the pure scale of cyberspace means that just ‘knowing’ someone might be there has to be enough for you.

No... I don’t think I can go there anymore. It doesn’t HAVE to be enough.

After a certain point, I kinda think that anonymity online, and wanting to keep your privacy actually gets rude and opportunistic: When you play, and gain value, you reciprocate. It’s so simple to give back to others online – way easier than in our offline physical places. Why is it that we don’t do it?

What I liked about Chris’s post, is that he challenges us to do what we CAN to contribute: For some, commenting is just not the ticket. Hey, I admit it, sometimes I don’t feel up to it either.

However, if our Ho‘ohana Community Ecosystem is to prosper and thrive, we have to think of other ways that our interaction can happen, including when I, Rosa Say (Ms. HCer #1), am not even involved.

For instance, commenting and emails and a Skype or phone call aside, three of my favorite ways to let people know I’ve been thriving in their online communities are;

1. Tagging what they write as reference-worthy in my del.icio.us account (they will see it in their stats, and may get some traffic from my subscribers and network there)
2. Stumbling their article-gold I feel really need to be shared (I just started doing this, kinda works like del.icio.us, and I stumbled Chris’s post after I left him a comment)
3. Linking to snippets of their writing on my Tumblelog or using the following feature there when I know others are tumbling (They will know I am reading via their dashboard)
   
   For people who write on the internet, these are three ways that I say “Sawubona” without them feeling they need to answer me back. In the convention of these programs I don't expect a response back; I just want to let them know their efforts were worth it; I want to keep encouraging them to do what they are doing.

If you don't like commenting, fine, but there are so, so many other ways to be a known reader now, letting good citizen publishers know that you appreciate them.

So what do you say? Feel you belong? Are you in?

If you have some ideas, let’s hear them. If you just want to say, “I was here” that will be really nice too.
Ngikhona,
~ Rosa

Postscript: More about the Ho‘ohana Community is here, and besides this sandbox, there is one over at Joyful Jubilant Learning. I had written about Sense of Place there in the beginning of the year:

We are a Place for the Ho'ohana Community to share their experiences within joyful learning, whatever their vision, or their mission borne of the aloha within them. You will find more stories here of when, how, why and from who we have learned what we have, rather than the how-to of detailed lesson plans, logs or chronicles, and you will find many, many expressions of joy. You will find possibility. We love to capture wonder, being a Place for more community miracles to grow. For now, that is more than good enough for us, and for this Place. In fact, it is amazingly special. Place provides belonging. Joy is powerful. To have a Sense of Place which comforts, affirms and inspires you to make learning miracles in the company of others is an extraordinary gift. And it is an abundant gift, one we'd love to give to you too. You are warmly welcomed to be part of the Ho'ohana Community and join us here. Know this: The Ho'ohana Community is a network of good people. We have come together both by chance and by intention, feeling we were called by the values and spirit of Aloha.

• Read more about Managing with Aloha and Sense of Place

• Update: Here is another article by Dustin Wax at Lifehack.org which is sort of a good counterpoint: How to Be a Good Neighbor In an Attention Economy.

 

Comments

[Karen Wallace]

I was here!

Thanks Rosa.

OK, but I cannot leave it at that:)

When we take a moment to craft a response to a post, or leave a comment, we're leaving a little bit of ourselves for the writer - which is how it should be, as they have given us a little piece of themselves.

The thing I find hard is having the time to read well enough to have something to say that means something. I'm wondering whether 'I was here' will be enough for some? (And whether I could ever leave it at that)

Rosa, this is a great post, and so much food for thought. Thank you. I will be coming back to this for further reading and thinking.

[Rosa Say]

As I thought about and wrote this Karen, the basics and etiquette of blog commenting quickly left my mind, though the mental gymnastics may have started there. I will be the first to admit that I for one have little patience for ‘courtesy comments’ as compared to those that are worth the time of responding to them because they ARE catalysts for high ROA (return on our attention). So in looking for more options, and more ways to communicate online, I am beginning to love the hunt in discovering ways to start and continue digital feedback loops beyond ‘Commenting 101.’ As I mentioned in my post, I am loving Delicious, StumbleUpon and Tumblr precisely because they have no comment feature, and challenge you to engage and play nicely in different ways.

As for the “having the time to read well enough to have something to say that means something” I think that’s a great challenge to the writer/publisher: We shouldn’t expect feedback for stuff that is just thrown out there to manufacture filler-content. Readers deserve more of our respect than that.

[Chris Brogan...]

In our village known as the Internet, there are lots of ways to contribute. I love that you mentioned the value of adding a bookmark in del.icio.us, and using StumbleUpon, and putting some links out there to the world. These are just as valuable as comments to some, at least insofar as the "tip of the hat" signaling that you've read it and found interest in it.

You're right that there are many ways to build a relationship and that "me too" comments can sometimes be a little tiresome. And yet, some days, I'll take those, too. : )

Thanks, Rosa. I'm grateful to be a satellite to your amazing community, and grateful for your time and attention.

[Rosa Say]

Some days, we’ll all take those “me too”s Chris!

I know that my challenge, “Are you in?” can be a formidable one, as it asks people to take stock of all their wandering and make some choices. However the reality is that if we are to have a halfway decent blend of our lives both on- and off-line, we do have to choose which communities we’ll make ourselves known in. The argument can certainly be made that there are as many different communities as there are internet publishers — and then some. None of us can be all things to all people, and what I love about the new tools available to us is that while they cannot replace a great person-to-person relationship, they can certainly enhance ones that begin to take root.

Thank you for coming by Chris; you’re more than ‘satellite’ —you’ve been an amazing coach and friend for me in the time we’ve known each other. You’re going to be immortalized in my ‘language of intention’ for coining this phrase and notion of a ‘community ecosystem.’ Defining more about what that means for the Ho‘ohana Community is going to be a worthy adventure! We are just beginning…

[Joanna Young]

Hello Rosa, thanks for following up this piece of Chris's which I have to confess I skimmed over :-(

What I have learned is that people will respond in different ways. Now I'm someone who likes to comment, but it does take (a lot of) time. And not everyone has the confidence to add something of value to a piece that's well written. They think their words aren't up to it, or their point of view not valuable enough.

Discovering StumbleUpon was an eye-opener for me. I 'met' readers who were happily stumbling and commenting on my pieces, but on SU rather than my blog. And that's perfectly fine, it's what they want and choose to do. (And I love stumbling and reviewing pieces in the same way - to say thanks, this is interesting, I was there, I saw you)

Group writing projects has been another learning lesson - more readers I didn't know who have happily taken part on their own blogs. (I know Chris is a fan of this medium) Sharing their words with me and with others.

Then there's Twitter. Quite a lot of conversation and commenting is happening on Twitter. People share URLs to interesting pieces but also provide feedback, comments and ideas there rather than on a post. I'm not sure Twitter would be your cup of tea, but it is interesting, dynamic, funny, creative and there is a definite sense of place.

People say hello when they arrive and goodbye when they leave. They 'wave' at people they don't 'know' but have come to know in places in all over the world. Get ideas, suggestions, inspiration.

I'm surprised by it, but it's there.

Maybe some will come by following my 'tweet' about this post...?

Thanks for prompting the conversation Rosa

Joanna

[Rosa Say]

No Joanna, YOU skimmed over something?!? It can’t be true!

You have written brilliantly about ‘comment culture’ before, and what you have achieved at Confident Writing within your own blog’s community is amazing and very inspiring. It really seems like you have reached that tipping point where your readers cannot imagine coming by and not letting you know. So if reader confidence is a hurdle to overcome, you are Mea Ho‘okipa of the highest caliber!

You were also my inspiration in pulling the trigger with my more faithful use of StumbleUpon because you raved about it so, and I am a good student when it comes to giving high credibility to Joanna Young’s recommendations. Twitter is something I have ‘parked’ for now [in fact, I tumbled about it recently here: http://rosasay.tumblr.com/post/29673248 ] for when I can afford to give it some of my attentions… my caution is that the program IS compelling, and it will be too distracting for me.

If I were to choose between them, I love trackbacks over comments, and fully understand why some blogs (like Seth Godin’s) have comments turned off and trackbacks on. With trackbacks (excluding those from link-blogs) two things happen: An author is somewhat forced to expand on one post in a way that is thoughtful and note-worthy. Second, his or her ‘expansion’ draws in another webbed community of readers that the originating author likely did not have access to, and perhaps, their comments and trackbacks. I adore following trackbacks that people have sent me, fascinated by the ‘ecosystem mutations’ that occur.

The problem with trackbacks is that you are limiting your audience to other online publishers and excluding readers without blogs, thus I don’t feel the trackbacks-only approach would work for the Ho‘ohana Community. Seth Godin has been upfront and honest about this: He’s going for other ‘sneezers’ and prefers to be catalyst over community-builder (and I have happily been a sneezer for him on several occasions!)

[Steve Sherlock]

Rosa, et al. As I read the posting I had one line of though to follow for my response/value added 2 cents but as I get to the end of the conversation, the train of thought has shifted tracks.

I'll leave a nugget of it here and develop it further. I feel the idea growing and spreading tenticles but I don't want to leave you hanging.

The theme of community and building a conversation, developing an understanding, developing relationships, one post, one comment, one tweet at a time requires effort. Requires presence of mind. We have to hold these thoughts and trails somewhere within the grey matter for ready recall.

Someday the software will work more in our favor. Someday, the streams of thought, posts, tweets, comments, trackbacks will mingle within a cloud amongst their own kind with links to the sources or folks that generated them.

Chris also has a posting with a gathering of this digital matter, our stuff, from here, there, and everywhere.

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-web-version-of-you/

At the end of the post Chris asks the question, what comes next?

I am reminded that a couple of years ago, this group coming off a great October of conversation asked that same question. What came next then was JJL. But I think we are still asking the question, what comes next?

[Rosa Say]

You are right Steve, it has been a continuous conversation now spanning the entire 4 years and 8 months that the Ho‘ohana Community has been in existence. Something tells me it will continue to have more chapters versus an ending… I always like that question, “What comes next?” I’ll be checking out that link.

Mahalo for not leaving us hanging… :) and do come back as you develop your idea further! Meanwhile, we certainly are enjoying the JJL joy-ride too —ALAWB has been quite an exhilarating community forum this month!