Week 2 - still going strong

I continue to be happy with the progress of the group. I also realize the theory that has been forming in my head is about an existing group versus a new group. If I had more time I feel compelled to learn more about how a new community adopts to these technologies.

This was definately the right move to migrate to this technology however.

Week 2 progress

This week is a little less activity, as I expected, however still activity which is good and I'm impressed. This does seem to be the appropariate technology. Although I still believe that the forum is valuable i guess I've just realized it is important to evaluate a community where it is at. Since the community already communicates using email, I realize trying to get them to communicate using a forum for "certain" things didn't seem logical to them. Trying to put myself in their shoes, I can understand that better. I also understand why I use a forum is because the community (cadre) communciated using that technology from the very beginning, therefore it was the primamry communication or one of them. Email is secondary.

First Week

The first week went well, which I expected. I was happy with the responses as I said and also happy with others sending out their own questions to the group. I also was happy to see others besides me responding and I noticed the responses were timely. It made me wonder if one of the other hesitations of the foum was that they didn't feel like it was gong to geta quick enough response. Since they knew THEY weren't checking the forum, they assumed the others ween't therefore it seemed like email would be a quicker way to get a response.

Good Sign

It's the first few days using the listserve group. I'm glad it worked out to use the internal one since the community is already accustomed to using similar groups/lists. The difference will be the ability to archive these messages in a public folder. I think that will be valuable.

I'm encouraged by the responses and the feedback I'm getting. The group seems to really like this idea a whole lot better. It really makes me think about an existing group versus a new group. I'll have to explore that more later.

C3 Progress

I'm concerned about the timing of this all and wrapping it up on time.

I sent an email today despite my last entry. I decided to go for it!! I asked to have a public folder set up with an associated email address as well as a group. The two people that could respond were both out of the office today so I expect to hear Monday.

Cycle 3 - research

I'm really wondering about the technology to use. I've researched a few listserv technologies. I want to be able to create a list but also to be able to have everyone in the group access the archive of messages. The most ideal way is to go to IT and have them create a public folder and a group for me but I'm a little worried about the politics involved. I need to do a little more research on the free ones and also see if there is a free service where I can archive message. I think that might be a nice mix of using email but being able to have a history of the dialogue.

I've looked also at Majordomo and Listserv light so far. It appears that neither of those allow archiving.

feedback reflections

From the surveys I sent out, I feel good. I feel like much of what I though has been confirmed. Such as, the group feels this is valuable, they feel this is informative, the like the tips, they would do this again. The consensus seems to be that the hardest thing is for them to remember to get out to the website and check the forum. It is so different for them. They are so used to using email to communicate within the company and also socially, nearly everything comes in via that. It seems the only time they think of checking it is in fact, when I send the weekly email. How do I deal with this? What does this mean? I'm coming back to the idea of timing, although I think all of them are capable of using this technology I don't think the motivation is there, no matter what i post out there. Also, this makes me think of my own adaption. I can honestly say that if I didn't have a class that I paid for on a forum, I probably wouldn't check it or particpate or migrate to this behavoir very easily either. The motivation of a degree and paying for classes was what changed my behavoir. I don't have that with this group.