Found(ations) of CoPs

We are two weeks into the course "Foundations of Communities of Practices" by CP Square. The course is 100% online, including all reading materials. My online learning experience until this course included an online support forum provided during my MBA by the British OU, and a course by Imark. For the OU, all the reading material was sent out to me in print. I considered their web space called "FirstClass" as a very secondary source. I used to only go there just before assignments or exams, to check if anything useful had been posted.

Imark is a recently developed course on knowledge management (supported by FAO), which I discovered on the Internet. I did the first module and found it very useful, well-paced and good quality. Although I knew part of it already, it was good to learn about xml, html and using some very basic markup as well. And it´s free! I´m planning to do the networks- module, too.

Still, this CoP course is very different. It has the feel of a real, meaning life, course. I feel drawn in, I feel I am getting to know my co-learners. I keep going back to the web space, to look at what others have posted. The group, of some 25 people, has been grouped in households where we can chat in the kitchen and receive guests (others from the group) at the front porch. We are also seated at conversation tables, where we bring in our topics to discuss. In this large group, within a week, an atmosphere of inquiry, of joint learning, has evolved. I guess that is the most important difference with the other e-learning experiences I had: here, we have formed a community. We are discussing a-asynchronous (meaning you can post/add to a discussion on the moments that suit you), but we are learning synchronously, during these seven weeks.

Beforehand, I never could have guessed that having a learning community would be so determining for course quality. Actually, I have often enjoyed being a solitary learner, going my own pace and not have someone in the community "hit the brakes" all the time.

An important point is the enormous experience and quality of the other participants. I myself am relatively new to CoPs but long familiar with a "knowledge perspective". Before deciding to take this course I was critically assessing its usefulness, and I did not want to end up in a course with complete beginners. Well, I can tell you I didn´t. In hindsight I am even a bit embarrassed as many of the other participants have a lot of experience. I am also surprised: how come that this course attracted, almost without exception, people who are so experienced?

CASESTUDY to course “foundations of CoPs”

This is the casestudy I sent to the course "stories" area:

I initiated a CoP of dutch dairy farmers in south Portugal. The total group is about 50 farms, the furthest farms maybe around 400 km apart.

Organizational Context:

50 large, modern farms in an area which is not traditionally a dairy area, and where the majority of dairy farmers is Dutch. The families who came first have been here 20 years, others have just arrived. These families are usually the only foreign people in their village, their children frequent the local schools, barter and friendly relations with the neighbours and villagers are the norm. For parties and special occasions, get-togethers with the Dutch are organised (a few times a year). Most farms have gone through difficult times, today, generally speaking, most make a good living. Between farms there may be some competition for resources (labour, feed), there is none for selling the milk. Competition seems to be about reputation more than anything else.

Description of the Community:

• Domain: Dairy production in the area

• Community: Dutch farms in the area

• Practice: sharing information, knowledge. Joint inquiry, joint learning.

Development Strategy:

The idea was “tested” by having a womens network based on a yahoo group. The women, after initial resistances, took to the idea and since a year we have a blossoming email group and 4 times/year day long f2f events. This ensured that within each family, someone got used to the technology. It also ensured a firm base for me as a person within the dutch community.

On the 1^st of April I started a blog and a google group. On average, I informed the group twice a week about the idea of a CoP and the advantages I saw. The 1^st of May, at an agricultural meeting, we had a kind of kick-off: I had someone from Holland speak about inspiring examples from Holland and I spoke as well. The week after, I continued to blog, launched webversions of a “marketplace” and a “labour pool”. My husband started a project to gather market prices and publish them. For the future I think of a system where online contact enriches f2f events (3-4 times/yr day long).

Results Thus Far:

Results are really quite lukewarm. Practically no email traffic, no reactions to the website initiatives. The number of pageviews after a blogpost (I usually send an email to let them know I posted something, as RSS is not known much) are around 15-20. No reactions to my invitations to think with me. F2f, reactions are equally lukewarm, though usually when I start talking most become more positive.

To do:

Soon, we will have a first real f2f event, where I want to present the organization of the CoP, like subdomains, working methodologies. I had hoped to develop this event jointly with others, but do not want to drag people in if they do not see the potential!

Paradoxically, I myself see more and more potential for this CoP (or is it/ will it be a network?)

Comments from you that would be useful:

• How to proceed?
• How to finance this CoP. In any case membership fees will be a good idea. But will people be prepared to both pay and contribute their efforts?
• Alternatively, to what extent would it be compatible with a business model? (sell events and webspace to both speakers and visitors)
• To show the potential I would like to just start, but then some time we will have to switch from informal to formal, so maybe it is better to start formal right away?
• What about leadership of this CoP? At first I thought I would do the initial start-up and then leadership would diverge / rotate to others, but I am beginning to see the willingness and (tech) abilities to lead may not be sufficiently present.
• What is my role? I am part of the community and an “advisor” simultaneously. I had decided to give it a go without being rewarded but I would like to be.

Network weaving

Through the blog network weaving I´ve found a very interesting article, "Building Smart Communities through Network Weaving" by Valdis Krebs and June Holley. It´s both encouraging and sometimes discouraging how many things that I have independently ´discovered´ turn out to have long before been found out, tried, published about (and often, abandoned) by others. (And: What a rich source the Internet/blogosphere is! Once you start articulating what you are looking for, you´ll be able to find some information about it, whatever it is! Then you think: why didn´t I find this before? Another confirmation: modern life is no longer about having access to the information but about meaning making…)

Slowly, I had come to envisage how networks and linking networks could provide better opportunities for the Alentejo. It started when I found out how much Portugese society  relies on ´having the right contacts´ (of course I knew this cliché, but again: meaning making is a world apart from having the info!). This is true for Portugal in general, but especially in the Alentejo, a rural area formerly ruled by landlords. No business can be done if you do not know the right people. However, to get to know them is not easy. The social networks may be effective for those within, but they are not very effective for the region as a whole. I think they are old, little transparent, inaccessable, much seggregated in terms of class and gender. Network organizations or other organizations/clubs where networking can be done, hardly exist and if they exist they are again dominated by the ´old networks´.

As a result, local entrepreneurs and new comers, are not very "linked": some are succesful in what they do, but the region as a whole does not benefit sufficiently. Too little "dynamics" are generated for the area. An example are the dutch dairy farmers who have flourishing farms: in terms of family many of us are fully integrated, and many portuguese suppliers have found their way to our farms. However, there are opportunities untaken, potentials still hidden… I suspect the same is true for the spanish olive growers, the younger Portuguese, the new generation entrepreneurs, lisboetas coming into the country….

This, together with my ´discovery´of web2.0 tools for communication and networking, made me think of a "network organization" for the Alentejo. A space to link local entrepreneurs, newcomers, ngo´s, large companies and old networks, aided by ICT. 

And the article (see also the post on regional innovation and its comments) provided me with some pointers of how to start: Know the net, knit the net. I´ve started knitting, but what if this dairy thread stops?

Balance commerce / knowledge

Since the "kick-off" 1st of May I have been thinking on how to proceed with the dairy network. I had it all neatly planned and thought out: if no-one would volunteer to co-develop the network I would phone some "allies" to invite them to help me think out the ´design´ and organise a first meeting. But I didn´t.

Writing the last post helped me discover why I couldn´t bring myself to actually do so. I feel that even "allies" have not discovered the potential of this network and the ICT possibilities. Consequently, I would probably still be putting in most thinking. There are very few, if any, who ever get work done by email, so design and organization work would imply travel. So probably it will cost less energy to try and get going with the whole group than to work in two stages, first the allies and than the rest.

But how to get going? I considered the tips and advice from knowledgeable sources: to try and get participants to email more lightheartedly by introducing games, like emails of only three words. Or to introduce subjects they would engage in more easily, like the upcoming soccer World Cup. But then, that would reconfirm the prejudice of some that email is only for babble.

Instead, I did something capricious. I noticed that a company for cow nutrition from Belgium is organizing a meeting on the 30th this month for their clients. Our email group at present holds 40 farms (many more than their clients) but is definitely of interest to them as potential clients. I had once, briefly, met the nutritionist and he struck me as quite knowledgeable and not the typical vendor type. So I phoned him and asked him to act as a guest in our email group. My idea is to introduce him on the blog/site, and then to initiate dialog between him and the group on the emailgroup.

Now why does it feel capricious? I want the dairy network to be a CoP, not just a commercial platform and certainly not an easy entrance for companies to sell more. I want farmers to be demanding, to be ´on the wheel´, not companies. I want the network to be self-financing and independent: a way to transform information into knowledge. Companies, if given access at all, should be genuinly interested to jointly develop knowledge.

An alternative option (not preferred by me, although the possibilities for financial rewards seem much shinier) is to be a commercial platform, a broker for (commercial) contacts. In that case, both farm members and supplying companies should pay to be given access to the network.

For either option I could be going the wrong direction: I am giving the network away to commerce before it even exist, and what´s worse, for free!

I haven´t decided yet whether or not to combine our meetings. There is a certain need for us to have a meeting, to keep up any momentum gained on the kick-off. Timing, location, the subject of the presentation and the lunch planned: the company´s meeting seems perfectly planned. Piggy-back or not? 

Why the dairy network might fail…

The reactions to my initiative to start a dairy farmers network are still very few and lukewarm. I see several reasons:

• Intended participants are dutch emigrants who decided to leave behind everything that was familiar to them in order to expand their individual farm. The first years have been a lonely struggle for most: both by nature and nurture these people are individualists, used to taking care of their problems by themselves.
• For most, easier times have arrived by now. There is no pressing common problem or need to address. Many may not perceive any added value of a network.
• Intended participants are not comfortable with expressing themselves by writing.
• Although most have an email connection, it seems to be used mostly by the younger parts of the families, and only for informal contact. Emailing is not yet integrated in business and therefor perceived as hobby.
• The dutch farming community is small and reigned by ´reputations´. Appearantly no-one feels the need to change the status-quo established….
• Earlier efforts to have a more traditional studygroup have quickly stranded.

Dairy CoP kick off

After having sent most of the potential members a number of informative emails, the 1st of May was the first "life" event for the network of dutch dairy farmers I am initiating. We made use of the yearly "Dia de Agricultura" which the embassy organises for the Dutch community in Portugal engaged in agriculture. Willem van Weperen came from the Netherlands to speak about his experience with networks in the dairy sector. He listed the advantages of networks: an efficient way of learning, a way to create financial value… he made extensive use of examples and pictures from his work with 11 groups of dairy farmers from Drente, who were federated in a network. He also gave tips for starting networks: to be patient as it takes time to become efficient…

Afterwards I briefly described the idea for a dairy network in Portugal. The highlights:

Objective of the network: improved company results, by jointly -getting access to information, -learning, and -innovation. Some elements of the network:

• network: to give and to get, active participation required
• as distances are large the website and email group are substantial part of contact and content
• gatherings probably 4 times a year
• group is self-steering: interest and initiative determine agenda

I also asked for email adresses of other potential members and for volunteers to develop this initiave into a concrete first meeting.

It was the first face-to-face opportunity for reactions. I had received not a single reaction on the emails and blog-posts. Reactions varied widely: tame, positive, reserved, welcoming, "not-for-me", expecting, cynical, positive. Hardly anyone was outright enthusiastic. A majority was reservedly positive.

I made a very clear point of not wanting to "pull the cart alone" but have not received any volunteers sending me more email adresses, let alone committee members.

Of course, this sends me to reconsider my ideas. However, I am convinced a network of dairy farmers has a great potential, for the following reasons:

• the community exists already, being a group of around 50 dutch dairy farmers in (southern) Portugal
• "blue ocean" surroundings: due to the fact that the area is not traditionally a dairy region, and large-scale modern dairy farming is quite new in Portugal, many services, which in the Netherlands are being provided by a multitude of other agents, are still lacking. A network could take up (or articulate the need for) these services. (e.g. price information, brokering, publishing, lobbying, integration in other systems).
• the Netherlands continues to be a dairy country with the traditionally strong knowledge system still working, but with a shrinking number of farmers: a huge "offer" of expertise, information, tools, project outputs, is available and only needs to be tapped to flow to Portugal. A network would facilitate this flow and enable the adjustments that maybe needed to apply this knowledge in different circumstances.
• Most portugese dairy farmers are somehow part of a "associação", and I know at least some of these to be flourishing.

Tomorrow I will try to list the reasons why it might NOT work.