Creating a rhythm

“If the beat is too fast…people stop participating because they are overwhelmed. When the beat is too slow, the community feels sluggish” (Wenger et al., 2002, p.62). The core activity for SCoPE is scheduled, topic-based seminars moderated by volunteers in the community. So far we have scheduled one seminar per month, usually 3 weeks in length, and have avoided overlap in the schedule. A regular format helps to build anticipation each month, encourages members to revisit the community, and also invites participation from new members who are interested in the topic.

All seminar discussions take place in one group  space on the SCoPE site. By organizing the discussions this way, members are able to easily enrol and unenrol from the seminar group. In addition, if they have their preferences set to receive forum posts by email, each new seminar discussion is pushed to their email inboxes until such time they choose to unsubscribe. This has proven to be an effective means to promote a seminar and build interest. If it were left to members to decide to participate based on a short description, or take an extra step to register, there would likely be fewer active participants each month. However, this method can take some people by surprise! Here Derek Chirnside enters the discussion scratching his head about how he got there. Interestingly, Derek goes on to be one of the most active discussants in the seminar.

“Well, I'm not exactly sure how I ended up in this discussion, but I am here.  Did someone subscribe me??  Who is here?  Is there a list?  has someone got a plan for my life??” (Chirnside, 2006).

MicroSCoPE (MicroSCoPE newsletter, n.d.), a monthly update on community and member activities, is distributed through the site announcements forum. This newsletter includes upcoming events, a recap on past events, and information about SCoPE members’ activities and achievements such as conference presentations and awards. Any questions about the community tools that affect participation are noted, and replies are included in MicroSCoPE. Following each MicroSCoPE issue, there is an increase in activity on the site. However, inasmuch as a monthly newsletter contributes to a community rhythm, a SCoPE community blog would provide more timely updates. A blog does not reach the same audience as a community newsletter, so we are investigating ways to produce and manage both.