Technology Stewardship

1. Technology Stewardship
for communities
Elmi Bester
KM Practitioners Group – Johannesburg Chapter
26 May 2010

2. Welcome!
Human spectrogram

3. Agenda
- Why (and how) did the CSIR became
interested in technology stewardship?
- What are the practical value and
implications of technology stewardship
for knowledge management
initiatives? Is this not something KM
practitioners have been doing all along?
- What are the traits of value-adding
technology stewardship?
- What’s next in terms of technology
stewardship for the CSIR?

4. Woot Woot! Woo Hoo!
© CSIR 2009 www.csir.co.za
Technology has fundamentally changed how we can be together.
Tech + social
Whether we are in the same place
or scattered across the globe.
We have the business imperatives.
We have the technology.
Yet why does it remain so hard?

5. www.wealthyleader.com/blog/
crystalking.com/writingblog/crystalking.com/writingblog/
crystalking.com/writingblog/

6. © CSIR 2009 www.csir.co.za
http://www.kf6nvr.net/blog/archives/images/computing_stress.jpg
Technostress
Just more islands
Disillusionment

7. © CSIR 2009 www.csir.co.za

8. “Technology stewards are people with enough
experience of the workings of a community to
understand its technology needs, and enough experience
with technologyto take leadership in addressing
those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and
configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in
the practice of the community .”
Digital Habitats (Wenger, Smith, White)

9. http://www.brandweek.com/bw/photos/stylus/74095-
SocialNets.jpg
http://tparty.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8345159f569e201156fa9aab2970c-400wi
http://thetearoom.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54fccb6d2883401156f5dcdcb970c-800wi
It is not about replicating what is working for
me/ us/ others …
The community
This is working
for the Ya-Ya
sisterhood
You
should do
this as
well!
Not
working? Then this
should
work
This is not
us!

10. http://www.gapingvoid.com/sms229.jpg
Technology stewards?

12. enable people to…
• discover & appropriate useful
technology
• be in and use communities
& networks (people)
• express their identity
• find and create content
• usefully participate
Nancy White © 2010 http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Stewarding+Technology+for+Online+Communities

14. What are the practical value and implications of
technology stewardship for knowledge management
initiatives?
Is this not something KM practitioners have been
doing all along?
Is this part of the KM agenda?
Discussion

15. © CSIR 2009 www.csir.co.za
What are the traits of value-adding
technology stewardship? (1)
Support community
experimentation & make
‘tool use’ visible
From Digital Habits (Wenger, Smith, White 2009)
Principles
Keep vision of your
community’s success
above the technical
details of technology
implementation
Keep the technology
as simple as possible
while meeting needs
Let the configuration of
technologies evolve as
the community evolves
Use all of the
knowledge around
you
Practices – information
management,
facilitation, journalism,
summarising etc

16. http://www.lukegilman.com/high-on-the-hog/wp-
content/uploads/2009/01/social-media-whiteboard.jpg
IMPRESS THEM… or confuse them…
do they need to know all of this?

17. www.oriones.com/.../01/twitter-bots-cartoon.gif

18. What are the traits of value-adding
technology stewardship? (2)
© CSIR 2009 www.csir.co.za
There is a method in the madness
… with frameworks

19. … meetings
… relationships
… community
cultivation
… access to
expertise
… projects
… context
… individual
participation
… content
publishing
… open-ended
conversation
Community
activities
oriented to …
Base material from:
Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for
communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

21. activities
oriented to …
Community Name: KM4Dev
global knowledge sharing network
… open-ended
conversation
… meetings
… projects
… access to
expertise
… relationships
… context
… community
cultivation
… individual
participation
… content
publishing
Base material from:
Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for
communities
© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith
With only one meeting a
year, large size and
diversity, KM4Dev
focuses on enabling
individual participation.
Community knowledge wiki,
content management system
to bring together resources.
Email list is core of
community activity
Once a year and only about
10% do/can participate.
When funding allows. E.G.
supporting ShareFair
Informally via the email list
by asking/answering
questions.
Relationships mostly via
meetings and core group.
Strongly
external – all
resources
public/shared.
While everyone pays
attention to the
community, no
centralized efforts…

22. • Right balance between evangelism and scepticism
• To establish the right practices first you must practice
• Listen Listen Listen
• Reflective conversations
• It is about the second wavers
• Geeky friends, information specialist friends, communications friends
• Ambient awareness of community, community boundaries and technology use
• Mindful learning agenda
What are the traits of value-adding
technology stewardship? (3)

24. http://steve-dale.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/dilbert-laptop2.gif

25. What’s next in terms of technology
stewardship for the CSIR?
Focused initiatives
Safe-fail
Overcoming tool barriers?
Embedding technology
stewardship in relevant places
Digital literacy?

26. don’t worry –
there will be
bumps in the
road…TALK about
them http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Stewarding+Technology+for+Online+Communities

28. Waves are funny things. Think of ocean
waves. They go up and down, they can
be gentle or pound us into the sand.
Just when we think we have their
rhythm, the next wave changes and
surprises us. The key is staying alert,
knowing how to swim and to expect
the unexpected.
• Nancy White, 2010