The KM4dev discussion on lurkers caught my attention. The thread started with “The future of knowledge sharing in a digital age” and actually became “The role of readers, bumblebees or lurkers in cross-pollination”. It is a fascinating discussion and I digested it visually. As storytellers we need listeners; writers need listeners (unless it’s journaling), and vice versa.

BLOG luker 1

Multiple roles to play

There are two roles to play: a silent one and a visible one. Aren’t we all playing both roles in different situations, moments, in the team, our communities? What we read here, we talk about somewhere else. What we hear in one place we digest elsewhere. The lurker – a funny word indeed – becomes the cross-pollinating bumblebee or the twitter bird.

It’s all about the choices that people make to be vocal in certain areas and arenas and not in others, for a variety of reasons. But the point is for them to be listening at least (or at least some of the time).
Ewen Le Brogne

Without the audience the actors are only rehearsing. All together make the play.
Camilo Villa

those people you are weakly connected to tend to bring in new ideas and connections to other communities. Often the “readers” in one COP might represent such as weak tie connection and bring in things from elsewhere.
Eva Schiffer

BLOG luker 2

Ready to engage 

To me the question about roles is also a question about engagement. Peter Block asks four questions about our commitment in learning events. They are so beautiful that they are worth to be asked as often as possible.

  • To what degree do you intend to get value out of this event?
  • To what degree are you prepared to engage personally to achieve this?
  • To what degree are you prepared to take risks to learn at this event?
  • To what degree are you prepared to take responsibility for the learning & engagement of others at this event?

Peter Block (via David Gurteen)

Ready so share

How much do we really share? When would it be more valuable to work out loud and include others in our deliberating process? I find the seek-sense-share framework of Harold Jarche useful. It is so simple and clear. And yet, we often don’t finish the cycle and ‘forget’ to share.  That is why I prefer to draw it as a cycle. link to my blog

What’s the sense of seeking and digesting without sharing. Sharing is part of learning, isn’t it?

And I would guess THAT we share is more important than WHERE we share.
What do you think?

Further reflections