Several of the members of the ukcider community have met each other on past occasions, but last Saturday was for me, the first significant ukcider face to face event, with seven cidermakers and enthusiasts gathering in Rose’s orchard in Dorset. You can see the photos and read more about the blossomtime celebrations and cider tasting, on the wiki page but here on this research blog, I want to think about how a F2F event might affect an online community.
It was effectively the first real face to face meeting of a CoP which has existed for 5 years or so online. Now I’ve done this kind of thing before, so I had no worries but it was interesting to hear others expressing great surprise at how well it worked, socially. They all got on together and had a great time with people they’d never seen before, chatting away like long lost friends, which I was able to explain is quite normal really. Not meeting strangers, but friends who just hadn’t happened to have met before.
Such an event can only strengthen the ties between those present, but what effect might this have on the CoP overall? It’s too soon to say, of course. I think most close communities develop an urge to meet f2f, overcoming quite substantial obstacles to do so, this one was just quite a long time in the making.
- |* I’d expect the members who were present to perhaps email each other more. That might cause a dip in the more public interactions. Should that be a concern?
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* Or they might make more personal, and perhaps off topic remarks in the group.
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* People who weren’t present have already expressed regret at not being able to make it, and this will increase the impetus to organise future events.
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* Others on the periphery might possibly begin to feel excluded by the added camaraderie of the regulars.
What’s your experience of what happens after a purely online community has met face to face?
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Andy Roberts is a writer who initiated DARnet. Contact me on aroberts@gmail.com or @aroberts on twitter
This is an interesting post for me, because we have done almost the same, organise a meeting after about 6 months online communications. I noticed for some (who are not well versed online), it felt like nothing much had happened. For others, a lot had happened online. I think as a CoP facilitator, you have to learn how to work with both, as it does bring a new group dynamic. (make sure there is enough overlap- the f2f people, keep them on board online and vice versa?)
One month later, I can begin to review the effects:
“I’d expect the members who were present to perhaps email each other more. That might cause a dip in the more public interactions.”
I think this has happened to an extent, for the first 3 weeks anyway, but i should check the stats more carefully. But there was other actiivity ticking over so not much of a concern.
“Or they might make more personal, and perhaps off topic remarks in the group.”
No, this hasn’t happened.
“People who weren’t present have already expressed regret at not being able to make it, and this will increase the impetus to organise future events.”
Not expressed in public yet, but I’ve been told some will make sure they can attend next year’s.
“Others on the periphery might possibly begin to feel excluded by the added camaraderie of the regulars”
On the contrary, some new people have managed to join in quite quickly, provoking interesting debate.