Thinking About Visuals in Online Communities and Facilitation

Nancy White Full Circle Associates

www.fullcirc.com@nancywhite

April 2010

A picture is worth a thousand words

This is a chart by the French civil engineer, Charles Joseph Minard , drawn 50 years after Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812. He wanted to show the impact and true cost of war upon men’s lives.

http://flickr.com/photos/leelefever/2246194618/in/set-72157603857270660

http://flickr.com/photos/leelefever/2243219038/in/set-72157603857270660

But you know this….

LISTEN

…invite storytelling and meaning-making

… somehow more NEGOTIABLE…

We can “write on the table” together.

… the power of

making our mark…

share

identity

Organize our thoughts

Supporting Specific Large Group Methods

• The World Café

• Open Space

• Appreciative Inquiry

Theoretical Basis(from Sibbet and Margulies and the work of Arthur

Young, noted in The Change Handbook, )

http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=9781576753798

In doing F2F graphic work, new worlds have been opened up to me.

What would they look like online?

Learning how to not screw up communicating together online all the time….

http://bgblogging.com/

http://www.commoncraft.com/blog

http://www.scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/

http://xkcd.com/382/

http://palojono.blogspot.com/2008/01/story-behind-product.html

Enhancing Telephone

Conferences

On phone calls, a simple visual practice can help us “see” each other in new ways…

Enhancing Web Meetings

Welcome! Write yourname beneath a chair and get comfortable!

Choconancy’s chairs http://www.fullcirc.com

Thinking and organizing ideas

together

What happens when we organize our words visually?

http://www.kstoolkit.org/Mindmapping

Visual harvest from in “in world” World Café in Second Life – February 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/choconancy/sets/72157605091310649/

Capture and share artifacts from F2F events

We can use images online to

help us establish context, make meaning and create

memories to continue our experience?

Can we draw together online?

Did you say draw? Me draw?

Yeah, you!

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Pablo Picasso

Using existing images… like FLICKR! Or Video like YouTube?

http://www.flickr.com

http://www.youtube.com

So what?

Be obviousAccept offers

Fail cheerfully

http://palojono.blogspot.com/2008/02/lessons-from-improv-for-design-be.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Johnstone

But you knew that.

More, More, More

• http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Graphic+Recording+and+Facilitation• http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/Online+Visual+Tools+and+Methods• http://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/blogging+to+drawing• http://del.icio.us/choconancy/visual_blogs• http://del.icio.us/choconancy/visual_thinking• http://www.fullcirc.com (my blog)