Snapshot of the first W2P Meetup page

As the Government of Canada’s Web 2.0 Practitioner (“#W2P“) community approaches it’s 1st year anniversary, I thought I would share the early days of the formation of this community.

Nearly a year ago, community was formed with a full-day free event for Government of Canada Web 2.0 Practitioners (event video summary on GCPEDIA here). The event broke the mold on several fronts. Organised in 3 weeks, this event featured guest speakers, a twitter wall, it’s own hashtag, a knowledge cafe-style conference, a project repository and  knowledge base. The event formed the W2P community and brought together virtual acquaintances to identify and resolve common problems. Interest grew; after a blog post appeared on GTEC about the event, public servant bloggers Nick Charney and Colin H wrote about W2P and every 3 weeks, Government of Canada Web 2.0 Practitioners met to share information.

Seven months later, the community organised a second full-day free event with keynote speakers and workshops on Web 2.0.  After two full-day events and 15 social meetups, the community continues to expand (with interest to form #W2P in other areas of Canada), members continue to sing its praises;

How did it start?

Part of my work was to research the use of Web 2.0 across the Government of Canada. I would seek out information on Web 2.0 projects within government, request demonstrations and write-up summaries. I started inviting others who were researching Web 2.0 projects to join us on the visits.

The visits became more popular, but I found it disconcerting that many of the connections were very flat, very 1-to-1. I noticed a few things about Government of Canada Web 2.0 Practitioners:

1. very willing to share information;
2. lacking tools to collaborate with others within GoC;
3. facing common problems, but resolving them separate from others;
4. lacking information about acceptable or standard Web 2.0 practices in government.

Better understanding the gaps faced by people facing common problems  is an important step to shaping a community that will support them. The problems faced by the fledgling Web 2.0 Practitioner is not that much different than other public servants facing a new challenge;  the silos, the bureaucracy, lacking tools and information. The solution is to network these people together and provide the tools that break down the barriers. This is the modern community.

Want to create a modern community in government?

If you have the opportunity to create a community, you have an opportunity to be innovative with your approach and save yourself headaches. A community isn’t just an email list, a list of names on a wiki page or a roster of names on the management committee in charge or organising the bi-annual conference. Communities are about the bonds that keep it together, the quality of the interactions that occur and its adaptation to serve the common needs of its members. The W2P community has the following qualities, and I recommend you consider them when developing your own community:

• Non-hierarchical: the community has no manager. Instead community leaders arise within it, out of value and influence and all members have the same role independent of level or status in government;
• Flat structure: there no titles for members within the community;
• Horizontal: the community is open to anyone who wants to join;
• Openness: plans and decisions involving the community are shared openly. Discussion about all topics is encouraged;
• Member-focused-purpose: the community exists for the members and evolves with its members (in the case of #W2P, this may be the only purpose).

As the use of Web 2.0 becomes more common  in the work of government, so too will the structure of traditional communities need to change to better bridge gaps in understanding and share practices in problem-solving.  What do these communities look like? Fortunately a long-time #W2P member had something to say:

Here is the video, clip from Monty Python’s Holy Grail:

The #W2P community is formed by engaged, networked and hard-working public servants, who share values of sharing and collaborating (with a bit of risk-taking thrown in).  The members are focused on results and meeting challenges. The community shares successes, failures, unbridled insight and even material across the silos as needed. Web 2.0 is empowering government to better connect with citizens externally (social media), better collaborate internally (collaborative tools), and better openness all across (open data). Communities can augment their value to members by supporting better information sharing and collaboration between members by modernising their structure and focus as well as applying Web 2.0 tools. Such modern communities work differently, in more innovative, social and adaptable ways, focused less on structure and more on the people that comprise them. But then again, isn’t that what community really all about?

Members of the W2P community at the community-organised all-day free event in April

But it’s not all about community; other supports are needed to support an engaged community. More on this in my next blog post.

For now join us tomorrow in celebrating the 1st anniversary of W2P!

Continued props to @tariqPiracha and @jesgood for their edit and review of this post.