I just attended the Facilitating Online Communities online course conference call. We were from Peru, Vancouver, New Zealand, Texas, Argentina, New York, Brunei, and elsewhere. Wow! What a global perspective to discuss some of the issues around communities. This was the first time I was able to attend one of our calls,

I am increasingly interested in the issues in and around technology, especially how the technological capacity, abilities, costs, and limitations can tend to direct how online communities communicate and develop.

There was some discussion about the mini online conference during weeks 12 and 13. Leigh Blackall mentioned some options for online community development, facilitation, and almost anything interesting around the idea of facilitating online communities. We should begin to consider topics of various interest, and it was suggested we group up and do a variety of online events:

In these two weeks you will focus on your event that you are facilitating as part of the course mini conference. The idea is for you to organize something for the conference, such as a guest speaker or a discussion panel through web conference; a discussion forum on a social networking platform; or assisting with the preparation and promotion of the mini conference generally. This will be your chance to facilitate real events and communication online, and explore more dimensions to facilitating online communities. 

I wonder if Sylvia Currie has an idea for us to work on? More about that soon enough . . .