From [[http://cpsquare.org CPsquare]], the community of practice on communities of practice.

CPsquare field trips -- visits to living communities quarterly excursions to online communities, open to CPsquare members and friends, organized and presented in cooperation with SCOPE Community Enthusiasts.

Project Participating Category

Contents 1 Format 2 Focus and perspective 3 Roles 3.1 Moderator 3.2 Tour Guide 3.3 Tourist 4 Framing the discussion 5 Technical details of field trip

Format

The field trips will be scheduled for 1 hour using Elluminate or similar platform that allows web tours or application sharing. The time will be divided as follows:

• 20 minutes: The tour guide will take us on a tour of the community. The tour should highlight the main activities and tools. The guide may also choose to share specific dilemmas or success stories.
• 10 minutes: Clarifying questions. This is an opportunity for tourists to ask: What do I need to know about this community?
• 30 minutes: Questions and answers

Focus and perspective

• We are trying to see a community through the eyes of one or more of its members
• We use any web pages or notes that are provided to help us probe into the understanding of those community members
• Because communities have many facets and develop over time, it takes an effort to get beyond a simple "snapshot" view. Having a guide through whose eyes we see a community makes all the difference.

Roles

Moderator

• Contact the tour guide ahead of time to discuss the presentation format.
• During the session introduce the tour guide and provide context to the participants
• Monitor the text chat and bring questions forward for discussion
• Be the timekeeper

Tour Guide

• Show the community in a way that provides enough context for participants to glimpse the history, structure, goals, and membership of the community.
• Describe the community using a framework that has been agreed upon beforehand (i.e. C4P framework)
• Note any specific choices, tensions or questions the community is facing.

Tourist

• Scan the field trip overview page ahead of time.
• Send out invitations to individuals you think would be interested in going on the field trip!

Framing the discussion

It will be useful to frame the community tour and discussion using a model -- a lens that will help us to consider the important elements together. One option is to use the same framework for ALL field trip. This could serve to establish a consistent and efficient format, making it easier for tourists who choose to participate frequently. On the other hand, it might be interesting to experiment with a variety of models as a way to reflect on the models themselves.

Each framework we introduce to the community field trips will be described here.

Technical details of field trip

There are a couple options for showing the community. Other options are possible! Just warn the moderator! :-)

1. Live, behind a password - Is a log on required to view the community site? Then Elluminate application sharing should be used.
2. Live, open to the world - Are the community pages open to the public without logging in? Then the web tour application can be used (push content into participants' browsers.) In both cases the tour guide should have each page preloaded using web browser tabs.
3. Scripted presentation with screen shots - Sometimes screen shots can be more effective than a live tour, especially if annotations are used to highlight certain aspects of the community. These can be inserted into a PowerPoint presentation and sent to the moderator ahead of time to upload.