Blogs, pods and community.

Having upgraded my expensive and slow dial up connection earlier this year, I've only recently been able to experience the relative novelty of a flat fee broadband link. This has allowed me to spend more time on line and, after having heard so much about social networking, I entered and began exploring various on line communities.

I signed up to Zaadz in March this year after an invite from dandodec, a young friend in the Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development. I then joined Mycelium (http://grahambell.org/home/10), a network rooted in sustainable development/permaculture design. Lately I signed up with Be Bo after I heard a rumour that a past college student of mine had done a cut and paste job with my image (most entertaining- I responded in kind).

After reading and posting on various forums on the networks and running this blog on Zaadz I began to look around more carefully, browsing blogs and forums and looking at replies and dates. It seems clear that members who are active in terms of their interactions (pods, blogs, forum posts etc.) are in a small minority and that by far the greater number of members merely browse or simply fill in their profiles and leave it at that.

Obviously there's nothing necessarily wrong with just trawling pods and taking in information, experiences, opinions and the like. This in itself can be very useful, allowing a broadening of perspectives, a feeling of not being alone in one's thinking, gathering specific information etc. However, genuine interaction can feel quite thin on the ground with many pods not being posted to for months. Brief "conversations" seem to flare up and die out quite quickly. I place "conversation" in inverted commas deliberately as often posts close abruptly following a simple exchange of views or positions, without any real discussion. I realise that I am generalising a lot here and there are probably many examples that do not fit this perspective (could someone let me know where they are, please?).

On this blog, for example, its clear that several hundred people have looked at my stuff (or maybe fewer people looking at entries more than once...) but so far only two people have made any comments. This leads me to wonder what people actually think of what I'm saying and, to an extent, what is the point of continuing to make entries if I don't know?

I think that on Zaadz, which is layered with explicit, positive support, there is a tendency not to challenge another person's perspective because that might appear to be out of keeping with the loving embrace of the site.

As a practising permaculture designer for some 18 years I actively encourage challenges. When I show people round my site I want to be challenged; it is the challenges that allow me to remain focused on the choices I continually make and adjust them according to appropriate feedback- the challenge.

There are obviously various ways we can present challenges and some forums on other sites seem to actively encourage vociferous, insulting, abusive responses. This is obviously not appropriate, tending to polarise perspectives rather than allowing for mutual enlargement of viewpoints, towards more integral positions.

In permaculture design we use a very simple approach which is first to say something we like about the other's perspective and then to say what "I" would do differently. This allows for the recognition of the valuable but partial truths presented by the other, while offering constructive, creative feedback. By saying what "I" would do differently I am not telling the other what I think they should do, merely offering them an additional perspective. There's no reason why this shouldn't be carried out lightly, in a loving, fun and creative way.

Why don't you have a go here?