Since my last posting, I have been able to make contact with Toni Cindrich, the Treasurer and Tech person of West Siders for Responsible Development. She is relieved that some help is on the way. Toni explained that she's been operating as a "one man band" and it's become overwhelming to keep up with emails and questions about the growing organization.

Toni expressed interest in upgrading from their blog to a website. In response to Ulises' suggestion, I proposed creating a wiki instead. I explained that a wiki would allow other members of West Siders to contribute updates, post articles, make relevant announcements, etc. This would, not only foster the ongoing participation of members and an online community, but would also relieve Toni of some of the burden she's been feeling by allowing others to keep information up-to-date.

I created a shell of this wiki and I'm awaiting her response. In light of the fact that most of their active members are older folks who don't have internet access (according to the VP I spoke with), enhancing the organization's web presence in this way could help attract younger group of people who may not be aware of the organization or Extell's development plan. Before I proceed, though, I want to make sure she's comfortable with this type of format.

Conversation with Miki Fiegel Picinich

This morning I had a long discussion with Miki Fiegel Picinich, President of West Siders for Responsible Development (see my previous posting for background on this organization). I called Miki because I hadn’t gotten a response from the email I sent last week explaining my interest in using social software to help stop Extell’s development project. The person who receives the emails has been out of town.

Miki was pleased that I’m using the issue entrepreneurship project as a way to get involved with their organization. She said that their most active advocates are elderly community members. This likely explains why they haven’t developed much of a Web presence- Miki explained that many members do not have access to the internet. Posters, handouts, and mailers are the dominant means by which they spread the word about meetings and protests. It is quite possible that the organization is not reaching more tech-savvy individuals who would get involved if news delivery and communication were facilitated online.

I told Miki that I would like to help them create more of a web presence and link them to more Upper West Side residents, community groups, advocates for affordable housing. She agreed when I suggested that their blog could benefit from more background information on the development issue. I said I would provide this information on my blog and link it to theirs (I may ultimately decide to post that information directly to their blog if that makes more sense). I also said I would round up recent articles about West Siders’ struggle with Extell and make links available from my blog.

Miki mentioned that there’s a community group in Park West Village (Columbia Ave. between 97 & 100^th St.) that is protesting a similar development plan and has expressed interest in joining forces with West Siders for Responsible Development. It seems that communication between these organizations has been predominantly face-to-face. I would like to help facilitate online communication and news sharing.

Miki said she would put me in touch with Toni Cindrich, the Treasurer and tech person. Hopefully Toni will give me some details about their current online communication strategies and efforts. In the meantime, I continue to gather news about the organization and brainstorm ways to maximize the value of my contributions.

I read the comments to Ulises’ posting and was relieved that I’m not the only one struggling to solidify a topic/approach for the issue entrepreneurship project. I have the workings of an idea and figured I’d blog about it as a way to organize my thoughts and [hopefully] elicit ideas from you guys. As Anthony wrote in his comment, this project could be a good excuse for me to turn my idle complaints into action (I can still complain though, right?).

My idea relates to a plan to build two high-rise towers on Broadway near 100^th Street. The developer is Extell Development Company. As explained in Columbia Spectator, these buildings would be twice as tall as surrounding structures and would drastically alter the physical landscape of the neighborhood. The building would be comprised of luxury apartments starting at $2 million. One objector spoke of the influx of wealthy residents to the middle-income neighborhood: “No young people, no elderly people, no artists, no teachers can live in the neighborhood anymore because of the rising prices. We’re missing a vibrant part of the community.” Clearly, the construction of these buildings will advance the gentrification already evident in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

West Siders for Responsible Development is a local group that is voicing opposition to Extell’s plans. Despite their protests, Extell is proceeding with the plan “as-of-right;” the company does not need zoning changes or permission from the community board because they bought the air development rights that allow them to build higher than normal zoning would allow (they bought these rights from a church, believe it or not). Central goals of West Siders for Responsible Development are to change the area’s zoning laws and to halt Excell’s current development plan. The group intends to send a petition to Mayor Bloomberg and hopes he will intervene before Extell completes the buildings’ foundations.

To date, West Siders for Responsible Development have incited five protests and established a blog to which they post occasional updates regarding protests and meetings. While their efforts and accomplishments are admirable, it seems the group has not fully tapped the power of new media to help advance their cause. Using social software, I’d like to help the group spread the word about Extell’s plans and its negative consequences. I’d like to help them recruit the support of more UWS residents, as well as community outsiders who object to the gentrification of lower- and middle-income neighborhoods. Furthermore, I’d like to identify communities that have confronted similar challenges in order to gain insight into opposition strategies that proved effective.

So I guess I now I have a better grasp on what it is I’d like to do. If only I knew where to begin…

Bette Gray’s article in Journal of Distance Education (full citation below), offers insight into the development and role of Communities of Practice in informal learning environments.

Gray recruited 43 coordinators of the Alberta Community Adult Learning Councils to volunteer to join an online Community of Practice for one year. The job of these coordinators is to organize community-based adult education at the local level. Coordinators are geographically dispersed (mostly residing in small rural towns), work alone, and do not know each other. Volunteer participants ranged from experienced coordinators to recent hires. The online forum was developed to serve as a means by which coordinators could share their experiences, learn from one other, and feel more connected to the organization.

At the foundation of Gray’s investigation was the theoretical construct of Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This theory explores how individuals learn through everyday social practices, rather than through environments that are intentionally designed to support learning. Because members of Communities of Practice share an interest in a domain and goal, they will engage in collective learning. Through their interactions, community members build relationships and develop shared experiences, stories, and practices that become a common knowledge base to be shared with newcomers.

The emergence and value of a shared, transferable knowledge base is certainly not unique to the Community of Practice framework. In “Workers and Cyborgs: Labor and Networked Computers,” Mark Poster points out that collective knowledge is passed onto future generations through cultural traditions, recording devices, and written documentation (including early encyclopedias). The Community of Practices framework, however, emphasizes that the ongoing interactions, collaborative learning, and the enculturation of newcomers are critical because they shape the community as a whole, shape members’ sense of identity within the community, and shape the identity of the practice itself.

By observing and moderating the group’s interactions for one year, Gray found that participants did indeed come to function as a Community of Practice. Online participation enabled informal and contextualized learning. Furthermore, participation in the Community of Practice helped enculturate new hires, shape the identity of the practice, increase members’ understanding of their work, and define their role as a member of the group.

As previously mentioned, central to this theoretical framework is that individuals develop a new sense of identity as a result of their participation in the community. Albert Borgmann seems to refute this possibility. In his article, “Is the Internet the Solution to the Problem of Community,” he writes, “In the community-member relation, it is the community that is primary and assigns each person his or her place, function, and responsibility” (Feenberg & Barney, p.54) Contrary to Gray’s view, Borgmann suggests that a person’s identity and role within an online community is fixed from the outset, rather than shaped as a result of community participation. Borgmann presents a further challenge to the theory of Community of Practice when he writes, “…the Internet works as the telephone has worked—it supports but does not produce communities” (Feenberg & Barney, p.58). In light of Gray’s findings and her support for the Community of Practice framework, I believe the researcher would argue that online interactions enable both the creation and maintenance of communities.

REFERENCES:

Borgmann, A. (2004). Is the Internet the Solution to the Problem of Community? In Andrew Feenberg & Darin Barney (Eds.), Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice (pp.53-67). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Gray, B. (2004). Informal learning in an online Community of Practice. Journal of Distance Education, 19(1); 20-35.

Poster, M. (2004). Workers and Cyborgs: Labor and Networked Computers. In Andrew Feenberg & Darin Barney (Eds.), Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice (pp.83-100). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.