Ian Graham of TheCodeFactory.ca writes about whether we CREATE or FACILITATE communities:
Create is in fact a very strong word and implies that you make something from nothing. If you read the bible you will recall the story of creation. In seven days God created the earth, man and all of the wild beasts. Pretty powerful stuff. Most mere humans lack the capability to create something.
Facilitate is different and more of a catalyst in nature. When you facilitate you act as an agent on existing elements helping to bring them together. Communities waiting to happen exist everywhere. These communities can often be made more vibrant and dynamic with a bit of facilitation or the act of bringing elements together.
I tend to the side of FACILITATE.
The first community I worked with was the Northern Ireland Mac User Group. I created the mailing list, web site and the forum which allowed the community to manifest. The community was already in existence throug word of mouth and shared emails.
Some groups don’t tend to naturally congregate and therefore it’s hard to quantify the community as whole – though the internet provides a method of easily managing this side of community engagement.
My day job, as the Facilitator for the Digital Circle really means creating a focus to allow the digital media creation ‘community’ which then permits the “Steering Group” to focus the direction of those members of the community who want to collaborate towards the given goal. Yes, at times it’s a little like herding cats and everyone can joke about managing a committee towards a decision.
If we, as facilitators, focus our energies on creating an ‘oasis’ where communities can engage with each other, and then work through the process removing baggage where necessary, we can better achieve the stated aims of the ‘oasis’ (which, again, may not be core to the community aims).