Building a community...

This Poynter article and what few comments there have been on this J130 blog site got me thinking about communities.

Communication is the key to any group's success. I had never really tried to build a community until some friends of mine started a guild in World of Warcraft. My guildmates and I struggled to communicate our intentions, hopes, and critisisms clearly and respectfully in order to keep the game FUN and lighthearted for everyone.

There is an ever-present need to clarify your meaning in a text-only communication model, such as online chatting or blogs, where tone of voice and facial expressions are absent. Sarcasm needs that extra tone of voice to be recognized. Emoticon smilies don't convey any of the subtleties we see when someone smiles. Even face-to-face we know communication isn't clear.

But once we get past those barriers, communities make an environment much more enjoyable. A crop of co-workers that are fun to hang with can make a bleak job colorful.

Building that community means chatting about politics, news, sports... and complimenting and critiquing others in a positive way. It means working with your fellow employee on the "work" and embracing their human side, too.

I think this class could use some of that co-worker community feel. We'll all need help on our beats; we're all trying to learn. We're all here to publish blogs once a week. Why not share our thoughts on the daily news digests and blogs? Post a comment on what was done well, and what you would have done differently? We'd all benefit from that kind of dialogue, and I know I want to hear what other students - our "target audience" - think about the stories.

Then again, maybe some people think this is just another tuck-your-head-in kind of class, and community feedback isn't possible in our busy lives.

I think it's worth the time. Do you?