@Steve,
You did such a tremendous job coordinating the events, again my thanks to you. I agree we are breaking new ground and as time goes on I hope we do learn how to balance any tensions that arise, face to face in a positive way. It was a great experience and I hope the “drama”, especially from afar did not distort impressions as to what some of us truly did get from general sessions, EduBloggerCon, the Blogger’s Cafe, and NECC Unplugged.

@Darren,
I couldn’t agree with you more, I too hope we never forget the human element found in communities. Sometimes, I think it is easy to forget in our writng there is another person, just like you or I, on the receiving end of our words. Our posts are flat, we don’t see the reactions or hear the inflection in another’s voice to tell how they have interpreted what we have said, as we do in face to face conversations. It is all good, and we will continue to push not only our teaching but our learning as well. I just hope the trust begins to spread through all of our loosely joined small pieces as we continue to interact and build our community.
Thanks so much to all of you for your comments.

Sheryl’s observations about networks and communities are something that I’ll need to digest further. While those that choose to blog about educational topics can rightly be considered a network of learners (“communities of practice” has also become a popular term), I would hope that we never forget the human element found in communities – as relationships are forged through such networking experiences.

In the end, I agree with Steve: we’re forging new territory here. It’s exciting, it’s transformative, and it’s highly emotional.

And honestly, I think it’s all good.

As we change what we come to expect from the “conference experience”, we change not only how we expect to be taught, but how we expect to learn.

Can’t wait ’til NECC09.

I love having Sheryl comment because she knows all the “terms” for what we are experiencing!

I felt like the wrap-up session on Saturday was a pretty trusting “family discussion,” and I think within our network there is a community. By the very nature of the blogosphere there will be an inherent (and positive) tension between individual voices and collective action, and we’ll learn better how to balance those when we’re face to face.

I think we are, in a very real way, breaking new ground with each of these events. NECC this year was seen by the bloggers, I think, much more of an event of value and participation than previously. We had EduBloggerCon, the Bloggers’ Cafe, NECC Unplugged, and countless sessions that we cared about and participated in. From being on the fringes, the blogosphere/2.0 community went to the center of a lot of conversations. I remember hearing last year a lot of “I’m not sure NECC is a relevant event for me”–this year, I heard a lot of “here’s how I’d like to make this even better.” If we reflect and just look at the “drama,” we might miss the bigger picture of what progress that is.

As to your comments about community I think you have made an interesting observation.

Communities develop over time and the kind of discussions you are suggesting we have need to be built on a foundation of trust. Most of the folks at the edubloggercon belong to a network of learners (small pieces loosely joined) rather than a true community. Add the dynamic of being filmed and you really take away any serious chance of candid, meaningful discussion. (That isn’t a criticism of the filming just an observation of the dynamic)

Communities go through stages of development and while the blogosphere could probably allow us to jump start some of the forming stage- we would still need to go through a norming, storming, to finally achieve the performing stage where we trust each other and can have those tough family discussions.

Networks and communities are different animals and the literacies that support each are very different as well.

We’ll figure all this out by next year, I hope. Growing pains!