What makes a group into a learning community? And what is the role of social media-enabled learning communities in the modern membership organization and other comparable types of  knowledge service delivery?  I have often written about the Veterinary Information Network’s (VIN’s) virtual membership and business models.  At a recent visit at VIN’s headquarters in Davis, California, I was struck by the realization that developmental learning is the basis of every aspect of VIN’s model and practice.

I use the term “developmental learning” to specify learning that is purposeful—leading to specific solutions to specific problems and constantly developing participants along competency-building paths.  This is different from open learning in open social networking communities and can become the basis for alternative, revenue-generating models of service.

A Day in the Life

VIN is the virtual professional association for veterinarians that has successfully challenged the orthodoxy of the mainstream AVMA with a new, virtual, community-based, membership model and is revered by its members, who call themselves “Vinners.” My son Colin, a young veterinarian with his own practice in Fort Bragg, California, is such a “Vinner.” I asked him to walk me through a typical day in which he uses the resources of the VIN community so I could gauge its value through a member’s eyes. Welcome to a day in his life.

•  First thing in the morning: checks news headlines, VIN’s latest feature.  “First, I questioned the need for it,” he tells me, “but then I realized that these were unique stories or perspectives on stories that are relevant to vets. What’s more, it is interactive and you have a chance to comment. It looks like VIN is bringing the community together around issues of importance to us. Before you know it, discussions spring up around a news story and acquire a life of their own.” Like everything else at VIN, news stories and discussions are archived so that they can be searched later.

• All through the day: 
  • Consults with the Drug & Food Recall Center to stay on top of products that have been recalled.
  • Checks clinical updates, relevant to the cases he is working on:  He loves that he can pick among several levels of knowledge about a topic, depending on his need:
    •  thoroughly researched and detailed summaries, composed by VIN specialist consultants
    • journal articles and other research data from around the world
    • archived conference proceedings, or
    • archived member discussions on the topic, captured from message boards.  He can count on the information being up-to-the-minute and constantly updated.

• Lunch break: logs into VIN to check discussions on message boards or catches up on a new clinical update.

• Afternoon:  Needs to contact a specialist on a difficult case before he performs a surgery.  His online query to one of VIN’s consulting specialists is answered within minutes.  He also gets advice and support from peers who had dealt with similar cases.  These answers and discussions his questions generated are archived and indexed, instantly adding to the ever growing body of the community’s knowledge capital.  Before VIN, he would have to spend all day, identifying, tracking down and contacting an expert from among the faculty of different veterinary schools.

Anchoring Building Blocks for an Effective Learning Community

That a community or any kind of service can have critical relevance for a member on a daily basis is remarkable to me. What makes it indispensable to members’ lives and successful as the basis of the organization’s business model and value proposition? Below are six foundational building blocks that could be transferred and adapted by other membership organizations:

1. Aggregate contributors to members’ success on one virtual platforms.  Instead of giving members answers through commodities (products, programs, etc.), gather all the pieces they need to succeed (information, access to experts and peers etc.) in one platform and develop paths to learning and solutions-development.
2. Learn directly from and with members rather than from committee-based and data-driven processes. Enable members to air and frame problems on message boards and decipher the clues for the solutions you need to develop or facilitate. A medical message board, rather than a benefits package or organization chart was the first piece that VIN launched
3. Develop a strategic community architecture based on developmental learning. VIN did not just populate the community with members and information and left it to develop on its own. It built a new architecture based on strategic choices about the mix of participants; delineation of various roles among them; and guided paths for learning and participation that enabled solutions.
4. Leverage member capital and develop member leaders to ensure updated content and sustainability. The “we produce/you buy” service model is neither compelling nor sustainable today.  Social media has opened up new options for dispersed and collaborative learning. You can leverage them to develop a new genre of member volunteer leadership: partners and stakeholders who will enable you to access, manage and sustain diverse knowledge assets and relationships that could not be supported by the association staff alone. The heart of VIN is its over 200 member consultants who provide specialized expertise to a membership base whose majority are generalists. Consultants are carefully identified, recruited and developed on the basis of qualities beyond their expertise, such as a passion for sharing and teaching; and the lack of personal or political agendas.  Consultants’ principal role is to manage discussions and content on one of VIN’s 44 message boards, each focused on a sub-specialty or topics that run across specialties. Other roles for member consultants include “member “buddies” who are assigned to individual new member as “buddies” in exchange for free membership, to provide them with support, orientation and encouragement to engage.
5.  Create dynamic relationships among the various parts of your community: the self-sustaining value loop:  Perhaps the greatest value and most distinguishing characteristic of VIN’s learning community is its constant motion and ability to be self-sustaining. VIN editors organize archived content; edit and often retitle and re-categorize entries to make them searchable and consistent with their larger knowledge system. Everyone is involved in creating, updating and managing content through different roles.   Member editors or staff may jump into a discussion to provide answers or expertise; or volunteer to conduct research on a discussion topic. Archived discussions are constantly renewed and re-energized rather than simply stored as members refer to them to solve a current case and, in the process, update or enhance the information, thus contributing to an ever expanding value loop.
6. Engage members as well as staff in discovery and co-development. The community provides the primary platform for new product and business development. Ideas stem from clues extracted from member-to-member discussions on message boards; a member’s direct suggestion; and constant assessment of the results members have with products and services. Member complaints or frustrations are often turned into learning and co-development opportunities. The CEO has often invited complaining members to offer suggestions for solutions; and offered support and encouragement for the member to take on a leading role in developing them. Finally, a beta virtual version of VIN becomes a playground for members and staff to experiment with and test new ideas.

How these 6 anchoring building blocks can be modified and applied depends on the needs and capabilities of the individual organization. Underlying them, however, are two larger, fundamental mental shifts in service delivery, inspired and enabled by social media:

1.  thinking of members as co-creators rather than passive consumers;
2. considering value in terms of the capabilities and solutions you enable on a continuous basis rather than a one-time product or destination.

——————–

(photo credit)

What makes a group into a learning community? And what is the role of social media-enabled learning communities in the modern membership organization and other comparable types of  knowledge service delivery?  I have often written about the Veterinary Information Network’s (VIN’s) virtual membership and business models.  At a recent visit at VIN’s headquarters in Davis, California, I was struck by the realization that developmental learning is the basis of every aspect of VIN’s model and practice.

I use the term “developmental learning” to specify learning that is purposeful—leading to specific solutions to specific problems and constantly developing participants along competency-building paths.  This is different from open learning in open social networking communities and can become the basis for alternative, revenue-generating models of service.

A Day in the Life

VIN is the virtual professional association for veterinarians that has successfully challenged the orthodoxy of the mainstream AVMA with a new, virtual, community-based, membership model and is revered by its members, who call themselves “Vinners.” My son Colin, a young veterinarian with his own practice in Fort Bragg, California, is such a “Vinner.” I asked him to walk me through a typical day in which he uses the resources of the VIN community so I could gauge its value through a member’s eyes. Welcome to a day in his life.

•  First thing in the morning: checks news headlines, VIN’s latest feature.  “First, I questioned the need for it,” he tells me, “but then I realized that these were unique stories or perspectives on stories that are relevant to vets. What’s more, it is interactive and you have a chance to comment. It looks like VIN is bringing the community together around issues of importance to us. Before you know it, discussions spring up around a news story and acquire a life of their own.” Like everything else at VIN, news stories and discussions are archived so that they can be searched later.

• All through the day: 
  • Consults with the Drug & Food Recall Center to stay on top of products that have been recalled.
  • Checks clinical updates, relevant to the cases he is working on:  He loves that he can pick among several levels of knowledge about a topic, depending on his need:
    •  thoroughly researched and detailed summaries, composed by VIN specialist consultants
    • journal articles and other research data from around the world
    • archived conference proceedings, or
    • archived member discussions on the topic, captured from message boards.  He can count on the information being up-to-the-minute and constantly updated.

• Lunch break: logs into VIN to check discussions on message boards or catches up on a new clinical update.

• Afternoon:  Needs to contact a specialist on a difficult case before he performs a surgery.  His online query to one of VIN’s consulting specialists is answered within minutes.  He also gets advice and support from peers who had dealt with similar cases.  These answers and discussions his questions generated are archived and indexed, instantly adding to the ever growing body of the community’s knowledge capital.  Before VIN, he would have to spend all day, identifying, tracking down and contacting an expert from among the faculty of different veterinary schools.

Anchoring Building Blocks for an Effective Learning Community

That a community or any kind of service can have critical relevance for a member on a daily basis is remarkable to me. What makes it indispensable to members’ lives and successful as the basis of the organization’s business model and value proposition? Below are six foundational building blocks that could be transferred and adapted by other membership organizations:

1. Aggregate contributors to members’ success on one virtual platforms.  Instead of giving members answers through commodities (products, programs, etc.), gather all the pieces they need to succeed (information, access to experts and peers etc.) in one platform and develop paths to learning and solutions-development.
2. Learn directly from and with members rather than from committee-based and data-driven processes. Enable members to air and frame problems on message boards and decipher the clues for the solutions you need to develop or facilitate. A medical message board, rather than a benefits package or organization chart was the first piece that VIN launched
3. Develop a strategic community architecture based on developmental learning. VIN did not just populate the community with members and information and left it to develop on its own. It built a new architecture based on strategic choices about the mix of participants; delineation of various roles among them; and guided paths for learning and participation that enabled solutions.
4. Leverage member capital and develop member leaders to ensure updated content and sustainability. The “we produce/you buy” service model is neither compelling nor sustainable today.  Social media has opened up new options for dispersed and collaborative learning. You can leverage them to develop a new genre of member volunteer leadership: partners and stakeholders who will enable you to access, manage and sustain diverse knowledge assets and relationships that could not be supported by the association staff alone. The heart of VIN is its over 200 member consultants who provide specialized expertise to a membership base whose majority are generalists. Consultants are carefully identified, recruited and developed on the basis of qualities beyond their expertise, such as a passion for sharing and teaching; and the lack of personal or political agendas.  Consultants’ principal role is to manage discussions and content on one of VIN’s 44 message boards, each focused on a sub-specialty or topics that run across specialties. Other roles for member consultants include “member “buddies” who are assigned to individual new member as “buddies” in exchange for free membership, to provide them with support, orientation and encouragement to engage.
5.  Create dynamic relationships among the various parts of your community: the self-sustaining value loop:  Perhaps the greatest value and most distinguishing characteristic of VIN’s learning community is its constant motion and ability to be self-sustaining. VIN editors organize archived content; edit and often retitle and re-categorize entries to make them searchable and consistent with their larger knowledge system. Everyone is involved in creating, updating and managing content through different roles.   Member editors or staff may jump into a discussion to provide answers or expertise; or volunteer to conduct research on a discussion topic. Archived discussions are constantly renewed and re-energized rather than simply stored as members refer to them to solve a current case and, in the process, update or enhance the information, thus contributing to an ever expanding value loop.
6. Engage members as well as staff in discovery and co-development. The community provides the primary platform for new product and business development. Ideas stem from clues extracted from member-to-member discussions on message boards; a member’s direct suggestion; and constant assessment of the results members have with products and services. Member complaints or frustrations are often turned into learning and co-development opportunities. The CEO has often invited complaining members to offer suggestions for solutions; and offered support and encouragement for the member to take on a leading role in developing them. Finally, a beta virtual version of VIN becomes a playground for members and staff to experiment with and test new ideas.

How these 6 anchoring building blocks can be modified and applied depends on the needs and capabilities of the individual organization. Underlying them, however, are two larger, fundamental mental shifts in service delivery, inspired and enabled by social media:

1.  thinking of members as co-creators rather than passive consumers;
2. considering value in terms of the capabilities and solutions you enable on a continuous basis rather than a one-time product or destination.

——————–

(photo credit)

Lindsay Curcio is an attorney who has been practicing immigration law since 1990. In addition to her practice, Lindsay is an adjunct professor of immigration law at New York Law School. Camille Mackler has been practicing immigration law since graduating from New York Law School in 2006.  She is also active with advocacy efforts and is the founder of the photo blog Immigration in Pictures ™. Both Lindsay and Camille are active members of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA). They kindly agreed to write up their experience as part of a social media contest put on by the association.

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The Lawyers Debrief:  Participation in Social Media Contest to Promote Bar Association Conference

Each year, AILA hosts many conferences and seminars to provide its members with important information about developments in immigration law.  The most important and anticipated event is the Annual Conference held in June of each year.  AILA has approximately 11,000 members in the U.S. and internationally.  Members include attorneys and professors. A law student membership program exists too.  Conferences are always well-attended and include a multitude of panels on all topics in immigration law and practice development, pro bono initiatives, networking opportunities and social events.   The conference is held in a different U.S. or Canadian city each year.

For its 2012 Annual Conference, AILA asked its members to help with marketing efforts.  The build-up for AC180, a social media contest for AILA members, began in fall 2011.  AILA told members about AC180 through postings its website:  www.aila.org.  The contest was called AC180 because it began 180 days before the start of the annual conference. Any member could enter the contest. If selected, AILA would waive the conference registration fee.  Contestants had the opportunity to compete through monthly social media tasks for other prizes related to the conference as well.

Lindsay entered the competition because she wanted to develop her social media skills and have some fun.  Camille has been using social media as a way to promote her practice and as part of her advocacy efforts since she went into practice for herself in November, 2010.

To enter, AILA asked members to submit a social media “plan” and a video explaining our interest and experience with different sites.  This let AILA gauge social media literacy and learn more about entrants.

Ultimately, AILA selected 11 social media ambassadors including us.  Ten entrants were attorneys and one was a law student.  Ages of social media ambassadors ranged from early 20s to early 60s.  All practice areas were represented including family and employment-based immigration, crimmigration, removal defense and federal court litigation.   Located in New York City, we were the east coast representatives. Other social media ambassadors came from Dallas, Buffalo, Chicago and San Diego.

Loren Crippin, the New Media Associate at AILA, notified all entrants in January.  The main requirement of the AC180 contest was that each entrant post some information about the upcoming conference at least once weekly.   Posts had to contain #AC180 or @AilaNational.  AC180 let us Tweet, post to Facebook, Google + or Pinterest, blog or otherwise promote the conference. We also were asked to complete the following tasks: write a blog post on what makes us passionate about immigration law and how our interests related to the conference, use social media to advocate for immigration reform, make a spoof video to promote AC180, and use social media to promote Nashville, the location of the 2012 conference. [Check out some highlights here.]

We were excited to be social media ambassadors for the annual conference. The experience was eye-opening in many different ways.  First, and most importantly, it was fun.  As lawyers, we seldom get to write short observations and inject commentary or opinions.  Rather, we are supposed to write lengthy, weighty briefs full of impressive legal arguments.  When we write blog posts, they are expected to have scholarly tones while we seriously dissect and analyze important legal issues.  When reaching out to a social media readership, however, we were forced to keep it light, concise and interesting yet entertaining or informative. It allowed us to play with our message, while conveying important information.    Using mediums other than words, such as video or memes, also encouraged us to use our creative sides.

It was also great to have the ability to reach out to large groups of people, all of whom have an interest in immigration issues, and convey our message.  As immigration attorneys we have a unique perspective on how U.S. immigration laws should work, do work, and their ultimate impact.  Participating in AC180 encouraged us to communicate our perspective in ways that reached the public and not just colleagues

Finally, it allowed us to meet people and expand our networks far beyond our geographical confines.  Through AC180, we became friends with other attorneys  throughout the United States.   In immigration law, networking is key.  Many of us are solo or small law firm practitioners, so the ability to bounce ideas off colleagues, discuss a difficult case, or exchange law practice management tips is crucial. Meeting not only our fellow participants, but other lawyers, students, and media representatives, through conversations started over social media makes us more efficient and informed.

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Camille Mackler and Lindsay Curcio both practice law in New York City.  They can be found on Twitter at @cmackler and @lindsayvisa.

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(photo credit)