Objects of Interest

If you have not read, Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, then I strongly recommend it. The book provides in-depth information about Digital Communities and helpful documents to help you sort some things out.

Are you a tech steward? 

The authors (Wenger, White, and Smith) define technology stewards as people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with or interest in technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewarding typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of community.

As more communities choose to use technologies to help them be together, a distinct function emerges to attend to this interplay between technology and the community: the authors call that technology stewarding which suggests that these individuals take responsibility for a community’s technology resources. Technology stewarding adopts a community’s perspective to help a community choose, configure, and use technologies to best suit its needs. Tech stewards attend to what happens spontaneously and what can happen purposefully, by plan and cultivation of insights into what actually works. (Chapter 3)