THanks Maggie and Lucho for the great comments which have moved the disucssion forward a lot. I think we are getting to the root of the issue already - and Lucho is coming up with some useful potential solutions!
I would perhaps add to Lucho's three bullets another one: that people may not be sure what to contribute: what is appropriate, what people will be interested in etc. I dont know about the markets group currently as I am not in it, but this is something I struggle with in the main network. I would like to participate but cant really think of something interesting that others might like to hear!! Its much easier if someone asks for some information, then you know if you can help them out. Or if you finish a piece of work then you can share outputs. But day to day I dont have reason to share anything - and perhaps everyone else is just the same!!
I think this - and some of your other points - can be resolved with more intensive facilitation. This obviously requires a lot of time input by that facilitator - to keep asking questions, and even to ask specific people to contribute something. One of the facilitators of the KM4Dev network told me she often does this - she will send a private email to someone asking them to respond to a message on the network just to ensure that there is a response! This encourages others to respond too!!
I strongly agree with your solutions Lucho - and I think we have come up with some of those before. The bottom line is that it seems to take quite a lot of effort to make a network work, even though one might think it shoudl just "happen" of its own accord. ITs not uncommon for networks to have a full time facilitator, so when we are trying to manage these groups on minimal amounts of time and resources its not a wonder that it is a struggle!
If there is to be another WHY then perhaps we should investigate why any of Lucho's solutions might not be successful or feasible - based on past experience or just logical thinking (as we have not tried them all yet!).
Kath
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I hope my comment shows up. Sorry lucho, I see you had to write me in as I have been responding through the comment feature.
I think why the process isnt resulting in clarity is an interesting question. Can I also throw in an element before we look at Lucho's solutions. Perhaps as focal point and even network facilitator (which Kath and I were attempting with not very much time allowed for and I still dont have), it needs to be more clear what types pf things work. We still do not have a tips sheet for facilitators which state what Kath highlighted. Along with this is the fact of time to implement the tips.
Regarding what type of info to share which is still unclear, than to attain clarity of purpose of info sharing the Network Facilitator should restate the types of traffic that is hoped for and lead by example. This should be brought up in the next SC meeting. I will stop before I get too far away from looking at the why to lack of clarity of purpose.
Maggie
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