From [[http://cpsquare.org CPsquare]], the community of practice on communities of practice.

... part of the technology for communities project, started off by the authors of [Digital Habitats], Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John D. Smith.

Project Contributing Category

Contents 1 Polling Tool 2 Polling for Communities of Practice 3 Tool Polarities 4 Features 5 Resources 6 Examples

Polling Tool

Creating and deployment of a variety of polls (closed and open ended, etc.) Usually includes functionality to allow collection and analysis of collected data. Polling tools can operate in both synchronous and asynchronous environments.

Polling for Communities of Practice

Polling is used for a number of community activities, such as decision-making, scheduling, evaluation, and general information gathering. They can support community reflection and cultivation. It is important to consider who controls the tools and the data collected by them. Polls are often integrated into larger platforms, both synchronous and asynchronous.

1. Types of data that can be collected
2. Who can create/administer
3. How data is returned
4. Participation tracking (who has/hasn't taken a poll)
5. Reminder systems for poll completion.

Tool Polarities

• Together/apart, Synch/Asynch:
• Interaction/publication:
• Individual/group:

Features

• Ability to notify group that poll is available Automatic announcement to appropriate group that the poll is open. Need to draw attention to a poll.
• Control over result aggregation Results are reported in aggregated and dis-aggregated forms Making sense of the results is an iterative process, so may need to probe at different levels of aggregation.
• Include range of response types Response can include multiple choice, check-box, and open-ended text. Different questions or issues require different kinds of responses.
• Poll access and advertising. Ability to control context and access to make a poll prominent or specific to one task or sub-group. Need to reach greatest possible portion of a specific group.
• Time frame control Ability to close a poll at a given point in time. A poll is an example of an event with asynchronous response which must have clear time boundaries. Need to prevent responses to polls that are no longer relevant.

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Resources

Examples

• http://twtpoll.com/ a polling service that integrates with several different social media platforms including Microblogging (e.g., Twitter).
• http://www.google.com/moderator/ A crowdsourcing tool that can let groups add questions as well as vote

Category:T4C]]