Nashville ISD Group A Networking Group for Instructional Designers in Nashville, TN

All -

If you have feedback on our web platform move (more info here), I want to hear it. The decision to move to LinkedIN isn't set in stone yet, and I want to make sure the move we make pleases the group.

Don O'Guin --  a new member -- sent me an email yesterday that had me put a lot more thought into our decision. I welcome any input, so with Don's permission, I wanted to share his email and my response (albeit abbreviated -- I wrote any extensive email that was as much me thinking through the topic aloud as it was a response to his suggestions!):

********

Aaron:

I am very new to the group as you know so if the leadership has weighed all options and made the decision I don't mean to derail agreed upon plans. There are other options besides LinkedIn groups and Groupsite. Wiggio is a site that I used in two significant volunteer projects in Connecticut and it was very easy, very popular, and free. It has lots of features and collaboration possibilities. I don't think LinkedIn groups is going to give us the collaboration capabilities that the group has been used to using.

Maybe this could be discussed at the meeting Friday? Looking forward to meeting you!

Don O'Guin

*******

Don -

Thanks for your email -- I appreciate any input! This whole situation has been a bit of a surprise to me, so I've had to evaluate and move quickly on this before we find ourselves at capacity with Groupsite. The decision on LinkedIn is certainly not set in stone, although I'm hesitant to redirect after messaging the entire group. Still, I'm glad to hear any other opinions!

I've heard of Wiggio and I looked at it briefly in evaluating our options. I didn't find anyone who'd had any experience with it. It looks like a rich platform. However, I'll share with you a few reasons I'm hesitant about it (and some of the similar platforms out there), and why LinkedIn won me over. Would love your thoughts on these points.

• A major concern for me is the barrier to entry of a new platform. I imagine we'll shed a few members regardless of the platform we move to, but I'm concerned that some of our members won't be willing (or have the time) to create a new profile on a new social network. A quick glance at our member list on Groupsite will show almost half of our members never actually set up complete profiles there. LinkedIn was a big win because many of our people already have profiles on LinkedIn.

• I'm concerned about longevity. In our first few months of existence, we actually had a Ning site. Ning was high-profile with high traffic, but they ended up shutting down their free accounts and forced us to move to Groupsite.com. I'm concerned about any "free social site" platform that doesn't have a proven revenue model or the traffic to ensure they'll stay free. I definitely want this to be Nashville.ISD's last move.

• Anecdotally, I've gathered that many of our members use LinkedIn for professional networking. I believe a trusted network we already know how to use is easier to adopt than a new platform.

I'll admit -- I think LinkedIn is ugly and the usability is somewhat weak. I also love many of the Groupsite.com features (rich text editing, blogs, file transfers, customizable notifications area on the homepage, etc) and will really hate to lose them in a transition to LinkedIn's more bare-bones Groups feature. That said, in the 18 months we spent at Groupsite, we hardly used the social features on Groupsite -- even though they were available for everyone. The overwhelming majority of use came from RSVPs to the group meetings. Beyond that, we had a smattering of postings in the Discussion forum. LinkedIn, at least, gives us both of those features, and in a network that many of our members are already in. I'm hoping that the familiarity with LinkedIn will translate into more activity in the social aspect of our platform.

Furthermore, a large number of our members seem to have created profiles on the site and then never returned. I'm assuming these folks:

• Joined with the best intentions.
  
• Realized they can't get away from the office in order to make the monthly meetings.
• Scan the digest emails.
• Have Nashville.ISD on the backburner (understandably), but would still be interested to participate if the group offers something that meets their needs at the right time.

All this is understandable -- we're busy, and the site has been quiet outside of meeting organization. It's another site to keep track of, and most of us have a hard enough time managing our email.

One of the big benefits of LinkedIn is that the Group activity shows in your LinkedIn news feed and is included in your digest emails (provided you have them turned on). So, my hope is that the members I described above might be more likely to find valuable Group activity when they're occasionally tending to LinkedIn. At the very least, I believe they'll be more likely to stumble across something useful in LinkedIn than in a site they register for but never have the time to visit.

Obviously, I'm still a bit conflicted -- I don't love LinkedIn, but I don't feel we have too much time to really experiment, and I don't want to move us and then find ourselves in the same boat in another 18  months.

Before I make a move, I'd love to get more feedback. Let's bring this up (briefly) at the meeting on Friday. Also, would you mind if I posted your email and my response on Groupsite and asked for comments/feedback from the rest of the group? I think this is a great discussion.

Aaron

***************

Again, thank you to Don for bringing up a new point of view -- I'm still leaning towards LinkedIn, but I want to make a decision that pleases the majority of our members think. Do you want to see something more full-featured? Interested in moving to a platform like Wiggio?

Share your thoughts below!