Andrew, indeed looking forward. I have a half-baked proposal (in my books and following the Cult of the Done Manifesto*, half-baked is better than nothing…) and need your help (and hopefully from the entire hcsmX coxmmunity) to reshape it.

* http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html

I would be willing to assist however possible with exploring #hcsmX the next level. I am a big proponent of moving ideation to execution when the ideas are well-founded and worth merit as I believe those of #hcsmca and other #hcsmX conversations to be. If we do not mature, move forward, and move beyond, I fear interest will wane and energies will be diminished.

The last thing I want is for all of us to find ourselves in a place far worse than we are now, only because we’ve had a glimpse of, and the courage to participate in, what can be.

lisa

Congratulations on getting #hcsmin off the ground. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Thank you for your kind words. The honour is mine.

I have witnesed the evolution of hcsmX and believe its is well past it’s ‘infancy’. In fact I think we are approaching ‘adolescence’. Paraphrasing your words, the community is a safe space to talk about the issues that are important to the community, it is easy-going despite its fast pace, some will have polarized views, there are tensions between some members (I have had a dose of that too … part of a healthy community), etc. All normal for adolescents.

The question, and maybe part of the hesitation, is that, when we are teenagers, not a lot of us know what we want to do when we grow up. And that’s what I would like to discuss. Yes, online communities around the world have matured at different paces; http://www.wikipedia.org/ and http://www.wowwiki.com for instance are very sophisticated. Yes, there are social business platforms out there that are helping online communities ‘mature’ giving users more tools and opportunities to deepen the dialogue. Yes, there are fantastic examples of activism, organization, and leadership organized around social media and social networks that have lead to new governments, new constitutions, new movements.

With this in mind, I truly believe #hcsmX has reached an important point to start asking the big question: what do we want to do when we grow up?
I would like to explore with you how to solve the problem of reticence and the reluctance to change . Inspired by the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus “the only constant is change”. To me, the only constant in hcsmX is change. Or it should be.

Disclosure:

I have been working to understanding and solving the problems of online collaboration, breaking healthcare silos, and enabling meaningful participatory change for the past 20 years as a physician, as a patient, as a researcher, and as an innovator. After my tenure at the Innovation Cell (http://innovationcell.com) a non profit research think-tank, I am now wearing the entrepreneur’s hat with My Healthcare Innovation (http://myhealthcareinnovation.com), one of the Cell’s spinoff ideas.

Colleen and I have spoken about exploring the tools of My Healthcare Innovation (MHI) to further share and discover the incredible wealth of know-how already existing in our the hcsmca ecosystem. Briefly MHI is a shared platform, configured specifically for healthcare change makers to more effectively collaborate and share timely, locally-relevant solutions. Right now we have aligned a number of agencies, hospitals, associations that are supportive from one end. More importantly, w have also gathered a group of emerging health leaders, positive deviants, lean and agile implementators that are supportive from the the other end. Again would be happy to explore opportunities with the interest of the hcsmX community first, and my personal at a distant second.

It’s a honour to have you here Thanks for having taken the time to leave a comment.

Personally, I would very much like to hear more about your ideas. Where are you intending to share/have you shared them?

I suspect there has been some reticence around the hcsmX communities discussing ‘next steps’ on the basis that, generally speaking, they’re pretty pleasant, easy-going places to hang out, and that conversations of this sort have a tendency to polarise opinion, bring resentments to the fore (if any exist; I’m not sure that they do in this case) and generally rock the boat.

I like everyone to get on, but I also like things to get done.

I’ve been interested in the activist potential of the #hcsmX movement since day 1, and designed all kinds of grand plans and manifestos in its name along with Silja, as you may recall.

I soon had the righteous (and probably pompous, too) zeal knocked out of me as it became evident that (quite reasonably) there was no consensus regarding who was speaking of what to whom, in whose name questions were to be asked, and to what end, and why it was felt that the community needed to ask these questions in the first place. I personally didn’t, and still don’t, agree with much of this line of reasoning, but what I think is neither here nor there.

Also (and again, this is no more than a personal observation concerning what I believe to be a tacit agreement, not something that has been formally stated – where/how could it be?) folk want to turn up for an hour, discuss ideas with like-minded peers in a supportive environment that they may not enjoy anywhere else in their working lives, and have a ‘place on Twitter’ (the hashtag of the community in question) to which they can post content in the expectation that they will receive opinions, advice, information and support in return.

This happens in #hcsmeu as I know it does in #hcsmca, and (again, in my opinion) it is the former’s greatest achievement, and I am very proud of having been a part of making it happen.

However, I understand very well – as will you, as a community manager yourself – that anything beyond this can smack of too much commitment for the casual participant.

In the last instance, any activity that may discourage participation is to be avoided at all cost on the basis that if the hcsmX community cannot foster open and free cross-constituency health conversation among communities of interest, then what would seem to be its principal and most appealing feature to most users would be being curtailed.

To bring this pontification to an up-beat conclusion I think hcsmX is already a movement in as much as that it about more than conversation and community. However, whilst it may be progressive in its outlook and contemporary in its attitudes, I don’t see it ever being a crucible for activism.

That’s fine.

By which I mean: personally, I’m resigned to the disappointment.