What trainings do you offer?

[Paul Z Jackson]

One of the ideas of the SOL Trainers Network is to let people know what trainings in SF are on offer.
We planned to create a central marketing and course directory available on-line - perhaps an international directory of training events on the SOL website.
What form do you think such a directory should take?
What trainings are you currently offering?
How do we arrange the information in such a way as to benefit each trainer and training organisation?

[Paul Z Jackson]

That looks good, Hans-Peter. Can it be set up in English within solworld.org? That would be fantastic.

[Hans-Peter Korn]

I don't expect any technical reasons why it cannot be set up in English.
To set it up within solworld.org we have to clarify with Mark (and - technically - with [e-mail]):

- does the webserver of solworld.org support php?
- shall solworld.org be kept alive for such a trainings-derectory?
- can Tony Slack implement and support the php-application of http://www.nla-schweiz.ch/kurse/index.php on solworld.org ?
- what is the investment to do this?
- ... ... ...

Maybe Mark can give some first replies to this questions?

[Mark McKergow]

Hi Paul and Hans-Peter,

There are in my view several issues with the possibilities you are discussing.

1. Listing other people's events under the SOLWorld banner, as opposed to SOLWorld sanctioned events, would be a new departure. We have thus far only listed SOLWorld events on the sites, and have had an open access policy (whover wants to join in can do so). Any change would require the backing of the steering group. An alternative would be to set up a new directory listing on a new site, without any reference to SOLWorld.

2. The steering group agreed at Texel to wind up the 'old' solworld.org site after migrating the existing content to the ning site, and then to rename the ning site as solworld.org. This would have the benefit of being THE SOLWorld site. The old site is written in Cold Fusion and as such is well past retirement age. Technically, I am pretty sure that PHP and CF don't mix very well.

3. I am in the process of getting the content off solworld.org.

Hope this clarifies the situation.
Cheers
Mark

[Hans-Peter Korn]

Thank you, Mark, to clarify this.

That means: It is in the moment not the intention of the SOLWorld community to provide a world wide directory for SF- or SF-related trainings offered by different members of solworld.ning
Only SOLWorld-events (= those which are defined as SOLWorld-events by the SOL steering group) should be offered in solworld.ning or solworld.org

And due to the fact, that the "old" solworld.org will be closed and replaced by this ning (in future named solworld.org) there are available only the ning features. So, php-based directories cannot be implemented.

MY SUGGESTION FOR A NEXT SMALL STEP:

Let's ask the SOL steering group:

What do you think to provide a (regional structured) international central marketing and course directory available on-line (on a special website) of training events offered by members of this solworld.ning-group (or, in a first step, by members of the steering group)

[Mark McKergow]

I think such a proposal would have to be carefully thought-through before it is offered...as has already been said, if the current open-access is to be retained, then it's difficult to see how a quality standard could be used. Offering it simply to the steering group members is no solution - that is open-access too, anyone who wants to be on the steering group can be on it.

It seems to me that there is a lot to be gained and learned by trainers comparing notes, looking at each others work, sharing ideas etc etc in the first instance.

[Hans-Peter Korn]

Yes, I agree to your concern about the quality standard. And I can imagine, that an offering shown in a SOLWorld-site will be understood as a "label" for proven quality.

Well, comparing notes, looking at each others work, sharing ideas among trainers I think is a good start.
But the documentation about such trainings should be shared only within the community of that trainers and not open for the whole world. Otherwise it will be misused or misunderstood as an open directory for SF trainings.

So, I would prefer a separated ning-group like e.g.:
solworld.trainernet.ning.org which is open for members of this group only.
And in such a separated ning-group the "event" - feature can be used to document trainings in a bit structured way.
And maybe we can agree upon the principle, that each member of this group is welcome to attend a training of an other member shown in this event-calendar if he / she is willing to "review" the training based on a simple review-guideline.

[Paul Z Jackson]

A couple of strands have emerged clearly from this discussion.

1 It seems a good idea for members of the SOL community to be able to list their training events. The obvious place for this to begin is the 'Events' area of this site. A good example of how this is done is the Applied Improvisation Network, http://appliedimprov.ning.com/ - where each event has a couple of lines on the home page, with a link to more details on individual event pages. We've found it a good idea to keep the listing of events on the home page to just their start dates, so they don't over-use their share of the space. This is easily managed by guidelines, with the admins as back-ups if needed. Listings are in date order, so the changes over the days automatically keep things looking fresh and interesting.

As Mark says, this would be new for this site, so we can ask the Steering group if it likes the idea. We could easily keep SOL events badged separately with the SOL logo - a way of distinguishing them from community member's individual events (this is the solution used by the AMED website, for example).

2 We all agree that there is a lot to be gained and learned by trainers comparing notes, looking at each other's work, sharing ideas. There also seems to be a desire for a certain degree of privacy in the sharing of the 'findings' from visits, for example.

I believe it is possible to set up an invitation-only group within this site, to which we can invite those who are offering to participate in the network of visits, vouchings and standard-raising discussions, where such findings can then be privately posted.

So, if that's right, we can take the next couple of steps within this site, and see how they go...

Cheers, Paul Z

[Hans-Peter Korn]

Hi Paul,

to this:
1 It seems a good idea for members of the SOL community to be able to list their training events. The obvious place for this to begin is the 'Events' area of this site.

As you see in http://appliedimprov.ning.com/ it is IMHO not very easy to "scan" the offers using the ning-function for events: Only 10 events are shown at once on one web page and there are only three events visible on a screen, so you have to scroll 4 times to see 10 events.
Aside from this "GUI-technical aspect" I have in mind that what Mark wrote above about limiting the events shown in solworld.ning only to SOLWorld events.

to this:
I believe it is possible to set up an invitation-only group within this site, to which we can invite those who are offering to participate in the network of visits, vouchings and standard-raising discussions, where such findings can then be privately posted.

As I understand ning you cannot create a group within a ning-SNA which is only visible for invited members. You only can restrict the membership to invited persons. But the content of the group is visible for all members of that ning-SNA.

So, taking both aspects together again i suggest to create a new separated ning-SNA like e.g.:
solworld.trainernet.ning.org which is visible for members of this ning-SNA only.

Cheers
Hans-Peter

[Hans-Peter Korn]

one add on:
With "SNA" I mean a "Social Network Application" like ours (http://solworld.ning.com) or
or http://appliedimprov.ning.com/ or http://sinaldosol.ning.com/ or http://singlemadrid.ning.com/
or http://solutions-first.ning.com
This last one is accessible for invited members only. Only the existence of this SNA is visible, but nothing from inside.

[Paul Z Jackson]

Hi Peter
This may be a neat longer-term solution - but will take some effort and perhaps expense. Meanwhile, I'm proposing to the Steering Group that we add member events within the SOL site. This is easily done, and while imperfect in the ways you describe, at least advances the cause somewhat!

[Hans-Peter Korn]

As I understand ning there is neither a big effort nor an expense to create a new ning-community.
If the SOL-steering group likes it, I can create such a community with the URL (e.g.): solworld.trainernet.ning.com

[Paul Z Jackson]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. The issues have been raised and discussed by the SOL Steering Group, and the Steering Group will be voting soon on whether or not our events can be listed on the Events page of this site.