I am currently setting up a new community hub to connect practitioners from around the world, who are fighting and studying loneliness. The idea is to establish more international collaboration and knowledge exchange.
The question I could use some guidance with is:
Which platform would you recommend to build the community around and enable a continuous exchange of ideas, questions and answers? We're currently looking into Slack, Facebook & Mighty Network - are there any good articles or publications, which can help us to decide?
Thank you so much!
Sending sunshine,
Jannis
Hi Jannis,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor, we’re very glad you chose to visit us and for your most excellent, and somewhat challenging question. We also thank you for the work you are doing on behalf of your practitioner community and for wanting to create a professional collaborative.
Truth be told Jannis, in all my time as an advisor I’ve never been asked this question so I had to root around a bit in the CTB to see if we have something that will suit your needs, and I am happy to report that I think I’ve found an answer, but not the one you’re expecting. We, the CTB have a service called Community WorkStations (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/community-workstations) which is built on Microsoft SharePoint, allowing you to create an online collaboration space just like you want to do. In all honesty, the CTB doesn’t have links to the good articles or publications you’re looking for to inform your choice, none that I could find anyway, so I suggest taking a look at some examples of CTB WorkStations by clicking on this link: Community WorkStation; the list of WorkStation clients is available at http://www.myctb.org and the testimonials are illuminating.
If after looking at what we have to offer you decide that you might like to try CTB WorkStations, do get in touch with my most excellent CTB colleague, Cristina Holt at the KU Center for Community Health and Development because she is the absolute best person to discuss this with, either by phone at (785) 864-0533, or by email at toolbox@ku.edu.
With that, Jannis, thank you for your challenging question, and for wanting to create an online practitioner collaborative, it’s truly a great idea. I do think that CTB WorkStations is a viable alternative to the platforms you mentioned, and better yet, you’ll have the support of the entire CTB! Not that I’m trying to sell you on it, but it’s definitely worth looking at and might even inform your choice of platforms if what you see here doesn’t suit. Of course, feel free to drop by again and I’ll go outside of the CTB if necessary to come up with a satisfactory answer for you. On behalf of the CTB I wish you the very best of success in all your endeavors.
Ask an Advisor