I have been in the Coast Guard for 20 years this September and have moved every 2 to 4 years based on the needs of the service. I recently moved to a brand new house that was built with only 40 houses in the community. Out of the 40 households about 60% are Marine Corp families, 10% are Coast Guard and 20% are civilians. I never really thought about the various aspects of a PLN or communities in general until we started to have these conversations about networking and communities through web 2.0. Ok, about this time your saying ok so you live n a neighborhood but that's not connected to web 2.0. I seemed to connect to the other Coast Guard families pretty quickly, partially because we are all in the Coast Guard in a Marine Corp town but also because we all work together at the same unit. The strange thing is that I met most of my other neighbors on Facebook prior to meeting them in person and some of the them I have still not met in person. The thought of that blows me away. We have a closed neighborhood Facebook group and almost all of the families are on the group. When there are issues in the neighborhood, play groups, get togethers or even house issues since we all have the same builders it all goes on the Facebook group. The other day I had a couple walking down the street and they asked if I was Ron Nakamoto. They said that they had spoken to us on Facebook and my wife wanted something they were giving away but they didn't want to knock on the door just in case they were wrong. It is amazing the boundaries or barriers we put up around us but yet we let those same barriers go when we are interacting online. I think that we can follow the lead of the kids in our neighborhood and just go for it. When I first arrived a biker gang of 4 yr olds to 13 years old rolled up on me and asked if I had any kids. Every since then, the kids have no fear of knocking on my door at 7am on a Saturday and asking if my daughter can play. It is amazing how web 2.0 tools have entered every aspect of our life to include how you get to know your neighbors. Wednesday, July 15, 2015
I have been in the Coast Guard for 20 years this September and have moved every 2 to 4 years based on the needs of the service. I recently moved to a brand new house that was built with only 40 houses in the community. Out of the 40 households about 60% are Marine Corp families, 10% are Coast Guard and 20% are civilians. I never really thought about the various aspects of a PLN or communities in general until we started to have these conversations about networking and communities through web 2.0. Ok, about this time your saying ok so you live n a neighborhood but that's not connected to web 2.0. I seemed to connect to the other Coast Guard families pretty quickly, partially because we are all in the Coast Guard in a Marine Corp town but also because we all work together at the same unit. The strange thing is that I met most of my other neighbors on Facebook prior to meeting them in person and some of the them I have still not met in person. The thought of that blows me away. We have a closed neighborhood Facebook group and almost all of the families are on the group. When there are issues in the neighborhood, play groups, get togethers or even house issues since we all have the same builders it all goes on the Facebook group. The other day I had a couple walking down the street and they asked if I was Ron Nakamoto. They said that they had spoken to us on Facebook and my wife wanted something they were giving away but they didn't want to knock on the door just in case they were wrong. It is amazing the boundaries or barriers we put up around us but yet we let those same barriers go when we are interacting online. I think that we can follow the lead of the kids in our neighborhood and just go for it. When I first arrived a biker gang of 4 yr olds to 13 years old rolled up on me and asked if I had any kids. Every since then, the kids have no fear of knocking on my door at 7am on a Saturday and asking if my daughter can play. It is amazing how web 2.0 tools have entered every aspect of our life to include how you get to know your neighbors. 
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That's pretty cool that a virtual welcome wagon can get things started ... and help you find out more about the people and culture of your new location.
ReplyDeleteI believe if used wisely, virtual world and real world can mix well.
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