Does ASCD EDge have a chance?

I usually am pretty impressed with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). I find that its books typically are of high quality. One of the best conferences I ever attended was an ASCD conference. I am a long-time ASCD member, subscriber to its SmartBrief e-mail newsletter, and reader of its Educational Leadership magazine and Inservice blog and Twitter feed. In other words, ASCD does good work.

That said, I confess that I am a little skeptical about the long-term chances of ASCD’s new online community, ASCD EDge. As you can see below, it’s a very sophisticated and comprehensive site. The ASCD Web team clearly has put a lot of thought and effort into the community. But I am not sure that educators need another freestanding social networking space. I know that I already have trouble staying on top of the ones in which I’m currently enrolled (on a side note, there are WAY too many good Ning communities out there!). I know that others find it difficult to keep up as well.

The social networking dilemma: Use someone else’s service or build your own

The challenge for an organization like ASCD that wants to tap into the benefits of social networking for its members is that it has two options:

1. Create a visible presence in someone else’s social network (e.g., a Facebook community), or
2. Create its own social network.

ASCD has decided to go with Option 2. In order for ASCD EDge to be a success, ASCD has to persuade large numbers of people to spend time in its online space rather than one that appeals to both educators and non-educators. Personally, as much as I like ASCD, I’m pretty unlikely to put my status updates and blog posts and photos and videos and discussions in a place other than Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, or some other more general space that has larger network effects. I’m guessing that most other folks will be hesitant as well, particularly if other educational organizations like NASSP, NAESP, and AASA, etc. decide they need to create their own proprietary social networks too.

I don’t know how many active EDge members ASCD needs to consider this community a success. It may be that it only needs a few hundred or thousand to justify the time and expense. If anyone call pull off a proprietary social network for educators, it’s likely to be ASCD. It will be an interesting experiment to watch over time and I hope that ASCD regularly reports out membership numbers, levels of activity, unique user visits, and other usage statistics.

Screenshots from ASCD EDge (click on images for larger versions)

 

Recommendation

I will close with one suggestion for ASCD, which is that it resets all subscription options (see, e.g., below) so that their default status is unchecked rather than checked. If we want to sign up for these communication channels, we will. Until then, ASCD should assume that we don’t want more unsolicited e-mail rather than that we do.

Comments

[Scott McLeod]

1.

See also Adrienne Michetti's thoughts on this:

http://bit.ly/b3V37b

[Adrienne]

2.

Scott, I'm assuming we both received the invitation to ASCD EDge at about the same time today. I feel much the same way you do, though you've articulated it much better here than I did in my post and Twitter conversation with Jon Becker and Carl Anderson. Like you, I'm skeptical. How many communities do we really need? I'm also reminded of that part of Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" where he unravels why communities with fewer than 250 people are more productive and successful.

[John Tibbetts]

3.

Are there any members of EDGE who are actively involved in adult education at the local, state, or national levels. I find this to be a big gap in ASCD's services.

[Melissa McCabe]

4.

Scott,
Thanks so much for this post and for your comment on our blog post response (http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2010/01/why-ascd-edge.html) about why we developed EDge. We encourage you and your readers to continue to share feedback and comments about the platform so that we can continually improve it for our users.

[Melissa McCabe]

5.

Stray character! Here's the correct link to ASCD's post on EDge: http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2010/01/why-ascd-edge.html

[Gerald Aungst]

6.

Scott, I had exactly the same response when I got the email invitation to EDge: I already have too many services that I have to consciously go monitor and interact with, I'm not about to join another one, no matter how good it might end up being.

What perhaps we need (and I've no idea if this is something feasible or not) is the social networking equivalent of Google Reader: an aggregator that automatically checks all of your networking sites (Ning, Facebook, etc.) and compiles all of the relevant content in one place. I need software that will bring everything to me instead of me having to go out and get it.

[Grace Carnegie]

7.

Gerald,

Have you tried iGoogle? I use it as a dashboard for my online life. I can see my twitter, facebook, google reader, email, news, and search the net all on one page. You customize your page with gadgets (similar to smartphone apps) for the content you would like to see.

Grace

[rob ack]

8.

as usual Scott, you're right on with your analysis. Nice post.

-Rob

[Scott McLeod]

9.

Rob, I think there are some readers that would take exception to your 'as usual' comment, but thanks! =)