#PKMChat 2015-05-13 The state of #PKMChat

6 Months already, 25 topics, a brilliant community, plenty of food for though

Without boasting I dare say we did great. I use “We” because for me #PKMChat is a community chat. I started it be don’t own it. So after 6 months I though it was good to spend a few minutes congratulate ourselves for the great content we generated. Above all #PKMChat has not its own character. It’s time also to look back and forward to some aspect of a chat and what we could do better (Do good is okay, but do better is #WOL:) ) 4 aspects are subject to discussion: Time. #PKMChat is the only chat covering from far Australia to California. Unfortunately the last move made many unhappy. Too late for Europe, very early for Australia, plus India and Singapore where it happens during the night. One option would be to move it late in Australia, very early in California. Major benefit being that middle of the night will be over the pacific. Format. We tried classic 7 questions format. It doesn’t fi so well to the side conversations typical of #PKMChat. we tried Agora Mode that is really cool for open discussions. Finally we tried 4 ques + open discussion mode which is very convenient to guide discovery of a topic and learn who knows, thnk what followed with a time to engage side discussions. Promoting. Without a minimum of promotion turnout is small. Below a certain level of audience the chat risk to loose traction. We all don’t have a lot of time and attention is scarse. What are the best way to ensure there is enough audience at each chat. New ideas, new channels, every proposition is worth exploring. Topics. Choice of topics in the past. Any topic you would like to see again? Any topic you wish to see? What is your opinion on topics over several weeks. What do you think of the preparation process. Recaps. As to-date instant recaps are produced. Storify like recaps have also their interest. Any suggestion on what we could do better for preparing topics and make the conversation more reusable. #PKMChat is particular with the electic choice of topics. It ranges from very accessible ones “Recipes”, “resolutions”, “WordPress tips” to more challenging ones “Working Out Loud”. However when topics are complex a collective review helps a lot. I see #PKMChat as a collective asset so there is nothing wrong in spending 5 minutes to check the topic and give some feedback, suggest a link, a picture, a question, an extension. PKMChat being about Personal Knowledge Management encompass Knowledge lifecycle in general. Our first chat was about learning, acquiring Knowledge. Our second is about sharing it. Week after weeks we will switch from one end of the lifecycle to another while exploring all the channels that could be used: social, formal, writing, videos. Feel free to suggest topics by tweeting to @pkmchat.

TBC