Syncronicity

With fledgling blogging skills, I've bravely raised my hand to help with an online public dialogue for the Citizens' Health Care Working Group . This landmark project sponsored by the President and Congress is providing a unique opportunity to the American public:

To become a part of an historic discussion taking place right now across America – where citizens like you get to tell the policymakers in Washington what you like and don’t like about our nation’s health care system, and what tough choices our country should make to turn it into one that works for all Americans. In the process of being a moderator for the project, I'll facilitate the forum discussion and share my perspectives in the blogs -- my own and others. I've been honing my skills in leading and supporting digital collaboration and idea sharing for seven years . . . as ever, I stand on the shoulders of some wise and wonderful folks, like Gilly Salmon and eModerators Zane Berge and Mauri Collins and the late Guy Bensusan, who gave my thinking a kick start and pushed my skills uphill as the horizon of virtual communities has broaded from classroom to community of practice to global forum.

Now all of this would be interesting to a point, but there's more to the story than that. Also attending orientation to the Citizens' Health Care Working Group via conference call from Hong Kong was Nick Noakes. It took only a few minutes for us to uncover our shared experiences with Appreciative Inquiry, online conferencing and faculty development. What a great conversation as Nick pressed America Speaks staff for better ways to manage the RSS from all the blogs and messages the initiative would produce. My marketing mindset triggered a stream of consciousness for getting the word out to the general public so their opinions and alternative solutions would be added to the collective intelligence being gathered. More on this next week . . . As for now, I'm smiling as I think of how near we all are in this internet cloud when we are seekers of meaning making.