Tag: Week 9

Week 9.1 – 8th April. 2021

This week we are asked to research into Communities of Practice, to get a better understanding of how important and vital these communities are, with helping us grow as researchers and practitioners.

Until now, I personally didn’t understand how important and helpful they were, as I never dreamed that I would be studying again, especially such a unique Masters as Indie Game Development, which could use help and advice on many occasions. I have though, started to engage more with my peers, that was part of the reason for wanting to be the Student Rep, as I would not only receive problems, or queries to find out and help that student, but also to build a relationship and learn more about that individuals skills, there by learning knowledge of their subject to.

Type of Networker

After watching Alcwyn’s presentation about the different communities out there, it has opened my eyes with helping me to look for one that would suit me, and my current skillset, plus one that I aspire to be in the future, and obviously to suit my personality.

Alcwyn explains that even if you are a beginner to networking, the 3 most important values that you must show is trust, empathy, and reciprocity, by acting in this way, you will build good strong relationships. You should be able to identify mentors and role models.

Although I know how I act around new people and when working in a group, I wanted to get a better understanding of what kind of networker, I would be if I was joining a community. I took a quiz on the Association for Talent Development website for what kind of networker are you, and this is my result below.

The Reactor
You are interested in making new connections but feel more comfortable when someone else takes the lead. You struggle to keep a conversation flowing. You are responsive to other people’s attempts to connect and follow up frequently to something specific. You take a subtle approach, though sometimes your comfort and confidence may get in your way. You are on the right track; stretch a little more and you will increase your comfort level. Set a weekly goal to initiate a conversation with someone and to reach out to a new contact. Don’t doubt they want to know you; you are not the type of person who comes on too strong, so don’t worry about feeling like a nuisance.

I think the result is quite accurate, but I want to look at networking a lot more before approaching any communities, as I am still learning new skills constantly from my peers, and with my personal research in my spare time.

Please see below a podcast which gave a clearer overview for “what kind of networker are you.”

https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/01/what-kind-of-networker-are-you

I found the podcast a lot more insightful then doing the quiz. Marissa King, is the professor at Yale School of Management, and explains about three kinds of networker, the convener, the broker and the expansionist model.

But continues on, to say that it is actually better, if you can engage naturally and be yourself, and if you are looking to learn about something in particular, you should be thinking about where you could be attending to learn such skill, for example; a webinar, to find you feet, and progress a little more from there.

Below are 3 examples of professional communities.

Professional Communities of Practice

• British Computer Society – BCS They focus on the importance of using technology, for the good of the whole. They aim to support practitioners with continued professional development.
• The Association of Computer Machinery – ACM Supports computing educators, researchers, professionals, and hosts events all around the world, each year.
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – IEEE This community focuses on career progression, and has a bulletin board with current jobs, with resources for your personal and professional development, for how to become more employable in the future.

Week 9.2 – 10th April. 2021

Some of the benefits when joining a community are;

• Find solutions to problems
• Search for general information
• Share resources
• Coordinate projects
• Socialise and Network
• Share / Document Ideas
• Engage in general discussion

But the most important part is looking for ways to engage with new communities;

Skype, social network, custom platforms, open source projects, meet ups, and conferences.

Software Cornwall

One of the local communities is Software Cornwall. Belinda Waldock, (co-founder and director), discusses what it is to be part of a local community.

Belinda explains the nature of Software Cornwall, is “an organisation that supports its growing tech community.”

She advises if you are new to networking and want to join a community, then  www.meetup.com, is a good way to start.

She explains that once you have a few people together, it is easy to start building a community with people who enjoy the same thing. You just need to share, and look to join groups on, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and many more.

Experience of joining a group

Although I have not starting networking as yet, I have joined some groups on LinkedIn, and joined 1 or 2 on Facebook. However my experience was not that good, I simply looked for the area I was interested in, clicked on join group, and then you wait to be added to the private group.

However the response time, put me off. I was waiting for a good week, just to find out that the event wasn’t really happening. That was another reason why I wanted to study again for this course, due to getting to work with people on projects that you enjoy, get a better understanding of more aspects of Indie Game Design, and build new relationships with other students, who have goals and are passionate about learning in general.

But as networking is a key part, to helping you become recognised, more employable, build and develop your skills, I will try looking into other avenues, such as meet up.com, as per the suggestion.

I will say on a positive note I have joined about 5 groups on LinkedIn, and those in particular, are building up, which means I do have more comments with my children’s books now, and have started to get a better response from others, within the group.

Week 9.3 – 12th April. 2021

HFOSS

Another community is the open source community. Heidi Ellis is the professor, for the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at Western New England (WNE) University. She is one of the founding members for Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS), who helps students to get involved with projects that can improve the human condition.

She clarifies what open source, is, what encouraged her on this journey, and how she first began. She also reveals the success stories for some her students.

How to Join?

She advises how to join this community, as the open source community can be tricky, and she explains “if you are interested in open source projects, there are many ways that you can contribute;

• help to promote
• offer to make the community a logo
• find out what Open Source Project they are working on
• demonstrate what you know, and tell others

“The way to join this community, is to firstly find out who they speak to, and how they communicate, and then listen for a week or so to get a better idea of what they are working on before you pose a question.”

(Ellis, H. 2021: 1)

Heidi continues to say that after listening, before you ask your question, you need to identify who the most appropriate person is to direct it to.

You should also make sure you have researched and double checked, that you cannot find your answer to your question anywhere else first, that way when you ask your question, and you tell them where you have looked for the answer, they can see you are serious about joining.

Plus if you do get round to making contribution, you need to be aware that if the community responds, by saying that “there is room for improvement,” not to be discouraged, as it means that what you are trying to create or work on is being taking seriously.

Communities of Interest …

I have started to research further into animation communities, and have began by signing up to their news letters, I am hoping this will give me a better and clearer idea of most areas they cover and understand the ways they like to connect with their community, before I actually approach.

Week 9.4 – 13th April. 2021

Ethnography report

My ethnography report, for this weeks activity will be focused on AWN, otherwise known as “Animation World Network,” which I am extremely keen to learn more about, especially as I am sure you all know now that’s what I aspire to be in the future, an animator.

The Animation World Network – AWN.com (Links to an external site.) is the largest site ever, with all the animation guidance and information under the sun, which can only be found on this particular website. 

They help with all animation – related publishing, it caters to over 151 countries, and displays a massive range of helpful and very interesting information, that’s relevant to all aspects of animation.

Audience

The audience they communicate to varies from animator profiles, independent film distribution, commercial studio activities, licensing, CGI and any other animation technology.

They help to advise a variety of groups such as; animation professionals, educators, broadcasters, students and enthusiasts. AWN have particularly categorised their website to allow their followers, to easily access  any area of animation possible, very quickly. Within this network, people from all around the world can access the information all from one single source.

Interaction

To interact with their community of fans, they allow you to subscribe to their newsletter, join in with events, participate in competitions, keep up to date with the animation calendar, and submit your own animations or cartoons to receive critical feed back, from anyone within the community, which can only happen once you are part of this network.

The content you can access on this website ranges from; http://www.awntv.com/ (Links to an external site.)Animation World Magazine, VFX Magazine, Animation Flash, AWN Spotlight, VFX Newswire, and Spotlight on AWNtv Newsletters.

How to Join the Community

This should be a straight forward process, as they are an online publishing group, there  are a numerous ways to join in, first by following on Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard and Twitter.

The first step I have taken to join this team of like minded practitioners, students and teachers, is simply sign up to an account with them, which then gives you the option to explore what areas you are specifically keen to learn about, and as you tick all the boxes you are interested in, this is what makes up your news letter.

Plus they have options for you to add your self to there job board, and get updates of new vacancies, which I have also done.

Language they use

From observing there language on many different articles posted on the website, I have a good enough sense to see that the tone they use is not only very engaging, persuasive and full of publicity, but they allow there readers a close incite of behind the scenes with everything that is going on in the animation world, which I personally feel helps show the viewer that even with all the big popular Pixar and Disney animations out there, that if you want to succeed in this area, you need to put your work out there, to start getting the feedback from the professionals, which also helps build a network of like minded practicing practitioners around you.

Patterns and Rules for this Community

The only rule I have observed is to sign up, then when you have confirmed your email, in the forums, they have a nice little added touch, which welcomes you to the community.

The forums are specifically titled in different categories;

• The Animation Cafe – Place for questions and debates – (As far as I can see this is the forum with biggest amount of response).
• AWN’s Show and Tell – for you to upload your work and post your link.
• The Daily Sketch – to show your talent 
• The Animation Co-op – A non – profit network for artists and animators for independent animation production.
• The Animator’s Desktop – which focuses on making animatics move nicely.
• The Business of Animation – Discussion for all, focused on recruiting, portfolios, jobs, and guidelines.
• The Educators Forum – educational products, Ideal for professionals.
• The Animation Flea Market – buy, sell or trade 
• Toon Institute Animation Workshop – learning fundamentals of character animation
• AWN Contests – submit your work for a chance to have it featured.
• Issues, Bugs, Problems – designed for you to report any bugs with the system.

Events Held

They have any event from FMX which is virtual reality, aimed at the FMX community happening soon in May, Animafest Zagreb in June, world festival of animated film, retrospectives and presentations. Plus Siggraph, an online event conference, looking at where we are, and where we are going in the industry with computer graphics and interactive techniques in August, and last but not least, Ottawa International Animation Festival happening in September. 

I cannot wait for the Ottawa Festival, as this looks amazing, and I would love to attend, but unless I can“pop over” to Canada for a week, then unfortunately it won’t be happening this year.

References

Parker, Alcwyn. 2021. Researching Communities of Practice. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-9-researching-communities-of-practice?module_item_id=49202 [accessed 8/04/21]

T. Lederman, Michelle. 2019. Association for Talent Development. Quiz: What Type of Networker Are You? Available at: https://www.td.org/insights/quiz-what-type-of-networker-are-you [accessed 8/04/21]

KING, Marissa. 2021. Harvard Business Review. HBR IdeaCast / Episode 774. [online]. Available at: https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/01/what-kind-of-networker-are-you [accessed 8/04/21]

WALDOCK, Belinda. 2021. Belinda Waldock on the Agile Community. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-9-belinda-waldock-on-the-agile-community?module_item_id=49203 [accessed 10/04/21]

Ellis, Heidi. 2021. Heidi Ellis on Open Source Communities. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-9-heidi-ellis-on-open-source-communities?module_item_id=49205 [accessed 12/04/21]

DIAMOND, Ron. 2017. AWN Inc. Animation World Network. Available at: https://www.awn.com/specialevents/view-conference [accessed 13/04/21]

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