So, what is a Community Platform? And why should I be interested?

What's driving these enquiries? Well, I believe it has something to do with...

(i) the return on formal learning experiences is being questioned by a new breed of L&D professionals - what is it we are supposed to learn for 6 hours in a cramped room, being lectured by a single person up front?;

(ii) the tools available to connect people in informal learning experiences are now more powerful and robust than they have been in the immediate past; and,

(iii), technologies that provide for a Community Platform are really very inexpensive - no more than $10,000 to set up, with hosting and support fees at as little as $6,000 a year.

 A CP is all about giving people the tools and the purpose to direct their own learning, to connect online and to have at their disposal the richest learning resources possible in the organisation - the expertise and experience of their colleagues.

Some of those out there still don't get it, however and insist on conceptualising a CP as if it was an LMS - which is a complete misunderstanding. A CP and an LMS represent the difference between informal and formal learning. The first is incremental, purposeful, powerful; the latter (all to often) fails to connect with our workplace needs and is something that is done to us by someone else - and at a time when we are not ready to learn.