Nancy White: Profiles in Knowledge

Originally published on February 28, 2019

This is the 41st article in the Profiles in Knowledge series featuring thought leaders in knowledge management. Nancy White is the founder of Full Circle Associates, her consulting practice that includes an extensive network of professionals. She is a frequent contributor and a past core group member of KM4Dev, a global networked community of international development practitioners who are interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing issues and approaches, who seek to share ideas and experiences in this domain.

Nancy is a leading thinker, writer, and practitioner of online facilitation (group facilitation for distributed environments). She supports distributed learning, teams, and communities of practice, where technology is just the tip of the iceberg. She believes that organizational capacity and strong processes are the links to success.

Nancy supports communications for NGO, NPOs and community organizations, thinking in, out, around, and beside the box. She offers fresh ideas and practical plans for implementation.

Her specialties include online interaction strategic planning, design, execution, online facilitation, training, NPO/NGO knowledge sharing/management, strategic communications framing, issue communications, project management, and chocolate tasting.

I have been a fan of Nancy’s work since I started blogging in 2006. She and I were featured in What’s more important for knowledge managers: education, or skills and experience? in which Bruce Boyes wrote:

For this analysis, I looked at the four individuals from the top five in the 2013 MindTouch list of 100 top 100 KM influencers. All four are well-known thought leaders in the KM community and have very considerable experience, but from their LinkedIn profiles, none has relevant KM qualifications. Nancy’s qualifications are a BA in Botany from Duke University.

I agree with Nancy’s comment on her education:

Botany, public policy and musical theater. A nice mix.

Background

• Founder, Full Circle Associates, since 1997
• Chief Operating Officer, Bullseye Internet News Service USA, 1996–1997
• Director of Programs and Communications, March of Dimes — Washington State, 1989–1996
• KIRO Radio and Television, Executive Administrator — Public Affairs and other positions, 1981–1989

Education

• Duke University — BA, Botany, 1980

Focus

• Using communications and connection as the center point, focuses on strategic communication, online community development, facilitation, learning and community development services for the community, non-profit and business sectors
• Deep interest in successful online interaction in online communities, communities of practice (CoPs), distributed teams, e-learning, and virtual workgroups
• Maintains a wide-ranging free collection of resources in this area
• Provides training in online facilitation and distance collaboration

Profiles

• Site Profile
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• KM4Dev

Content

• Site and Blog
• Old Blog
• Online Community Toolkit
• Knowledge Sharing for Development
• Technology for Communities
• Twitter
• SlideShare
• Australia Visit Blog
• Weaving Networks in Melbourne

1. Part 1
2. Part 2

• KM4Dev Search
• KM4Dev Journal Articles

1. Learning 3.0: collaborating for impact in large development organizations with Rachel Cardone andAldo de Moor
2. Knowledge management for development in 2020: let your imagination fly! with Kemly Camacho, Pete Cranston, Charles Dhewa, Sarah Cummings, and Ivan Kulis
3. Little steps to lofty goals: keys to successful community learning for civil society development with Siobhan Kimmerle
4. Editorial: Communities of Practice in development: a relic of the past or sign of the future? with Adrian Bannister, Charles Dhewa, Riff Fullan, Lucie Lamoureux, and Ewen Le Borgne
5. Peeking behind the curtain: the realities of facilitation in development with Lucie Lamoureux (The Heaven and Hell of Facilitation)
6. Editorial: Stewarding technologies for collaboration, community building and knowledge sharing in development with Beth Kanter, Partha Sarker, Oreoluwa Somolu, Beverly Trayner, Brenda Zulu, and Lucie Lamoureux
7. Communities and networks in support of knowledge sharing. Part 1
8. Communities and networks in support of knowledge sharing. Part 2
9. Technology stewardship in the face of a crisis. An interview with Dina Mehta with Beth Kanter

Full Circle Associates Bookshelf

• Online Community, Teams and Networks

1. The Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold
2. Community Building on the Web by Amy Jo Kim
3. Online Communities by Jenny Preece
4. Knowledge Networks edited by Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble
5. Communities in Cyberspace edited by Marc A. Smith and Peter Kollock
6. Building the Knowledge Management Network by Cliff Figallo and Nancy Rhine
7. The Power Of Many by Christian Crumlish
8. Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning edited by Sasha Barab, Rob Kling, and James Gray
9. Distributed Work edited by Pamela Hinds and Sara Kiesler
10. Building Online Learning Communities by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt
11. Distributed Communities on the Web edited by Peter Kropf, Gilbert Babin, John Plaice, and Herwig Unger
12. E-tivities by Gilly Salmon
13. E-Moderating by Gilly Salmon
14. Virtual Teams by Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps
15. Hosting Web Communities by Cliff Figallo
16. Design for Community by Derek Powazek
17. The Well by Katie Hafner
18. Collaborating Online by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt
19. Networked Art by Craig Saper
20. Mastering Virtual Teams by Deborah Duarte and Nancy Tennant Snyder
21. Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins
22. The Hidden Power of Social Networks by Robert Cross and Andrew Parker
23. Training to Imagine by Kat Koppett
24. Creating Customer Evangelists by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell
25. Cybertypes by Lisa Nakamura
26. Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold
27. Blog! by David Kline and Dan Burstein

Articles

• Learning from Our Mistakes

1. Mary Abraham’s post
2. John Caddell’s post

• Working in virtual environments: Three practical collaborative web tools with Simone Staiger, Peter Shelton, and Petr Kosina
• Communities of practice: linking knowledge, policy and practice with Simon Hearn
• The Culture of Collaboration — with Shawn Callahan and Mark Schenk, Inside Knowledge

1. Part 1
2. Part 2
3. Part 3

• Building a Collaborative Workplace with Shawn Callahan and Mark Schenk
• From Workplace Courses to Global Conversations with Josien Kapma
• Blogs and Communities, Knowledge Tree, Australia, 2006 Edublog award winner
• Networks, Groups and Catalysts: The Sweet Spot for Forming Online Learning Communities
• Healing Disrupted Networks
• Visual Facilitation: Can Images Help Us Facilitate?
• Tool Tour and Online Interaction Tools Resource Sheet
• Telephone Conference Call Tips
• Considerations for Building Online Connections
• Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM!) — Putting the human voice back in our communications efforts
• Connecting: The Promise of Interactive Websites and Online Community — Some musings on online community and the potential for effective person-to-person connections on the Internet. Includes a short discussion on interactive on-line tools
• A Spin Around the Circle: Reflections on Building a Knowledge Ecology Workgroup
• The Challenge of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Overcoming Secondary Disabilities — Book Review
• Mapping Life in the FAS World: The paths of Marceil Ten Eyck
• Michael Dorris: A Messenger of Hope, Prevention
• Communities, Networks and Engagement Webinar

ResearchGate

• Learning to share knowledge for global agricultural progress with Simone Staiger Rivas, Alessandra Galie, Bernhard Hack, Maria Alexandra Jorge, Vanessa Meadu, Florencia Tateossian, and Gauri Salokhe
• Learning in Communities with Etienne Wenger-Trayner and John D Smith

Articles by Others

• The Passion Behind Knowledge Sharing, Online Communities and Collaboration — Interview with TallyFox
• Conversations with Nancy White around the implementation of CIAT’s internal communications strategy by Simone Staiger
• Interview by Lilia Efimova
• Nancy White Interview — ToP Network by Eunice Shankland and Sheila LeGeros
• Matt Moore

1. Blog
2. Old Blog

• Patrick Lambe
• Shawn Callahan
• Luis Suarez
• Jack Vinson

Communities

1. KM4Dev Discussions

2. SIKM Leaders Community

1. February 2010 Rethinking Ourselves (KM People) as Technology Stewards with Etienne Wenger and John Smith

• Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities

Digital Habitats SIKM Presentation

2. September 2012 Graphic Facilitation

• A picture is worth a thousand words: the art of graphic facilitation

Graphic Facilitation for SIKM Presentation

Podcasts

• Community Roundtable with Jim Storer and Rachel Happe
• Social Speech by Rob Cottingham
• Slow Communities by Matt Moore
• Blended Facilitation — with Ed Mitchell by Matt Moore

Videos

1. Matt Moore

2. YouTube

• YouTube Channel
• Group Facilitation Vs. Network Facilitation

• Successful Distributed Teams

• CITEP UBA
• KM Impact Challenge

• Loomio

3. Vimeo

• Impressions from KM4Dev

• An Intro to Twitter

• Graphic Recording 101

Books

• Amazon Author Page
• Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities with Etienne Wenger and John D. Smith

• The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future edited by Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady — Chapter 59: Online Environments that Support Change (with Gabriel Shirley)

• Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities and Technologies edited by Subhasish Dasgupta — Online Group Facilitation Skills (page 354)

• Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice edited by Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble — Chapter 23: Click, Connect and Coalesce for NGOs: Exploring the Intersection Between Online Networks, CoPs, and Events

• OTiS Online Tutoring E-book edited by Carol A. Higgison — Chapter 6: Culture and Ethics: Facilitating Online Learning (with Michel Labour, Charles Juwah, and Sarah Tolley)