Interesting point, Karyn. And I’d agree that most of us don’t “manage” our personal/professional learning networks/communities of practice in any kind of traditional sense. But EdTechTalk, as much as it’s a community of practice, is also an organization of sorts. It has — for better or worse — its own identity. To keep that going, there has to be some management and maintenance work. Whether that’s figuring out how to pay for online hosting or keeping the software up-to-date, or just trying to standardize some of the things we do as a community, it does require a bit (not a lot) more effort.

While I don’t think we’d delude ourselves into thinking we can “manage” the people in this community, I do think there’s a role of caretaker that we want to make sure is filled. Hopefully, these efforts will allow ETT to continue to be a valuable part of many people’s learning networks.