When I approached Wetpaint last January I had to sell them on the idea of what they needed was a leader for their educational community. Someone who understood the needs of educators. Someone who spoke their language, understood their concerns, and who could help them figure out what you do with a wiki once you actually sign up for it. That person of course was me. ….or so I hoped it was.

Wetpaint took a risk on me and the idea that by creating a community around their product, they were in fact creating a user base for their product. It’s not a new approach. Why does Google give away Google Apps to education, or Microsoft give away $3 copies of Windows XP in China. It’s about growing a user base around your product. Because some day those kids are going to be out of school and what they will know and turn to (you hope) is your product.

I approached Wetpaint because I believe they had the best product on the market, and although late to the free wiki for education space they had a product that once used would sell itself. Add to that a community of educational users for support and you have the makings of a great community and web service for educators.

In the seven months (5 officially) that I have been working with Wetpaint the communities numbers at the Wikis in Education site have gone from around 200 to 1200+. I wish I could say it was all my doing, but again I believe the service sells itself and with more educators getting on board we would naturally see this increase.

What I do think is different those is the supportive community that has formed at the Wikis in Education site. The Discussion Forums have started to fill up not only with questions but also answers from other wiki users. The community is starting to breath on it’s own. I’m there to support, answer questions, talk strategies, and once a month give a tip and wiki that users can use as they continue to develop their own space.

In other words, the tribe is growing, and it’s starting to support itself. My role (as I see it anyway) was to create the space for this tribe to grow, to reduce barriers and construct a framework that lead to learning, interactions, and a feeling of community. We’re not done by any means but the community is growing and…fast.

The first thing I did was put some structures in place. I created pages for educators to share there wikis with each other. You can visit Wikis in the Classroom for a growing list of wikis used in the classroom setting. Or how about Higher-Ed where you can view some PhD candidates as they write their dissertations on a wiki. Or my favorite page: Student Created Wikis these are wikis that students have gone off on their own to create based on school projects or something they are passionate about.

What these pages represent is a structure for sharing and collaboration. New to wikis? No problem, have a look and get ideas on how a wiki can be used in almost any classroom at any grade level.

Once the structure is in place you mobilize your tribe. You support them, you answer their questions, if you don’t know the answer you figure it out. You’re responsive to their needs, to their questions and you do the best you can at being support. You yourself ask the community for ideas and help encouraging them to support each other as well.

After the tribe starts to breath on it’s own you become a facilitator. You keep the structure current, making adjustments where needed. You don’t answer questions right away but instead leave a couple of days gap to see if a community members will pick up the question and give it a shot. You support, spread the word, and support some more.

The more I’ve thought about this over the past couple of days the more I feel like I’m describing a great classroom. A classroom where the structures for collaboration are put in place and take the most work and effort. A classroom that allows individuals to take risks, share ideas, or ask questions to the community in a safe and friendly environment.

Ah yes, leading a tribe is hard work, but so, so rewarding!

(Full Disclosure: I am the Educational Ambassador for Wetpaint.com)

This one though, this book, hit me a little deeper than others. It might be where I’m at right now in my life. It might be that I’m trying to find my niche in this new world that I myself do not fully understand. Trying to be a new worker in an old company isn’t easy. But it can be and is on many levels very rewarding.

I’ve been a reader of Seth’s for over a year now. He’s in my must read category and what he can say in three paragraphs, the deepness and directness of his words, are something of an art.

The book gets right to the point. That what leadership is about is leading a tribe. Create a tribe passionate followers and lead it. Do I have a Tribe? Could I create a Tribe?

Those are the questions I keep asking myself. Then there is the question where are we going? Gapingvoid puts it best.

Leadership does not exist in a vacuum, you need somewhere to actually lead your tribe to.

Right now I have no idea. I’m just an educator. Do I have a purpose? Do I have a vision? One thing that Seth points out is to write your manifesto. Put it out there and then build a tribe around it.

I’ve been thinking about what it is I actually stand for. What is it that I truly believe?

There are tribes on many levels, and having the ability to organize the tribe around a purpose or vision is what leadership truly is.

Create a Tribe at your school:

Can you create a Tribe at your school? Every school has it’s obstacles. It’s easy for us to talk about not having administrative support, not having access to this web site or the blocking of that one. Complaining is easy, creating a Tribe and making change happen is work.

Where to start the Tribe:

Find those teachers, those colleges that are your early adopters. Find those teachers that you already are supporting and create a tribe with them. For me, I’ve started an e-mail group at school. A group of the teachers who constantly share cool sites with me, or send me e-mails asking “What’s next?” Bring these members together and form a tribe within your school. Find your purpose, and create the change. You don’t need support, be the support. You don’t need permission, a tribe gives itself permission. Find a way to create a tribe and be the change that you want.

The need for passion:

You can not lead a Tribe if you are not passionate about your purpose, your vision. I am coming off a week break from school. A week in which most people would have looked at what I was doing, creating, participating in, and not understand why I choice to spend my ‘week vacation’ deep in thinking about technology and education. For me, this was the break I needed. I need a week to go really deep. To read a book like Tribes, to catch up on ideas, programs, software, and reading that I had put off. A week to try new things Ustreaming, to think about where education is going and to craft my message for up coming conferences. I came back to school this week energized, focused and excited. Education is my passion. Learning is my passion.

Learning is the reason I got into education. I love to learn, and what better place to be if you love learning than in a school. To talk about learning on a deep level every day with students and educators. Learning is my passion!

We’ll see where all this leads me. Do I have a tribe? Can I build a tribe? If my passion is learning what is my focus, my vision that I can create a tribe around?

Stay tuned….we’ll see where this leads.