After some wonderful conversation within this community, specifically with Margaret Powers, Helen Blunden, Howard Rheingold, Jessica Swift, Rodd Lucier, and Sheri Edwards, I believe my understanding of PLNs has shifted from visualization of the entire network, to visualizing a smaller portion of it: The Neighborhood.

I would love to discuss the concept of introducing The People In Our Neighborhood to one another (in this community, in video, in blog posts). I think that it is inherently more easily understood as a construct than “weak ties” or curation workflows. It is the people in my neighborhood (NOT network) challenge me to be a better teacher and learner, but it takes the entire network in order to find the neighborhood I want to live in. If that doesn’t make sense just yet, here is the video that I am using to think it through with you.