Online communities: friend or foe?
I’ve been doing some more thinking about Guy Kawasaki’s ideas on creating community, and all that’s involved to make one work in a virtual environment.
The benefits, as Guy outlines, are many. The only problem, as I see it, is that both corporations and associations are terrified to lose control of the conversation. What if someone says something bad about the organization, or innapropriate, or downright libelous? By providing the resources and encouraging the community, is the organization liable for what that community says and does? The American Society of Business Publication Editors is soliciting members to submit their blogs for a member blog directory to be hosted on ASBPE’s site, which already contains links to blogs of interest to business-to-business publishers. If their member-bloggers (disclaimer: I’m one of them, as well as being on my local chapter’s board)
Apropos of nothing, other than I thought this was funny, Apple Computer Inc. has embedded a cute little poem to warn people not to hack OSX:
- Your karma check for today: There once was a user that whined/his existing OS was so blind/he’d do better to pirate/an OS that ran great/but found his hardware declined./Please don’t steal Mac OS!/Really, that’s way uncool./(C) Apple Computer, Inc.
Related Topics: In my opinion
June 15th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
It is really about non-profits and corporations giving up on the illusion they are in control of any conversation. It is their choice of whether or not to join the conversations that are already going on about them.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
My company is experimenting right now with a Communities of Practice platform for our physician members and for staff. Its “official” launch is not until the fall of 2006, but there has been more than two years of planning and discussion, especially of the legal ramifications involved. What came out of it was that some of the communities are carefully monitored and somewhat controlled as to content, and others are completely wide open. We are also going to experiment with communities for governance, and for collaboration on projects (like the annual meeting). The general user agreement disclaims any responsibility for content posted by users, but that has not stopped them from possibly erring on the side of caution by regulating some of the communities used by members (members, not employees).
I think that the worries about members’ conversation are different from the worries about employee conversations.
We are a much smaller organization (150 or so employees) than a Microsoft or Apple, and I think that has a major impact on what our online communities will look like. The impact of a controversial conversation would be more immediate here, but I think that means people will self-regulate a lot more too.
June 17th, 2006 at 10:33 am
There is a manuscript by author, Yochai Benkler, a Yale professor. The subject matter is especially relevant to having an intimate understanding of our “WEALTH OF NETWORKS” phenom. The author tends to complicate simple concepts and the language is written to appeal to academics but other than this the manuscript is well done. The author has leveraged and built upon the previous work of 18 th century economist and philosopher, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations; and Princeton professor and Nobel Prize winner John Nash, economist Daniel Bell, and Michael Polanyi, Alvin Weiss, Alvin Toffler and many others.
If you would like to learn more let me know.
The fusion of Technology with Face to Face meetings is the inevitable evolution of our world. As principal for Charmed Wearable Technologies we believe it is incumbent upon us to optimize this brave new unwired yet connected world.
keith@charmed.com
June 19th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Thanks for resources and enlarging on the observations made by Guy Kawasaki.
There are so many benefit as you mention to participating in virtual community. But underlying beliefs start popping out when the subject is brought up.
The fundamental fear seems to be loss of control as you suggest.
What will breakdown this fear so that the value of dialogue within community can be realized?
I don’t know the exact answers, but am happy to puzzle on this with you and the rest of us out here in the blogosphere.
Thanks for the posting.
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