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Okay, I’ve relented. I want to spend a little more time on the definition of Community to try and get to the bottom of what it means in this context.
I looked at M. Scott Peck’s [1] meaning of true community (the final stage of a four-stage community building process):
Having worked through emptiness, the people in community are in complete empathy with one another. There is a great level of tacit understanding. People are able to relate to each other’s feelings. Discussions, even when heated, never get sour, and motives are not questioned.
I’m not sure that there is evidence of this in too many online communities. I certainly haven’t seen it. But perhaps that is a reflection of where we are at with our understanding of the tools and methods online? We’ve had at least 100 years of deliberate community building in a face-to-face context, and we still don’t necessarily always get it right there either.
The nearest I’ve come to resolving this in my own mind, is through Peck’s three essential ingredients of community:
- Inclusivity
- Commitment
- Consensus
Simplistic, but I think it’s a useful framwork. And there are certainly many online communites that have these!
Definitions aside, here’s a list of identifying features that I would look for when assessing an online group or network for features which make it a community:
- shared passion or interest
- conversation – and not just about ‘content’
- connectedness
- strong sense of identity and belonging
- longevity
- interaction
- mutual relationships
- inclusive
- structure/leadership
- technology component (obvious)
- shared stories, anecdotes
- shared language (jargonm, acronyms, in-jokes etc)
- artifacts
What have I missed? There’s bound to be something obvious.
1. Peck, M. Scott (1987). The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. Simon & Schuster.
at 11:53 pm
Daryl, I’m glad you brought Scott Peck into the discussion. I have read his book(s) and been involved in a community trying to build itself on his principles. Part of our experience in that community was the need to be honest with each other.
I would add honesty to your list (it may be in one of your other categories and I don’t see it.) I think it underlies the commitment and responsibility of community. Not only do we listen to each other, we also speak honestly.
Stephen Downes’ answers a question about “privacy” in the video. He describes privacy as allowing people to have one self in private and another in public. He wants people to have to be consistent, to have one self. I think having one self, one presentation, results from being honest.
I’ve posted a reflection on honesty in an earlier post on Practicing Community. http://nowpracticingcommunity.blogspot.com/2008/08/im-here-for-learning-community.html
at 11:52 pm
You’ve missed that 50% of the population have no idea about altruisms.
That honesty is in the eye of the beholder…that trust is earned.
Nah….what you say here in this thread rings true for me. I argued with Stephen Downes on the ferry going across to Waikiki Island about privacy.
He allowed me to record him. i didnt tell him I was but he suspected as much.
Others werent so forgiving….more here – http://flnw.wikispaces.com