Eckoff’s Notes on Tapscott

My twitter-friend David Eckoff recently jotted some notes down on his blog after listening to Don Tapscott (author of Wikinomics) at a conference. David founded a great magazine, was instrumental in the development of Rivals.com, and is now a Veep at Turner Broadcasting.

I have mentioned Wikinomics on this blog several times (see tags). Here are several interesting quotes from Eck0ff’s notes on the presentation . . .

• A fundamental change in technology: the old web was accessed via the PC. The new web is accessed via smart communication devices.
• The Internet is a platform for collaboration, and Tapscott banned the word “websites” in his company. “None of you should have websites,” Tapscott said. “You should have communities.” That’s an interesting concept. When I was building the online sports network Rivals.com in 1999, the secret of our success was we didn’t just create team sport websites, we created communities of fans around topics. I found most traditional journalists who grew up in the world of print struggled with creating and growing online communities, while people who had immersed themselves in online discussions were naturals with online communities.
• companies need to act as peers instead of superiors. Mass collaboration requires: peering, being open, sharing some of your intellectual property and acting globally.
• One of my favorite comments from Tapscott: at his company, they don’t have management meetings, instead the run the business via a wiki. With everyone traveling and based in different locations and time zones, this works well for them. Think about your own company: do you run the company via centralized management meetings? Could you experiment with replacing the meetings with an online wiki? I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried this, how did it work out for you?

None of you should have websites. You should have communities. Every business, every group, every public entity is based upon people communicating with and serving one another. These are communities. Communities are places where mutually beneficial exchanges occur. Websites, therefore, should not be static communication channels from company to consumer. They should vibrant, mutually beneficial exchanges from consumer to company, company to customer, and/or consumer to consumer.

The most explosive companies in the internet age are platforms that facilitate exchanges between consumers. Think ebay, youtube, google, facebook. None of these companies put out content. They provide platforms that facilitate mutually beneficial exchanges between users. They provide space for community.

Tightening Up (and expanding)

Yesterday I cited Lada Adamic’s study of an online Stanford University community called Nexus.  This graph was a part of that write-up.  You’ll find some interesting stuff if you read through the paper.  It’ll only take about 15 minutes to read.

Visualizations through these types of graphs can really lead to breakthroughs in community building.  The center of this graph is Oliver.  His friends are shown with the bold lines and white field backgrounds.  His friends’ friends are the outer layers of this graph.  If you used another member of this community, the center would shift and the graph would look a little different, but ultimately pretty similar.

Communities are strong and effective when there is not a lot of separation between it’s members.  Visually, this would translate to a graph with fewer layers on the outside, a tighter web.  As we looked at yesterday, not all communities are the same.  Some have tighter webs–their members are more aware of each other, more in touch. 

As community leaders our job is to tighten up the graph.  Look for and create ways for your members to bump into each other, to increase their numbers of contacts and connections, and to strengthen the ones that are already there.

Giving the community opportunities to interact and in so doing to invite new members to the interaction is our one, simple goal.

Tighten up your graph.

Self Aware

Here’s a nugget from Linked: The New Science of Networks, by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

Lada Adamic, from Stanford University, recently investigated communities discovered by searching for the phrases “abortion pro-choice” and “abortion pro-life”.  The pro-life query resulted in a core of 41 documents in which you could get from each page to the other ones.  In contrast, the pro-choice movement was fragmented into many disconnected sites.  Such differences in the structure of competing communities have important consequences for their ability to market and organize themselves for a common cause. 

As Adamic notes, the campaign against the partial birth abortion bill launched from the middle of the pro-life cluster could easily reach other pro-life sites, since there are many links between them.  Furthermore, due to the links on the pro-choice sites, the visitors of pro-choice sites would also learn about it.  However, one would need to advertise at several disconnected pro-choice websites to achieve an equally efficient campaign against the bill.  Therefore, not only does the pro-life community have a better presence on the web, it is also better organized; its sites are more aware of each other.

Both communities are surely made up of dedicated, passionate people.  But they are not equal, according to Adamic.  By being better connected internally, the pro-life community is a more effective group on the web.  Pay close attention to how your community is organized internally–it could mean all the difference in competition with other communities.

 

Here’s an academic study by Adamic on the structure and organization of a community at Stanford.

 

Opening Up

 ”We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.” – Steve Jobs

That’s the word from Apple headquarters today. They’re officially opening up the iPhone to third-party developers to provide their customers with a better product. 

I’ll bet Steve has a copy of a book I’ve been reading, Wikinomics, on his shelf. The subtitle of the book is “How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything”.

It’s a fascinating look at how innovation happens much faster and results in a better product for everybody when companies take a different look at what is really theirs (Intellectual Property).  Leading companies are now walking the fine line between ownership of IP and opening up their products to the community for tinkering.

One question I got twice when we compared the iPhone to my AT&T 8525 in The SmartPhone Showdown, was “does it support 3rd party software?”  The 8525 did, the iPhone didn’t.  I was astonished that the Apple innovators hadn’t taken this step.

If you haven’t taken your own steps to channel the power of your community toward innovation, then you might want to pick up a copy of Wikinomics.

Ha!

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn’t obey the rules. – Alan Bennett

The Helping Hand

On Sunday afternoon I biked Buffalo Mountain for the first time in about 10 years.  I went at the invitation of a friend from church. 

I knew it was going to be a bit over my head, but I thought I could limp through it.  I huffed, puffed, crashed, got bloody, walked, wished I could quit at times, and was scared out of my mind at other times, but I made it.  Now I want to do it again.  I will do it again.

I was much slower than the other guys, one of whom was 25 years my senior.  The buddy who asked me to come could have gone ahead but continued to stop and wait for me; make sure I was OK.  He sacrificed what could have been a more enjoyable ride to get the new guy up and over that crazy mountain.

Now I feel like a part of that group of guys who ride on Sunday afternoon, because they encouraged me, even waited for me.

This afternoon I agreed to help out another photographer who will be shooting her first wedding in a couple of weeks.  It’s an acquaintance from a few years back.  I have a lot to do today, but I was new once and needed all the help I could get.  So in a couple of hours I’ll be showing this beginning photographer some lighting techniques and sharing advice. 

Communities are strong when the vets sacrifice to give the noobs a boost. 

Flash Mobbing

ThinkJose points us to the phenomenon of flash mobs.  Wikipedia defines flash mobs as “a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.”

The original flash mobs were intended to be pointless other than to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity. However, flash mobs are often formed with the purpose of making a very pointed statement. 

We should be quite cognizant of the influence of numbers of people all shouting the same thing.  Both organizers and participants should be very careful in the wielding of this kind of power.  Sorry, Machiavelli, might does not make right.

Posted at 08:21 AM in Conformity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

FABulous Idea

Nearby Bristol Motor Speedway got very deliberate about engaging their community to improve the race experience.  Last year a smart employee created the Fan Advisory Board.

The result?  An infield JumboTron, Scoring Tower, and Shuttle Bus Routes to get folks to and from the track.

Being on the board is such an honor that fans have to apply for a seat.  Last year there were 1600 applicants.  (There are 150,000 fans in the stands twice each year.)  BMS is the hardest ticket to get on the NASCAR circuit–because they listen to their fans.

Customers always have a different perspective on the transaction.  They are usually eager to improve the experience.  Listen to them.  Empower them.  Spend money on their recommendations.  They’ll come back and bring more customers with them.

Is it Secret? Is it Safe?

“My name is Todd Davis.  This is my social security number 457-55-5462.”  It was for real.  In a radio commercial, the president of Lifelock gave out his real SSN.  Lifelock guarantees that you will not be a victim of identity theft using their program.

We recently started attending a new church after 12 years at another.  During our first month, the pastor asked for volunteers to be what amounted to “hall monitors”.  These guys roam the facilities during classes and services as security guards (unarmed!).  The church had some of these, but needed some new folks in the rotation.

I instantly felt better about my kids in the other wing of the building.  Churches are communities in which there is a lot of intuitive trust.  And maybe too much at times.  There are a lot of new faces in our church.  We need to be very deliberate about security. 

If your community is based online, be diligent about privacy and information security.  If your community is face-to-face, be diligent about personal security.  And in both cases, let everyone know what you’re doing.  If you don’t make it a point to tell the group, nobody knows that you care and that you’re active. 

BTW, the post title was a tip of the hat to the Tolkien fans out there.

Building Stages 2

Friday we looked at Scott Peck’s 4 community building stages.  Today we have a model in organizational theory which is based on team building.  Again from wikipedia . . .

• Forming where the team members have some initial discomfort with each other but nothing comes out in the open. They are insecure about their role and position with respect to the team. This corresponds to the initial stage of pseudocommunity.

• Storming where the team members start arguing heatedly and differences and insecurities come out in the open. This corresponds to the second stage given by Scott Peck, namely chaos.

• Norming where the team members lay out rules and guidelines for interaction that help define the roles and responsibilities of each person. This corresponds to emptiness, where the community members think within and empty themselves of their obsessions to be able to accept and listen to others.

• Performing where the team finally starts working as a cohesive whole, and effectively achieve the tasks set of themselves. In this stage individuals are aided by the group as a whole where necessary, in order to move further collectively than they could achieve as a group of separated individuals.

• Transforming This corresponds to the stage of true community. This represents the stage of celebration, and when individuals leave, as they must, there is a genuine feeling of grief, and a desire to meet again. Traditionally this stage was often called “Mourning”.

Take a look at stage two here. Organizational Theory calls it storming. Peck calls it chaos. Your team or community needs to have a Code of Honor BEFORE you get to this stage. Coming up with your code in the midst of this stage is not a good idea.