Community Catalysts (or, Thinking About Community Cont’d)

My friend Howard has a nice post up on the community that will develop around financial bloggers/readers.

Howard mentions three tools that will help the online financial-heads form a community – MyBlogLog, coComment, and Feedburner.

It’s interesting to note that it was these three apps’ efforts to nurture community that started me thinking about what I want in a community.

Specifically, I’ve been thinking of, currently, MyBlogLog and coComment as community catalysts.

Here are some thoughts:

– It feels like, initially, the communities are forming around ones that existed outside of the application. Specifically, communities that developed around our personal digital identities. Does nurturing a community away from its birthplace bring value?

- These apps have individual features that help germinate community, but a nice feature doesn’t create a great product. I suspect the long-term value of these services won’t be that they’re the centre of a community; rather, the value will be the catalyst they provide in creating a community and the data they collect for that existing community.

- It’s interesting to observe the convergence of feature sets. Personalization, organizing conversations, discovery, … are standard catalysts of community. It’s a fun thought experiment to think about strategy for these catalysts with a focus on network effects and social networks.

Eric Marcoullier

Fraser — I think you make some very prescient observations about online communities. In fact, you have described many of the core principles that drive MyBlogLog. We are not trying to be the center of your community — that’s what your blog is for. We’re trying to find ways to bring you and your readers closer together. Step one is making everyone aware of each other; step two can be any of the three services you mention — discovery, personaliztion or communication. But it all has to center around the passionate readers that are waiting to connect around a given blog. The concept of potential energy comes to mind.
http://www.mybloglog.com Eric Marcoullier

Fraser — I think you make some very prescient observations about online communities. In fact, you have described many of the core principles that drive MyBlogLog. We are not trying to be the center of your community — that’s what your blog is for. We’re trying to find ways to bring you and your readers closer together. Step one is making everyone aware of each other; step two can be any of the three services you mention — discovery, personaliztion or communication. But it all has to center around the passionate readers that are waiting to connect around a given blog. The concept of potential energy comes to mind.
Fraser

Hi Eric, thanks for taking the time to share the vision of MBL. It’s an interesting tool that does add value to the communities that I’m part of. I’m excited to watch where you guys take the service. I’m not sure if the second step needs to be any single one of the three services. Doesn’t it make sense to offer the services/features that are valued and help achieve the goal of bringing you and your readers closer together? Nice analogy w/ potential energy by the way.
http://www.disruptivethoughts.com Fraser

Hi Eric, thanks for taking the time to share the vision of MBL. It’s an interesting tool that does add value to the communities that I’m part of. I’m excited to watch where you guys take the service.

I’m not sure if the second step needs to be any single one of the three services. Doesn’t it make sense to offer the services/features that are valued and help achieve the goal of bringing you and your readers closer together?

Nice analogy w/ potential energy by the way.
Eric Marcoullier

We’re in complete agreement — when I say the Step Two can be “discovery, personalization or communication,” I mean just that. It’s unique for each reader. Some will want to learn about new links and sites, others will want to make their own profiles exciting and still others will want to connect with fellow readers. We have to make all of those options available and let the reader decide how they want to act. But it’s all built on a foundation of awareness of other readers.
http://www.mybloglog.com Eric Marcoullier

We’re in complete agreement — when I say the Step Two can be “discovery, personalization or communication,” I mean just that. It’s unique for each reader. Some will want to learn about new links and sites, others will want to make their own profiles exciting and still others will want to connect with fellow readers. We have to make all of those options available and let the reader decide how they want to act. But it’s all built on a foundation of awareness of other readers.
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