Why do people create online communities?

There are many reasons and here are just a few;

• 
  Anonymity - not always a given but in many cases online communities offer their members opportunity to have a profile that they create themselves with no validation - hence the opportunity to create fictitious - and therefore anonymous - identities. So why is this important? - It helps people to express themselves in ways and on topics that otherwise they may feel uncomfortable with due to social 'normalisation'. (A bit more on this topic sometime later perhaps!)
• 
  Passion - at the heart of a community is a topic - a topic of interest to all the members - and given that for many online communities members give their personal time it's crucial to allow them to be passionate through forums, discussions, polling opinions etc
• 
  Reach - linked with passion is reach - for many topics there may not be huge numbers of fans on the same bus, train, road you live on etc - the physical boundaries just don't work for all communities and the web, extranet or intranet open them up
• 
  Sharing - members like to talk - to each other - they share knowledge, skills, understanding at a rate we can't imagine - more people knew about Michael Jackson's death through Twitter (a social network of 'short message' people!) than the BBC could reach - in fact the BBC were over an hour later than the response of Twitter people - BBC is old news ! - that's not good news for the Beeb
• 
  Yearning - an interesting phrase - and one possibly covered above in passion and sharing - but just to be clear - members of an online community like not only to contribute - they like to know that they are being heard - and perhaps even more importantly - being responded to! Large companies have cottoned on to this so Giant.Co.com have started establishing 'communities - of suppliers, buyers, stakeholders etc in order to influence development, innovation and communication - and no doubt a few other things this brief blog may have passed over.

This is definitely not a comprehensive list - just a few pointers to think about if and when 'your' group start to consider an online prescence and to think about the nature of members being 'online' rather than - just down the road!



So .. the big question is what does all this mean for me?, you? and for all of us engaging in Community Development - answers on a postcard to d2 or Yes at graham.mallinson@d2digital.co.uk or amanda.mcdonald@yesagency.co.uk

Graham Mallinson September 2009

Will the relationship between education and employment ever work?

I recently attended an employer engagement session on the subject of work-related learning. The group was made up of a selection of interested parties from apprenticeship scheme managers through to education liaison officers. The aim of the session was to encourage employers to contribute to the planning and delivery of activities and learning programmes for young people in schools and colleges; intervention which has proven to be valuable in motivating young people and preparing them for the opportunities and challenges of adult life.

What struck me about the attendees was that they were all passionate advocates for greater integration between businesses and education. Many of them in fact, were involved in mentoring, governing or committee roles in their personal lives. Whilst this display of commitment was impressive, it only served to highlight the lack of involvement from employers without a personal passion for the topic. Many businesses are quite rightly focused on the business of, quite simply, running their business, and interventions from education can appear at best time-consuming and at worst tiresome.

It occurred to me that representatives in education need to be smarter in their approaches to business. Rather than asking businesses for work experience for their students, perhaps they could do some research in advance and match the skill-set of a particular young person to the needs of the business e.g. “We have a really talented young person on the Mac, she has a real creative flair and may well be useful to you in the advertising work you do for our local FE College, she’s available for work experience in June if you’re interested?” Alternatively, schools could position themselves as a lean, keen resource to input into new briefs – and education representatives can proactively promote their classes based on projects that they have read about in the business press or online. This changes the focus completely. Education can bring talented new blood and fresh ideas to employers, and employers can bring work-related experience and advice to young people. It’s a win-win situation that could make collaboration more appealling to both parties.