Communities
Tidbits – Social tools
Feb 23rd
With the rise of social tools, we’ve been publicly reclaiming ourselves – publishing blogs, joining social networks, and connecting and sharing information with each other on a global scale. As a result, a shift in values is underway, where privacy, gatekeeping, and the preference for information silos is being replaced with new expectations of publicy, openness and transparency. We’re still exploring the implications of this transition both for our personal identities and for the role of the business organization, but there’s the potential to redesign the system in a way that’s fair, participatory, and human.
But how?
A part of it is in understanding the composition of our social networks, and the skills, strengths, and relationships that are embedded within them. At the organizational level, knowledge is often separated by department, and at a larger scale it’s separated by the notions of producer verse consumer. These barriers no longer make sense. In order to take advantage of hidden insights and innovative ideas, there needs to be a way to understand who’s who and how to get the information flowing through the proper channels.
A tool that would map the connections within a network combined with a ‘human capital’ assessment could aid in this process.
Venessa Miemis, Tapping the network to facilitate innovation
Creating communities
Feb 18th
Just a few lines about a nice post by Marian Schembari on the DBW web site that sums up a few crucial points on the way a publisher may build their own communities. I like in particular this passage:
Since they’ve engaged their community as equals and not marketers, Tor has a foundation in place that enables them to engage fans long before a book’s publication date. This is good for both Tor and for sci-fi/fantasy authors from any publisher, a feat Defendini described as “gratifying”. He also pointed out that the complete lack of “us vs. them” mentality adds to the conversation.
“Publishers need to stop looking at other publishers as competition.” Amen!
I recall when a few years ago I was talking with a publisher about a possible redesign of their website, and (long story short) when I proposed him to link to other sources and external sites he looked at me puzzled and said: “Why should I? I want readers to stay on my site!”.
No, actually not. Not necessarily, at least.
You want readers to recognise you, you want to engage them and you want to create a bond with them.
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