Today I had the privilege of being invited back to my previous employer to participate in a training session for some new online community owners. While I was still working at CCCI, our office released a community-based intranet (for a lack of better terms) and I’ve had several years experience running, planning, and testing communities in this environment. I was invited to share my experiences with a few new community owners.
Instead of doing a full power-point presentation I tried something a little different and risky — I just put this photo up on the screen and then interacted with the group for the next 20 minutes.
I chose this photo because it sets the tone for how to run an effective online community. In this photo are two guys, one from Spain, the other from Germany, sitting over coffee and cake having a conversation in England. Among a few of the questions I asked the group were “what do these guys have in common” and “how did these two meet in the place to have this conversation?”
It was a conference several of us attended for our European staff to learn how to be more effective using the Internet. The context was something familiar to us - coffee, conversation, and a conference. I then started asking them how would one go about creating the same thing in a new context online?
Then one person nailed it! She said, “I would think that planning a conference and planning a community would be about the same. You need a purpose, you need to find the right people, and you need a good place to have it”.
And that was the point. Taking conversations and interactions online still requires the same underlying principles we already know. It’s different online a bit to be sure, but at it’s root, it’s still the same.
