Community building: principles of mass collaboration

A recent post by Beth Harte: "Organic vs Inorganic Communities" looked at the characteristics of top down groups created for a specific reason - such as promoting a brand - and those that evolve organically around the interests of their participants. In my last blog post, I grappled with the question of how to create a community that allows a brand to promote itself effectively. Beth's post was very timely in this respect, not only in its helpful classification, but in highlighting that people know then they're "in a controlled and constructed environment".

This set me thinking about one of the case studies in Tapscott and Williams' "Wikinomics". In it they describe how IBM joined the open source community. A great example of how a major corporate brand entered into and built trust and credibility in a collaborative environment. IBM made a significant investment in integrating its activities within this organic community - ultimately to its substantial financial benefit.

By studying this example and several others the authors identified a number of "principles of mass collaboration". I've replicated these below and consider their relevance in the context of effective community building.

1. Take cues from your lead users - these are your opinion formers that others will follow. However, in the same way as listening to your customers is a good thing the art is in assessing these cues and seamlessly integrating with your business strategy (rather than being led down unprofitable paths).


2. Build critical mass - successful communities have a core group of participants that contribute their energies and enthusiasm to keep it motoring. This contribution of social capital creates the momentum that draws others in.


3. Supply an infrastructure for collaboration - there is plenty of infrastructure in social media whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or others. The decision is really in selecting the appropriate platforms to participate on.


4. Take time to get structures and governance right - in Wikinomics this is written in the context of managing intellectual property, investment of resource, etc. However, the governance part is particularly important in the community context.


5. Make sure all participants can harvest some value - this is interesting the context of social networks comprising professionals. There will be partipants with non-commercial objectives (e.g. there to learn, develop their professional standing) and others that are looking to pick up business. Unresolvable tensions could evolve between these participants.


6. Abide by community norms and create conditions for trust - understanding these norms and thinking about ways in which you can genuinely add value to the community builds trust.


7. Let the process evolve - this highlights the fact that it is very difficult to engineer a community. Back to the point that people know when the're in a constructed environment.


8. Don't lose sight of your business objectives - these should probably be carved on the frame of your computer screen.


9. Collaboration starts internally - creating vibrant and multiway collaboration within organisations is good practice before heading outside the walls of the enterprise.


10. Finding internal leadership for change - even the most innovative of organisations can be very conservative when it comes to breaking down barriers between themselves and the outside world. "Are we going to lose our competitive advantage by disclosing our thoughts to the outside world?" will be a typical questions for many executives.


11. Hone your collaborative mind - this may mean shutting off the "compete at all costs" mindset to work for the common good. For brands that have historically operated on a "command and control" basis this can be a significant shift.

In summarising these points it's notable that a number of them are worthy of expansion and further discussion. What do people think?