Comments on: What ISN’T a Community?

By: Media Driving with Jay Moonah » Post Topic » The Connection Continuum — an invitation to collaborate on a community/relationship modelling tool

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:47:31 +0000

[...] One of the challenges Jose and I found in trying to flesh out some of these ideas was discussion of the different kinds of connections people and businesses have with one another. We know we’re certainly not the first ones to have this kind of discussion, and I’ve talked in the past here about the nature of community and relationships as they pertain to the social media space and beyond. [...]

By: Community Guy, Jake McKee - Rapid Fire - Saturday, April 26

Community Guy, Jake McKee - Rapid Fire - Saturday, April 26 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:58:21 +0000

[...] What ISN’T a Community? – Media Driving with Jay Moonah Continuing the ongoing discussion about the definition of “community”, this post looks to definition by asking “What ISN’T community?” [...]

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:01:05 +0000

The connection between people a very interesting question, one I’ve been thinking about a lot.

For example, when I was a kid I loved Rush. (I still love Rush BTW, new live album dropped this week, oh YEAH baby! Ah-hem, sorry…) Now, I had a couple of buddies who also loved Rush so occasionally we would hang out an listen to Rush together and play air guitar and stuff, and once every two years when they would tour we would hang out with 15,000 other people who loved Rush for a few hours at the concert and burn our fingers holding up our lighters during “Closer To The Heart” and all that sort of crazy nonsense. But I never really thought about being part of a “community” of Rush fans, particularly — I was just a guy who loved Rush.

Now, if I was really into it today, I suppose I could participate in Rush online forums, join Facebook fan groups, whatever, but I don’t. It doesn’t make me feel less connected to the “brand” of Rush ‘cus I still consume the products they put out.

Am I part of a Rush “community”? Does it matter? I’m not sure…

By: Sean Moffitt

Sean Moffitt — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:37:14 +0000

Jay,

A very intriguing question and post. For good or bad, I believe MyStarbucksIdea is a community (based on your definition as well – yes, on purpsoe, yes on length and depth of engagement – an average regular Starbucks drinkers visits 20 times amonth in an offline world) although rallying around the brand and a narrow -purpose of generating new ideas.

One of the big questions that also gets brought up about this subject – is how connected do members need to be with each other to be considered a community – typically, in a brand community – there is relationship between 1) a brand and its members/customers, b) the hope would be that it connects members to prospective members (word of mouth) but how often does c) connecting members/customers to each other become the objective and to what degree (does it allow forums, can people socially network or is it more two-way dialogue and content exchange with the company).

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:27:54 +0000

Right, but that’s kind of the question… do the two of us listening to C.C. or listening to Dylan make us part of the same community even if we don’t have any other relationship? I _think_ by McKee’s definition you’d say no on both counts, but I’m not sure.

By: Bobby Hewitt from Creative Thirst

Bobby Hewitt from Creative Thirst — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:33:15 +0000

That is true but an online community may not necessarily have a relationship at all and still be a part of a community, as in your reply example above but that is very different from Jake McKee’s definition in your post.

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:03:02 +0000

Really good point Bobby, although I don’t know if what we might call “extended communities” are strictly an online phenomenon either. For example, are Bob Dylan fans a community? They certainly don’t all know each other, but I’m sure they feel they have a “relationship” through how they feel about Bob Dylan’s music, the same way we might about C.C.’s podcast even if we don’t know C.C. or each other. And if two big Bob Dylan fans meet and start talking about Bob Dylan, it immediately connects them in what I think is a similar way. Is that community or is it something different?

By: Bobby Hewitt from Creative Thirst

Bobby Hewitt from Creative Thirst — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:20:20 +0000

Jay,
Interesting post it seems to me that the web has redefined what a community is and isn’t. On the web you could know someone but never meet them in person and still be a part of the same community. For example I call in and leave a comment on C.C Chapman’s podcast Managing the Gray, he responds back to me in the same podcast we now have a connection in the same community but have never met in person. yet I still feel I am part of that community. But what about the listener that doesn’t call in, the lurker as Mitch Joel and Joseph Jaffe refer to them, are they still part of the Managing The Gray community? I think they are. So then a community can have members that don’t participate or communicate with each other so no relationship is formed except perhaps with the host of the podcast in this case. This is very different than relationships and communities off line.