Silicon Valley Watcher Tom Foremski thinks that we're hiding behind the term "community" too much:
In the blogosphere and in the larger mediasphere, community is used in ways that clouds meaning and cloaks commercial enterprise.
During a chat after class, Quentin noted that he heard the word community constantly at the recent Web 2.0 conference, where the $2800 per seat audience applauded "community" business models and services from the $30K per vendor pitches.
I think this sacred cow needs to be slain and we should not use highly charged words or terms unless we mean them to be used that way.
We should use more culture-neutral terms which don't engage society's sensitivities.
Here's my contribution to slaying the cow: I pointed out to the class that commercial interests love online communities, because they are an aggregated blob into which you can more cheaply throw marketing messages.
I couldn't agree more!
I was on a conference call yesterday to help brainstorm ideas for a new product that we hope to launch before too long. As part of that, the product's Marketing Manager was giving an overview of the site, how it works, etc. At one point he said something like "anyone in the community will be to contribute..." and Danah had the presence of mind to challenge him on that.
What makes this a community?
That simple question turned out to be a bit difficult to answer. Using the word "community" was harder to justify in this context, but left unchallenged some might have been tricked into thinking that we all agreed there was a "real community" at work in the product.
We need to draw a distinction between a "community" ad a group of people who just happen to be in the same place at the same time—virtual or otherwise.
Posted by jzawodn at October 19, 2005 08:22 AM
It's hard to criticize for the use of community when the definition fits a lot of what is being described as a community. What makes a community a community in your mind if a lot of what web 2.0 fans are calling communities aren't?
Sounds like this is primarily a semantic argument. What we need is a more granular definition of what "community" is. Today we use it as a catch-all for anything involving user-generated content.
Jeremy, I like the term "Tribe" as a substitute for community when "we" talk about the social and economic trends and issues within the blogosphere because it more accurately describes the sel-interests of groups of distinct peoples. Plus, we all belong to different Tribes within the same society. Tribes gives us more granularity instead of "community" which masks legitimate self-interests and alliances. The term Tribe was in vogue five years ago or so, but it felt too hipster, too foisted and too ready for commercialisation. When Tribe.net appeared in 2003, the term was rapidly losing its momentum. But now, I see it coming back and for all the right reasosn, from the grassroots.
Jeremy, I like the term "Tribe" as a substitute for community when "we" talk about the social and economic trends and issues within the blogosphere because it more accurately describes the self-interests of groups of distinct peoples. Plus, we all belong to different Tribes within the same society. Tribes gives us more granularity instead of "community" which masks legitimate self-interests and alliances. The term Tribe was in vogue five years ago or so, but it felt too hipster, too foisted and too ready for commercialisation. When Tribe.net appeared in 2003, the term was rapidly losing its momentum. But now, I see it coming back and for all the right reasosn, from the grassroots.
Hi Jeremy. I am a reporter for the new york times and i'm trying to do a story on e-mail stress. would you mind sending me an e-mail. i would love to talk with you. lizette alvarez
This entry gets a big "You must av'e been bored at work" label.
the term "community" really only means a lot to the community community. i personally am in the community of those who do not grok community...i'm getting plenty of responses from the community community on how our community can get on this community community while it still has the feeling of community.
Am I missing something? The idea that the word is even remotely sacrosanct, to me that is ridiculous. However, I learned long ago that arguing with an Englishman about the use of the English language can be pretty embarassing - for me.
