It's time for better communities
We are in an era of pervasive liminality, poised at thresholds, stewing in the spaces between.
We’ve shifted out of a century where hierarchies and Taylorist constructs offered the illusion of comfort and order, to a century where a Gordian knot of ambiguity reigns. We have unparalleled resources, yet billions don’t have internet access. Social contracts with citizens have been torn up. The centre didn’t hold.
And then came COVID. A brutal reminder of the interconnection and interdependence our dominant systems have minimised.
From necessity, 2020 has seen more online community events than ever before and a proliferation of community platforms - from small apps connecting intimate groups, to dedicated enterprise platforms capable of hosting entire ecosystem for brands.
Yet online community discourse has been dominated by the same people, in the same parts of the world. The authors of Big Social, who have co-opted the language of community without commitment or accountability to actual community models and outcomes.
After ripples of dislocation and future shock, the conversation is turning to what’s next.
We know rebooting the old operating system won’t work for the majority of people on the planet.
The challenges of social media are endemic. Though they can deliver voice and connection, they’re engineered to divide and radicalise, while deepening structural inequities.
Marketed as democratising forces, they’ve amassed more power than any historical media baron. They control the horizontal and the vertical. As an early internet participant, it’s been heartbreaking to watch the potential of online community subsumed or misappropriated by these companies.
Experiences sold as community are too often a trojan horse for harm, extracting one-sided value covertly and parasitically. We’re treating social contracts as fine print.
We can do better.
A north star
Regardless of where we convene community, we’ve craving context and connection.
On Facebook, two million people are role-playing as ants in a colony, led by a group of young people who have started to learn and apply community management techniques to keep the colony on track.
In Animal Crossing New Horizons, millions are gathering in small villages to revel in the simple joys of turnip farming and star gazing.
Businesses with established online communities are finding people using them more, and in unexpected ways.
Communities offer a north star for businesses and organisations in this liminal era, helping us navigate the changes now and to come. For participants they can provide belonging, safety and the knowledge their participation matters. They deliver deep relevance in a storm of noise — a workplace that’s not a place — or a competitive moat against threats.
Community is your path to the future state of your organisation. They challenge our extractive operating models with a proven, distributive alternative enriched, rather than constrained, by ambiguity.
A galvanising call
The current conventional wisdom of building communities and networks has largely failed us. A shared passion for elevating community has brought a small group of us together to work on articulating and modelling a better way.
Following a call from Bill Johnston - Carrie Melissa Jones, Brian Pagels, Dr. Lauren Vargas, Jay Bryant, Alexandra Jacoby, Joi Podgorny, Vincent Boon and myself have created a co-op to forge a better pathway. Here’s how it all came together.
We have created a galvanising call - Towards Better Communities.
It speaks to the current "hype" around communities and elevates it from buzzword into organised effort.
This is a milestone on a larger, ongoing journey and we’re inviting people to get involved.
It is time to shift how businesses invest in communities. When you build a true online community, you can authentically communicate at scale, innovate with less risk and confidently adjust course. We invite you to learn what Better Communities look like and how you can join the effort to create them. We can help organisations manifest this vision.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that we cannot ignore our inherent interconnectedness. It's time for openness, transparency, accountability and emergent strategies. I’m so proud to be a part of this group and invite you to get involved.
It's time for Better Communities.
https://www.bettercommunities.co/
#bettercommunities#towardbettercommunities