Online Communities 2004

hide

Valuing Participation

Welcome to a workplace for gathering resources and understanding how participation creates value in networked organizations and how it is measured.

Background

This project emerged from a conversation with Nancy White, September 2006. It has roots in the Online Communities in Business 2004 study Jenny Ambrozek and Joe Cothrel conducted.

That study found:

· Many people still don’t understand what online community is (72%)

. Most people agreed if you haven't experienced online community you don't know what it is (72%)

· Most organizations can’t measure return on investment (72%)

Jenny Ambrozek saw a clear connection. If you can't state the benefits (value) then measurement of the value is impossible. Executives having not engaged in collaborative environments need to be educated about some of the benefits. Support and communication for new initiatives then naturally follows.

2 years later, experience and multiple blog conversations suggest the issue of how to value participation is very much alive, especially as Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 become more present and visible. Recent posts by Euan Semple and Jerry Bowles highlight the business issues.

What we haven’t done so well is make the business value case—how does it help organizations become more productive and competitive.

~ Jerry Bowles

I believe that there is such a shift in the expectations of people coming into the workforce that it is inevitable. Youngsters who have been doing their homework collectively online, instant messaging with their mates and playing Second Life all at the same time all the way through school won't accept anything else.

~ Euan Semple

So why the focus on "participation" amidst conversations around the latest Web based collaborative tools known as Web 2.0?

Because as John Seely Brown and Esteee Solomon Gray foresaw writing in the inaugural Fast Company magazine, more than a decade ago:

“Organizations are webs of participation. Change the patterns of participation, and you change the organization. At the core of the 21st century company is the question of participation. At the heart of participation is the mind and spirit of the knowledge worker. Put simply, you cannot compel enthusiasm and commitment from knowledge workers. Only workers who choose to opt in -- who voluntarily make a commitment to their colleagues -- can create a winning company. When a company acknowledges the power of community, and adopts elegantly minimal processes that allow communities to emerge, it is taking a giant step toward the 21st century.”

~ John Seely Brown & Estee Solomon Gray, “The People are the Company” Fast Company Issue 01, October 1995 http://www.fastcompany.com/online/01/people.html

And in 21st century organizations, networks that are both producers and audiences are also creating value. Google paying $1.65b for YouTube places a value on the audience and their contributions doesn't it? Charlene Li, Forrester has some interesting analysison this deal.

A recent Scoble post in search of a new audience metric: engagement frames the issue at the level of the individual, the blogger.

The issue is complex, reflecting the world we live in. Used here "participation" is an umbrella reflecting Ross Mayfield's Power Law of Particpation offering a continuum of activities with increasing degrees of commitment and engagement. Perhaps Ross will visit and share how he came to draw his graph and define the order of the levels of participation.

Conversations and exchanges with people including Nancy White, 21st Century Organization blogger Victoria Axelrod, Paul diPerna, Blau Exchange, and Joe Cothrel are unearthing interesting resources and interesting perspectives. For example, Joe Cothrel observes that “sometimes most value is created by choosing not to participate”.

Clearly significant work is being done developing methodologies for mapping and valuing value creation through connection, sharing, and contribution, all dimensions of "participation" as defined here. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA), Value Network Analysis (VNA) and flourishing collective intelligence technologies especially Prediction Markets come to mind.

It is now decades since the first bulletin boards and Usenet groups pointed to the potential for creating value through sharing in online networks. Today the conversation is around different technologies (social networks, wikis, blogs, and RSS), but the business value issue remains. How do organizations measure and value the benefits of participatory media and collaboration?

This workspace is offered for sharing and growing our understanding of "Valuing Participation".

~ Jenny Ambrozek

November 2006

Please identify your interest in the topic by adding your name to the participant list.

Jenny Ambrozek

WHERE THIS WIKI BEGAN IN 2004

Welcome to a Dialogue About Online Communities in Business

About This Wiki Site

This is a companion site to a presentation given to the 7th International Conference on Virtual Communities, June 14-15 in The Hague, Netherlands. The presentation is available at http://www.infonortics.com/vc/vc04/slides/cothrel.pdf

Our Report from that study is now available as an attachment to this page.

OCIBReport073104.pdf

Selected documents that provide additional insights into our findings are included in different sections of the wiki, specifically:

i. The survey questions on which our report is based.

ii. The full list of respondent answers to free-text questions about defining terms and what we've learned in the past 25 years.

iii. A list (with url's where available) of the people, communities, and organizations cited by respondents as "inspiring examples or good sources of ideas with regard to virtual communities."

If you're new to the wiki and wondering how you might contribute to this workspace, click on Hmnn, Where Do I Start?.

Background to the Study

For those who were not survey participants, following is some background to the project from the Hague conference site:

It has been 25 years since online community found its humble beginnings via the first computer bulletin board. Since then, much attention has focused on the impact on society. But how have online communities affected business? In this presentation, we mark the most significant recent developments -- from social networks to weblogs -- and what they tell us about the future of online community and business. We look at where online communities stand today, and where they are going. We address technologies: what is being used, and what will be used in the coming months and years. And we explore the network: what communities and individuals are the best sources of ideas and inspiration today? Finally, we share five strategies everyone should consider as online communities begin their second quarter-century. The presentation will be informed by data from a survey commissioned specifically for this seventh International Conference.
http://www.infonortics.com/vc/vc04/vc04pro.html

We welcome discussion around our findings here. Feel free to add your comments. (Just click on Edit This Page.)

Ongoing Influencer Research

In addition we are continuing our research on influential people, communities, and organizations. If you have not previously contributed your Influencers, or wish to update what you told us in the survey, please do so. We plan to publish an updated list at year end. See the Influencers section

(Wiki platform courtesy of SocialText and Congruity)

Visit Recent Changes every once in a while to see what's new, and see Help for tips to use this Workspace.
Make links by putting words or phrases in square brackets. Click on Edit This Page to see some examples.