New PR Challenge VennI’ve asked many questions lately about the nature of “online communities”. The evangelists are trying to get business to be baptized into Web 2.0, and businesses are at most sticking in a toe, and mostly afraid the idea is all wet.

The evangelists will not win until they answer some hard questions. They need to be able to categorize and dissect Online Tribes before they can even get to the decisions of joining or conquering.

So - in an effort to bring the spirit of Comm2.0 to Web2.0 - I bring you the Occam’s RazR Wikimunity. Rather than just becoming a taxonomy of different kinds of communities, let’s ask the questions a researcher might:

  • How much of a Community Personality is emergent, and how much is in the DNA of the technical aspects of the forum?
  • Once a Community exerts a Personality, how much can it be shepherded or evolved?
  • What degree of participation is required to “earn” the credibility one needs to be a true influencer, and one who adds value to the Community?
  • What subtle changes make identical communities turn into polar opposites?
  • Which elements of communities show a high degree of measurable correlation, such that we can learn from comparison?
  • What determines the internal structure of an online community?
  • How much “churn” is there within a meritocracy? Can the “influence-poor” become “influence-rich,” and vice-versa? What accounts for such “nobility mobility” in some communities and not others?

The sandbox is open. Now play nice.

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