Yesterday I joined the ECCOP blog on value creation with communities of practice, which is going to be a multi-author but public blog on how to create and maintain value in CoP's. The first topic I addressed there is the continuous stress between individual and community rhythm.
[See also: the ECCOP blog I talked about]
The use of the high traffic area seems a simple yet constructive solution for large communities, but for medium and smaller communities (or communities with a very limited domain and therefore a high degree of specialization) this concept will not work. I would question the effect in that circumstance - perhaps it would even have a negative effect on the members! In most cases, in the end it's the coordinator(s) (whether he is global or local) with his sense of community needs and vibrance and the tools he has to change the rhythm to meed current and future demand:
- Know what is relevant in the community
- Know what community members are up to
- Understand and convey how the community can help them continuously
- Look for the tools to meet the community requirements (forum, phone, face-to-face, IM) to adjust the rhythm
- Identify milestones in the rythm (regular calls, mail notifications, meetings) and work towards that point to increase the energy and momentum
It's potentially a very complex role, the coordinator. But didn't we already know that!
This happened at 10:03:08 PM or
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