Online Community — Who Should Own It
Created on: Aug 11, 2008 3:13 PM by Ismael Chang Ghalimi - Last Modified: Sep 8, 2008 1:08 PM by Ismael Chang Ghalimi
Thursday, September 4, 2008, 11:30AM to 12:15PM [Add to My Calendar]
Location: Ballroom (2nd Floor)
Moderator: Robin Carey (Social Media Today)
Panelists: Chris Andrasick (Tacit Knowledge), Don Bulmer (SAP), Jim Groff (PBwiki), Ross Mayfield (Socialtext), Mark Woollen (Oracle)
Content: Online communities have become a cornerstone of any corporation's strategy, changing the way it does marketing, customer support, or even product development. This panel will address some of the social, political, legal, and technical challenges of developing and managing large online communities.
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Video Embedding:
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Jim Groff
says:
The thing about online community is that there are so many different kinds. I can count about 5 or 6 different communities of PBwiki users alone...these range from our developer community, to our educator community (very active), to our hobbyist community, to communities that we overlap with like Digg, Twitter, and Barcamp.
Saying that a company needs an "online community" begs the question--which types of community can and should a particular company support?
Jim Groff
says:
Another interesting question we should ponder: What does it take to make community a sustainable advantage? If everyone builds a community, how can your company stand apart? What strategic options do you have to forego if you make community an emphasis?
Alicia diVittorio
says
in response to Jim Groff:
I'm also curious to know what are the key components (must haves) of an online community that should be included to be successful.
Robin Fray Carey
says:
Great comments here. Here's a smattering of what I thought we might start with for some discussion points:
“Online community” is the hot topic, but what does it mean? And what is the business case for forming a community? Should it be to create internal collaboration? Influence the blogosphere and gain insight? Connect to customers and prospects?
And where should “ownership” of the community reside? With the “content professionals” of the communications department, either internal or external, or with the customer-facing marketing department? Or with IT?
What has been the strategy of using communities to connect with bloggers?
What role, if any, does brand play in community strategy?
At what point do you bring Marketing into the community discussion?
Is Communications better able to deal with legal issues?
Which group is best able to deal with controversy?
faiM
says
in response to Robin Fray Carey:
Thank you for the Video. Please more videos!
Very cool thing that this conference is so "open"
Timothée Boucher
says
in response to faiM:
hey faiM, you can check out the pages of each presentation or panel discussion (see agenda: http://www.office20.com/docs/DOC-1091 ), we'll post the videos of all of them just a few minutes after they're over 
I'm excited to hear these folks speak about this. As companies large and small feel they have to create/build/foster an online community — how can we maintain a high level of authenticity — particularly now that online communities are a "must have".