Web-based Communities conference keynote #2

The second keynote was on the second day, February 27, of the conference. It was by Cliff Figgalo, SocioAlchemy, USA. Cliff was part of the first virtual community which was the BBS WELL, and he worked with Howard Rheingold on this project. Howard Rheingold created the definition of virtual community. Here are the notes that I took.

Keynote #2: Communities of Ideology, presented by Cliff Figgalo, SocioAlchemy, USA

• ideology as motivator for community


• old idea: community based on trust, familiarity and intimacy
  => the WELL (earliest online community)
  => the WELL was an intentional community
  


• from intentional community to electronic community


• WELL = whole earth electronic link (by Stuart Brandt who Cliff worked with)


• provide a sense of shared sacrifice and ownership
  => mutuality, purpose and reward
  => this is for successful community


• from the WELL
  => first collection of online communities
  => self-reflective identity - sense of making history
  => collectively facing adversity
  => the network effect (Hagel and Armstrong) - selfish atttraction of the collective
  => community is hard work
  


• Hosting Web Communities is a book that Cliff Figgalo wrote


• community parameters
  - interactivity
  - focus
  - cohesion
  - My Comment: Can we find this in a blog network? then can figure out a measure for this
  - mixing and matching these parameters gives different communities
  


• early web community was chat, iChat


• content sites: high focus, low interactivity. Are they audience or community?
  Therefore continuum eg. people watching play and rock concert


• P2P breakthrough
  - was Napster a community?
  - just a utility
  - conceptual tipping point


• newspapers and community
  - publishers vs. community of readers


• talked about blogs and blogosphere


• political activism
  - blogs, moveon.org


• Markos Moulitsas blog
  - 20 million unique visits per month
  - community in blog


• solving global problems => multiple voices (Worldchanging)


• altruistic P2P => collection of computers P2P fashion for reporting prediction of climate (climateprediction.net)

It was an entertaining keynote, and he spoke well. And he worked with Howard Rheingold!