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Broadcast Institutions, Community Values

Clay Shirky, Networks, Economics, Culture, Sept 11, 2002
Commentary by Stephen Downes

Now that retail businesses have tried and failed to establish online communities, media outlets such as newspapers and television stations are looking at the concept. This article provides the same advice businesses were given three years ago (and which still applies):

Audiences are built. Communities grow.CRLF
Communities face a tradeoff between size and focus.CRLF
Participation matters more than quality.CRLF
You may own the software, but the community owns itself.CRLF
The community will want to build. Help it, or at least let it.

CRLFIt should go without saying, but these principle apply to educational or learning communities as well (what this means is that instructors and institutions need to resist the urge to 'manage' their learning communities).

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