Putting Community at the Core of Innovation in New Media

Putting Community at the Core of Innovation in New Media

by Evgeny MorozovDirector of New Media, Transitions Online

July 25, 2007

Outline

Wisdom of crowds Social ways of being Emergence of social media How can communities help innovate? Challenges for media organizations

1841

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one!"

Charles Mackay, 1841

Nowadays...

“Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few” (2004)

“Wise crowds" need

(1) diversity of opinion

(2) independence of members from one another

(3) decentralization

(4) a good method for aggregating opinions

Paradox?

As technology is getting smarter, human interaction is playing an increasingly important

role

Group think or individuality?

Arguably, we have never been more autonomous and independent than now

BUT

The realm of the social Web also makes us more aware of others

=better filtering/production of ideas ?

Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible. Flickr lets me see what friends are eating for lunch, how they’ve redecorated their bedroom, their latest haircut. Twitter tells me when they’re hungry, what technology is currently frustrating them, who they’re having drinks with tonight

Lisa Reichelt/ http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/

Ambient Intimacy

All those new social dimensions change the group dynamics completely

Reflection is social

=> Emergence of peer-to-peer economy

Individual still the primary figure

But individual outputs are still more effective than community outputs

Community just adds value at different stages (pre and post-production)

But connections matter!

Digital Natives won't see any distinction between old and new media

Old vs New

Old+New=Social Media

Nature of the community dynamics—nobody understands

Works in practice, but in theory?!

“Sharing” or “peer-to-peer” economy requires new metrics

Yet all media organizations would need to devise those metrics sooner or later; new

media is a good place to look at

How communities can help innovate

I. Community can help build new productsII. Community can help change old products

III. Community can help adjust strategy

Building New Products

1. Community designs, community decides

2. Community creates, you package

3. Give away code, communities emerge

1. Community designs, community decides

Threadless

Open Source Footwear

Cambrian House

2. Community creates, you package

News To Me

uReport

CNN/YouTube

ohmynews/other citjourn sites

3. Give away code, communities emerge

Google API

Chicago Crime

Mappy Hour

WeFi

Tunisian Prison Map

Google Earth/Deforestation

Google Earth Outreach

After discovering WeFi...?

Communities Change the Product

Who are the lead users?

“Lead users are users of a product that currently experience needs still unknown to the public and

who also benefit greatly if they obtain a solution to these needs”

“.... products are developed to meet the widest possible need; when individual users face

problems that the majority of consumers do not, they have no choice but to develop their own

modifications to existing products, or entirely new products, to solve their issues”

FeVote

Snakes on a Plane: didn't work

Radio Open Source

Rough Cuts

Rough Cuts

Rough Cuts cont

How communities can change strategies?

Prediction Markets

Digg: the number

Subvert and Profit

Bug Blog Comments

Some challenges for news organizations

1. How to make community innovation granular?

Making every comma count Innovate by a click/idle capacity Fact-checking/UGC—something to think about

2. How to build a perfect community with lively interaction?

Periphery vs core % of Wikipedia editors editing most of the

articles/same with Digg Forming a proactive core is crucial

2. How to identify/empower lead users?

Karma systems Virtual currencies How to break users into demographic groups?

The Right Demographics?

3. How to mobilize a formed community/for what cause?

Finding an anchor activity TechDirt Insight Economist Red Stripe AZ/Offthebus.net

TechDirt Insight Community

offthebus.net

But remember: it doesn't work for everything!

Email: [email protected]