Voice of Community

Rituals and Community

Rituals play a critical role in the major religions of the world, whether it's the Latin incantations and incense of Catholicism, the times of the day and orientation of prayer in Islam, or the dietary rituals of Judaism, they all play a key role in reinforcing who you are why you exist and why you are doing what you are doing.

Similarly in community, rituals play a key role in at least two of McMillan's key aspects of commmunity spirit: membership (the feeling that members have of belonging), and a shared emotional connection (a shared faith in community members commitment to be together) ((Psychological Sense of Community: Theory of McMillan & Chavis - 1986) 

And at the CMX Summit held last month in San Francisco, I was struck by the importance of rituals in the strengthening of communities.One of the great presentations at the Summit, was titled Crafting a Self-Sustaining Community Culture: The Power of Ritual, Purpose, and Shared Identity, by Emily Castor, of Lyft, the crowd-sourced cab company.

They have several rituals including passengers always sitting in the front seat not the traditional back seat, giving the driver the fist pump, and of course the pink moustache on the front of the car. All these reinforce the message to the community of passengers as to why they are using this service (over and above, I need a ride), and the community of drivers as to why they are participating and providing this service (over and above, I need the cash). See the full presentation here.

Religous rituals and community rituals work really well face-to-face, but what about online? Insiders language (think LOL, FOMO, and so on), can contribute to rituals of commmunication. Avatars and titles can contribute to membership symbols and emotional connection, but what else can we do to deepen and extend relatively shallow online network links into deep community connections?

Question:  What rituals have you seen that work well online?

Self Quantifiers - a community of self analysers

It's paradoxical that this community starts off with "self" but they are an amazing bunch of sharers, as I found out at last night's Meetup for the San Francisco Quantified Self group held at the Autodesk Gallery.

So what are self-quanitifiers? What do they quantify? What is this movement all about? (And yes, it is a movement - there is even a Quantified Self European Conference in May.)

The QS movement is a collaboration of users and makers of self-tracking tools whose goal is to help people get meaning out of their personal data.

At the Meetup we heard presentations via a common format of what am I measuring, how am i measuring it, and what am I learning. The presentations covered many areas: people tracking their blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, sleeping patterns, fitness levels, moods at different locations and different times of the day. We also heard a very moving story from a Parkinson's sufferer tracking the loss of control and inexorable decline resulting from that terrible disease. Topics are not always medical: at a past meeting, we heard about tracking incidents of personal harrassment at different locations and times of the day.

State of the movement: the tools are still crude - they are not entirely accurate. They do not talk to each other. There is no standard protocol. Data is often locked in the device or the app, for example, there is no way to export my Fitbit data to Excel.

At this nascent state, it's interesting to see the value of sharing in this community of selfies. We're all trying to find out about different technologies; about how better to report and track; how better to analyze and record. And how to stop having to manually collate this information.

What do you think that you would you like to measure about your daily activities? How would you use that data to make your life better?

Related articles

Free the data meets quantified self in 23andMe co-founder's startup, Curious

Larry Smarr Says Quantified Self is Awakening, Despite Zeo's Failure

The key to the back door

What do keys and back doors have to do with community?

Well, I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS a few weeks ago, and there was an interview with one of my favorite actors John Goodman. He is shown eating at the Commander’s Palace, a New Orleans landmark since 1880 and one of its more famous restaurants.

 Long-time customers are welcomed and given extra attention as any good restaurant cultivating a loyal clientele would, but what marks this restaurant as unique is a highly unusual benefit: the restaurant’s best customers are given a key to the back door, said to be “one of New Orleans’s most coveted prizes.” Selected customers can come through the back door and into the kitchen area of the restaurant at any time, talk to the owners and chefs, sample the dishes, make suggestions for the menus, and so on.

Granting your MVP’s  “insider” status is a classic best practice of recognizing and rewarding the top contributors, posters, writers, photographers, videographers in your community. To a constituency motivated primarily by recognition, insider access to C-level execs, product managers, product designers, and company engineers is a status most highly prized by your community members. And like many effective community recognition devices, at little to no cost, you create inestimable value.

What’s your community’s “key to the back door”?

Community old style: one neighbor at a time

Although we talk a lot about community in the aggregate and global online communities, it’s always refreshing to return to the roots of community, where it all started: the neighborhood. And this last few weeks have been great for grass roots community in my neighborhood: a multi-family garage sale; a take-back-the-night block party, Labor Day neighborhood BBQ, and help for a sick neighbor through Lotsa Helping Hands.

Multi-Family Garage Sale
We held the 17th annual multi-family John Street garage sale.

 

The biggest one to date with close to 20 families and multiple adjoining streets participating, all selling junk and so called “collectibles” (or more appropriately named “disposables”) to fellow neighbors and visiting bargain hunters. In the case of the neighbors, the activity should be titled “swapping” rather than “selling” as a year from now, you’ll be seeing those articles up for offer again in neighboring yards.

Take Back the Night
We held our annual Take back the night block party.

 
This is an opportunity for neighbors to get together, introduce themselves, and see how they can better join together to solve common neighborhood local crime and other problems. Showing the “perps” that we and not they own our streets.

Labor Day BBQ
One of the neighbors always hosts a BYOB&B (bring your own bottle and burger) BBQ on Labor Day and this year was no exception.

 
All were invited – and many neighbors including several who had moved away many years previously made the annual pilgrimage.

Lotsa Helping Hands
I remember when I was growing up, my mom making soup for the sick old lady who lived next door and other neighbors popping in with various homemade treats. Now there is an online equivalent to make this process more effective: Lotsa Helping Hands.

One of our neighbors is recovering from cancer and while she is recovering, cannot support herself.  Neighbors have signed up on the site to volunteer for and schedule tasks such as make breakfast, cook dinner one night , take the dogs for a walk on certain days, pick up dry cleaning and so on. It’s an incredible system and a great site.

In all these activities, it was so encouraging to see closely located but normally relatively socially isolated folks come together in a spirit of sharing and genuine community.

How, if at all, can we reproduce that in our own primarily online communities?

Maker community is real

Although I have been to Maker Faire and Techshop and read and talked a lot about the democratization of fabrication, my view of the maker movement I have to admit has been tinged with a little skepticism. (What can you expect from a Brit trained from birth to question any kind of enthusiasm?) However that all changed when I was at a party last week.

The party was at one of my neighbors and was to celebrate the end of their kitchen remodel – the end of cement dust, bare wall-board, appliance hookups, and the rest, and a return to normality where one can once again boil eggs on a stove and not on the barbecue. Anyway, during the festivities my neighbor took me aside and ushered me to the studio at the bottom of the garden to proudly show me his new baby – a 3d printer.

 
There it was in all its glory. He added the pellets and proceeded to “print” out an electric outlet cover. It took about 10 minutes to complete. It was perfect.

He lives in a 1914 craftsman cottage in the San Francisco Bay Area and plans to use it to print period items that are no longer manufactured -  perfect use case for 3D printing. 
 
He has joined TechShop and is taking Autodesk Inventor classes to perfect his models.

I’m a convert! And when I start seeing them on the sidewalk alongside unwanted NEC monitors, Epsom printers, and old Macs, then I know that we have truly crossed the chasm. Are others starting to see them more and more?

Diatribe against tribes

Tribes are receiving plenty of praise and admiration lately and although I respect Seth Godin immensely and read his blog daily, I can’t but think that his admonitions to find, create, lead or join a tribe is misguided at best and dangerous at worst.

Tribes are mean selfish inhumane social institutions. Tribes are only interested in the tribe and the survival of the tribe; the cause, if there is one, is always secondary. Tribes don’t like other tribes; they eliminate other tribes or capture and absorb other tribe members into their own tribe. Tribes have no respect for other tribes. Tribalism is thought to be one of the biggest impediments to democratic development in many countries and closer to home, there is no love lost between the Bloods and the Crips or other tribes. I also contend that the tribalization of politics in America has in great part lead to the increasing gap between the parties – gone is “country before party”. Geographical tribalization has led to increasingly homogenous red and blue states; ideological tribalization to increasingly intransigent thought silos; and tribal rhetoric has led to the constant negative-ad wrapped demonization of the opposing tribe.

My recommendations: if you’re in a tribe, get out (run don’t walk); if you’re leading a tribe, as my mother said to me when I worked for the government, “get a proper job.” Find a cause, create a movement, or participate in a community, (in this regard I am totally at one with Seth) but stay away from tribes.

Do others have a more benign view of tribes?

An event is not a community, but...

My wise friend and brilliant futurist Wayne Hodgins once told me, “never confuse an event with community” but there I was at Autodesk University 2011 the other week, surrounded by community.

Communities of mechanical engineers, automotive engineers, civil engineers: bridge builders, highway engineers, canal builders, “dirt movers”; architects – high rise and low density residential, hotel and stadium architects, institutional architects designing schools, hospitals, universities and prisons; multi-media designers, animators, games designers, and commercial renderers; mechanical engineers, automotive engineers, shipbuilders, mechanical parts, consumer goods, and parts designers. You name the design profession and there was a tribe for it.

An event might not be a community, but it is an incredible catalyst for community.



In a paper written in 1986 titled “Psychological Sense of Community”, McMillan and Chavez identify four essential aspects of the sense of community and why people join and stay in communities: membership, influence, fulfilment of needs, and emotional connection. 

Membership - a feeling that members have of belonging.
In these design tribes, there’s a camaraderie of profession (what they do), a camaraderie of industry (context in which they do it), camaraderie ofproduct (tools they use to do it), a camaraderie of experience - beginner intermediate, advanced, expert (level atwhich they do it), camaraderie of AU attendance (number of times they’ve participated in the past), camaraderie of association (user groups, AUGI members, and so on). There are so many intersections that it’s not surprising that these communities of practice have a feeling of belonging and find so many common purposes.

Influence - a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group.
In these communities of practice, participants are eager to learn, and eager to learn from each other – someone who’s been there done that and really knows your pain. These groups learn from being shown what to do by trainers in formal sessions, but learn much more from each other.

Fulfillment of needs - a shared faith that members needs will be met.
There is a definitel expectation by attendees that their professional learning and networking needs will be met, and will in great measure be met by members of the community. For example, the unconferences (small roundtable discussions of 20 to 24 people) rather than the lectures are proving more popular than formal training sessions. Also the fact that there are so many returning attendees (over 50%) show that needs have been met successfully in the past.

Shared emotional connection - a shared faith in their commitment to be together.
There is a great connection in terms of their shared professional experiences with product, issues with and as managers, different offices, and Autodesk itself. And although there are many different reasons that bring people to Autodesk University, everybody is here for similar reasons: to get better at their jobs and to network professionally. There is also the “shared history” of AU alumns some of who have been coming to this event for 10, 15, or more years.

An event such as Autodesk University serves to begin and extend community in several ways as face-to-face encounters interact with and compound the engagement of attendees online. People who have been in touch online (in forums, on blogs) finally get to meet each other and put a face and a voice to the email handle and the effect is transformative. People who meet for the first time at the event, can prolong that experience online long after the last session bell has sounded and the last beer consumed.

So, events might not be community, but they surely are an incredible stimulus for community.
Have you had similar experiences at other events? Or have you attended or put on events that were a complete wash in terms of community building? And have you figured out why and what you might want to do differently next time?

Brasil community spurs attendance at Autodesk University Brasil

The first Autodesk University Brasil was held in Sao Paulo last week and was a resounding success. Over 1400 people packed the conference for a full day of presentations and training sessions and partied into the early evening unwilling to leave.

 
Several companies, like PROGEN above,  brought many of their staff to take advantage of the training and the collective wisdom of the conference.

As I’ve said many times before, an event is not a community but it is a great catalyst for community and community activities:

• Before the event, Brasil Community members tweeted, retweeted, blogged, and  posted on the forums advertising the event extensively.
• During the event, community members presented many of the classes, manned the community booth, and answered many questions from participants, as well as running the raffle for an Invidea Quadro graphics board.
• After the event, the community continues to tweet, blog, and post about their experience and great learning they participated in.

I will be disappointed if we are not close to 3,000 people next year. Congratulations and thank you to the Autodesk Brasil Community and the Autodesk Brasil team!

Innovation, Community, and Social Networks (Part 2)

I attended a joint TEDx and Bay Area Executives Meetup a while ago on how customer social networks are making an impact on innovation, and how employee networks within organizations are helping to break out of organizational silos and cross organizational boundaries.
The conference was divided into two sessions with separate panels on:
• Engaging innovation externally
• Engaging innovation internally
This is the second of two articles about innovation, community, and social networks. This post is about engaging innovation internally. The first post discusses engaging innovation internally.

Susie Wee, CTO at HP, talked about the diverse vehicles for innovation at HP including the
• HP Garage (18,000 registered users, 5,000 ideas – all read, all answered)
• Techcon – technology conference
• Insiders
• Incubators
• Co-Creation/Co – Innovation

Wolf Cramer at IBM talked about “action” networks. Need to translate ideas into action. No problem generating ideas. Everyone can generate ideas. But what do you do with them. Need to connect  “idea networks” with “action networks”- who can get things done in the corporation. IBM provides seed money for 3 months and then must pass through various decision gates to pilot and before launch. He also talked about innovation hubs based on social media and collaboration.

Getting new features into a product is easier than creating a whole new product through crowd sourcing.
Rob Daniels at Salesforce talked about Chatter, their “Yammer. He found that Chatter was a great way to discover “hidden heroes” and celebrate their ideas. Top 25 influencers rewarded every 6 months.

Tad Milborn at Intuit talked about focusing on groups “already inclined” to be social and to talk about topics. Aim for the least barrier to entry. At Intuit, 10% of time is allowed to employees for innovation and creating new ideas. (Dan Pink in “Drive” points to Google employees who get “20% innovation time”, 1 day per week to work on a side project. Pink notes that Google News, Gmail, Orkut, and Google Translate, all came out of 20% time.) Their internal Brainstorm infrastructure has around 12,000 views per month.He pointed to “innovator fatigue” where after the bloom of the initial idea fades to be replaced by testing, business plans, marketing, and launch. Ideas need a whole ecosystem to bring them to fruition, not just an infrastructure for generating ideas.

Big takeaways for me regarding internal innovation were
• Innovation can’t be relegated or assigned to one group. It needs to pervade the whole organization if it is to be most effective. However, it does have to be driven centrally to ensure that diverse innovation initiatives are leveraged to their fullest.
• Need to translate ideas into action. No problem generating ideas. But what do you do with them. Need to connect “idea networks” with “action networks”- who can get things done in the corporation.
• Innovation needs to be made part of the corporate culture – “10% time” at Intuit, “20% time” at Google – time set aside for employees to work on their own projects.
• Rather than references to great articles (although these are useful too), need to Yammer more about what we’re doing, to create those serendipitous synergies.)
• Ideas need a whole ecosystem to bring them to fruition, not just an infrastructure for generating ideas.

To read my full write up of the Conference, see TCGen and Bay Area Meetup Social Innovation Conference

Innovation, Community, and Social Networks (Part 1)

I attended a joint TEDx and Bay Area Executives Meetup a while ago on how customer social networks are making an impact on innovation, and how employee networks within organizations are helping to break out of organizational silos and cross organizational boundaries.
The conference was divided into two sessions with separate panels on:
• Engaging innovation externally
• Engaging innovation internally
This is the first of two articles about innovation, community, and social networks. This post is about engaging innovation externally. A second post discusses engaging innovation internally.

David Cruickshank of SAP talked about their Labs Project which is open to partners and customers to try out their ideas and technologies.  SAP feels that it “get’s it” about innovation and has an Open Innovation office where innovation projects are shared and not “stolen” by the sponsor, which can be a big fear from external innovators. IP (intellectual property) is a big issue. 
New Ford site in Deerborn with its Open Innovation facility is another example of customers designing product rather than simply commenting on your proposals – “more than 100,000 applications created in just two years, mostly by individual programmers within the open source community, the spirit of “open innovation” has made the App Store an unprecedented success”
IP works best with complementary partners that have no interest in each other’s area of expertise, for example, a database application and a hardware company (although there are examples of these kinds of relationships not being as harmonious as they ought to be.)
My key take-aways:
• Crowdsourcing and customer involvement as a prime source of innovation is here to stay and is increasing
• Crowdsourcing can be very good for incremental innovation; disruptive breakthroughs, perhaps not so much for sustained development because he crowd might miss stuff.
• Need to position yourself to become the 'escape valve' of ideas
• Difference between consumers and enterprise with respect to innovation: consumers not generally about money, enterprise is ALWAYS about money
• Pain  points for external innovation are:
o Socializing the value of co-creation internally, and
o Negotiating IP
• “Technology has the life of a banana” (Scott McNealy)– don’t waste time on IP issues, get product to market
How have you attempted to encourage innovation around your products and services from your company? Have you been successful? Have efforts been sustained or are they isolated and intermittent? Do you even believe in customer innovation?

To read my full write up of the Conference, see TCGen and Bay Area Meetup Social Innovation Conference