In the last 3 essays, I focused on the ontology of communities. I wanted to dive deep into the nuances of what makes a community, and why the members behave in some very specific ways.
Now I want to move apart from the speculative realm and try to translate those learnings into actionable, practical insights that may help us (help me) accelerate the building and development of our communities.
Again I’ll try to order my ideas in three moments:
A paradigm shift (or the zeitgeist of our age)
A set of basic, unbreakable rules
Some underlying structures and conditions that shape communities
Let’s talk, then, about that paradigm shift.
About trends, buzzwords and the spirit of our time
It’s not news “community” have become a buzzword in the startup ecosystem. Just like some years ago we were flooded by “AI”, “automation”, “gig economy” -the word of choice right now seems to be community.
And with good reason. What once was “a fluffy thing” now is fueling one of the most exciting trends of wealth and inclusion and impact.
And the trend is going to accelerate its growth due to the converging of at least five diverse factors:
A market factor: A growing group of founders and investors betting for community-based & community-led companies
This landscape curated by Mac Reddin shows a vibrant ecosystem.
One of the most interesting things to see here is how the map has been populated. Started somewhere in 2020 it started with around 127 tools. From there, it grew to 170 on August 18; 200 on October 16th; 215 on December 15th; and 242 on March 14th 2021!
A support factor: Growing research and development in community technologies and tools, as well as academic and blogs and books publications
When a topic starts to build traction it earns interest from those in research and communication/content creation.
Events like TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 or The Community Club’s Summit brought together people Lolita Taub, Katelin Holloway, Alex Angel, Alexis Ohanian, and Mac Conwell to boost the conversation around the core topics of community-building.
These conversations allow us to discuss definitions of “community”, know what investors look for in founders and startups working in this sphere, the elements that may constitute a successful community, etc.
For example, Katelin Holloway made a remark at TechCrunch Disrupt that I believe many of us should explore with magnifying glasses:
Community is created by a group of people thate share values, behaviours and passion. This creates belonging.
What I understand she is letting us know is that community creates culture. And culture shapes environments inside and outside its limits. Culture shapes the world. Katelin continued:
This is what we [humans] do: we want to connect (…) It’s about how community connects us to our environment.
There are also amazing books written by illustrious minds, like Robbie Kellman Baxter with her “The Membership Economy”, or more recently David Spink’s “The Business of Belonging”.
And blogs, and podcasts, and essays, and #MondayInfographics, and… and… you get the picture.
A structural factor: The shift from a web 2.0 digital environment to the decentralized web3
One of the most interesting things about Web3 is that based on the premise that is the people who determine the value of things, this will bring us the opportunity to create relevance by better aligning creators with their audiences and communities for long term value creation.
In a decentralized environment, members will be able to identify themselves, come together to create and exchange value in a novel fashion, with new behaviours.
A societal factor: A revaluation of community values such as trust, openness, fairness, etc.
When the community is in the centre of the companies, the people is the centre. Thus, the actions that enhance personal experiences and the values that protect the people become critical for all the parties involved.
These values guide the decision-making of all the stakeholders and depending on the alignment, create or destroy the social capital and status of each person in the community. In words of Li Jin: “Investing, for me, is a form of activism to create the world I want to see”1
An emergent factor: the tragedy of Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of a mindset and the tools that fertilize the land where communities can thrive
(I am sure there are a lot of well-thought writings about this final factor. I won’t focus on it right now because I want to move our attention to another issue… not because I run out of time to further develop this idea… not at all… don’t dare to suggest otherwise… please?)
All these converging factors are not occurring in a petri dish. All the above happens amidst a paradigm shift that has been addressed since 2016, at least. I’m talking about the change from stock to flow or the new power structures.
When I talk about the “stock to flow” I do not refer to the crypto model. I refer to an idea I first heard at Singularity University and goes something like this:
The past was built based on a stock paradigm: the key to value creation was the property in exclusivity and the barriers to entry against other players. This paradigm shaped the institutions and business models we are familiar with today, for example, Music Labels with their exclusive artists, big consulting firms with deep moats based on knowledge property, etc.
But suddenly, mainly due to the rise of the information-based companies, the paradigm stopped working. The new key to creating value is the engagement, the distribution and the flow of knowledge and assets. This new paradigm shapes the new institutions and business models that are thriving today, for example, Patreon or Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
The “New Power” is the framework developed by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms to understand and explain how to harness the power of the crowd in the face of leadership.
For me, this is one of the most relevant works to understand the underlying factors carving the community-driven landscape.
The authors say2:
Old power works like a currency. It is held by few. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads, and it captures.
New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like water or electricity, it’s most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it.
It’s interesting how this contrast of paradigms can be (and is) expressed in a clear, graphical way by both the authors of “New Power” and the Commsor Team on their Declaration:
The ethos -the culture- and these characteristics are precisely what makes participation possible. People believe in the value of DIY, creators and collaborators, and act accordingly.
While one could hoard currencies, currents are not to capture, but to channel. The “new power” demands the building of new courses for the liquid actions of the people to run.
Now we can grasp the zeitgeist. Community is a buzzword because it resonates with what we experience in our world.
Community is the spirit of our times and we will continue to see how more and more smart people enter the game. Community is the soul of our age and it will give us the opportunity to move the rivers of participation and engagement towards a better end.
Maybe, just like Hercules once did, we can leverage the power of the currents to clean the shit out our own Augeas stables.
Heimans, Jeremy & Timms, Henry; “Understanding “New Power” https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power