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To me the point where a "group" becomes a "community" is when its able to create sustainable growth of membership simply through its activities. Actual membership of the community may have high turnover: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind. However, the nature of the community is such that it continually renews membership, leaders, and elites.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to stop creating content, then the group of people investing their time will likely dissipate as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" - what if a bus were to take the few important members away:? (See https://twitter.com/GregChase/status/622885703408443396my tweet.)

An example of a sustainable community around written content would be fan fiction for Star Trek.

Github contributors become a community if a large enough mass of committers can sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See the followingthis article for latest status on this community drama: http://thenewstack.io/joyent-tries-to-divert-node-js-crisis-with-new-advisory-board/.

Power users - if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community. An example of a very powerful one is ASUG (Americas SAP User Group). https://www.asug.com/ASUG (Americas SAP User Group). However, I believe that independent power user organizations are a construct that mostly formed pre-social media era.

Since social media era, most companies are creating their own power user "communities". These communities are not independent, but can be extremely large. Consider, for example, the SAP Community NetworkSAP Community Network which is controlled by the company, but consists of well over 1 million users and implementors: http://scn.sap.com/.

If the sponsoring company were to choose to pull the plug on this community, its possible it would have enough critical mass to reform under its own power, but in a severely limited way.

Everything described above is about critical mass of time, energy, community-owned content, and people. Very helpful is having renewable powerful forces of identity that would help potential community members identify that they should be part of this community - like people having children, or the involvement of institutions such as schools or churches.

To me the point where a "group" becomes a "community" is when its able to create sustainable growth of membership simply through its activities. Actual membership of the community may have high turnover: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind. However, the nature of the community is such that it continually renews membership, leaders, and elites.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to stop creating content, then the group of people investing their time will likely dissipate as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" - what if a bus were to take the few important members away: https://twitter.com/GregChase/status/622885703408443396

An example of a sustainable community around written content would be fan fiction for Star Trek.

Github contributors become a community if a large enough mass of committers can sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See the following for latest status on this community drama: http://thenewstack.io/joyent-tries-to-divert-node-js-crisis-with-new-advisory-board/

Power users - if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community. An example of a very powerful one is ASUG (Americas SAP User Group). https://www.asug.com/ However, I believe that independent power user organizations are a construct that mostly formed pre-social media era.

Since social media era, most companies are creating their own power user "communities". These communities are not independent, but can be extremely large. Consider, for example, the SAP Community Network which is controlled by the company, but consists of well over 1 million users and implementors: http://scn.sap.com/

If the sponsoring company were to choose to pull the plug on this community, its possible it would have enough critical mass to reform under its own power, but in a severely limited way.

Everything described above is about critical mass of time, energy, community-owned content, and people. Very helpful is having renewable powerful forces of identity that would help potential community members identify that they should be part of this community - like people having children, or the involvement of institutions such as schools or churches.

To me the point where a "group" becomes a "community" is when its able to create sustainable growth of membership simply through its activities. Actual membership of the community may have high turnover: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind. However, the nature of the community is such that it continually renews membership, leaders, and elites.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to stop creating content, then the group of people investing their time will likely dissipate as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" what if a bus were to take the few important members away? (See my tweet.)

An example of a sustainable community around written content would be fan fiction for Star Trek.

Github contributors become a community if a large enough mass of committers can sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See this article for latest status on this community drama.

Power users if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community. An example of a very powerful one is ASUG (Americas SAP User Group). However, I believe that independent power user organizations are a construct that mostly formed pre-social media era.

Since social media era, most companies are creating their own power user "communities". These communities are not independent, but can be extremely large. Consider, for example, the SAP Community Network which is controlled by the company, but consists of well over 1 million users and implementors.

If the sponsoring company were to choose to pull the plug on this community, its possible it would have enough critical mass to reform under its own power, but in a severely limited way.

Everything described above is about critical mass of time, energy, community-owned content, and people. Very helpful is having renewable powerful forces of identity that would help potential community members identify that they should be part of this community like people having children, or the involvement of institutions such as schools or churches.

Wide edits to make answer more complete and understandable.
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Greg Chase
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To me the point where a "group" becomes a "community" is when its aboutable to create sustainable growth of membership simply through its activities. MembersActual membership of the community may actually be in passinghave high turnover: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind. However, the nature of the community is such that it continually renews membership, leaders, and elites.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to go waystop creating content, then the group of people investing their time will likely disappeardissipate as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" - what if a bus were to take the few important members away: https://twitter.com/GregChase/status/622885703408443396

An example of a sustainable community around written content would be fan fiction for Star Trek.

Github contributors, become a community if a large enough mass of committers willcan sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See the following for latest status on this community drama: http://thenewstack.io/joyent-tries-to-divert-node-js-crisis-with-new-advisory-board/

Power users - if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community. An example of a very powerful one is ASUG (Americas SAP User Group). https://www.asug.com/ However, I believe that independent power user organizations are a construct that mostly formed pre-social media era.

Everything aboveSince social media era, most companies are creating their own power user "communities". These communities are not independent, but can be extremely large. Consider, for example, the SAP Community Network which is controlled by the company, but consists of well over 1 million users and implementors: http://scn.sap.com/

If the sponsoring company were to choose to pull the plug on this community, its possible it would have enough critical mass -to reform under its own power, but in a severely limited way.

Everything described above is about critical mass of time, energy, community-own commonsowned content, and enough people to sustainably recruit others.

And, all communities die at some point too, just like stars Very helpful is having renewable powerful forces of identity that ignite whenwould help potential community members identify that they coalesce enough to spark critical massshould be part of this community - like people having children, and burn out when there is not sufficient energy to keep them sustainedor the involvement of institutions such as schools or churches.

To me its about sustainable growth of membership. Members of the community may actually be in passing: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to go way, then the group of people investing their time will likely disappear as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" - what if a bus were to take the few important members away: https://twitter.com/GregChase/status/622885703408443396

Github contributors, if a large enough mass of committers will sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See the following for latest status on this community drama: http://thenewstack.io/joyent-tries-to-divert-node-js-crisis-with-new-advisory-board/

Power users - if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community.

Everything above is critical mass - critical mass of time, energy, community-own commons content, and enough people to sustainably recruit others.

And, all communities die at some point too, just like stars that ignite when they coalesce enough to spark critical mass, and burn out when there is not sufficient energy to keep them sustained.

To me the point where a "group" becomes a "community" is when its able to create sustainable growth of membership simply through its activities. Actual membership of the community may have high turnover: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind. However, the nature of the community is such that it continually renews membership, leaders, and elites.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to stop creating content, then the group of people investing their time will likely dissipate as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" - what if a bus were to take the few important members away: https://twitter.com/GregChase/status/622885703408443396

An example of a sustainable community around written content would be fan fiction for Star Trek.

Github contributors become a community if a large enough mass of committers can sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See the following for latest status on this community drama: http://thenewstack.io/joyent-tries-to-divert-node-js-crisis-with-new-advisory-board/

Power users - if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community. An example of a very powerful one is ASUG (Americas SAP User Group). https://www.asug.com/ However, I believe that independent power user organizations are a construct that mostly formed pre-social media era.

Since social media era, most companies are creating their own power user "communities". These communities are not independent, but can be extremely large. Consider, for example, the SAP Community Network which is controlled by the company, but consists of well over 1 million users and implementors: http://scn.sap.com/

If the sponsoring company were to choose to pull the plug on this community, its possible it would have enough critical mass to reform under its own power, but in a severely limited way.

Everything described above is about critical mass of time, energy, community-owned content, and people. Very helpful is having renewable powerful forces of identity that would help potential community members identify that they should be part of this community - like people having children, or the involvement of institutions such as schools or churches.

Source Link
Greg Chase
  • 1.8k
  • 9
  • 17

To me its about sustainable growth of membership. Members of the community may actually be in passing: new parents, babysitting co-ops, and sports leagues come to mind.

Taking your examples above:

Blogs are most often themselves not communities. If the primary author were to go way, then the group of people investing their time will likely disappear as well. Related to this, The Apache Software Foundation considers the importance of one or a few committers to an open source software project to determine the health of a community. They call this the "bus" or "pony rule" - what if a bus were to take the few important members away: https://twitter.com/GregChase/status/622885703408443396

Github contributors, if a large enough mass of committers will sustain, or even direct a project even if the governing authority were to disappear. A great example of this is the Node.js community forking away from the community sponsors because they were unhappy with direction. See the following for latest status on this community drama: http://thenewstack.io/joyent-tries-to-divert-node-js-crisis-with-new-advisory-board/

Power users - if a group of users can, in and of themselves, create a sustainable community or organization without help or organization from the parent company of the product, they could be considered a community.

Everything above is critical mass - critical mass of time, energy, community-own commons content, and enough people to sustainably recruit others.

And, all communities die at some point too, just like stars that ignite when they coalesce enough to spark critical mass, and burn out when there is not sufficient energy to keep them sustained.