While “Community Manager” is a popular job title these days, the
collective nature of community makes it impossible for any individual
or external force to create or truly manage one. But while you can’t
make communities come together or control their cultures, you can
influence their formation through the space you provide. In this
session, Thomas Knoll, community architect for Zappos, will lead a
large-scale discussion exploring these ideas for online communities.
Communities arise through the connections—purposes, stories,
relationships—formed among groups of people. While “Community
Manager” is a popular job title these days, the collective nature of
community makes it impossible for any individual or external force to
create or truly manage one. But while you can’t make communities come
together or control their cultures, you can influence their formation
through the space you provide. Picture the differences between a
sports stadium and a theater—and how the design decisons affect the
way people interact. In this session, Thomas Knoll, community
architect for Zappos, will lead a large-scale discussion exploring
these ideas for online communities. Come with your questions and
ideas.
Community Architect, Community Cultivator, and Customer development at brands including Zappos, UserVoice, and Seesmic.
While he has a technical background, he prefers to speak in gardening and architecture metaphors. He is inspired by storytelling, psychology, evangelism, architectural theory, social economics, game mechanics, cultural anthropology, compassion, and ants.
He was studying to become a missionary, but left that path because he grew tired of the business of religion. Now, he helps businesses convert customers into communities of evangelists.
Oh, and he loves his internet friends, and falls in love with almost everyone he meets.
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Ally Parker
aparker@techweb.com
Kaitlin Pike
(415) 947-6306
kpike@techweb.com
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Comments
Hey Mark, Thank you for asking. I can only share a portion of the presentation, which includes my part of the conversation:
The rest of the presentation came from all the people in the ‘audience’ who participated in the conversations. Some of their insights can be found if you search the #octribe tag on twitter: bit.ly/ocTRIBE
Can you please share your presentation?!