Commercializing Community, Continued

Well, Bruce's first installment was a smash, at least by my standards, which is to say, it generated some excellent, thought-provoking comments. The topic Bruce touches on adroitly, and which readers have appropriately picked up on, is the role of passion in community production systems. That's a fancy way of saying that people will only do something if they care deeply about it, and anyone monetizing their contributions had damn well better be aware of it. Community members aren't employees--they're partners, and need to be treated as such. Actually, I'm not sure this applies in every case, but I'll save my parsing for the comments section. Here's Bruce's last three rules in the essay:

4) Ask the Right Questions

With a community-based marketplace, this tenet, as simple as it sounds is even more crucial than in offline ventures. It’s crucial because communities are made of people who are deeply attached to what happens in what feels like family. One wrong move can have repercussions that reverberate throughout the network for weeks and months to come.  So we try to treat big decisions about iStockphoto with as much care as we would major personal choices. Examples include; Is it Fair?; Is it Best; Who is Going to Like this Decision?; Who Is Going to Hate It, and Why? Then we refine choices based on the answers to these questions in order to come to a solid decision that will make most of the people happy.

5) Listen, Even When it Hurts

Anyone who wants to start a social network has to be committed to deeply knowing the vast majority of their members. That means a lot of late nights and countless, chronic, hand-numbing e-mails. For example, I recently returned from a week’s absence to find 6,700 e-mails from iStockphoto members waiting for me. It took me four days, but I read every one, and responded personally to most of them.
Other CEOs might have a secretary weed things out, especially the unpleasant challenges or questions. To be authentic, I need to stay deeply connected to the community. In every social group like this there are people who might appear to be critics. Don't mistake their passion for conflict. I try to write a personal note to every one of these people, because they often have very important ideas. If you listen, the community will give you the best ideas.

6) Change at the Right Speed for the Right Reasons

By staying connected deeply with the community I keep my finger on the pulse of what new features or modifications are needed. It's important to provide continual and constant progress. Change needs to be introduced at a pace that people can absorb, while the core and essence of the community and site features remain the same.

Comments

[Daren C. Brabham]

It sounds like in order to be a successful manager of a crowdsourcing organization, you have to do large amounts of formal and informal internal research about the crowd in order to keep meeting the crowd's needs.

I'd be interested to know what questions this kind of research centers around. That is, what information are managers constantly seeking about the communities they serve? And how do they go about collecting that kind of information from what could be--at least in theory--a faceless, changing sea of users from varying backgrounds and abilities? If passion seems to be a necessary element of the crowd, I wonder what kinds of research programs are in place (formal or informal) that track or identify this passion with any precision. (Or, of course, there may just be a lot of gut instinct in the managing of a crowdsourcing operation...who knows).

[Alan]

Bruce’s fourth rule, as he states, is simple yet crucial. He points to the practicalities of decision-making but it’s “his” values and the application of them that sets the standards making the following impulses more likely to be successful. Isn’t one more likely to share passion in an environment where such attitudes genuinely permeate a working process? As much as passion originates internally it must surely be formed and come to expression by the constraints or lack of thereof in an organic process. Bruce, once you have your finger on the pulse how do the members of your community complement your interpretations, any jewels from the working process other than your obvious success? Alan.

[Shazz]

So much good advice here! So, where to start? Perhaps I'll just pull out a quote from this second installment from Bruce:

"If you listen, the community will give you the best ideas."

How did we get so far from this tenet in our corporatist society? It's such a simple (and powerful) perspective that was at the heart of all good business/marketing and it had been for so many years. Today's technology and this emerging community-driven business model helps us get back to these roots. What's different now, is that we listen not only to "customers" but to "community members" ... a far healthier and optimistic outlook IMO. You don't have to necessarily pay (or earn) to be heard.

Shazz

[Bruce Livingstone]

To answer Alan, I don't always get it right. I listen, interpret and sometimes carelessly hurl a brick in the air that smashes (and not in a good way). I guess what we hear and how we interpret what the crowd wants or needs may not always actually be good for us. Also, sometimes I just get it plain wrong. I try to stay humble, publicly discuss my mistakes and people are very forgiving, helpful and understanding. We talk about what went wrong. There it is. The only rare jewel I have for you is that since iStock started, we've had a constant conversation, all 1.5 million of us. All I have to do is listen, do my best and stay humble. Easy!