Weblog
May 7, 04:42 am: How do Communities and Networks Relate to Each Other?
Nancy White writes about the magic between communities and networks and points to some tweets on the topic. I’ve been trying to work out the difference between the two. Or if not the difference, the way they interact with each other.
In the comments to Nancy’s post Beth Kanter says that she’s been thinking about this two and in relation to the nptech tag.
I’ve been trying to work this out too. I think it matters for design of a web site and the architecture of the community. Often, I find myself using the words almost interchangeably. But they aren’t. When I think about it, LinkedIn feels like a network but Twitter feels like a community. And the nptech tag? Well, that feels like a way to share knowledge. But I do think that’s it lead to people finding each other and becoming engaged in community activities on places like Twitter and certain in the work that NTEN does.
So, what’s different about this? To me, it feels like a network is a place where people perform actions because it benefit them but those actions also benefit the community. Del.icio.us is a great example of this, as is Flickr. In both cases, I use the services because it helps me organize my bookmarks or my photos. But my behavior, using tags and sets or bundles, adding comments, helps the other members of the network be providing them interesting or valuable information. And if I stop at that. Using the network platform as a tool to enrich my own experience and, perhaps, borrowing from others use of it. Well, that’s a network. And that’s a lot. It’s very good and very helpful.
In a community, people start behaving in ways that aren’t immediately helpful to them but build the space — physical or ideological — that is jointly shared. This happens on Twitter when people answer questions of other users. And when they share what they are working on to continue a conversation.
Does that sounds like it’s going in the right direction? What do you think? What is the difference and the overlap between the two?
(Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman’s “Map of Online Communities”)
Holly
Marnie – I really agree with all that you say here. I would add that I think community is different because I think that the participants feel responsible for one another. I care about whether or not my community members get answers, fund what they need. In a network, I don’t feel that way. That said, communities can rise out of networks. NTEN is a network first – helping people find what they need. Somewhere along the way, we also help many people find community, which is more meaningful and longer lasting. 2 cents. :)
marnie webb
@Holly, I agree that communities can arise out of networks. And that the feeling of responsibility for one another, and the joint membership, is an important distinction. I also think that there is something in there about the way that a community member can take ownership of piece. Flickr, as it exists, is a network. It holds a lot of communities though — not a single one — though they all share some values.
Hmmmm….Now that I type that, I’‘m not sure that it is right