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Jun 17, 01:30 pm: What is the value we give our communities?

I spent yesterday (and am spending today and tomorrow) at Supernova 2008. You can find my unfiltered notes on the npbrain wiki (a little experiment in its own right).

Yesterday’s series of talks seemed to add up to how transactions are processed on the web. And I don’t mean processed in the credit card vendor sense but processed in the how to do we describe value and make sure that we (people connecting and moving around via the Internet and the grace of our mobile careers) give it and receive it and how to companies (the people who have set up shop on the internet) attach something financial to that value — whether through advertising, targeted pitches, friend recommendations, or by giving us something (a piece of hardware, say) that will meet the needs that they are confident we have.

There was some argument, mostly headed by Esther Dyson, that asked whether or not that transaction was really everything that happens on the web. Her central point: people are on the internet, using mobile phones for reasons that transcend a quid pro quo kind of transaction.

I don’t know what I think, honestly. I think mainly people engage in a behavior because it has a value for them. Because they think they are “buying” something with their time, attention, actions and dollars. But that doesn’t always means that the results of the transaction are immediate, like they are at the grocery store (I give you some money; you let me leave with food — very neat and clear). In fact, it seems to me figuring out what the transaction is, over time, is a huge part of the debate of the Internet and mobile services.

Clay Shirky set the stage well by talking about two things necessary for a community to take collective action:

• density: you need to have enough people to make the collective action work (two people can’t raise a barn, for example)
  
• continuity: you have to have faith that the same people will be there later when you need them

He asked what we can do to design for that kind of collective action. How can we make it easy for people to group together and show common intent? You can see examples of this, in very lightweight ways, via almost every social application on the planet. He pointed to three examples: The Virtual Company Project, Community Interest Companies, and Meetup Alliances.

It’s all a good combination and, taken together, is one that’s important for social benefit organizations to have. How are we providing value to the people who support us? It can’t just be the thank you notes that we send for donations. How are we providing value for signing up for our newsletter, passing along an outreach message, providing volunteer support and giving donations? Thank you isn’t enough. Are we making our key supporters stars? Do we make sure to get people good timely information about our cause? Do we give people a venue to come together and meet others? And, in that value, are we creating a community that is dense enough and long-last enough to come together for collective actions that build rather than just protest?