Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ So many communities … so little time. What makes a community successful?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
OK, I just want to be clear, if you have to join, it's not a community, it's a group. I know, there has been a lot of talk about creating and joining communities, including the discussion on this post, but it's mostly the appropriation of the word 'community' as a substitute for the word 'group'. The differences could not be more clear, however. A 'community' is an emergent concept, not created by any individual, or through any particular intention, but which is constituted by a cluster of connected nodes. The boundary lines are fuzzy and relative - all that's required for a community to exist is that there be some set of people to whom you connect more frequently than to most others. The remaining 'properties' of communities are descriptive and highly variable across communities. Certainly nothing defines a particular com,punity - especially not joining it. Once you understand what communities really are, you will stop trying to 'create' communities in a small enclosed space blocked with a password and login.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 3:55 p.m.

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