| Data, case studies, and snapshots of Consumer Communities and their influence over brands and society. |
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Cult Crashing Communities | 18 Aug '05 - Planning to crash FOO Camp this year? or planning your own temporary backyard tent city to 'compliment' BAR Camp? No matter which side of the gate (or headlands) you are on this weekend, there are plenty of geeks to commiserate with about the yet unreached state of data/techno-pervasiveness in our lives. As part of the whole neography cult spinning around O'Reilly, CCM will be there working on, and talking about Platial, our soon to be beta collaborative mapping application. We also are trying to setup the unofficial always-on video chat between FOO & BAR Camps, the AV-F2F backchannel if you will, hoping for some espionage conspiracies. Any BAR campers interested in hosting that side? Please get in touch. This posting inspired by discussions on #geo (irc.oftc.net). A good place to be. Zine Community | 27 Jul '05 - The zine community is one of the great pervasiveness communities in Portland. A freely expressive subset of indy journalists and pre-Live Journal teens. The Zine symposium is next week and the organizers (TRUE facilitators) are taking a leaderless community and providing a forum for people to find places to stay, a forum for discuss and most interestingly providing an experience completely unique to their own community. They realize that when you encourage people to finally speak out freely on their beliefs and opinions, there may be conflict. They are addressing it head on with peace keepers and volunteers from all groups to help resolve conflict. They want everyone to feel safe and secure in their free expression and are finding new ways to allow that to happen. They are also calling for discussion, debate and learning in a blatant and important way. Viva La Zine Symposium! Local Based Community | 29 June '05 - Location-based community: What role do the people in our local cafe play in our lives? Sharing information via online at wi-fi cafes while in the physical location can help to define that important role. Interesting question about whether we want to remain partially isolated and limit these interactions to casual smile of recognition or if we want to go deeper. But of course we are into all experiments in location-based community. GoogleWhere 2.0 | 29 June '05 - Now we can all create our own GoogleWhere officially! Topics: User driven annotation Where are business models Where 2.0 leading Web 2.0 Activism through location Google hackers, Google and Microsoft SmokeSquid Google and Microsoft Microsoft announces "We are creating the application that covers everything in this space" in Summer. They had a programmer dressed up like a butterfly do a stunt during the presentation. One MS person gave a very well rehearsed "We are committed to this space" speech. They have a GREAT layering interface. Google Earth- wow, find any location or locations based on keywords of every user entry found on Google search- any user review etc can be plotted and found through Google Earth. We are folksonomy but they are mass user data on an unfathomable scale. Google on their open api with real collaborative invitation to group. Outside of many inspiring presentations, ideas, discussions and a fast-paced stimualting conference format- the theme will be Google vs. Microsoft. For now, Google wins. How about Google local, Yahoo local merger? Here are the great speakers. And we can announce that Platial.com will launch August 25 in 4 cities, NY, Portland, Vancouver and Toronto. Platial was supposed to be our own private entrance but we couldn't get Sharewhere.com Whatever happened to the hearses? | 23 June '05 - We donated the Boomer Coalition hearses to Jake several months ago. Here's what he did with them: 1. Increased his social capital by being able to say at dinners "Wanna go see my hearses?" 2. Sold one on ebay to a goth kid who cam from Indiana with his Dad to pick it up. He kept the coffin that was still inside to use as a kickin sound system in his new hearse ride. 3. Sold the other to an upstart funeral director from New Jersey who had a peculiar ailment- his eye constantly teared - a steady stream. I wonder is this is due to an overflow of grief. Hmmm. It is radically poetic.
Communities of Prisons and Pipebands | 22 June '05 - As an outsider, how can we even begin to understand the subtle rituals and rules within a community so foreign to us? I've had a lot of questions about prisons, rights of prisoners, experiments in alternatives and actual methods for helping inmates to thrive on the "outside" so when I sat next to a 17 year corrections officer veteran of Rijkers Island (on his way westward to play in his 28 piece pipe band), I was thankful. My first line of quetsionning just made me look naive but what followed were some inisghts into this strange community. -Economy of time- struggling for five extra minutes can lead to aggressive encounters and being granted it can buy just about anything. -Acceptance/Hopelessness- With mothers on crack, fathers in prison, even babies born and nursed in prison and little nurturing by the time these kids get to prison it's almost too late to change the deep-seated need to rob, assault or even kill or to instill the sense of pride and self-confidence necessary for them to feel successful. Yet this is understood with little do-gooder emotion. It just is. -Prison is a lifestyle- with many people in and out for decades there is no distinction between life inside and life outside -There is a connection- a community that understands how things happen, how they must happen to keep the fragile balance of peace inside no matter how ugly -Language- Prison has its own code of conduct, its own economy and its own language- For example, for some it's difficult to adjust to prison so they become what people call "puppies" the ones who are scared and follow the CO around with each step. -Collusion- I asked if it were like a teacher/student relationship where they would keep in touch and he said "No. That would be collusion". They're not even allowed to connect in any deep way. There are some fundamental reasons why I could see that being dangerous even yet who do they have to really turn to inside? It also reminded me that beyond communities of interest, ethnic communities and subcultures, there are complete little understood worlds all around. And that pipebands are really cool. It did make me think of an idea- it's rough and riddled with flaws but how about a Boarding School for kids as young as six years old? The neediest and most at-risk kids can attend at an early enough age. It wouldn't have the negative connotation of your child being taken by social services - it would be something to aspire to - to ensure a great education, self-confidence, lots of love and positive community. It would end up costing less than 40 years in prison and could be an interesting experiment at least. This deserves more careful thought. CCM has a new home, new country, new community | 04 June '05 - Community-centric 2347 NW Kearney Street Portland, OR 97210 The most interesting community so far is our FOAF network. Fortunately for us our friends and colleagues already have good friends and colleagues here so we have been communication with about 10 folks that intersect and inspire in very different ways whom we will meet in person after renovation. According to our definition they are not a community since they didn't choose to be classified this way. They have only in common that they live in portland and know one of our friends. Coming in second is the Dutch language meetup group who all have kids around Emi's age. Third is a a group which may or may not exist or may or mat not be a "group" but have been referred to us by Clay as Intel's Urban Mapping people. Last time we visited Portland, we gave a related lecture at Red 76's laundry lecture series and met Arun, Chief Urban designer for Portland which will come in handy now that we are here and set to explore. Whose BBC? Our BBC! | 11 May '05 - Inspiring Media Play... BBC Backstage: tools for remixing the Beeb to your spec The BBC has just dropped its pants in the best way imaginable, with a new service called BBC Backstage -- Whitelabel's Stef Magdalinski calls it "A Creative Archive for data," and that's as good a concept line as any. BBC Backstage is a collection of feeds, APIs, and other tools for remixing the BBC's digital offerings, to "make your stuff using our stuff." They want the world to convert the BBC's raw material into individualized, idiosyncratic and wildly imaginative applications. It's the Flickrization of the Beeb and it's so exciting I can scarce contain myself: backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC's new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with. Alternatively, share your ideas on new ways to use BBC content. This is your BBC. We want to help you play. Community as barrier | 28 Apr '05 - Where is the line between important trust bonds within a community and isolation from the external world that breeds distrust of "the other"? Although we're not sure, Cults and gated communities have clearly crossed the line. And as anyone who has seen the 2004 "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" piece at Frontline.org can attest, some corporate employee groups. Another artist highlighting the uncomfortable in beauitful and blatant ways... (from Boing Boing)
INTERVIEW WITH Beverly Inman-Ebel, President NAWBO. Interview 1 of 12. | 19 Apr '05 - This is the first in a series of 12 interviews with community organizers. Beverly Inman-Ebel, CEO, Author and President of NAWBO takes some time out to chat about community. CCM: How do you think people define belonging to your community? BIE: We conducted an interview in the Summer of 2004 and the most common answer for why members wanted to be part of the group was to make connections with people. CCM: What value are you trying to create through you community for you members? BIE: We want to educate our members in all aspects of running a small business. We do this through different kinds of training and seminars, such as webcast training and our two annual meetings. We also serve as a political voice for any laws that are passed that will affect small businesses and even raise money to back issues that support small business owners. CCM: What is the #1 issue concerning small businesses that you are currently supporting? BIE: The alarming rising cost of healthcare, which has gone up 24 – 40% for my employees. Large companies pay less for health insurance because they are insuring a larger pool of people CCM: What value do you get from leading the group? BIE: I spend a lot of time traveling the country speaking. I’ve owned a business for the last 24 years, and my excitement level about it had been declining, but in 2003 sales increased by 60% and in 2004, our product line increased by 70%. I’ve been inspired by the women I’ve met and it renewed my enthusiasm for my own company. I get back more than I give. CCM: What are the challenges in keeping it going and keeping people motivated? BIE: When we first started, 30 years ago, we were the only act in town. Now there are many organizations around, so we constantly need to change and evolve. Many younger women go into business and don’t realize the importance of joining gender-based organizations. We’ve made a lot of improvements, but there is still a lot more work to do. CCM: What constitutes membership to your group? BIE: You go to www. Nawbo.org, fill out the online form and pay the fee to join. In order to be a full voting member, you need to have owned a business for two years, or if you just started a business you can join for half price without as many features. We also completed a member mentoring program in April 2005 and we hope to launch it organizational wide within the next year. It is the members’ choice for how heavily they want to get involved after signing up. CCM: What are your guiding principles behind running your group? BIE: Interesting that you asked that question. I actually just came back from a board meeting and we are working on our covenant. Our top principles are to support members, educate members and to propel women to spheres of influence in key sectors, including politics, economics and cultural. The world is shrinking. Small companies can now go international. “The internet is a great equalizer. Small companies can appear much larger.” CCM: What do you hope to achieve on a practical level? BIE: I’d like to see membership grow by 10% annually. I am pleased with our retention rate, which is 80-90%. What I’d really like is for members to think to themselves upon renewal “that this is an organization worth my time and money.” CCM: And what about on an inspiration level? BIE: I want women to realize they can do anything they set their minds to do. I want us to be there for them when they take the plunge starting a new business, and to celebrate with them when they become successful. CCM: What insights can you share with our readers about facilitating a successful community, and about the bonds between group members? BIE: Listen to members. Survey what they like and don’t like. Conduct exit interviews for non-renewals. It’s important to be flexible and nimble. The bonds I’ve seen between group members have been incredible. People have established friends, invaluable networking opportunities and people to go to for help with problems. I know I can always call someone from the NAWBO when I have a problem. CCM: Any last thoughts you would like to share with our readers? BIE: Diversity is extremely important. Be prepared to shift to different demographics as appropriate. Giving back is so important. When you are feeling down, get your mind of yourself and go out and help someone else. It’s amazing how things will work out. |
