Putting Community at the Core
of Innovation in New Media
by Evgeny Morozov
Director of New Media, Transitions Online
July 25, 2007

Outline
Wisdom of crowds

Social ways of being

Emergence of social media

How can communities help innovate?

Challenges for media organizations


1841
\"Men, it has been well
said, think in herds; it will
be seen that they go mad
in herds, while they only
recover their senses
slowly, and one by one!\"
Charles Mackay, 1841

Nowadays...
“Why the Many Are Smarter
than the Few” (2004)
“Wise crowds\" need
(1) diversity of opinion
(2) independence of
members from one another
(3) decentralization
(4) a good method for
aggregating opinions

Paradox?
As technology is getting smarter, human
interaction is playing an increasingly important
role

Group think or individuality?
Arguably, we have never been more autonomous
and independent than now
BUT
The realm of the social Web also makes us more
aware of others
=
better filtering/production of ideas ?

Ambient Intimacy
Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people
with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have
access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.
Flickr lets me see what friends are eating for lunch, how they’ve
redecorated their bedroom, their latest haircut. Twitter tells me when
they’re hungry, what technology is currently frustrating them, who
they’re having drinks with tonight
Lisa Reichelt/ http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/

All those new social dimensions change the
group dynamics completely

Reflection is social

=> Emergence of peer-to-peer economy

Individual still the primary figure
But individual outputs are still more effective than

community outputs
Community just adds value at different stages

(pre and post-production)

But connections matter!

Digital Natives won't see any distinction between
old and new media

Old vs New

Old+New=Social Media

Nature of the community dynamics—nobody
understands

Works in practice, but in theory?!

“Sharing” or “peer-to-peer” economy
requires new metrics

Yet all media organizations would need to
devise those metrics sooner or later; new
media is a good place to look at

How communities can help innovate
I. Community can help build new products
II. Community can help change old products
III. Community can help adjust strategy

Building New Products
1. Community designs, community decides
2. Community creates, you package
3. Give away code, communities emerge

1. Community designs, community decides

Threadless

Open Source Footwear

Cambrian House

2. Community creates, you package

News To Me

uReport

CNN/YouTube

ohmynews/other citjourn sites

3. Give away code, communities emerge

Google API

Chicago Crime

Mappy Hour

WeFi

Tunisian Prison Map

Google Earth/Deforestation

Google Earth Outreach

After discovering WeFi...?

Communities Change the Product

Who are the lead users?
“Lead users are users of a product that currently
experience needs still unknown to the public and
who also benefit greatly if they obtain a solution to
these needs”
“.... products are developed to meet the widest
possible need; when individual users face
problems that the majority of consumers do not,
they have no choice but to develop their own
modifications to existing products, or entirely new
products, to solve their issues”

FeVote

Snakes on a Plane: didn't work

Radio Open Source

Rough Cuts

Rough Cuts

Rough Cuts cont

How communities can change
strategies?

Prediction Markets

Digg: the number

Subvert and Profit

Bug Blog Comments

Some challenges for news organizations

1. How to make community
innovation granular?
Making every comma count

Innovate by a click/idle capacity

Fact-checking/UGC—something to think about


2. How to build a perfect community
with lively interaction?
Periphery vs core

% of Wikipedia editors editing most of the

articles/same with Digg
Forming a proactive core is crucial


2. How to identify/empower lead
users?
Karma systems

Virtual currencies

How to break users into demographic groups?


The Right Demographics?

3. How to mobilize a formed
community/for what cause?
Finding an anchor activity

TechDirt Insight

Economist Red Stripe

AZ/Offthebus.net


TechDirt Insight Community

offthebus.net

But remember: it doesn't work for everything!