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Discovery The Psychology Of Communities

theOTHERblog- Psychology of Communities [Newsability] [Bruce Landon: Social Psychology]

Ian Dickson is putting together a community, he wants it to be large, but ran into a few challenges. Here you will find comments and a brief summary of his findings on the psychology of communities.

1. What is a community?
   • A community is a group of individuals who have a common interest, purpose, objective, or desire; who work together to reach this future point.
   • Communities share resources, ideas, and generally help each other relate reach objectives as defined by subgroups in the larger collective.
   • Individuals in a community can relate to the experiences to others in the same group and often community these points with each other.
   • Communities are often defined by a trait recognized but not necessarily understood by individuals outside the community, this trait may even be an abstract belief.
2. Who is the most important person in it?
   • Individuals in the group are the most important part of a community, their contribution increases community value for others and shapes the outcome created.
   • Community leaders are facilitators or solutions providers as defined by the individuals in the group, they remain in power as long as they produce value.
   • Individuals can choose their own level of activity or involvement in a community, in turn this influences the amount of value they will receive, and how relevant this value is to them.
   • Group segmentation is better defined my its members than leaders of the group, use surveys and research to understand key important issues inside a larger group.
   • Individual desires determine the perception of community value. You can appeal to the group by appealing to individual needs under a common theme.
3. Other aspects of the psychology of communities: (Key points quoted from Ian Dickson's original work, Psychology in Software)
• "There is no such thing as an on-line community"
• "Communities actually comprise of many overlapping subgroups"
• Members must, as far as possible, control their community experience, relationships and involvement
• Most people are semi detached from their communities most of the time
• Most people are shy about speaking in public
• "People do not like to impose"
• "Real communities have knowledge"
• People who are silent are important
• "Established communities are largely self sustaining and self managing"
• Communities are not isolated, but have relationships and interactions with other communities.

/ active-members | relationship-realms /

Ian Dickson is the CEO of Commkit, a provider of tools and knowledge necessary for building communities that work. For more papers and articles visit on-line at http://commkit.com/

By Justin Hitt at September 9, 2003 7:16 PM  Subscribe in a reader