collaboration ecosystems

The Community (Platform) Recession – Breaking Free to Build Better

Richard Millington from FeverBee Community Consultants shares some very interesting observations on how the field of community management may have entered a “community recession.” He points to possible causes such as a shift to profitability, changing member behaviors, and the growing expectations around AI.

This rings especially true in the area of platform-based enterprise communities. However, there is a much richer landscape of community types and tools—of which he lists some compelling examples. “Communities for Good,” in particular, is of personal interest to me and still offers so many opportunities for community building and support. The key development to watch is the gradual shift in community work from platform-centric to audience-centric approaches—what Richard calls the COMMUNITY EVERYWHERE approach.

Increasingly, communities live and work across many different online and physical spaces.… Read more...

Posted by Aldo de Moor in Ideas, 0 comments

Wicked Problems: The Marathon of Effecting Change

In 1993, I spent six months on Vancouver Island, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. I was actively involved in protests against the clear-cut logging of the Clayoquot Sound watershed (see my photographic impressions on Youtube and Wikimedia). Thanks to the efforts of a broad coalition of communities, the destruction of this vital ecosystem was successfully prevented.


My experiences on the island have profoundly shaped my professional journey. They inspired me to pursue a Ph.D. in Community Informatics and ultimately led to the founding of my research consultancy, CommunitySense. My R&D focus has evolved to center on “collaboration ecosystems cartography”—participatory mapping and collaborative sensemaking of complex issues such as deforestation, climate change, and the interconnected web of wicked problems affecting humanity and nature.… Read more...

Posted by Aldo de Moor in Ideas, 1 comment