Full Circle Associates

I'm excited to share that Jenny and Joe's report on the survey they conducted about Online Communities in Business is now on the web. I was thrilled to be able to spend time with them in June to talk about the report and really anxious to share it out to my network. The full pdf report is here. Jenny and Joe are also hosting a wiki for reader feedback and to gather more insights and information. I encourage you to chime in. Instructions on how to participate on the wiki are on the report website!

Here is the intro:

It has been 25 years since online community found its humble beginnings via the first computer bulletin board. Since then, much attention has focused on the impact on society. But how have online communities affected business?

From February to May 2004, we conducted an online survey of people involved in, or deeply knowledgeable about, online community efforts in large organizations around the world. This survey was conducted in concert with the 7th International Conference on Virtual Communities, the largest and oldest annual gathering of its kind.

I have had some time to chew on the initial data and am now savoring the full report. It had both many things I expected as a practitioner, and a few surprises. The optimism of the value of online interaction (I tend to use the word community a little more sparingly!) is validated in what I see in my practice, and the familiar problems are VERY familiar: challenges with effectively measuring ROI and still a limited or non-existant understanding of online groups and communities.

I'll post a fuller review tomorrow (work calls!) but I really wanted to get the news out and spreading - so I'm blogging to do my part! But there is one piece I want to dangle out front.

The challenge the report delivers me is around the final issue noted by Joe and Jenny on page 4: "The discipline of creating and managing communities is poorly defined." That is something I, and WE can do something about. How can we contribute?


(Also posted on Many2Many)