Category Archives: Community Series

Posted in Community Series /By dustin m. smith /Leave comment

Facebook’s Three Elements Of Social Design

So I’m currently in the middle of trying to learn some of the ‘under-the-hood’ stuff about Facebook and came across something I felt like I had to share. Since we’ve been talking about online community lately, I figured it was relevant. The Three Elements I’ll delve into this a bit more in the future, but for now I’m pretty much just going to share their material. It’s from the Developers guide, which you can find here. Social Design defines how we understand ourselves and each other and can be broken down into three core elements: Identity, Conversation and Community. -Community … Read more »

21Aug

Photo of Stormtroopers doing the YMCA dance

Posted in Community Series /By dustin m. smith /Leave comment

Seeking Community

I’ve been asking these questions about community for a while now. It began a few months back after we launched PFC, and has only become harder to ignore since then. As last week’s post showed, I’m not the only one who’s interested in finding answers to these questions. And that’s a very good thing, because most days I’m not even sure where to begin. Community In An Online Setting My friend Ross is a great source of insight when it comes to online community. Ross is a writer, an editor, and (most importantly) a husband to his fire-fighting-slash-master-cupcake-decorating wife. Though he … Read more »

15Aug

Posted in Community Series /By dustin m. smith /6 comments

The Greatest Difficulty Facing Online Communities

I asked a few friends the following question: What is the greatest difficulty facing online communities? Here are their responses. I would say the biggest challenge is authenticity. When a “community” exists solely online, there is no compelling reason to be authentic. What I mean is, if I wanted to I could portray myself as a high level professional with all the amenities being a high level professional affords: great schooling, fast car, big house, successful. No one would have to actually know I’m just an average person living in my friend’s basement. It is very easy to put on … Read more »

06Aug