Comments on: What is a Community?

By: Malcolm Bastien

Malcolm Bastien — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:47:10 +0000

A communities outputs could be its people.

A communities could also be particular in who it allows in, and what sorts of behaviors are acceptable or not.

We already have a lot of things nailed in Toronto now for “our” community. But at the same time I keep feeling like a lack of a consistent and common vision that keeps us from really moving in a unified direction.

I get the feeling it’s like people want to be considered a serious “community”, but 90% of the time they are together it’s only for fun. I say that serious work and a common goal create a lot stronger community than just drinking does.

By: Daniel Patricio

Daniel Patricio — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:21:03 +0000

It is really important to be cynical about how we define community.

I would argue that a community doesn’t merely take a reactionary role but is rather founded on a larger mandate or common motivation which makes it both more sustainable and more proactive in their approach.

Would you call #genYTO a crowd or a community?

I think it is a crowd – the big question is how do we turn it into a community.

By: Andrew Lane

Andrew Lane — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:03:59 +0000

Dan, like the post and have enjoyed your community thoughts on twitter and at StayFresh on the subject. My only comment is on your example for the mob. Some of the things you describe sound an awful lot like activism. The Tamil community in Toronto is a great example of a community that’s used disruptive practices to create positive change for their cause. I think that working with the gov’t (in your example) is ideal, but sometimes groups, particularly when marginalized, need to resort to more extreme methods, and I’m not sure that makes them less of a community.

By: Kevin Richard

Kevin Richard — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:28:25 +0000

As a society we do tend to complain a lot about everything that is going wrong in the world but as mentioned in your post we often remain in the crowd or mob mode. Attending your presentation I did agree with your emphasis on keeping people accountable, because another difference in a community is that it has an identity/goal and if it isn’t upheld things start to fall backwards and the cohesiveness of the group starts to weaken.

Dan, your post is a great call to action. Its one I hope to take up and follow.

By: Topics about Communitys » Archive » What is a Community?

Topics about Communitys » Archive » What is a Community? — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:25:26 +0000

[...] Dan Hocking placed an observative post today on What is a Community?Here’s a quick excerptOn Monday, I had the pleasure of presenting an Ignite presentation as part of Refresh Events’ monthly StayFresh series. (Video of my presentation to come once released.) The keynote by Tom Purves was on the topic of mobility and augmented reality, so in attempting to stick within the theme, I presented on Hyperconnectivity and the Community. However, I wanted to take a different view than many in our community normally do, and identified a few problems that Hyperconnectivity present to a com [...]