Posted by Jeffery Bridges on May 31, 2001 at 14:32:01:

In Reply to: Virtual communities and organizational structure & design posted by dreeskoren on May 31, 2001 at 09:23:33:

What is a virtual community?

Virtual community usually refers to an informal community of practice that may be within an organization, may span multiple organizations, or may be outside the boundaries of any formal organization. Essential features of such virtual community are: self-selection, identification with shared concerns or issues, and, temporal and geographic separation of members of community. There are other features that may vary across various virtual communities, such as absence of formal controls, rewards and incentives and, relationships based upon goodwill and reciprocity.

Who is the initiator of a virtual community? Is it an advertisor or an independent company?

The initiator of a virtual community could be an individual, organization or institution (for profit, non profit, formal or informal) that takes on the onus to support or champion the "shared issues" mentioned above. Looking at what is on BRINT Think Tank, this community appears to have shared interests in the area of Knowledge Management and related business, technology, e-Business issues some of which you will find discussed in specific portal areas and articles.

Virtual communities supported by independent organizations, such as BRINT, seem to have higher success rate in maintaining a non-partisan discussion of issues relevant to the community members. In contrast, more commercialized companies and advertisers would need to maintain a very explicit image of being unbiased and being fair if the concerns of the community have direct relationship with the commercial benefits accruing to the company.

Who manages the community and is responsible?

The community could be managed by the sponsoring entity or organization with the help of moderators and facilitators that may come from the staff or from within the self-selected members of the community. The sponsoring organization or their technology hosts generally are responsible for the technical upkeep, maintenance and upgrades of system and applications. The administrative responsibility for defining the direction and content of the community discussions is generally the responsibility of the sponsoring organization or individuals and the facilitators. There could be other responsibilities depending upon the size and scope of the virtual community beyond the broad responsibilities listed above.

What does the organizational structure of a virtual community look like?

The organizational structure of a virtual community is ad hoc, it depends upon the supporting technologies, the preferences of the hosting organization and the preferences of the participating members. The structure generally evolves as a function of the interaction of the above factors.

What is the role of the customer, are we also part of the organization?

For communities that have a strong emphasis on customer's, user's or member's concerns, customers have a strong role to play in the shaping of the discussion and dialog to influence the shared concerns.

Who has power over whom?

All of the above stakeholders have power in some shape or form. Power could derive from serving the needs of the virtual community, providing support to the virtual community, sustaining the virtual community or from playing any other self-selected role in the virtual community. An interesting comparison could be made with formal organizations. Just as all individuals have power depending upon their own hierarchical status, access to resources, access to attention channels, etc. in a formal organization, the issues are similar except that there may be no formal rewards, incentives or punishments. This requires greater focus on the ability to develop trust and credibility despite absence of power based on hierarchy or resource control.

Some resources on virtual communities, virtual organizations and related topic of virtual corporation are also available at:

Virtual Communities, Virtual Organizations, Virtual Corporations and Outosurcing

http://www.brint.com/EmergOrg.htm

• Virtual Communities, Virtual Organizations, Virtual Corporations and Outosurcing

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Follow Ups:

• A couple additional thoughts Bill Bruck 08:27:14 06/01/01 (2)
  • Contrast Between Formal Teams and Virtual Communities of Practice Jeffery Bridges 18:22:50 06/01/01 (1)
    • Re: Contrast Between Formal Teams and Virtual Communities of Practice bill bruck 06:36:38 06/04/01 (0)

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