The model of centralized community is broken though, it doesn’t model how people affiliate. So we need tools to support decentralized and, ad hoc communities, and affordances to bring some of the coalescing dust clouds into solar systems as planets.

We are a community of businesswomen located in all corners of a big (but sparse country), Australia. I have played with the idea of creating a place that allows members to interact more… our own social network.

After looking at these questions:
‘Do members need one more place to go to sign in and interact – especially if they are already on Facebook etc.

“What is that my environment will offer that will keep them engaged?’,

‘Can I just let them let others in the community know about the communities they are a part of already? ie. be a conduit for them to connect, but not the place the activity happens’

… I’m pretty much decided not to develop a community that is persistent, but to create temporary communities around events, discussions etc.

I don’t think I can create the next best social network. But, I do think that when members come together around an ‘event’ they can get a lot out of that experience.

We’ve had good success running webinars where (like skype) people come online at a particular time around a particular subject and interact (we open up lines, allow them to chat etc and share resrouces) and then when it’s over, it’s over. We DO send them to a closed door community or forum at that point for further resources and discussion.

I’m interested to see the evolution of the transient community. I think it is the way to go.

Suzi Dafnis
Community Director – Australian Businesswomen’s Network