A woman on the metro ride home the other day collapsed in her seat. The entire train stared until a young man stepped up to help her. All of a sudden a few more people stepped over to lend a hand; someone called the train operator – in a brief moment a community had galvanized around a need and stepped in to offer assistance.
Two factors were at work in that instance, 1) a galvanizing external event and 2) social permission to act.
1) Galvanizing Actions
A community needs a rallying point; a purpose for existence. In the 1930’s, Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) formed to promote Zoo safety after a child was bitten. That community still exists today and has extended their mission to fund raising, Zoo volunteering, and promotion of the National Zoo. In the online world, the same impetus to form a group is still needed. The transition to an online community changes nothing inherent in social psychology or the human impetus to form groups. As Clay Shirky points out [link to video], the internet makes it “ridiculously easy” to form groups. Now any external event reported online (blog, newspaper, home rolled website, etc.) can form the focal point for group formation.
2) Social Permission
As social creatures, people often look to others for social cues on how to act (permission). An online community presents unique challenge in that social cues need to be quite overt. Individuals that contribute need to be celebrated, poor behavior moderated and removed. An online community that does not provide overt social cues will suffer from poorly coordinated group actions and a lower level of group cohesion.
All communities need these two factors. The galvanizing action provides the impetus for group forming. Without it, no group will form. We see this in the executive space; the Corporate Executive Board [note I work here] saw quite a few groups form in response to FIN 48 and Sarbanes-Oxley. The social permission factor builds as the group grows. As more individuals contribute, more individuals feel comfortable contributing and therefore contribute. The Executive demographic is no different than other demographics in terms of why they form groups.
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