Presentation by Evgeny Morozov delivered at Innovation Journalism summer course at the European Journalism Center in Maastricht

1. Putting Community at the Core
of Innovation in New Media
by Evgeny Morozov
Director of New Media, Transitions Online
July 25, 2007

2. Outline
Wisdom of crowds

Social ways of being

Emergence of social media

How can communities help innovate?

Challenges for media organizations


3. 1841
quot;Men, it has been well
said, think in herds; it will
be seen that they go mad
in herds, while they only
recover their senses
slowly, and one by one!quot;
Charles Mackay, 1841

4. Nowadays...
“Why the Many Are Smarter
than the Few” (2004)
“Wise crowdsquot; need
(1) diversity of opinion
(2) independence of
members from one another
(3) decentralization
(4) a good method for
aggregating opinions

5. Paradox?
As technology is getting smarter, human
interaction is playing an increasingly important
role

7. Group think or individuality?
Arguably, we have never been more autonomous
and independent than now
BUT
The realm of the social Web also makes us more
aware of others
=
better filtering/production of ideas ?

17. Ambient Intimacy
Ambient intimacy is about being able to keep in touch with people
with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have
access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.
Flickr lets me see what friends are eating for lunch, how they’ve
redecorated their bedroom, their latest haircut. Twitter tells me when
they’re hungry, what technology is currently frustrating them, who
they’re having drinks with tonight
Lisa Reichelt/ http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/

18. All those new social dimensions change the
group dynamics completely

19. Reflection is social

20. => Emergence of peer-to-peer economy

23. Individual still the primary figure
But individual outputs are still more effective than

community outputs
Community just adds value at different stages

(pre and post-production)

24. But connections matter!

29. Digital Natives won't see any distinction between
old and new media

30. Old vs New

31. Old+New=Social Media

32. Nature of the community dynamics—nobody
understands

33. Works in practice, but in theory?!

34. “Sharing” or “peer-to-peer” economy
requires new metrics

35. Yet all media organizations would need to
devise those metrics sooner or later; new
media is a good place to look at

36. How communities can help innovate
I. Community can help build new products
II. Community can help change old products
III. Community can help adjust strategy

37. Building New Products
1. Community designs, community decides
2. Community creates, you package
3. Give away code, communities emerge

38. 1. Community designs, community decides

39. Threadless

41. Open Source Footwear

42. Cambrian House

44. 2. Community creates, you package

45. News To Me

47. uReport

48. CNN/YouTube

49. ohmynews/other citjourn sites

51. 3. Give away code, communities emerge

52. Google API

53. Chicago Crime

54. Mappy Hour

55. WeFi

56. Tunisian Prison Map

57. Google Earth/Deforestation

58. Google Earth Outreach

59. After discovering WeFi...?

60. Communities Change the Product

63. Who are the lead users?
“Lead users are users of a product that currently
experience needs still unknown to the public and
who also benefit greatly if they obtain a solution to
these needs”
“.... products are developed to meet the widest
possible need; when individual users face
problems that the majority of consumers do not,
they have no choice but to develop their own
modifications to existing products, or entirely new
products, to solve their issues”

64. FeVote

70. Snakes on a Plane: didn't work

71. Radio Open Source

72. Rough Cuts

73. Rough Cuts

74. Rough Cuts cont

75. How communities can change
strategies?

76. Prediction Markets

85. Digg: the number

86. Subvert and Profit

88. Bug Blog Comments

89. Some challenges for news organizations

90. 1. How to make community
innovation granular?
Making every comma count

Innovate by a click/idle capacity

Fact-checking/UGC—something to think about


91. 2. How to build a perfect community
with lively interaction?
Periphery vs core

% of Wikipedia editors editing most of the

articles/same with Digg
Forming a proactive core is crucial


93. 2. How to identify/empower lead
users?
Karma systems

Virtual currencies

How to break users into demographic groups?


95. The Right Demographics?

96. 3. How to mobilize a formed
community/for what cause?
Finding an anchor activity

TechDirt Insight

Economist Red Stripe

AZ/Offthebus.net


97. TechDirt Insight Community

99. offthebus.net

100. But remember: it doesn't work for everything!