In search of the Community
I want to share the beginning of a line of ideas that I wrote back on June 16, 2009, just to show what has been growing in me for almost 8 years:
According to the definition of the Spanish Royal Academy, a community is a "set of people linked by characteristics or common interests".
A community, however, goes beyond strictly semantic definitions. It is based on the interactions between its members, on its growth and development and the common objectives set. A community is not only defined by its structure but also by the way in which it interacts with its environment, nourishing itself, adapting itself, learning, and then being able to modify and enrich it.
Various communities have been formed throughout history, around products, ideals, common goals or even behind companies or objects of worship. There are and have existed self-appointed communities as well as communities driven by private targets, from a propelling engine that pushes development in a certain direction.
How to feed a community? This has always been an elusive search for many of those interested in driving the same. By the very nature of a community, its limits are not clear, since this would limit its possibility and capacity for growth and expansion to new areas of knowledge and why not, to other geographies. In this characteristic and the complexity in its internal structure, channels of communication and internal and external interaction, lies the difficulty of defining clear and common objectives to delineate an adequate strategy.
The first step to be taken is to understand the group dynamics of the community and the environment of the community in order to better analyze their internal and external interactions. It should be understood the various types of leadership in the group, who are leaders by knowledge, who have a leadership by popularity, and which role each of the outstanding members play. In this way, when plotting different types of graphs representative of the relationships, we will be able to understand aspects of a community that will allow to draw a suitable strategy to reach the final objectives. On the other hand, understanding the environment in which the community develops, its cultural aspects and customs, and adapting and locating the executions will be able to reach a greater potential in the final result of the plans outlined.
From the understanding of interpersonal relationships, the question that arises is, How to motivate the persecution of those raised objectives? This is a question of difficult resolution, and for which different approaches have been sought. One of them seeks to reach the community through a formal education, attacking the very formation of members from its earliest stage. Although in many cases this approach usually produces good results, what happens when the social perception of the goal sought is not popular? What are the consequences of social pressure on individuals in the community? What is more, what happens when the formal teaching related to the objectives sought coexists in class with the teaching of other socially accepted and popular lines?
Another widely used approach is mass communication to the community as a whole, in search of the generation of opinion among its members. In this way different types of activities are carried out, arriving with the messages that are wanted to be transmitted, trying to orient the receivers of the same ones in a predetermined direction, without a deep work in depth. In the implementation of these techniques, it is common to use mass media in order to reach as many recipients as possible, by colonizing them behind an idea, a product, or other objectives that they want the future community to adopt.
According to the definition of the Spanish Royal Academy, a community is a "set of people linked by characteristics or common interests".
A community, however, goes beyond strictly semantic definitions. It is based on the interactions between its members, on its growth and development and the common objectives set. A community is not only defined by its structure but also by the way in which it interacts with its environment, nourishing itself, adapting itself, learning, and then being able to modify and enrich it.
Various communities have been formed throughout history, around products, ideals, common goals or even behind companies or objects of worship. There are and have existed self-appointed communities as well as communities driven by private targets, from a propelling engine that pushes development in a certain direction.
How to feed a community? This has always been an elusive search for many of those interested in driving the same. By the very nature of a community, its limits are not clear, since this would limit its possibility and capacity for growth and expansion to new areas of knowledge and why not, to other geographies. In this characteristic and the complexity in its internal structure, channels of communication and internal and external interaction, lies the difficulty of defining clear and common objectives to delineate an adequate strategy.
The first step to be taken is to understand the group dynamics of the community and the environment of the community in order to better analyze their internal and external interactions. It should be understood the various types of leadership in the group, who are leaders by knowledge, who have a leadership by popularity, and which role each of the outstanding members play. In this way, when plotting different types of graphs representative of the relationships, we will be able to understand aspects of a community that will allow to draw a suitable strategy to reach the final objectives. On the other hand, understanding the environment in which the community develops, its cultural aspects and customs, and adapting and locating the executions will be able to reach a greater potential in the final result of the plans outlined.
From the understanding of interpersonal relationships, the question that arises is, How to motivate the persecution of those raised objectives? This is a question of difficult resolution, and for which different approaches have been sought. One of them seeks to reach the community through a formal education, attacking the very formation of members from its earliest stage. Although in many cases this approach usually produces good results, what happens when the social perception of the goal sought is not popular? What are the consequences of social pressure on individuals in the community? What is more, what happens when the formal teaching related to the objectives sought coexists in class with the teaching of other socially accepted and popular lines?
Another widely used approach is mass communication to the community as a whole, in search of the generation of opinion among its members. In this way different types of activities are carried out, arriving with the messages that are wanted to be transmitted, trying to orient the receivers of the same ones in a predetermined direction, without a deep work in depth. In the implementation of these techniques, it is common to use mass media in order to reach as many recipients as possible, by colonizing them behind an idea, a product, or other objectives that they want the future community to adopt.
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