David Crow - Latest Comments in Community Platforms

Re: Community Platforms

Jeff Day — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:48:14 -0000

MSDN is currently running an older version of Community Server for blogs, but the site itself runs on two custom platforms: MTPS (MSDN-TechNet Publishing System) and the Community Platform. 
 
Rob Howard may not be familiar with the Community Platform, but it is definitely not Community Server, which only runs MSDN blogs.

Re: Community Platforms

Scott Green — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:13:46 -0000

I listened to Chris Pirillo's community manifesto with interest. Having worked recently with RainCity to implement our latest community iteration at Harlequin, he covers a lot of the some of the same issues we fought with last year. Ultimately, Drupal had the open philosophy that we wanted and the right blend of community features that we needed. 
 
After a successful (but ultimately limiting) seven year experience with a proprietary and very closed community platform, we knew we needed something open and extensible. 
 
Drupal fit the bill in almost all respects and the RainCity team tweaked it to our specific community needs. We're now a few months afloat with the Drupal system and our users have picked it up swimmingly. 
 
We're now building a rev.2 wish list based on feedback from our hosts and members. Thankfully, we can dig in to the guts of Drupal and change what needs changing for our community. Our hands aren't tied on specific developers, companies, or approaches. 
 
Don't worry, Boris! RainCity is still in our hearts and minds... but it's nice to have that option! It's also a good selling point when you are pitching open source apps in your enterprise. 
 
Every platform will have at least one pitfall, so finding one that is both flexible and open is the key. If that pitfall becomes a crevasse over time, an open system will allow you to pick up your data and move on.

Re: Community Platforms

James Allison — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:41:10 -0000

Just wanted to suggest adding <a href="http://elgg.org/" target="_blank">Elgg</a> to your list of platforms.

Re: Community Platforms

Rob Howard — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:40:56 -0000

"There are other tools like the Community Platform that powers ... MSDN, that are not commercially available." 
 
MSDN is running Community Server (<a href="http://communityserver.org) " target="_blank"><a href="http://communityserver.org)" target="_blank">http://communityserver.org)</a> </a>by Telligent. 
 
Community Server also powers the MySpace.com forums (<a href="http://forums.myspace.com) 
" target="_blank"><a href="http://forums.myspace.com)" target="_blank">http://forums.myspace.com)</a> </a> 
Lastly I read that you mentioned OpenID support. Our newest version, Community Server 2008, has OpenID support built in natively.

Re: Community Platforms

Thomas Purves — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:27:51 -0000

Learnhub.com embodies some of these elements. Like expertise ranking of members relative to specific subjects and mini-communities. 
 
It's almost overkill while they still have a small base, but will be interesting to watch as it scales.

Re: Community Platforms

Boris Mann — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:24:43 -0000

Now, which of those listed platforms have portable data? Which of them are a suitable platform for building the (invariably) custom pieces that each community may want as they grow? 
 
The tough part with many systems -- especially closed, hosted ones -- is that they provide great initial starting points, but then often lack in customization or growth options. And god forbid that your platform provider "go away" -- then you're completely stuck, and need to start over. 
 
This is why I have chosen to go with fully open systems, because they can grow with communities and can never be locked down or disappear. 
 
@Varun: 
Facebook is ultimately closed and not a participant in the "open web". And it's someone else's platform with someone else's rules. I would hope that we steer around such closed instances and strive to connect openly. 
 
@Peter Childs: 
"What I’d like to see is a platform that recognizes communities are networks of interests (people & organizations) and doesn’t try to become a destination" 
 
I think this is spot on -- don't try and a become a destination IN AND OF ITSELF -- but rather add value through various aggregation and hub features. This also seems to argue for mini-networks that cross sites.

Re: Community Platforms

Peter Childs — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:38:43 -0000

To me the issue is less the platform and more than it aggregates and disseminates information to sites that are used by community members. 
 
Most communities are not homogenous. Members come to a community with a variety of interests and spend time on sites in proportion to those interests. To me this is the inherent problem with platforms that want to become a destination for a community. While being a destination can to help define the community at the same time one needs to overcome the personal habit and individual interest – which may in aggregate actually be the thing most community members value in the community. 
 
What I’d like to see is a platform that recognizes communities are networks of interests (people & organizations) and doesn’t try to become a destination – but enriches the entire ecosystem by distributing the comment, discussion and event notice throughout the ecosystem – so the opportunity for shared experience actually increases because every site becomes (in part) a reflection of the community.

Re: Community Platforms

Varun Mathur — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:32:09 -0000

I think Facebook is actually a good starting point for a community, because no matter how good the platform is, there will always be the issue of getting people there. With 1 in 5 Torontonians already on Facebook, I think there is a strong potential to really bring the Toronto DemoCamp community together in a group on Facebook. People can post events, photos, share news, discuss stuff and most importantly ..."see" other members and connect with them online. How about using Facebook to manage the event registration instead of Eventbrite for local Democamps ?

Re: Community Platforms

Martin Kuplens-Ewart — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:55:42 -0000

This is something we struggled with at TakingITGlobal some six or seven years ago. In creating a suite of tools for action and means for communication we felt challenged to help people discover and expose the threads that connected their interactions using the various features we provided. 
 
Initiatives such as the TIG Projects app (<a href="http://projects.takingitglo..., " target="_blank"><a href="http://projects.takingitglo...," target="_blank">http://projects.takingitglo... </a>which integrates the organisation's email groups system (I built that!), country sites (such as <a href="http://canada.takingitgloba..., " target="_blank"><a href="http://canada.takingitgloba...," target="_blank">http://canada.takingitgloba... </a>and, over the last four years, TIGed (<a href="http://www.takingitglobal.o... " target="_blank"><a href="http://www.takingitglobal.o..." target="_blank">http://www.takingitglobal.o... </a>have been ways in which we/they have I think quite successfully worked to implement the things you and Chris Pirillo talk about.