There is a little trepidation when a troupe starts exploring whether it can really collaborate and how it can make money. I was serious about both conversational blogging and jazz communities. I reread and reread new posts from overnight, spent time Skyping with Ton and Dina and then resorting to the phone with Ross Mayfield. In the meantime I’ve sent out yet more messages spoke to Gary this morning and it continues.
Ross Mayfield made the emerging Actionable Sense Troupe a very generous offer yesterday to aid in community building by offering a SocialText workspace get things started. Having read many thoughtful posts I’m going to start inviting those in that have said they want to participate later today. We will be starting with a blank sheet and that will presents some challenges. I think we all understand the difficulty and the desire not to waste effort. Time is money..
We need to articulate a process, but it has to be a process that scratches some itch sufficiently that someone will give us their itch to scratch, and thus I think we should begin our sweep-out radar project pitch by identifying who it is we need to ask who might have such an itch and back that offer with a budget and a deadline, Gary
My own thinking on this at the moment is that the money will come from the consulting work that is generated by the community, not from access to the community itself. John
The business model is the direct concern, and as Gary says needs to be underpinned by an identifiable need and itch to make it stick. Ton
Currently I think very much along the lines John, does where hiring one independent actually means hiring the community and thus money will flow from the individual consulting jobs to the community. In recent e-mail conversations with Lilia Efimova and Martin Roell I formulated it that it would be like having part-time colleagues, i.e. on certain topics with certain clients, the community gelling around specific themes and points in time. Ton
We all make decisions (often subconsciously) about what to blog and what not to blog. For many people (myself included) the most potent area of such decisions is around our relationship to our employer (or clients for the self-employed) Julian
Where to begin?
Let’s take this discussion into the SocialText workspace. Let’s build our thoughts together rather than independently. I jotted down the following based on the comments above. However, realize it is better all stared in the Workspace.
Actually to get anywhere we have to start with an exploratory form of one above making some specific commitments in terms of both time, expected rewards and what we are each prepared to commit to. We also need those quick ideas on “ITCH” and “TARGETS”. The key consumable is “time”. Forming, storming and norming still have to take place.
I’m taking Ross up on his suggestion and activating the “Actionable Sense” Network (working name for now). If you haven’t already and are interested e-mail me. It will prove to be a more effective environment for developing this thread further.