This week in community building — Issue 106

Degrowth as an aspiration

By Ana Andjelic

Community-fication. In mass production, efficiency requires short-term, impersonal interactions. I recently heard that many independent dentists are going out of business because of dental networks. Dental networks lower the cost of service by giving their customers one-stop-shop and convenience of access. Mass retailers inched independent retailers out based on the same principle. In craft production, the act of making involves an entire community of tradesmen, artisans, farmers, workers. A handcrafted object is usually the beginning of a long-term connection between people who source materials, work on objects, and sell them (some of the Hermès artisans and even corporate employees have spent their entire work life with the company). Consumers are also more willing to spend a premium on handcrafted items. This is due both to the items’ quality and to items being enriched by everyone who touched them: the community that surrounds each handcrafted item.

“Women shouldn’t be expected to pay this cost just to participate.”: What we learned from our online gender-based violence consultations

Online gender-based violence and abuse threatens to hamper the web’s potential to be a platform that amplifies gender equality and spearheads positive change, and instead cause it to remain one more medium in which women, and particularly women from marginalised communities, are attacked and have their voices suppressed. In response to this urgent issue, we held a series of consultations around online gender-based violence and abuse throughout 2020 and 2021. Here’s what we learned from over 120 participants from 85 organisations and 35 countries.

🌤 Rosieland

• Perhaps the goal for communities is to become relevant [Pro]
• Communities of Practice as a perfect place to grow and learn

✍️ Latest

• The Structure of Brand Communities — Jenny Weigle
• Online teams can feel like real teams — Katerina Bohlec
• facebook is not a trusted space — Harold Jarche
• The Future of Work — Stephen McKeon, Collaborative Fund
• Update to our Rules + A note on recent bans from Roam's CEO — Conor White-Sullivan
• 🗑️ Zero Waste — Community-Validated Business Problems — Community Validated
• Leaving Art on the Street — Jax
• The Scientific Method and Community Metrics — Jamie Langskov
• Six elements of a healthy community — Juan José
• Say What?! Rewards for Communication in Internet Communities — Ian Vanagas

🗞 News

• Twitter invests in avatar startup Facemoji — TechCrunch
• A catastrophe at Twitch — Platformer

🎙 Podcasts & Videos

• Lightning Talks from Community Building Summit
• Holacratic Communities with Sahil Lavingia — Masters of Community
• Shifting Revel, a Community for Women Over 40, from In-Person to Online Overnight — Community Signal
• Fireside Chat: Metrics Strategy with Daniel, Sean, and Venia — CHAOSS
• Protecting Yourself with Boundaries and a Healthy Mindset with Espree Devora — The Community Experience

🐦 Tweets

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