As the size of your network grows, your small-group pattern, where everyone connected to everyone, would first become impractical, then unbuildable. Let the small groups connect tightly, and then you connect the groups. But you can't really connect groups - you connect people within groups. Instead of one loose group of 25, you have 5 tight groups... See more

Applying the notion of urban scale to technology reminds me of the current online trend of people looking for smaller communities, private groups, chat platforms and taking a step back from the well-known social networks.That’s what a neighbourhood is, right? You have a relationship with people within your neighbourhood, which is different from... See more

Collectives don't scale. In most successful collectives, you have an anchor group composed of less than a dozen people who are super engaged. When you compare collectives to other social structures like communities, vertical social networks and social networks, you understand that collectives are trading numbers for engagement. If a collective... See more

I do think those fears have a foundation, but there are ways to scale cozy. We have to stop thinking of a cozy community as simply “small” and shift our mindset to focus on how we can create coziness within any size community. In Building Brand Communities , we teach the Campfire Principle, and to me, this is the way to scale cozy.

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Campfire spaces... See more