communities of practice
Campus provides a low-stakes way to “try on a new way of being”, learn with social accountability, and experiment without hard committing. Each quarter we ask our members for classes, events, bookclubs, or circles they want to host. Many use this opportunity as a chance to engage with an interest more deeply - both as a leader, constructing the... See more
While we might use these spaces, open communities have particular needs. They are formed not from shared identity but from entwined attention and collaborative work on shared resources. They thrive on diversity and so require the creation of an environment that is proactively inclusive and welcoming. They need fluidity, iterativity, and a... See more
Creative Communities
And if communities are spaces for belonging, cohorts are spaces for becoming.
Brian Dell • LF11 - Cohort Futures
community, like any relationship, is an aggregate of multiple narratives. Intimacy in turn can be described as the work of finding alignment across these multiple narratives. Measured, thoughtful growth creates the spaciousness to cultivate intimacy, and determines which community narratives will persist over time.
Steph Alinsug • A Culture of Intimacy: a thesis for building enduring web3 commu…
The process identified the following areas of need: * Building new infrastructure of belonging through community engagement * Developing infrastructure for social repair through lifelong learning * Creating new systems of care and sharing the skills for making meaning
Farah Elahi • Belonging Care and Repair
If we want a better democracy, we need the same for community entrepreneurs. For too long now, these people have done this work without being paid, recognized, or even acknowledged. On Facebook, they are called group admins; on Reddit, they are moderators. But they aren’t just admins or moderators. They are leaders. They are entrepreneurs - forging
... See moreNew_ Public • Celebrating the labor that holds up our democracy: the community entrepreneur
A much more humane, and ultimately more appropriate, approach would be to treat our relationships and communities, as well as the benefits we receive from them, not as a form of wealth, but as gifts. They are received, not chosen; valued but not earned; given but not traded; appreciated but not capitalized. They have an inherent, unquantifiable... See more
The Relationship Is the Richness
Building these types of environments isn’t easy. Unlike an app, your members can’t be programmed to consistently deliver valuable experiences for one another. That’s why it’s critical to thoughtfully design your community’s social architecture to maximize the value that gets exchanged between members.
Nick deWilde • The Social Architecture of Impactful Communities
In practice, it is not possible for the technical layer to be resilient while the social layer is not, as the social and technical dynamics of infrastructure are co-constitutive.