For years we've believed that technology is the cutting edge in our industry.
We try to figure out how to user ever newer technology platforms for our communities. What about Quora, Google+, FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…
Yet, for most of these communities, these tools are close to irrelevant. They have almost no impact upon a community' ssuccess. Most communities are based upon the same simple asynchronous forum platforms they always have been. Little has changed.
I'm far more interested in the community side of online communities. What is new in human behaviour? What have the latest studies shown? What have we recently learn about how groups form and interact? What are the latest conflict resolution techniques? How are new community development techniques being applied?
Here's my advice. Stop reading social media blogs (and most community blogs too). Spend an afternoon on Google Scholar and research these topics. Even just reading the summaries will put you far ahead of the pack.
Good luck.
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