Selected posts from the last 10 years
- The Future of Online Communities – Insights from the Online Community Unconference 2025The Online Community Unconference 2025 made one thing clear: the need for meaningful connection has never been greater, but the challenges of fostering it have never been more complex. This post explores the key insights from the event—where community leadership is evolving, where it’s stuck, and what we must do next.
- Preparing for the Online Community Unconference 2025See you January 8th! In just a few days, the much-anticipated Online Community Unconference 2025 will bring together passionate community and community-skilled leaders for… Read more: Preparing for the Online Community Unconference 2025
- Online Community Unconference 2025The Online Community Unconference (OCU) is returning to San Francisco on January 8th. Join me, Carrie Melissa Jones, and Susan Tenby for a full… Read more: Online Community Unconference 2025
- Unlocking Community Intelligence in Events: Embracing Participant-Driven MethodologiesAs we transition from virtual to in-person meetings, conferences, and workshops, there is a noticeable hunger for novel and engaging experiences beyond the typical… Read more: Unlocking Community Intelligence in Events: Embracing Participant-Driven Methodologies
- Reasons to be Optimistic About the Future of Community PracticeThe community “industry” is a mess. Good thing we are pretty good at community.
- Will Generative AI Make Popular Culture’s Self-Referential Tendencies Exponentially Worse?“All of pop culture — be it movies, music or TV — is now engaged in a delicious orgy of self-consumption.” Peter McKnight —… Read more: Will Generative AI Make Popular Culture’s Self-Referential Tendencies Exponentially Worse?
- Community Ecosystems – Slides from the 1/23/23 #CMAD Event in Silicon ValleyIt was great to be back in person at the #CMAD Meetup in Silicon Valley. You can check out the slides from my presentation… Read more: Community Ecosystems – Slides from the 1/23/23 #CMAD Event in Silicon Valley
- Community Strategy DesignI was first introduced to the concept of a design process in my sophomore year of college. I was taking a sculpture class and… Read more: Community Strategy Design
- Metaverse: Season 3 of the Cohere PodcastDuring Season 2 of the Cohere podcast, Dr. Lauren Vargas and I examined the role networks play in our lives – from the obvious… Read more: Metaverse: Season 3 of the Cohere Podcast
- Promoting & Sustaining the Value of Community Across the Organization (Community Value Part 4)Note: this is the fourth and final post in a series about community value. If you missed “A Perspective on Community Value“, “Understanding the Community… Read more: Promoting & Sustaining the Value of Community Across the Organization (Community Value Part 4)
- Developing Community Strategy, Goals & Measurements (Community Value Part 3)Note: this is the third in a series of posts about community value. If you missed “A Perspective on Community Value“ or “Understanding the Community… Read more: Developing Community Strategy, Goals & Measurements (Community Value Part 3)
- METAVERSE METAVERSE METAVERSE (plus a great cyberpunk reading list)We’ve been hearing a lot about the “Metaverse” in the last few months, and the conversation has reached somewhat of a fever pitch this… Read more: METAVERSE METAVERSE METAVERSE (plus a great cyberpunk reading list)
- Understanding the Community Opportunity (Community Value Part 2)Note: this is the second in a series of posts about community value. If you missed “A Perspective on Community Value”, I’d recommend starting… Read more: Understanding the Community Opportunity (Community Value Part 2)
- Resources from “Adventures in Collaboration” Hybrid @ MURAL SessionHELLO! This is a follow up post for those that participated in the Adventures in Collaboration session for MURAL’s Hybrid series. First off –… Read more: Resources from “Adventures in Collaboration” Hybrid @ MURAL Session
- A Perspective on Community Value (Part 1 of a Series)This is the first of a four-part series on the topic of community value. The series is based in large part, on the output… Read more: A Perspective on Community Value (Part 1 of a Series)
- Exiting the Social Boom and the Entering the Era of Transformational CommunitiesI feel very fortunate to have established a career developing communities (both on and offline) over the last 20+ years. During this time, I’ve… Read more: Exiting the Social Boom and the Entering the Era of Transformational Communities
- The Cohere Podcast – Season 2 UpdateThe Cohere podcast is in its second season. In season 1 covered a range of important topics related to communities and networks, including creating… Read more: The Cohere Podcast – Season 2 Update
- Community & Re-emergenceIt’s March (again). Congratulations on what is likely your pandemic lockdown anniversary month. Humanity’s re-emergence into whatever new normal awaits us has been on… Read more: Community & Re-emergence
- Visual highlights from SWARM 2020 – Australia’s largest community conferenceSWARM is one of my favorite community conferences. Lead organizer Venessa Paech does an amazing job of curating a timely and diverse set of… Read more: Visual highlights from SWARM 2020 – Australia’s largest community conference
- Developing a Transformational Community to Lift Families Out of Poverty with Jorge BlandónLeaders often use the word “transformation” to describe a small or incremental change, but the definition is “a thorough or dramatic change in form… Read more: Developing a Transformational Community to Lift Families Out of Poverty with Jorge Blandón
- A Human-Centered Approach to Digital Leadership with Lauren Vargas, PhDToo often the deployment of digital strategies and tools begins humans conforming to technology limitations instead of technology being deployed intentionally in the service… Read more: A Human-Centered Approach to Digital Leadership with Lauren Vargas, PhD
- Expert Interviews From the Customer Community 1.0 Era (’07-’09)It’s clear that the Corvid-19 Pandemic will drive the global economy into a recession. Periods of economic turbulence tend to have a catalytic effect… Read more: Expert Interviews From the Customer Community 1.0 Era (’07-’09)
- The Connected Future of Design with Patrick NewberyDuring the COVID19 crisis, digital networks have played a critical part in keep humanity connected and informed. The adoption of networked experiences has scaled… Read more: The Connected Future of Design with Patrick Newbery
- Realizing Power of Your “Onlyness” Through Networks with Nilofer MerchantThe primary purpose of the Cohere Project (and podcast) is to explore the future of human networks, especially tools that increase human and group… Read more: Realizing Power of Your “Onlyness” Through Networks with Nilofer Merchant
- The Cohere Podcast: Bonus Episode – Creating Connection in the Time of COVID-19 with Nancy WhiteIn this short (~15 min) bonus episode, we speak with facilitator and community builder extraordinaire Nancy White of Full Circle Associates about creating and… Read more: The Cohere Podcast: Bonus Episode – Creating Connection in the Time of COVID-19 with Nancy White
- The Cohere Podcast: Episode 3 – The Role of AI in Online Communities and Networks with Venessa PaechIt’s human nature to seek connection, meaning, and knowledge through community. Thanks to the smartphones in our pockets (and the near-global access to broadband… Read more: The Cohere Podcast: Episode 3 – The Role of AI in Online Communities and Networks with Venessa Paech
- The Cohere Podcast: Episode 2 – Navigating the Global Broadband Internet’s Opportunities & Vulnerabilities with Jim CashelOver the past 25 years, the Internet has become a central part of our everyday lives. Even so, there are still over three billion… Read more: The Cohere Podcast: Episode 2 – Navigating the Global Broadband Internet’s Opportunities & Vulnerabilities with Jim Cashel
- The Cohere Podcast: Episode 1 – Exponential Technologies and Online Communities with Kent Langley, CSO of OpenExOWelcome to the inaugural episode of the Cohere Podcast! I’m very excited to bring you this discussion about the effects of exponential technologies with… Read more: The Cohere Podcast: Episode 1 – Exponential Technologies and Online Communities with Kent Langley, CSO of OpenExO
- 2020 AI & Communities Research Project – Survey Now OpenI’m excited to announce the second round of Structure3C’s AI & Communities research. This research builds on our foundational project in 2018 (more on… Read more: 2020 AI & Communities Research Project – Survey Now Open
- Beyond Ideas: Building Collaborative Innovation CommunitiesOpen Innovation Communities – where companies and customers collaborate on ideas for new products and services – can be one of the most valuable… Read more: Beyond Ideas: Building Collaborative Innovation Communities
- Influencer Apocalypse? No, But There Is a Community OpportunityTo say current conversations about influencer marketing are heated would be an understatement. With estimates of influencer marketing industry size ranging well into the… Read more: Influencer Apocalypse? No, But There Is a Community Opportunity
- Customer Communities Are Critical For Business TransformationThe last few years have seen big brands make extraordinary investments in developing massive “digital transformation” and social media programs. On one hand, these programs have… Read more: Customer Communities Are Critical For Business Transformation
- Aligning Your Enterprise Community Strategy With Your Customer’s Career JourneyUse these three contexts to help create a bigger and better future for your company’s community.
- The Value of Community EcosystemsIn short: many organizations are missing the community opportunity because of a short sighted focus on transactional value in the context of specific use cases. Growth-minded companies are fully embracing community as a concept and integrating community ecosystem development practices into the fabric of their business with great success.
- AI Use Cases For Communities & NetworksFor business leaders shaping online community strategy, AI holds promise to help solve two of the biggest challenges with online communities: 1) Quantifying the value of community investment and delivering timely and actionable insight and 2) Managing large networks of relationships at scale.
- Developing Communities for Collaborative InnovationThis is a short post to recap the online workshop I did with David Spinks of CMX about developing Collaborative Innovation Communities. Below you will find an overview of the session, the slide deck from the session, a link to the companion worksheet and the working list of brand-based CI communities and innovation platforms we’ve been tracking at Structure3C.
- Announcing the C3/A3 Project: The Connected Future of Communities, AI & AutomationA new set of technologies is emerging to augment human cognition (AI), enhance human agency (Agents) and shape digital experiences and outcomes by taking advantage of a rich set of tools and APIs (Automation). We see these three technological forces (AI, Agents and Automation) as the next immediate wave of disruption in digital experience, and we see Community, Crowd and Collaboration as the social contexts in which technology and humanity will interact for the betterment (or detriment) of humankind. The C3/A3 project will explore the technological, business and societal implications of this next wave of change and offer a helpful path forward
- Building Modern Communities #SwarmConfI was honored to be asked to keynote the SWARM Community Managers Conference in Sydney this week, hosted by conference Co-Founders Alison Michalk and… Read more: Building Modern Communities #SwarmConf
- The Customer CommunityImage © Leigh Prather The last few years have seen big brands make extraordinary investments in developing massive “digital transformation” and social media programs. On one… Read more: The Customer Community
- How AI Can Help Solve The Biggest Problem With CrowdsourcingThe concept of engaging “the Crowd” through digital platforms has been around for some time. Howard Rheingold coined the term “Smart Mob” in 2002… Read more: How AI Can Help Solve The Biggest Problem With Crowdsourcing
Bill Johnston 