I need your help in compiling a list of types of online communities. The categories are broad. The criteria is that they would have a community manager or be interested in community manager topics.
*Update – Scott pointed out that there should be some organizational framework or taxonomy. My goal isn’t to create an exhaustive list of types of communities. To clarify my goal is to create a list of general types of communities that have needs that are unique to them. What are their idiosyncracies? So this list needs to have that information included here. More to come on this.
Types of Online Communities
- open source
- enterprise
- small to medium business
- start-ups
- gaming
- non-profits – education, library, museums, charities
- media, publications
- private communities
- open innovation
- internal collaboration
- communities for establishing standards?
Your turn! What would you add? Are there any that you would take off?
Religious groups would definitely be interested in a community manager, as community is one of the most important aspects of a church.
Innovation communities like the one around LEGO Midstorm.
W3C communities like the one for websemantic or microformat.
Communities also about tourism industry as Travel 2.0 and soon Travel 3.0
How about towns? (maybe that would fall in your ‘private’ category?)
I could add “hobbies” and “sports” (assuming those to be classified as mutually exclusive), but first I’d suggest an unordered list might not be the best organizing principle. I think if you’re gong to try to organize such a thing, you really need some kind of framework / taxonomy. (Otherwise, what you call “broad” above may be overly broad in some categories and super narrow in others in order to create an exhaustive list. (And if it’s not exhaustive, then why bother?)
In Net Work, by Patti Anklam, she describes networks with the facets; Purpose, Structure, Style and Value. And then suggests the following types in terms of “Range of Purpose.” Mission, Business, Idea, Learning, Personal. I’m not saying this is necessarily best. In fact, I think this area needs work.
But to just list a bunch with no organizing framework, it’s going to potentially be a very, very large list, and have ambiguity. What about “Cause” for example. A cause-based community isn’t necessarily non-profit. There’s lots of health related communities. Are these “Personal Challenge” communities?
Sorry if this all seems overly critical. It’s just that based on the purpose of your list, it strikes me that the categories should follow some taxonomy goals like exclusivity and if possible, mutual exclusivity.
Scott
Scott – those are some very good points! I should have stated my purpose because that will probably assist with the organization of them.
A really minor point, but I’d recommend changing ‘gaming’ to ‘video games’, just to differentiate it from the casino gaming industry.