Lessons Learned Creating an IC Community on Ning

If you follow this blog, you may have noticed a hiatus of ten days or so on my meatier posts (I keep the micro posts going through Twitter). Here’s what has been happening…

The IC Knowledge Center, a community I started at the beginning of the year is taking off! Coming at the same time that we are doing the final reviews for our book and keeping up with client work, it has been a bit of a distraction–but a wonderful one.

We just went over 125 members, all very impressive folks from all around the world. We are also getting a good start at critical mass of different perspectives.

There are a few things I’ve learned that are probably relevant to the creation of other communities so I thought I would share some lessons:

1. No matter how clear the mission (in this case, to get as much content and discussion about IC as possible in one place–and make it accessible to mainstream business), most people don’t seem to internalize it until the content is flowing.
2. That means that there really is a role for a moderator. I was reticent to participate too much at first but now I see that it is important. It will be interesting to see whether it ever totally takes on a life of its own.
3. Not everyone likes the give and take. There have been a couple instances where folks didn’t like other people engaging them on the discussion boards–they interpreted questions about their content as criticism. I tried to intervene here but finally realized that it is better to stay out of it unless something is really inappropriate. The whole point is conversation so, as my mother would say, if you don’t like the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
4. It requires a steady discipline. That’s been the challenge for me–managing the success of it all. I think getting the book to print will free me up to give more attention to this blog/site too–because I still have a lot more to say!
5. Search engines seem to like these sites. I have been amazed how fast members’ profiles are getting to the first page of Google for them. That’s good for them and for us (my name is pretty common but if you Google “mary adams” and IC, the ICKC does come up first).

We are just getting started and there is room for lots more points of view. I hope you will consider joining us at the ICKC!