Building a community in 11 steps – Stranded Europeans

Everybody’s talking about community building these days. Often we forget how easy it is (can be) and how frequently it happens. A volcano, some stranded Europeans and Denver. This is how you build a community:

1. Get a bunch of people together with more or less similar values.
   E.g. museum professionals working on participation.
2. Urge them to do something, change their status quo.
   E.g. by having a volcano erupt and cause huge ash clouds.
3. Make them understand that they’re involved in the new situation.
   E.g. by cancelling their flights home.
4. Have a community leader/manager take the lead in collaborative action.
   E.g. Jennifer Trant who starts a system to find those stranded lodging and something to do.
5. Find some early adopters and encourage them to participate and take group action.
   E.g. by setting the example yourself and offering your lodging.
6. Give the community the freedom to develop by offering tools, not rules.
   E.g. pen and paper, a common media channel and enthusiasm.
7. Put emphasis on the positive behaviour of individuals in the community.
   E.g. by talking to them or retweeting their initiatives.
8. Think beyond social media.
   E.g. by hosting unconference sessions, meetups and drinks. Or by putting up a pen and paper registration system (see photos).
9. Have an open attitude to newcomers.
   E.g. by stressing how everybody is in the same situation.
10. Ensure and celebrate tangible outcomes within the community.
    E.g. by blogging about their events and applauding the success of individuals reaching home.
11. Take action over time to reinforce the community.
    E.g. by hosting a little event at next year’s conference for those affected by the volcano.

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The exothermic museum; making energetic connections

If you put two molecules together, they sometimes undergo a chemical reaction that gives us some energy. For instance:

C + O2 -> CO2 + energy

This is called an exothermic reaction and it’s the basis of combustion, most electricity, climate change and polar bears going extinct.

It doesn’t always work this way. Some molecules do nothing when put together:

H20 + O2 -> nothing

And sometimes you’ll have to add energy for something to happen (endothermic reactions):

N2 + O2 + energy -> 2 NO

The trick is to find to molecules that combined give extra energy. You win. It’s a thing of nature, a universal law. So, obviously, it applies to more than chemistry.

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