What I currently think a community should do (abstract outline)
See also, List of Social Activities.
This is the general "community outline" I have made so far.
Knowing/understanding our current state:
- individual's "internal" state:
- interests
- skills
- beliefs
- needs, desires, desired state
- capital
- values
- vision
- biography
- psychology
- individual's situation/context (see also List of Social Divisions):
- demographics
- subculture
- niche
- life stage, generation, age...
Improving our state, maintaining our state:
- Building, pursuing, and/or sharing (see also, Matching and Alignment, means-ends chains, problem solving, and The Value of People):
- knowledge
- skills
- trust
- virtues
- purpose
- leisure
- opportunities
- goals
- resources
- services
- technology
- vision
- the future: predict opportunities, changes, and dangers, be proactive [see also: The Shape of Things to Come]
Growth:
- Recruitment:
- marketing
- networking, relationship building (see also, How to Build Social Capital and Community)
- outreach
- Subdivision (everyone wants to have their own perfect fit, not one size fits all. Subdivision may also distribute decision making and power more evenly)
Personally I would be hard core with the win-win spirit, and do these directly and intentionally, rather than waiting for them to occur "naturally" (which is a process that I think suffers from various social inefficiencies). And, of course, technology can improve the process in various dimensions too.
Some more things to read:
Here's a link dump:
- The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team (Psychological safety, Dependability, Structure & clarity, work that is Meaningful, and work that is Impactful)
- need to prevent and deal with abusive people, see: "No more rockstars: how to stop abuse in tech communities" and "Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men"
- something like a dividing cell structure probably
- one explicit (and intense) organization method is Holacracy, and of course there's Democracy (or even Advanced Democracy)
- I might have some thoughts to share on the subjects of this essay "The Craft is Not The Community" (aside from the fact that it's unnecessarily long, because that's how LessWrong people write), and this correction commenting on it. I've already had some of my own thinking on similar/related topics
- this post by The Unit of Caring
- this advice from Richard Carrier