I was talking with a mutual friend just this weekend about how we hadn't seen anything new from Clay Shirky in a while. His latest essay popped up the very next day -- lucid as always from one of the best thinkers about online culture.
If you were a broadcast media outlet thinking about community building, here are five things you would think about:
1. Audiences are built. Communities grow.
2. Communities face a tradeoff between size and focus.
3. Participation matters more than quality.
4. You may own the software, but the community owns itself.
5. The community will want to build. Help it, or at least let it.
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