Hybrid Content Communities: Get On the Bandwagon Before it Leaves

Sam Rosen — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:17:06 -0600

Brief Description: A Overview in One (Long) Sentence

“Hybrid Content Communities” (HCCs) are socially-driven online platforms that enable members to co-create both paid and free social media within a particular content domain, or “niche,” for the specific goal of making a positive, demonstrable, and evolutionary impact on the world.

Why “Hybrid?” The Cultural and Economic Context

Standford Law professor and author Larry Lessig describes two prevailing cultures online: “read only” and “read/write.”

"Read only" culture begins with a content owner—typically an individual or corporation—who determines how the content is delivered and consumed. Since the content is the “property” of the owner, no one can copy it without consent of the owning entity (under the conditions the author deems “fair”). The word we use for this condition is "copyright," and the description is "all rights reserved."

Unlike “read only,” the “read/write” culture thrives on social co-creation, distribution, and (often) modification of content. On the Internet, this emerged initially in open-source software communities, such as Linux, in which any programmer could modify the original code, as long as it was passed on to others with the same conditions under which it was accepted.

As the code is a social construction, no one can claim right to “ownership,” and everyone must follow basic ground rules to keep the code in the "commons."

(The Creative Commons has recently pioneered an innovation in copyright law that enables authors to place both “ready only” and “read/write” conditions on their work. Hundreds of millions of content authors now freely and openly distribute media that anyone can share; the Creative Commons copyright law enables the author to reserve partial rights—for instance, to use the content for noncommercial reasons, attribute the work to the author, and preserve its original form—and therefore empower the "prosumer" (producer-consumer) revolution.)

The point of describing these two culture-economies is not to burden the reader with a philosophical treatise or argue that one culture-economy is better than the other. Indeed, both are needed to sustain creativity, innovation, and a competitive economy. HCCs are, therefore—to use Lessig’s term—“hybrid economies”: they employ both salable and sharable expert- and user-driven content. Therefore, both the experts and users have opportunities for social reciprocity and economic compensation.

Structural Overview: Architecting Co-creative Process

The core infrastructure of HCCs is fairly straightforward. It is contextualized through an “outcome-oriented focus”: HCCs exist not just for socialization, but for the co-creation of meaningful and valuable content that makes a difference in people’s lives. This context is set through basic “rules of engagement” and conditioning of the cultural environment from the beginning of the sign-up process.

What follows is a skeletal outline of the essential HCC components:

Member Database

-All members, both experts and lay users, are listed in a member database

-The database uses a tagging system to allow members to search for each other

-Members can issue private messages for purposes partnership and collaboration

Article Database

-Both experts and lay users can post articles, many of which are indexable by search engines.

-An administrator qualified in the subject matter checks the content for quality, relevance, and appropriateness.

-Anyone in the community can post comments on the article and rate its quality from 1 to 5

Forum Boards

-The entire community can interact through forum boards

-A question-and-answer section allows lay users to ask experts questions

-Lay users can support and challenge each other in the particular content area

-The forum boards state as “rules of engagement” the importance of focusing on outcome-oriented discussion

Social Media Exchange

-Within particular content domains, members can post social media (video, audio, and blog entries) and share feedback

-The social media is used for the purpose of increasing the dynamism of social interaction on the website

One-to-One Services

-The HCC allows one or several content experts to provide paid services to members

-This can occur through video conferencing, recorded phone conferencing, and/or private messaging

-Through certification programs, lay users can become experts and earn revenue from synchronous services.

One-to-Many and Many-to-Many Products

-HCC experts can create products that the entire community and broader marketplace can purchase

-Users can also co-create and sell asynchronous products as collaborative teams with higher-level membership

HCCs are where "stickiness," "monetization," and "idealism" meet. They are both republican and democrat, vertical and horizontal, hierarchical and anarchical.

But ultimately, HCCs allow you to earn money and build community in pursuit of your "Big It."

What's The "Big It"?

Sam Rosen — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:39:47 -0600

The "Big It" is what we know we may never achieve, but do the work anyway.

The "Big It" makes us wake up every morning.

The "Big It" causes us to sit up straight and pay attention.

The "Big It" is what allows us to pursue something bigger than all of us.

What's your "Big It"?

We'll tell you ours:

Complete and utter revolution driven by new media and emerging technology. Empowering small businesses with big ideals to play even bigger than they ever imagined. Giving people the tools to go off and change the world.

We all have a Big It, and Peer Producers, LLC, wants to help you pursue yours with cutting-edge technology and media.

Our Big It is powered by Drupal, one of the web’s leading and most flexible open-source content management systems (CMS).

Let's talk big, shall we?

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Hybrid Content Communities: Get On the Bandwagon Before it Leaves

What's The "Big It"?