Building a Community

Tara Hunt is on stage now, to present the third and final keynote of the day, talking about building a community. Here are my notes (my comments in italics):

• Tara says she left thinking there wasn’t a tech community in Toronto, but thinks that things have changed now.
• She wants the session to be interactive. Who doesn’t? Every presenter says that.
• Tara blogs because she is creating her own personal history.
• Tara says the consumer revolution is here. We know better than to listen to marketing lies. There are bad customer experiences, and too many unsatisfactory choices. We’re people, not consumers.
• Once we make a choice, we’re locked in, such as with DRM. There are too many messages – ads in the bathroom, on the train, etc. People are pissed.
• People have good choices now.
• Okay, this is actually interactive for once, gj Tara. A side effect of that, however, is that its harder to take notes 😉
• We’re having a discussion now about a video Tara showed. The video, on YouTube, was of a teenage girl (bowiechick) showing off the capabilities of her Logitech webcam. Some people wonder if the video is actually some sort of marketing on the part of Logitech.
• pinko principle #1: inbound, rather than outbound messages
• pinko principle #2: be a community advocate (not a company evangelist)
• pinko principle #3: 100% authenticity
• pinko principle #4: serve niche markets
• pinko principle #5: follow open source principles
• Tara says to stop using the term “viral”
• Snakes on a Plane…check it out. We just watched a CNN news segment on the upcoming movie.
• You can’t put this stuff in a list, it’s organic.
• You have to be part of the community you serve.