Comments on: Question 2 of 365: What is the critical mass of a community? http://learningischange.com/2010/01/03/question-2-of-365-what-is-the-critical-mass-of-a-community/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:04:07 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: bhwilkoff http://learningischange.com/2010/01/03/question-2-of-365-what-is-the-critical-mass-of-a-community/comment-page-1/#comment-1533 bhwilkoff Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:12:04 +0000 http://learningischange.com/?p=818#comment-1533 I'd never even heard of Dunbar's number. Very cool concept:<br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number</a><br><br>I feel like this gets at your idea of 100 people in the world (or the boat<br>captain's anyway). So long as you have those 100 people (or perhaps 150<br>according to wikipedia), you can maintain the important conversations.<br>However, more to your point, those 100 people have to willing to probe<br>deeper and revise what the 100 people are connected for in the first place.<br><br>Or, perhaps those two ideas have no relationship to one another. I'd never even heard of Dunbar's number. Very cool concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number

I feel like this gets at your idea of 100 people in the world (or the boat
captain's anyway). So long as you have those 100 people (or perhaps 150
according to wikipedia), you can maintain the important conversations.
However, more to your point, those 100 people have to willing to probe
deeper and revise what the 100 people are connected for in the first place.

Or, perhaps those two ideas have no relationship to one another.

]]> By: Zac Chase http://learningischange.com/2010/01/03/question-2-of-365-what-is-the-critical-mass-of-a-community/comment-page-1/#comment-1522 Zac Chase Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:47:34 +0000 http://learningischange.com/?p=818#comment-1522 "A community will thrive when people find a connection to IT and not just the people in it." Sort of. If you mean "thrive" in the sense of growing in thought and intellect, then I think connection is second to questioning. If we all gather around an idea that has sparked the inception of a community but don't poke at that idea, it won't thrive. Madonna gets this, right? She knows millions have gathered around the idea of "Madonna," but that the idea must be revised, revisited and recreated for that community to grow and thrive. If 1983 Madonna were all the world had ever seen, there'd be no Madonna in 2010 - no thriving Madonna, anyway.<br>From a more scientific place, I nod my head toward Dunbar's Number. While I haven't done a ton of grunt work vetting this one, I would say I find it to be true in my online web. I've also seen it in action in professional communities and the size of a grade cohort in schools.<br>The thing I truly appreciate about Dunbar's Number is the idea that it puts something more tangible in the room with this somewhat squishy idea of maximum capacity. “A community will thrive when people find a connection to IT and not just the people in it.” Sort of. If you mean “thrive” in the sense of growing in thought and intellect, then I think connection is second to questioning. If we all gather around an idea that has sparked the inception of a community but don't poke at that idea, it won't thrive. Madonna gets this, right? She knows millions have gathered around the idea of “Madonna,” but that the idea must be revised, revisited and recreated for that community to grow and thrive. If 1983 Madonna were all the world had ever seen, there'd be no Madonna in 2010 – no thriving Madonna, anyway.
From a more scientific place, I nod my head toward Dunbar's Number. While I haven't done a ton of grunt work vetting this one, I would say I find it to be true in my online web. I've also seen it in action in professional communities and the size of a grade cohort in schools.
The thing I truly appreciate about Dunbar's Number is the idea that it puts something more tangible in the room with this somewhat squishy idea of maximum capacity.

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