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Holtz Communications + Technology

Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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The differences between online communities and social networking

Whenever I talk about blogs or social networking to people who haven’t quite yet caught up, it’s likely I’ll hear the same comment: “How is this different from message boards?” I’ve been able to stumble through explanations, but Lee Lefever has posted an articulate and intelligent analysis of the differences over at CommonCraft. There are five, according to Lefever:

  • Use of the member profile
  • Identity without collaboration
  • Explicit relationships with forums and people
  • New forum/group creation
  • Network-centric navigation

Lefever continues to see value in message boards and forums; they have, after all, stood the test of time. But his detailed explanations of each of these distinctions is worthwhile reading as social networks become more common. (I expect they’ll infiltrate intranets any old time, something I’ll probably write about soon.)

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