What is community building?
We Are Open Co-op are experts in community building, a contextual process in which we help create, develop, and nurture connections. We focus on establishing an environment where people can interact with each other, build relationships, and develop a strong sense of belonging.
The Art of Community: Cultivating Connections
Cultivating a thriving online community requires a delicate balance of personality, persistence, and planning. Successful communities are built on strong relationships, which can only be nurtured through time and intention. Our members understand the nuances of communities and can help you understand yours.
Some of Our Tactics
Building an Architecture of Participation
As every project, organisation and community is different, applying the Architecture of Participation (AoP) framework is a contextual process. We start by having a looking at whose attention you are looking to scaffold and the systems you already have in place. Then we combine our experience with the framework and make suggestions on how to use what you’ve got to increase stakeholder engagement.
Engaging Community Calls
WAO Members have been establishing and running community calls for a long, long time. Over the years, we’ve found that community calls are better than your typical meeting. We’ve run community calls with Greenpeace, Mozilla, Red Hat, Catalyst, the CoTech network and elsewhere. We have a free online course that further touches on the mindsets and behaviours needed to facilitate such a call.
Convening Systems work
After reading Systems Convening: A crucial form of leadership for the 21st century by the Social Learning Lab in 2021, we found another way to think around the community work that we do. We often find ourselves working in and amongst a particular Community of Practice (CoP) and have found this framework useful, particularly in activist and educational communities.
Maturity Models
The work we have done around maturity models is all about navigating your community through its growth stages. We’ve been heavily influenced by the work of Emily Webber, Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh & Kai Elmer Sotto. This influence and our interest in communities has evolved further into new models for online, networked communities.
Minimium Viable Communities
Communities of practice not only encourage professional growth but also create opportunities for personal development, helping individuals to stay curious, adapt to change, and embrace a lifelong learning mindset. We develop real relationships in these communities, and we learn about belonging and acceptance.
Community Data and Growth
We’ve done a lot of thinking about how a community matures and have written a lot about tools we use to grow healthy, sustainable communities. We also have ideas about how to use data to show that your community is happy, healthy and growing. From evolving and changing branding to understanding whether or not people feel like they belong, we think around community dynamics in creative ways.
Together, we cultivate thriving, resilient communities.
Build on our knowledge and expertise by getting in touch today!