On February 14th we had an exploratory meeting during which we looked at all the issues that needed to be addressed to get the association off the ground.

One thing that came out loud and clear in that call is that we have to stop thinking like a traditional industry association. We do have an opportunity to create an association around a different business model – one based on the community principles that we are championing.

We identified 7 areas of interest for which we were trying to put volunteer teams together. In return for volunteering on a project we promised a free personal membership when the association gets off the ground. The seven projects are:

• Scope of the association
  Define what we mean by community and which constituents we will be serving. 
• Structure of the association – legal and financial
  Do we set it up as a as a non-profit or a for-profit? How do we finance the operations of the association? 
• Metrics project
  How do you measure success when deploying communities in support of business processes? How do you distinguish from transactional metrics vs. community member life-cycle metrics? 
• Ethics project
  Let’s come up with a code of ethics for community managers.
• Seal of quality
  We discussed the fact that the concept of “certification” will not work in this space. How do we leverage the collective intelligence of the members to provide continued improvement for services and solutions in this space?
• Education
  What type of educational services do we offer members and non-members? How do we build the “platform” to deliver these services? 
• Inter-community standards
  What do we need to do to ensure some inter-community standardization? Profiles, engagement rules, etc. 

We have team leaders and team members for all those projects at this time - all in all over 20 people are actively involved. Some of those projects are well underway. We are also putting together an active advisory board which will be announced shortly. Soon after that we will also be announcing some partnerships with other organizations that are in the works. Lastly, we are also working on a launch plan. We will be talking about the launch plan at the next CMMC meeting. which will take place next Wednesday as a combination face to face meeting and conference call at the Community 2.0 conference (meeting sponsored by Shared Insights - details to follow). Leading up to the launch we are signing up sponsors to sponsor various upcoming launch activities as well as the Future of Communities blog.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or an active member of the association, please contact francois [at] cmmcouncil [dot] org.

Later today we will have an exploratory meeting to evaluate a rought draft of a charter for the organization and to develop a final timeline for the organization’s founding.

If you are attending the conference call, here are the slides that we will use to guide the conversation.

Good news… we have officially scheduled the founding teleconference for CMMC, on Tuesday February 13th 2007 at 1:00PM EST (10:00AM PST). Please don’t hesitate to join us, and invite your friends who might meet our suggested membership criteria (http://www.cmmcouncil.org/?page_id=10).

The purpose of the call is to establish the council’s charter, member benefits, products and services, membership tiers, and pricing.  If you RSVP, I’ll send you an agenda of activites proposed for discussion such as standards development and certification, a directory of approved vendors, events, workshops, speaking opportunities, and more.

This is your chance to decide what membership should include and how much you should pay for it.  So if you like to be part of the solution, please plan to call in!
The dial-in number for the call is: (605) 990-0100. Access Code is 446070#. For instructions on muting and more, please see https://www.freeconferencecall.com/instructions.asp

We’d love it if you RSVP to let us know you plan to be on the call: just send an email to info@cmmcouncil.org.

I forgot to mention the workshop that is taking place before the community 2.0 Conference, on Sunday March 11th 9:00-5:00.  This is a one-day program designed to provide people who are looking at leveraging communities as part of their business with a quick training program to get up and running.

The workshop promises to answer the following questions:

What are communities?
How can community improve my business processes?
Why should I leverage a community?
What are the different types of communities?
How do I see ROI- Return on Information?
What are the important elements when evaluating communities?

We hope to see you there. For more information, check out the Community 2.0 Conference website at http://www.community2-0con.com .

Things at CMMC are getting pretty exciting.  The Las Vegas Community 2.0 conference, scheduled for March 12-14 at the Red Rock Hotel, is going to have a really strong cadre of speakers and attendees.  Take a look at this speaker list:

John Hagel, Author & Consultant
Ben McConnell, Author & Business Advisor
Elizabeth Churchill, Yahoo! Research
Shawn Gold, MySpace
Giovanni Rodriguez, Hubbub PR
Craig Newmark, Craigslist
Richard Gotham, Boston Celtics
John Winsor, Radar Communications
…and that’s just the beginning.

Check out the conference website at http://www.community2-0con.com for more details.

The new group blog at http://www.futureofcommunities.com is now up and running.  Check it out!

Different folks use this word in different ways. We don’t want to be judgmental, so we won’t say we have the right definition, although secretly we believe we do…

To CMMC, community means a group of people who have been brought together, or have brought themselves together, under a common umbrella, and who are having a conversation with each other. This knocks out the “community” of all the people who shop at a certain store (do they converse with each other?) as well as the “community” who uses a certain browser to surf the net (do they think of themselves as a community?).

For another shot at our definition, check out our FAQ page.

What do you think about the following graphic as a start to define all aspects of communities (click on image to enlarge)?  Please feel free to leave your comments!

On March 11-14 we will be holding our first content- and fun-filled Community 2.0 Conference - a provocative and illuminating look at how communities can dramatically improve many of your business processes. So save the date and join us in Las Vegas!
The main themes for the conference are:

• Strategy and theory - what are the underlying forces that make communities tick? How does social networking theory impact communities? Can you leverage crowdsourcing ?
• Applications and best practices - where can communities help? Have you thought of communities to bring the voice of the customer into your new product development process? Or to involve employees, partners and customers into improving innovation?
• The technology and social infrastructure - what are the technology building blocks beyond the discussion thread that make for successful communities? What rules of engagement do you need to set up to avoid your community to become toxic?

Subscribe to our email newsletter and stay informed about the developments for this cutting edge event and the latest CMM Council updates. Also make sure to periodically check out the Community 2.0 Events page!

We are in the midst of creating the new Community Management & Marketing Blog. If you stumble upon this site while we are building it, charter memberships may still be available. If you have an interest in the business of communities or would like to see what membership might be available for your organization, email us at info@cmmcouncil.org.