Community vs. Social Network

Michael,
Good post. Enjoyed reading this post - a great topic and you brought up some interesting views on both.

I just wanted to expand on the question that I had tweeted to you a few days ago - "Can you not have communities within your social networks and social networking within your community?"

I agree with the essence of your classification that social networks are based on 'relationships' and communities are based on 'shared space/interests'. The one point I don't completely agree with you is regarding the statement "the connections are built one at a time (i.e. you connect directly  with another user)." My own thinking on this is that relationships in a social network need not always be direct and consequently the connections are also tiered - those made by you directly and those made by your direct connections. 

The dynamics between these are very interesting. As you yourself mention, the two are not mutually exclusive. And when I thought about it, it was easy to see that one can exist within the other (and hence my original question to you). I would even venture out and say that in some ways there is a symbiotic relationship between the two.

When a person joins a community, initially the reason for joining is the shared interest. However, how long that person stays as part of that community is greatly dependent on the kind of social network they build up within that community. In pure marketing terms, I would say that shared interest is a key driver from an acquisition point of view for a community but not as big of a driver from a retention standpoint -- of course, this purely my opinion and folks are free to poke holes or disagree with me:-) .On the flip side, in my social network sphere how strong my ties are with the different nodes/networks is dependent on if I feel a sense of community with the "nodes" (people in this case).

Anyway, there is a lot to talk on this than in a few paragraphs. I am looking forward to your future posts.

Regards,

Ned