Communication in a Post Media World, by Chris Brogan, is a must-read. Okay he’s talking about communications – but look he’s also talking about associations … chapters – components. How?
He writes: “When Google is the front door, the side door, the hidden key under the mat, the cash register, the finder of everything we ever lost, and everything we wished we’d lost, what comes next?” We already acknowledge that the internet is an association’s toughest competitor. For chapters, this is even more difficult given the travel/time challenges.
He writes: “When everyone is a newspaper, a magazine, a TV station, a radio station, a conference, a curator, an educator, a business owner, a shopkeeper, what do we have?” Our members can start their own association with a couple of keystrokes.
He writes: “When you and I are the creators, the consumers, and the collaborators of this media, what does this mean to us?” Our members have always played this role in associations.
The response. Chris puts it simply: “We cast off the old models, and we assemble new forms.”
This is a mantra being spoken in several association corners from folks like Jeff De Cagna, Jamie Notter and Ben Martin. It’s a mantra in action over at Oncology Nursing Society, American Society of Interior Designers, Institute of Food Technologists among others. And we’ve written about it before.
Perhaps the reason more associations aren’t joining in is because it’s not easy. If everything is modular, then we have to think hard about how to make them connectable. And in the absence of a single gate-keeper, we need to coordinate “control.” And we may need to figure out how to offer all member services both ala carte and bundled.
Read Chris’s piece … do you see a message for associations?