Working, Making, Creating in Public... and Private

Aug 2, 2020

Nadia Eghbal, author of "Working in Public" and expert in open source communities, shares her insights on the dynamics of online collaboration. She discusses the emergence of new community structures, like federations and stadiums, and their impact on engagement. Eghbal explores the evolution of parasocial relationships, the challenges of digital identities, and the importance of sustainable creator-audience interactions. She also examines the balance between public and private spaces in the digital age and the responsibilities of platforms in fostering healthy communities.

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INSIGHT

Creator Attention as a Resource

Creators' limited attention is a crucial resource in online communities.
Differentiate between clubs (abundant contributor attention) and stadiums (limited contributor attention).

INSIGHT

Ephemeral Relationships

Relationships in stadium communities can be ephemeral, unlike long-standing federations.
Design for ephemeral interactions by providing self-serve resources and encouraging user-to-user assistance.

ADVICE

Platform Power

Leverage platforms' distribution power to build audiences and seed new ideas.
Own your email list or build followers on platforms like Twitter or Instagram to maintain audience portability.

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We're living in an unprecedented era of online collaboration, coordination, and creation. All kinds of people are coming together -- whether in an open source project or company, an R&D initiative, a department in a company, a club or special interest group, even a group of friends and family -- around some shared interest or activity. But the word "members" is faceless, and doesn't help us really understand, support (and better design for) these communities.

So in this special book launch episode of the a16z Podcast, Nadia Eghbal -- author of the new book Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software published by Stripe Press -- shares with a16z editor in chief Sonal Chokshi the latest research and insights from years of studying the health of open source communities (for Ford Foundation), working in developer experience (at GitHub), researching the economics and production of software (at Protocol Labs), and now focusing on writer experience at Substack.

Eghbal offers a new taxonomy of communities -- including newer phenomena such as "stadiums" of open source developers, other creators, and really, influencers -- who are performing their work in massive spaces where the work is public (and not necessarily participatory). So what lessons of open source communities do and don't apply to the passion economy and creator communities? How does the evolution of online communities -- really, social networks -- shift the focus to reputation and status as a service? And what if working in public is also about sharing in private, given the "dark forest theory of the internet", the growing desire for more "high-shared context" groups and spaces (including even podcasts and newsletters)? All this and more in this episode.

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