Scaling Community Technology

Distributing control to scale a community has been a concept for a long time. In the past, instead of everyone hunting and gathering their own food, we created farms that specialized in growing specific crops. Every empire or nation has a system of giving authority to local powers, although to varying degrees. Today, let us get into the details about building the scaling community five questions and their answers.

How to Scale Your Community

To successfully scale communities, it is crucial to empower community members by granting them control. Communities are alike. If you, as the organizer, are the only one who can provide value, connect people, and create experiences, then you are the obstacle that prevents your community from growing. To scale, we had to let go of control.

For example:

When building a school, you find specialized teachers instead of teaching all classes. In a community, start by creating most of the content but aim to motivate members to contribute.

Building the Scaling Community Five Questions

Below are the 5 questions that help in scaling the community.

1. What is a Scaling Community?

There are a few concerns to address.

Firstly, the community that should exist within a company does not currently exist, which is problematic.
Secondly, this community, known as the scaling community, plays a crucial role in helping innovators transform their ideas into something that can be effectively implemented by the experts. They act as a bridge to ensure that the innovation can be integrated into the company’s practices and that the expert community can successfully deliver it to customers.
Thirdly, this community is not simply a group of people within organizational boxes. They share common skills and approaches but are not located together on an organizational chart.

While they may be like-minded, they are not physically situated in the same office space or have the same bosses. They are likely isolated from one another and may not even be aware of the existence of others like them. It is important to recognize and address this community’s needs, as they are currently being overlooked.

2. What Skills are Commonly Shared By the Community?

The scaling community is incredibly diverse, encompassing individuals with a wide range of skills and expertise. Their expertise lies in transforming prototypes into Repeatable Models® and playbooks.

This requires individuals to have five key skills as follows:

Convert prototypes into repeatable models; prototypes are specific to individual customers; repeatable models should be applicable to many customers. Prototypes are like trees; repeatable models are like forests. Transition from specific prototype design to first principles of a repeatable model is an art.
Expert community playbooks need to be clear and seamlessly integrated into their daily routine. Experts expect their playbooks to be amended with new ideas and to be presented in their language. The scaling community is skilled in translating Repeatable Models into the language of expert playbooks.
Educators must create a training program to implement the new playbook and model effectively. Training modules must be sequenced correctly.
Developers could transform Repeatable Models into valuable skills. Coaches create new training schedules to incorporate new playbooks and drill the team on key moves.
Experts focus on feedback systems and continuous improvement. Playbooks are the starting point for learning, but not the final step. Scalers should also create effective feedback systems to enable people to improve through action.

3. How to Find Who the Members are?

Although the community doesn’t officially exist, there are likely individual members scattered around. We are currently conducting an important study with another company to gain a deeper understanding of the exemplary individuals in this community and the behavior that signify their success. It’s still in the early stages, but we are searching for individuals who constantly challenge the status quo. These individuals can be quite difficult to work with, but their questioning is actually an effort to promote innovation.

For example:

Some team members question if you have chosen the right unit of scaling. They suggest considering a wholesale approach instead of trying to meet with each retailer individually.
Team members highlight the need to adapt the program to the local channel mix while sticking to first principles of transferability.
Team members identify bottlenecks in technology and suggest workarounds. They propose using the inventory app to add features instead of relying on Project Red, which is delayed.
Team members questioning the practicality of innovative ideas, asking how it would impact Jane’s workload as a regional sales rep.

Frustration with people who question innovations is due to their obsession with scaling issues in the community. Trust your instincts and listen to the scaling community.

4. How to Nurture Individuals and Bring the Community Together?

Spread the issue far and wide, delegate specific tasks to potential members. Three communities are motivated and understand the need for a bridge between disruption and playbooks. Focus on turning prototypes into repeatable models or playbooks. Individuals gain experience and share lessons in a growing community.

5. What’s the Next Step?

To simplify, create micro-battles and ask for a growing community. Find volunteers for these micro-battles. Their tasks will be to learn and compare notes with the scaling community. Encourage them to invite others and share their stories as heroes who contribute to scaling innovation.

Scaling the Community Technology

Mesh is a cheap Wi-Fi technology that allows devices to connect directly with each other, without needing a central hub. Unlike wireless hotspots, mesh networks work even without an Internet connection. They can provide local tools like neighborhood shout-boxes and lending libraries, and keep communities connected during power or Internet outages.

People often ask us how these networks scale, but the answer is always it depends. It depends on who wants to scale and why. It also depends on what they want to scale: a network, a technological solution, a technology project, or a social process for building technology.

Scaling community of practice includes technology accessibility that allows us to explore the impact of media and technology on restoring community and building new local economies. How can we create online content while also fostering community in our neighborhoods? And how can we go beyond the idea of a one-way information superhighway to develop online spaces that benefit communities that have been negatively affected by media and technology?

Many funders and government officials are starting to believe that investing in shiny technology projects can have negative consequences. This is because the technologies may not work, people may not want to use them, or there may be issues with maintaining the equipment or software.

Scaling existing community technology projects rooted in local contexts is necessary to demonstrate the viability and benefits of community-led technologies like mesh. Community technology is a powerful force for change and has proven to be essential for resilience. Technology projects often fail because they do not plan for scale. It is important to think small to think big when it comes to technology.

Community technology is a way of teaching and learning that aims to build relationships and improve neighborhoods. Community technologists are people who want to use technology to support the needs and goals of individuals and communities. It is important to start small and gradually expand to ensure sustainability. When everyone is involved in the process, a symbiotic relationship is formed between the technology and the people using it, resulting in organic growth. This type of relationship is like healthy ecosystems and is unlikely to occur if technology is introduced without considering the existing knowledge, relationships, and efforts of the community.