Liveblogging : Hello World Part 3

Heather Champ, Director Community of Flickr

14:30 : "A cannon will be fired in this presentation!"

14:33 : Intro to Flickr, started in 2003. 5 people.

14:36 : Purchase by Yahoo. Scale of growth. And so on. Homeage, maybe some feedback?

14:37: Now. 3 billion pageviews / month. 5000 new photos a minute! London bombings traffic spike. Evac pictures uploaded. Big moments, human, authentic, personal view of the world. The supportive community.

14:40 : Community management. Shift from marketing to community as job title. Like being a Pinata. They beat you with sticks, but you still have to give them candy.

14:41 : "Soft pleasing tone of voice". Transatlantic voice. Human friendly, includive, witty, transparent, honest, clear.

14:43 : Methods of contact. "Community know more than we do". Bubble up the good. (definitely a case of positive reenforcement and building good reward cycles)

14:44 : Communciate expectations. Human readable, not written by lawyer, dos as well as don'ts. Reports, blocks and abuse.

14:46 : Communication is key!   Blog on separate server so it's there when site not working. Owning it! Be clear and responsible. Marketing's urge to whitewash things. Don't wait. If you change experience, announce, give six weeks, then make action. User generated discontent! Don't abuse what people give you. (Excellent point).

14:49 : Make lemonade. Turn negatives into positives, it really works! When down, do competition that occupies on core interest, 2500 entries. (must use this as an example when getting management on board)

14:51 : Change is hard. 48 hours is the reaction. 2 Weeks is the feedback.

14:53 : Embrace the chaos. Real world actions bring in non-community people. Flickr and its crimefighting escapades. Stolen laptops. Flickr uploads. Hilarity ensues. "dropping porn into the pacific". Defacement by geotagging ("look at greenland").

(We're hiring notice, community management).

And then on to questions.

What do you need to be a community manager? "You can't go to school for community management." No courses. No obvious CV points. Difficulties. "It's about character", "unflappable".

Friending experiences? "Many different communities". Handling this. Handling multiple relationships, tens of thousands of contacts may break things.

How does interaction change over time?  Uploading it all at the start, then going back and deleting. Hitting a crest, then slowing down.

Tempting people back? 24 hours of flickr. 3rd of group membership contributed, 7000 people.

Privacy and rights? Do I need to worry? Educating people about the internet and how people use content. "I found it on the internet and its free, so I am within my rights to upload" !!! Transparent overlay download protection... Abuse of DMCA.

Split of CC vs Copyright? Largest CC photo archive, over 10 million. Personality rights in the UK different?

Social aspects? Amazing where it is.

Maintaining voice internationally?  "Don't be that guy." Feedback on this "don't be sexist"... Dangers of moderation stratification, keep things broad and interpretive. Difficulty with vendors of internationalisation services.

Frustrations with community feedback? Only with people who make it personal and offensive.