David's Writing 111O Blog

The Office and the Dynamics of Community Formation

Fans of The Office shouldhave an appreciation for community dynamics.  After all, it is a recurring theme on the show.  We’re all familiar with the relative relationship statuses between Pam and Jim, Jim and Dwight, and Andy and Robert California.  Just as relationships between characters change over time, relationships between contributors in the blogs dedicated to the sitcom progress as well.  As these relationships develop, communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder 4) made up of like-minded people emerge.  In order to provide insight for contributors themselves, I will examine their activity in social media dedicated to The Office from a community model perspective.

            I recently came across a publication from Harvard Business Press that examines principles that successful communities share.  The authors, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder, are social learning theorists and knowledge management experts who apply the principles of community building to organizations.  In Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, Wenger, McDermott and Snyder explore seven fundamental principles that all communities of practice share.  They include: design for evolution, open dialogue between inside and outside perspectives, inviting of various levels of participation, development of both private and public community spaces, focus on value, combining of familiarity with excitement, and creating a rhythm for the community.  As I took a closer look at The Office forums and other forms of social media dedicated to the show, I found that they match these criteria perfectly.

            One of the first things I noticed about the format of the discussions in the forums was that they were arranged by date, with the newest discussion about the latest episode on top.  I interpreted this as a design for evolution because the forum will grow as more episodes hit the airwaves.  As for the open dialogue between inside and outside perspectives bit, Rainn Wilson and Mindy Kaling do an excellent job of keeping fans informed about book signings, celebrity appearances by the actors, and other snippets that loyal viewers want to hear.  For example, on December 3^rd 2011, Mindy Kaling posted “Guys, I wrote this Thursday’s Office episode, Christmas Wishes! My bud @edwardhelms directed. I love this episode! Snuggle up, watch it!” on her official Twitter page(http://twitter.com/#!/mindykaling).  The fact that anyone who has access to the web can create a post is a testament to inviting diverse levels of participation.  That being said, there do exist closed forums, thus fulfilling the requirement for restricted community spaces.  Fans of The Office have formed their own culture based off an appreciation for humor and awkward situations.  This appreciation is the focused value in social media devoted to the show.  The forums combine familiarity with excitement as well as create a tempo for the community by priming the message boards for conversation each week.  There exists a pattern that consists of posting a synopsis or posing a question followed by subordinate users’ responses.  This pattern repeats itself each week during the season, thus encouraging the community to follow a pattern of engagement.  These conditions prescribe the necessary factors in community formation.  However, the fans that examine the show seriously can’t be placed in the same category as those who post here and there, without making much of a contribution. 

            As many are aware, some people make more meaningful contributions to the conversations going on in forums than others.  We all know the guy who is still wondering where Michael Scott went.  Although the forums meet the criteria proposed by Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, I must clarify that not all activity going on resembles community building.  In fact, as many users know, there exists a fair amount of haphazardness in the forums.  In order for these forums to be defined as communities of practice (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder 4), the seasoned and well-informed contributors gravitate towards each other.  They filter out the under-informed users.  I see some evidence of this going on, especially in some of the discussions on lifeintheoffice.com.  In a discussion dedicated to “Gettysburg”, two users who show up week after week, bearing the screen names “kgreene” and “Bob” dominate the conversation (http://www.lifeintheoffice.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3294).  Possibly, they have intimidated others by the depth of insight that goes into their discussion.  At any rate, they’re the most consistent contributors I’ve noticed on that site.  They helped to bring me to the realization that simply being a fan of The Office is a far cry from being conversant enough in it to critique it.  Simply having an interest in something such as The Office doesn’t necessarily lend itself to being an active member of its community.  A certain amount of knowledge and credibility on the topic is necessary to make meaningful contributions and therefor gain admittance into it.

Works Cited

Wenger, Etienne, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder.  Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge.  Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2002.  Print.

Mindykaling.  (2011, December 3).  “Guys, I wrote this Thursday’s Office episode, Christmas Wishes! My bud @edwardhelms directed. I love this episode! Snuggle up, watch it” [Twitter Post].  Retrieved from http://twitter.com/#!/mindykaling.

Life In The Office Forum :: View topic - S08E08 – Gettysburg.  Life in the Office, phBB Group, 17 November 2011. Web. 23 November 2011.

The Office Storify

fywcoyne:

dkirkhoff:

I thought your presentation was super interesting and very unique-the concept of a Community of Practice was a great way to structure your project. The Office has experienced some recent big changes, has the activity on the fan websites changed as well?—are people more apt to post when they are pleased or upset with the show?

 

I’ve noticed a lot more negative reviews than positive ones lately.  I think that people who are serious enough about it have always been somewhat critical of the writing for the show but now it’s becoming more and more obvious that people are displeased with it.

The Office Storify

magichodge:

dkirkhoff:

This was cool! How you structured your presentation based on those principles was thought-provoking. Is there any particular principle that you think is central (or the most essential) to the community?

That’s a good question.  I think that having a “design for evolution” is the most important. Without this piece, the excitement about new things to come and focus on the show goes away.

The Office Storify

molly111:

dkirkhoff:

Do you think this online community’s alignment with these principles of a “community of practice” help it be or do anything in particular? In the book that outlines these principles, what’s the goal?

I think in some ways it helps to organize fans into a single group.  The goal of the book is to organize and provide steps to build a community by giving people in it a specific purpose.

The Big Bang Theory

malloryfyw:

<script src=”http://storify.com/MUndestad/big-bang-theory.js?template=slideshow”></script><noscript><a href=”http://storify.com/MUndestad/big-bang-theory” target=”_blank”>View the story “The Big Bang Theory” on Storify</a>]</noscript>

The part of your presentation I thought was the most interesting was the part about people quoting the show and other people trying to quote the next part of episode.  I’m really amused by fans quoting TV shows and I’ve found a few forums dedicated to The Office that do the same thing.

dana boyd on Trademarks

I saw this article as a tribute to the idea that corporate America not only looks out for itself, but is now looked out for by social media. Now, social media is scratching the back of corporate America.  I believe many of us tend to overlook social media as a business.  The quote from the article that I found to be the most telling was:

“Facebook capitalized this, revealing their own interests. Facebook announced that at midnight on June 12, 2009, it would open the doors for a identifier land grab. What the public didn’t know was that Facebook had already chosen to reserve countless identifiers for its (potential) customers. All sorts of companies were given handles representing their names and they didn’t have to compete with the masses to do so. This two-tiered system revealed who got priority in a Facebook world.”

Facebook looks out for its own and the general public isn’t its main priority.  It makes sense though, right?  Facebook isn’t going to make much of a profit off of your average citizen.  There are gains to be made, however, by giving priority to big business.  The moral of the story is that social media is becoming more corporate minded.  We, as consumers of social media, must be wary of this.

Etsy Storify

erinnk:

I liked how you tied in the website’s mission statement about it being “more than just a place to sell stuff” in your presentation.  I’m amazed by the variety of social media outlets out there.  

(via erinnk-deactivated20120229)

Sabermetrics Storify

lampert19:

I thought it was fascinating that salaries of players are so closely tied to sabermetrics.  It’s interesting to see how players market themselves through social media.