Audio: Mark Williams on CLS '09 and managing developer communities

The main drawback of working remotely is that I can't connect face-to-face on a more regular basis with my co-workers. That includes Mark Williams (at right in the above screenshot).

Mark is a senior community manager at LiveWorld who's been in the business of managing online communities for a decade. Listen to him for 30 seconds and you'll recognize he has an intimate sense of how communities ebb and flow that he knows what it takes to keep members informed and engaged.

In the audio conversation that follows, Mark shares the highlights from last weekend's Community Leadership Summit, an event that brought together some 200 community managers and developers.

Running time: 12:12.



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SHOW NOTES

* Mark Williams contrasts the cultures of branded communities and open-source developer communities.

* Mark addresses three main challenges for community managers:
1) Not enough time to do the job
2) Choosing the most effective tools
3) Selecting and developing metrics that offer real value

* Mark discusses the premise that clients are, in fact, looking for a quantifiable value from their communities.

* Mark argues that "people are messy."

* Mark explains why analyzing metrics without also actually spending time inside a community is a recipe for disaster.

* Mark sends a shoutout to CLS 2009 organizer Facebook Digg Twitter