Howdy Folks – you may have noticed a name change to the Online Community Roundtable group. What’s up with that?
The primary motivation was to give a home to all the great activity that has sprung up with community managers and strategists around the #octribe tag. The tag sprung out of a conversation that Randy Farmer, Gail Williams, Kaliya Hamlin Scott Moore and I had in the summer of 2009 about a way to connect the emergent community of community practitioners – we discussed many things, including a regular blog-based discussion. It is pretty amazing to me that the #OCTribe tag was the thing that got traction.
The second motivating factor is that good friends Rachel Happe and Jim Storer are trying to build a business around the “Community Roundtable“. They’ve gotten a great start, and I don’t want to confuse folks with similar labels.
Has the intention of the group changed? Not really – I would love OC Tribe to be an aggregator of community best practices, high value events and a place to post key resources and jobs. To that end, you will notice a growing list of folks being added as admins for the group. Admins are charing some sort of regular regional meetup for community pros.
So, that’s an overview of the name change in a nutshell. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Update: I found Gail Williams original post about the origin of #octribe:
Are we a Tribe?
Bill Johnston 
3 responses to “Online Community Roundtable – now Online Community Tribe”
It is not so suprising that the tag got the traction. It is frictionless and versatile. A similar precedent would be the #nptech tag, which goes waay back. Marnie Webb has written about the history of that tag. Tags can be great community builders!
Hi Bill –
I owe you a follow up about how to help coordinate a universal conversation – we are definitely supportive of that and want to figure out how to better link the various discussions. We’ve made a few passing efforts to collaborate internationally but need to do more. The work you have been doing on the west coast has been the foundation that started this linked conversation generally – we would like to support you in that effort in any way possible. Thank you for starting the conversation!
Rachel
Awesome, I have always wanted to be part of a tribe. Glad to know all the sharing of best practices and events will stay the same. Do we get some kind of tribe badge now?