Virtual communities conference cancelled: too 'old-skool'?

Last year Amy Jo Kim, one of the experts in managing large-scale communities on the Net, declared that these forums, chat rooms and email groups were now 'old-skool'. Some confimation of decline in professional interest comes this week with news that the annual UK virtual communities conference has been cancelled. Nancy White, who would have been one of the speakers, reflects:

It is ironic, because I've seen a healthy resurgence of interest in and use of online groups and communities, but in a sense quite different from the scene which sprouted all these conferences in the first place. The field has matured in very interesting ways.

Nancy matches expertise in managing online communities with lots of blogging and general sociability, so it's a great pity we won't have a chance to meet again in London in November to talk about the changes in progress. Last time was fun.

Comments

[Nancy White]

I am SO bummed. Not to have to miss a conference, but for the excuse it created to fly half way round the world for F2F meetups with folks like you.

My husband, who was going to get to come along this time (think frequent flier miles) was likewise bummed. He said we should go anyway. So maybeee... if not that week, then sometime soon. He is really anxious to see London and me to see my pals!

[Jason Kitcat]

It is a shame that the conference has been cancelled - and perhaps the term 'virtual' has had it's day but online communities with or without social networking features are more popular than ever. Perhaps they're no longer curiosities and are no longer worthy of the special attention such a conference entails?

[David Wilcox]

It would be great if you could make it, Nancy. Maybe we could run a low-cost unconference bringing together community managers, bloggers and community engagement practitioners. As you and Jason suggest, there's lots of interesting stuff going on, but the old labels may not be useful.