Who are the people in your neighborhood?

I’m in Welling­ton, New Zealand to give a keynote at GOVIS 2009. I’m really look­ing for­ward to it, as I think I’ll hit some notes that will really res­onate with the audi­ence. Of course, one of the best parts of com­ing to con­fer­ences is the oppor­tu­nity to socialise with inter­est­ing peo­ple and meet a few of the folks you only know online.

My friend Jason Ryan sug­gested we go along to the Web­stock 3^rd Birth­day Party. Who was I to say no? Oppor­tu­nity as dis­cussed, right?

Mike from Web­stock flicked me an email after I reg­is­tered and asked if I could do one of the 5-​​minute light­ning talks on the night. Per­haps fool­ishly, I agreed.

I decided to talk about com­mu­ni­ties, and the types of peo­ple in them. I strug­gled with this for a few days and then, on the flight over, it came to me… Sesame Street!

“WTF?” I hear you say. Well, have a look below. A com­pletely unsci­en­tific, highly incom­plete look at some of the per­son­al­ity types you find in com­mu­ni­ties, online  and off. It wouldn’t be hard to add many more.

It’s designed to do noth­ing more than give you a slightly dif­fer­ent take on a sub­ject that’s been dis­cussed many time, and hope­fully make you smile as you read.

Pretty much every­thing I know about com­mu­nity I learned from watch­ing Sesame Street as a kid. Here’s why.

Sesame Street has some­thing for every­one. And every­one has a place.

So, too, on our com­mu­ni­ties — online and off — there are a num­ber of stereo­types that get filled. All of them add some value. All of them have a role.

First, we have our com­mu­nity lead­ers — Luis, Maria, Susan, Gor­don and Bob. They guide and lead the old and new mem­bers of the com­mu­nity through the con­ver­sa­tions they have and the activ­i­ties they do. They’ve usu­ally been there for a while. They know how things work. They’re the per­son you turn to when you’re hav­ing a prob­lem and need some advice. They teach us the rules and show us the way.

Then, we have our reg­u­lars. They come in a bunch of flavors.

The help­ful, but occa­sion­ally mis­guided Big Bird. He seems to love every­one and every­thing about his com­mu­nity. He doesn’t always get it all right, but he means incred­i­bly well. Don’t dis­re­spect him. You make him sad, and he can get depressed. If you treat him well, he’ll be your friend for­ever and he’ll make your expe­ri­ence in the com­mu­nity a reward­ing one.

The overly involved types like Cookie Mon­ster. They use CAPS LOCK A LOT. And they occa­sion­ally go off on rants. They always come back though. And nobody really dis­likes them, even if they’re a touch strange.

The long-​​term, but still a lit­tle out there Grover. They’re in every com­mu­nity. They’re the enthu­si­asts. They do tend to ram­ble some­times, or get wrapped up in off-​​topic sub­jects. But they’re harm­less. And they have a good heart.

There’s the wel­com­ing, but kind of freaky Count. He’s a one-​​topic guy. But his knowl­edge is deep. He’s the guy you turn to when you need spe­cial­ist information.

And we have Bert and Ernie. They always appear at the same time. They obvi­ously have deep affec­tion for each other, but they nit­pick like an old mar­ried cou­ple. Avoid their argu­ments. Join in with them when they’re help­ful. They add mas­sive value.

We have the com­mu­nity cur­mud­geon, Oscar the Grouch. Voted most likely to use the phrase, “get off my lawn”, he’ll give the new­bies a hard time unless someone’s around to watch their back. Deep down, though, Oscar some­times has a heart of gold. You just need to find it.

Last, but not least, we have our new­bies. Peo­ple like Elmo. Naive, open minded, not sure how things work. We need the Luis’ of the world and his friends to show the way to our Elmo-​​like friends. With­out guid­ance and a wel­com­ing hand, our new­bies end up con­fused, lost and dis­il­lu­sioned. You don’t want that, because the new­bies, guided well, intro­duce new ideas and fresh per­son­al­ity to our communities.

So, who are the peo­ple in your neighborhood?