The Community Roundtable

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History of Community Management Resources

This is not a comprehensive list of every community management resource that has been made available to community management professionals over the last 30+ years.

We'd like it to be, though.

There are countless blogs, events, research reports, surveys, groups, meet-ups, chats and conferences that provide immeasurable value to people working in community management. Any omission here is simply oversight on our part.

Please let us know what we've missed and we'll update the list! Please provide launch dates and links to content when possible!

Don't miss our infographic!
Don't miss our infographic!

1985

1987

  • The Well is founded
  • Habitat is developed for the Commodore 64
  • Howard Rheingold publishes Virtual communities - exchanging ideas through computer bulletin boards essay

1993

  • Howard Rheingold publishes The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier

1995

  • The term "online community manager" is coined

1997

  • John Hagel III and Arthur G. Armstrong publish Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities 
  • Jim Cashel and Dan Shafer launch the Online Community Report

1998

  • Cliff Figalo publishes Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining A Competitive Edge

1999

  • The onlinefacilitation listserv launches
  • Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, and David Weinberger publish The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
  • Jupiter Communications publishes the Next Generation Community: From Retention to Revenue report

2000

  • Etienne Wenger publishes Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)
  • Jenny Preece publishes Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability
  • The Virtual Community Summit launches in London
  • Alan Warms, Joe Cothrel, and Tom Underberg publish the Return on Community: Proving the Value of Online Communities in Business report
  • e*mint is founded
  • Amy Jo Kim publishes Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities

2001

  • John B. Horrigan at The Pew Research Center publishes the Online Communities: The vibrant social universe online report

2002

  • Marc Smith and Peter Kollock publish Communities in Cyberspace

2006

  • Forum One publishes the first Online Community Metrics Best Practices Survey

2007

  • Shared Insights hosts Community 2.0
  • Forum One hosts the Online Community Business Forum
  • The Online Community Research Network launches
  • IDC publishes the first forecast of enterprise social software solutions
  • Dell's Ideastorm launches
  • Nancy White published the Online Community Toolkit

2008

  • Jeremiah Owyang and Forrester release the Online Community Best Practices report
  • Gartner Says More Than 60 Percent of Fortune 1000 Companies With a Web Site Will Connect to or Host a Form of Online Community by 2010
  • Lithium publishes their first Community Health Index
  • Forum One publishes the first Community Management Compensation Report
  • Feverbee launches online community management training
  • Patrick O'Keefe publishes Managing Online Forums

2009

  • TheCR Network Launches
  • Jim Storer and Doug Haslam start the first community management podcast series Conversations with Community Managers

2010

  • The Community Roundtable publishes the first State of Community Management report
  • Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD) is celebrated for the first time
  • Maddie Grant publishes Open Community 
  • Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner publish The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media
  • #cmgrchat launches and runs weekly until 2016

2011

  • WOMMA and The Community Roundtable offer online community certification course
  • Swarm Conference Australia launches
  • Deborah Ng publishes Online Community Management For Dummies
  • Tim McDonald launches #MYCMGRHANGOUT
  • Feverbee publishes The Proven Path
  • Sandy Carter publishes Get Bold: Using Social Media to Create a New Type of Social Business
  • Patti Anklam publishes Net Work: A Practical Guide to Creating and Supporting Networks at Work and in the World

2012

  • Rich Millington publishes Buzzing Communities
  • #CommBuild launches
  • Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim publish Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company

2013

  • Sam Creek and J. J. Lovett publish Developing B2B Social Communities: Keys to Growth, Innovation, and Customer Loyalty
  • SocialFish offers certificate program for community managers
  • #ESNchat launches
  • The Community Roundtable publishes The Social Executive research

2014

  • Community Unconference takes place
  • Feverbee Sprint takes place
  • CMX Summit takes place
  • The Community Roundtable  publishes Community Careers and Compensation report
  • Lithium and Jive offer community management training online
  • Building a Community Roadmap eBook is published
  • TheCR Academy offers community management training online
  • SocialFish offers Essentials of Community Management on-demand course

2015

  • TheCR Connect launches
  • John Stepper publishes Working Out Loud
  • Patrick O'Keefe launches the Community Signal podcast
  • The Community Manager Handbook is published
  • CMX offers community management training online
  • The Community Roundtable publishes a community ROI model
  • Defining Community Management Roles eBook is published
  • SocialFish publishes Community Manager Job Description template
  • CMX publishes Content Strategy for Community Professionals eBook

The fine print: there are so many amazing community management resources available - it would be near impossible to get them all on one list. We've left off blogs, vendors, consultancies, many, many facebook and LinkedIn groups, and anything not directly related to community (i.e. - no social media resources, etc.).

We've also only included the first year of research reports, events, etc for the sake of space. We want this list to be easily navigable and helpful.

That being said - we know we missed important stuff. Please let us know what we've missed. We'll do our best to update this page regularly.

 

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