moderation

What can we learn from the evolution of open source communities and how might they be applied to online communities and the creator economy today? Author Nadia Asparouhova joins host Sonal Choksi to talk about Asparouhova's book, Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software, from Stripe Press.

They start with a  a taxonomy for communities, and then dig into how open source has changed over time, which learnings from open source do and don’t apply to new communities online, how communities intersect with the growing desire for more "high-shared context" groups and spaces (including even podcasts and newsletters), and more.

How to moderate good, productive discussions and navigate tricky conversations is top of mind -- whether doing a panel, conducting a live event, presenting a talk (or hosting a podcast), managing (and even just participating in!) a meeting. Especially in a world where remote and virtual work is increasingly become the norm for many knowledge workers, one in which we're increasingly communicating through little "Hollywood Squares, Brady Bunch"-like boxes.

So how to translate physical and nonverbal presence in such virtual environments, or voice-only modes? How to manage unruly discussions? Do parasocial vs. social interactions change things? And beyond these broader contexts, how do the things inside us -- whether agendas, tics, anxiety -- manifest outwardly, and can we better control them?

In this episode of the a16z Podcast, Matt Abrahams -- lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (where he also has a podcast, "Think Fast Talk Smart"); principal and co-founder of Bold Echo (a company that helps people with presentation and communication skills); and author of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out -- shares frameworks and best practices, in conversation with Sonal Chokshi. The discussion offers many concrete tips for moderation and communication for anyone, across all kinds of mediums and modes.

image: Paul Hudson / Flickr