Cohere Podcast

On this episode of the Cohere podcast, Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas talk about the state of social media generally and twitter in particular. Discussing twitter as one of the canaries in the social media coal mine, Bill and Lauren look back to the dawn of social media and discuss the concerns that early community leaders expressed when "social media" sucked all of the oxygen out of the room in the mid 00's. We look at the longstanding and uneasy relationship between social media and community and discuss the ways our current circumstances might be an opportunity to evolve to better shared digital experiences.

On this episode of the Cohere podcast, Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas chat with cultural professional Ed Rodley about innovative experience design. Ed shares how his experience as a museum technologist has prepared him to explore and challenge the concept of 'immersion'. This season, we are identifying the critical mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets community professionals need to hone for the next iteration of the Internet. Ed introduces the concepts of the 'magic circle' and 'story worlds' to illustrate 'immersion' is not a one-size-fits-all experience.

On this post-Summer break episode of the Cohere podcast, Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas welcome design and strategy leader Melanie Kahl to discuss how we might design more comfortable shared digital spaces. Using Melanie's recent article "Cozy in the Crowd" as a jumping off point, Bill and Lauren speak with Melanie about her career, her design and strategy practice, and how we might translate real-world customs, design patterns and affordances into the digital world to create more comfortable shared spaces.

Community pioneer Vincent Boon returns to the Cohere podcast to discuss his latest project with Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas - the OpenMeta DAO. The OpenMeta DAO is gathering a community to ensure the future of the metaverse is human-centered, fair, and interoperable. Both the overall mission of the OpenMeta DAO, as well as the OpenMeta DAO itself are fascinating. In this episode, Vincent discusses the connection between online communities and the metaverse, the basics of DAOs, how the OpenMeta DAO operates, and what the future holds for community leaders in the Metaverse. Resources from this episode: https://twitter.com/OpenMetaDAO http://discord.gg/OpenMetahttps://www.openmetadao.com/

On this episode of the Cohere podcast, technologist and co-founder of OpenEXO Kent Langley joins Bill to discuss the current realities of crypto. Kent and Bill cover a range of topics, from the origin of blockchain, to how blockchains actually work, and current misconceptions about crypto. They then delve into questions about the relationship between crypto and communities and networks.

This week Lauren and I take a side trip from our Season 3 theme of Metaverse to talk about the cyclical (at least to date) nature of online community investment. In this unfiltered episode, we share how this cycle has helped shape our careers and explore questions that seem to come up in every cycle: With each subsequent era, why do we have to relearn and re-invent basics? Why do most organizations still struggle with community? Why haven't standards emerged? Why is the enterprise community platform space so static? Why do personalities and institutions almost immediately emerge during an upcycle that want to dominate vs develop

In this episode of the Cohere podcast, Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas discuss the early promise (and obvious issues) with DAOs (Distributed Autonomous Organizations). Bill and Lauren have an in-depth discussion to try and separate the value and future utility of the DAO model vs. the current hype. DAOs have been described as "digital flash mobs with money" by Raihan Anwar, manager of the Friends with Benefits DAO, and a "virtual entity that has a certain set of members or shareholders who have the right to spend the entity's funds and modify its code" by Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum. Bill and Lauren explore: The definition of DAO Current examples and use cases The components, or key moving parts of a DAO What questions remain about DAOs? Resources from this episode: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) Canon The different flavors of DAOs in Web3 YOUR DAO GUIDE – THE MOST IMPORTANT DAO CATEGORIES DEFINING THE SPACE All the Questions About DAOs You Wish You Could Ask with Danny Greene from MeebitsDAO The Future of Work is Not Corporate — It's DAOs and Crypto Networks DAOs May Be the Future of Work, but Don't Bet on Them Being the Next Big Asset Class DAOs can solve important dilemmas but more education is required Building and Running a DAO: Why Governance Matters The man who got fired by his DAO

Do organizations have the digital competence and skills to distinguish between a short-term trend (that might turn out to be a scam) and a long-term iteration of its digital activities? In this episode, we discuss why NFTs are a phenomenon, and the information and questions community builders may want to consider, including: NFTs are all the rage - what is the source of this phenomenon? What do we need to KNOW about NFTs? What issues do NFTs solve? How might NFTs be understood, used, managed, and/or created in an online community setting? What questions remain about NFTs?

The current Metaverse is a mirage. The pursuit of the Metaverse vision could lead us to a better Internet. On the first episode of Season 3 of the Cohere podcast, we (Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas) frame of this season's topic: the Metaverse. As they did with "community", Facebook's announcement of the company's move to focus on the Metaverse, and rebranding to "Meta", set off a frenzy of conversation, speculation, and investment. Made in a move remarkably similar to their 2017 announcement that Facebook was a "community" company, it remains to be seen if Meta follows through with creating their version of the Metaverse. It is interesting to note that Zuck's "Community" announcement from 2017 appears to have been taken down at some point in the past year (archive.org version here). But this season of Cohere isn't about Meta. It's also not (solely) about VR, AR, XR, or related Web3 technologies - it is about the combinatorial effects all of these technologies and trends interacting to shape the next generation of the Internet, and more importantly, how we create a better Internet that is safe, equitable, accessible and inspires the best of human nature instead of exploiting the worst.

Season 3 of the Cohere podcast is just around the corner. In Season 2, Dr. Lauren Vargas and Bill Johnston explored the role networks play in our lives - from the obvious to the subtle. In Season 3, Lauren and Bill focus on the topic dominating the discussion of our collective digital future: the Metaverse. The discussion will go beyond the hyperbolic (and eye roll-inducing) to have a forward-looking yet practical discussion of what our connected future looks like in a world of ambiently available digital networks - and what this means for us as individuals, citizens, societies, and as part of globally connected humanity. Stay tuned for new episodes starting the second week of February!