Technology is necessary, and beneficial. But it’s only the beginning.

Nothing will happen if you set up an online community platform and expect a community to form and manage itself.

In 2008 the Tribalization of Business survey found that this was the case – businesses were spending up to a million dollars on community platforms that were then becoming ghost towns.

It’s not because the concept isn’t valid; it’s that the job has been half done.

Communities, movements, any collection of people for a purpose, happens because someone makes an effort.

So what skills are required? In our years of observing and participating in this space, we believe a good community manager is like a:

• Magazine editor , who pulls together information from various sources and makes it easy-to-consume.
  
• Orchestra conductor , who brings the best out of a group of diverse people.
• Counsellor , who listens to people and helps them solve their own problems.
• Improv actor , who uses the situation at hand to create a completely new experience with his audience.
• Parent , making sure that no child is left behind, and that everyone treats each other well.
• Exploration leader, taking the community down new and exciting paths.
• Publican , whose job is to provide a convivial environment for conversation and entertainment, with the minimum of distraction.

Any I’ve missed?

(Thanks to Chris for publishing his photos under a Creative Commons licence!)

These events are for the more technically inclined, but there are social media tie-ins.

Webstock has social media consultant Derek Powazek and Flickr’s community manager Heather Champ , as well as New Zealand’s own Russell Brown (publisher of the Public Address blog and community) and Nat Torkington (organiser of KiwiFoo and a regular tech commentator).

Web09′s speakers will be talking about interface design, open APIs, iPhone apps, mobile and creating a great user experience. Lets hope many designers and developers get that message!