I had the pleasure last Tuesday of attending Lithium Technologie’s official launch of their European operations in Zurich. Yesterday they moved to London to repeat the show there. In his presentation, CEO Lyle Fong provided some interesting background on the birth of Lithium, which came from the experiences he and his brother Dennis had in their younger days as some of the first professional online gamers. Central to the “culture” of Lithium’s forum technology is the gamer’s concept of reputation, privileges and points, which fuels the communities’ engagement and desire to participate (play). As Lyle pointed out to me, in an online game, there is the “warrior,” the big guy with all the muscles, body armour, fighting and blood and guts all around. But he would be dead in minutes without the cleric behind him continually healing his wounds and the mage casting spells to weaken the enemies. Lithium, as Lyle explained, also has a much deeper level of acknowledging different types of contributors in a forum, as it takes a synergistic mix of various personalities to sustain a healthy community forum.
Behind the interface and the UI, Lithium collects and analyzes data to understand the science of what makes communities healthy and vibrant. They have developed what they call a Community Health Index (or CHI – I like that, sounds like the eastern concept of “chi” or life energy).
How about you, do you have communities at your company, and how are you using them? Do you report on their bottom line value to the business?
Disclaimer: in my current position at Autodesk we are working with Lithium Technologies.
