Best Book for Entrepreneurs on Online Communities

books:


	• Smart Start-Ups: How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communities David Silver Wiley, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Must-Read Book

I read a lot of business books, and Smart Start-Ups is one of the best I've read in a long time.

I'm extremely passionate about entrepreneurship and online communities, and David Silver's book makes 3 key points that really hit home with me on a personal level:

1) The historical perspective of "Second Age of Communities" and moving away from infrastructure building to community building. This idea was intuitive to me, but the analogy of past guilds/unions rising to power compared to the present growth of online communities gave me an immediate "ah-ha!" moment.

2) Online communities need multiple potential streams of revenue to succeed. David draws from a few proven business models (like Mary Kay) to give very useful ideas on monetization. The idea of creating float to fund online communities is also extremely powerful.

3) Online communities not only as a business opportunity, but as an artistic expression and social movement. This part is excellent. Many business writers tend to be more one-dimensional and I found it inspirational that David alludes to artistic and historical contexts within his book.

In addition to all the innovative ideas, Smart Start-Ups provides useful tools for assessing the robustness of business ideas using David's First Law of Entrepreneurship and the Eight DEJ Factors scores.

Smart Start-Ups is a must-read if you are at all interested in online communities and entrepreneurship. The historical context provided in the book gives entrepreneurs and investors conviction that online communities are a macro trend and not a mere fad, while the example business models give concrete ways to approach the market for many years to come.

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Best Book for Entrepreneurs on Online Communities

As a long time entrepreneur, I've been a fan of David Silver's many books on the topic throughout the last 15 years, so I was delighted to learn that he had written a book on the latest growth trend of Web 2.0, online communities and social and professional networks. In doing research on this emerging growth area, I think I've read just about every book on the topic (there still aren't that many good ones out there), so I was really pleased to know that there was resource from this very credible source.

Needless to say, I was not disappointed, and Silver has written, what I think, is one of best books on the topic from a "streetwise" entrepreneurial perspective. In my opinion, there are lots of writers out there that theorize in an ivory tower in business books, especially on emerging new business areas. Silver is one of the few that can not only speculate, but ground his views in real world examples of the past and present. In addition, he isn't afraid to present his research and insight in a way that both gives forward thinking streetwise business venture ideas, and stimulates the readers' thoughts in that area.

Although this may be a "hackneyed" phrase, take it from one who has read much on the topic, if you read one book on the power and future of online communities and social/professional networks and how these can translate into ground breaking new businesses, make it Silver's "Smart Start-ups" and you won't be disappointed.

John Possumato,
Possumato.com

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All I can say is... "WOW"

David Silver is giving it all away in this book. Most authors and business men with this much knowledge hold their cards close to their vests, not David Silver. Not only does he tell you where the future of online communities are going, what to do, and what NOT to do, he offers countless new business ideas that you can run with immediately. If you're planning an online ANYTHING read this book.

He seems a little nutty to me

On page 63 he makes the claim that if Telecoms want to stay in business they will need to switch to the real estate business and sell all their downtown property that houses their switches and where their employees work NOW. In the next three to five years, downtown land will be worthless because retail stores are moving online and people will be tele-commuting from their country homes. He also predicts the demise of many industries over the next 3-5 years: Advertising, Automobile, Insurance, Banking, Mortgages, Law, Movies, Music, Computers and more.

I was tracking with what he says until he started claiming that Telcos would go away and then he lost credibility with me.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6

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