Is a Network a Community?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is a Network a Community?
Dave Snowden writes, "All communities are networks, but not all networks are communities." And also, importantly, "Systems thinking has reached the limits of its contribution to our understanding of human systems, it is now inhibiting development and the confusion with complexity theory is dangerous." Meanwhile, Terry Anderson contributes this to the groups vs networks discussion: "one could also argue that an educational experience is not complete unless it exploits the affordances of groups, networks and collectives." One could. More...