Necessary because it will happen anyway: dangerous because some of your business instincts will get you into trouble, communities are not a safe place for the inexperienced to innovate

The speaker is ‘rock star’ web strategy guru Jeremiah Owyang, one of the leading figures in the early days of the blogosphere, formerly a senior analyst at Forrester Research and regular columnist at Forbes magazine (these days, he’s based at Altimeter group).

Here’s what the text below the video (looks as if it’s by Shel) says:

“Forrester Research senior analyst Jeremiah Owyang is emerging as social media’s expert on online communities for companies struggling with changes.

He talks about how communities happen and why a great many companies will miss the new opportunity.

He gives a few excerpts from his Forrester Report on communities and advises vendors on how to succeed or fail while visiting Forrester. he also looks at trends on what is hot and what is not in terms of corporate adoption of social media.

Jeremiah is among the brightest and hardest working members of the social media community, or so it seems to me.

He’s the guy who produces useful data and this interview is filled with takeaway nuggets.”

The interviewer is hardly a minor figure either, it’s Shel Israel, co-author of Robert Scoble‘s bestselling book ‘Naked Conversations‘.

The video is in a series by Shel on ‘Global Neighbourhoods’ on FastCompany‘s YouTube channel.

Jeremiah is currently a partner at Altimeter Group, which provides thought leadership, research, and consulting on digital strategies.

He is author of the popular blog Web Strategy, which focuses on how corporations connect with their customers using web technologies.

Web Strategy is read by 70,000 unique visitors monthly, ranked 27th in Ad Age’s “Power 150” top blogs, and is one of the top 1,000 globally, according to Technorati.

A former industry analyst who is sought after for his commentary, he has appeared on Bloomberg TV, and is quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Associated Press and other technology and business-related publications.

He was featured in the 2009 “Who’s Who” in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

As a speaker he has keynoted the Internet Strategy Forum, Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, among others.

I Think the Forrester report that Jeremiah has done on communities that Shel seems to be talking about is one of these two:

Online Community Best Practices: (February 2008)

“Communities Are A Powerful Tool, As Long As You Put Members’ Needs First”

Or

Community Launch Checklist: (June 2009)

“Creating A Pragmatic Approach To Launching An Online Community”