"When you think of Web 2.0 in the context of decentralized association content, that's where the Keen article becomes less of a rah, rah to association expertise, and could question the experience of some web 2.0 apps. For example, associations are traditionally a gatekeeper of info -- stuff that comes from the association is implicitly stamped with "this is good information."
When it gets decentralized, and the association is more of a hub or connector that enables others -- any members or groups or whoever -- to create content, then where's the expertise?"
I personally believe that this is not the purpose of associations at all. Bear in mind that my point of view is from a very small association, which is also technically a local chapter of a national association. Our own role as providers of WRITTEN information is very minimal - we have no wiki (yet), no library, no resources. What we do have, is intellectual capital, by which I mean a VERY educated membership, and collegiality. I feel like the "raison d'etre" of my association is really to provide a venue where like-minded people can come together to hear the best speakers of the field, to further their education and training, to get CE credits which they need to stay licensed, to mingle with others in the field, and most importantly, to expand their professional business networks, grow their practices or have access to a pool of people to which they can send referrals. And yes, technically, they could do all these things independently, using social media among other things, but there is a very important sense of history to our association which our members seem to want to be a part of. And, of course, it's also about the good of the order, and my association (being of mental health professionals) has been buffeted pretty harshly by societal influences over the last few decades. One of the things I'd like to see us grow is an advocacy program, since we're DC-based, but that's a ways away.
So I guess my answer to your question is that I don't think the association as connector or hub negates the association as source of expertise at all - just maybe that such expertise comes in different forms. To us social media fans, "content" is mostly about user-generated electronic writing - but content can be a lot of other things.
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