What does the future hold?
It's been interesting to see the different ideas around the future of community lately. David Spinks (CMX) promotes the idea that all businesses can benefit from communities, and that they eventually will. Richard Millington (FeverBee) is now stating that he thinks we are at peak "community" and that these roles will be rolled back into other disciplines as the model matures.
I like Spinks' exuberance and enthusiasm, but I disagree with the idea that all, or even most, businesses can benefit from an official community. Maybe it's a white collar thing. Or more specifically, when I think of my previous jobs and the services I use today, I can't imagine them incorporating a community manager in any useful way. A community manager for tow truck dispatchers? We made our own community, and someone whose job it would be to promote that would be weird, and possibly intrusive.
I hope Millington's a bit wrong too, because that would certainly make my life easier a decade from now. But I think he's more of a realist, and probably more accurate in his projections.