Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

I agree (surprise!). By the way, I don't think this means that we all have to adopt "Insight Communities" as our brand, or our language, but we need a generic name for what we do. I am hoping we now have something that doesn't sound like The Flintstones. :)

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Hi Derek,

I don't know if I'm opposed to the idea, per se, but I'm not feeling it yet, either. As I mentioned earlier under the #ic hashtag on twitter, I'm a bit concerned about there being more confusion about the difference between MROCs/ICs and online panels - I don't know if you or anyone else has run into that issue, but I have.

Also, I think the word "online" should still be included in the name, because being online is what makes MROCs/ICs what they are, otherwise we could be referring to a great many things when saying "Insight Communities". For example, wouldn't Advisory Panels also be considered "Insight Communities"? Forums, bloggers, SIGs, etc....all could be considered "Insight Communities", I would think. Without the word "online", I think it may be harder to help the public, and clients, differentiate?

Sorry to be the only person, so far, to not be jumping on board. Like I also said on Twitter, I can see how outnumbered I am and I'm not specifically rallying against the idea, either. I am just envisioning the conversations with my clients, or potential clients, and it just makes me want us, as our own community, to make sure we are being as clear as we possibly can.

Thanks for the chance to share my thoughts!
-Michelle Finzel
Maryland Marketing Source.
@MDMktingSource

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

I agree Diane, Insight Community is a better descriptor than the term MROC. It will give clients a good idea of what these type of communities are capable of producing for them.

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Definitely for using the term Insight Community. It's gives a much better idea of what these communities are (to the uninitiated) than the term 'MROC'. MROC always sounded like something from the dark ages.

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Here is my view from an academic perspective:

I think the conceptualisation on the term should be closely aligned to what you want to achieve. Let's call it ABC for the moment.

Is ABC a process?
Is ABC a group of people?
Is ABC an intervention to a current process?
Is ABC a result of a process?

There above should help you conceptualise a term you want to use. Based on the comments above, it seems to me that ABC is a group of people i.e. Insight Communities - a group of people on internet that contributes knowledge. The question is, why call it insights communities when you can call it simply online communities?

My feeling is, you want to somehow include the "results" of a process into the term, just like "Consumer Insights". Then a simple solution is to just reverse the wording to "Community Insights" to reflect on the findings you get from online communities. If you would like to be more specific, you can always call it Online Community Insights (too long!).

Jasper Lim
Twitter @merlien

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Jasper,

That's so funny, because I was also thinking of suggesting calling it "Online Insight Communities" just to include the word "online" which I think is very important. I had refrained from making the suggestion because, like you, I figured people would think it too long. But is it, really? Whichever order is best: IC or CI, I truly believe an O needs to be in there, too, for complete clarity.

We use descriptive words like "online", "web", "Internet", "webcam", etc. in order to differentiate between the other methodologies that can take place both on and offline - why should we do different with the online communities? I believe they, too, can take place on and offline as well.

I can say that once this change does "officially" occur, I'll most likely describe them with the word "online" anyway. Capitalized or not, the word "online" is a huge factor in how these communities function, what makes them possible, and what helps differentiate them from other methods. Simply put, I think it matters.

Michelle
@MDMktingSource

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

If Diane coined it, and they are clearly the leader in this space, then why not keep it as "MROC"?

I don't have a problem with the acronym, possibly just the scope of the definition.

Nothing that can't be solved by a lot of process analysis and documentation I suppose ;)

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Tom, Brad Bortner of Forrester coined it a few years ago: industry analysts -- another elite the Internet subverts! ;-)

Diane coined "Insight Communities", which I'm cool with using for small, private, closed communities -- since that is the methodology Communispace champions. But that's not how Diane means it -- for her, it is a synonym for MROC. She hates MROC -- makes her think of Bedrock.

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Unfortunately, the phrase, "Community Insights" is already in used and trademarked.

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

Hi Derek, thank you so much for pushing this discussion. I know that @LongoMR doesn't like the term MROC. So do I. We discussed this at Qrweb in Berlin (btw @LongoMR was a great time! won't forget "zwiebelfisch" and "granini" ;-)

We at HYVE try to integrate in our "tool naming" not only the description but also the purpose. Our Netnography offering we named NetnographyInsights and our Online Bulletin Boards are called InsightBoard, so I also prefer "Innovation Community" before "Market Reseach Online Community". Btw when arguing that including "online" in "Inisght Online Community" or "Online Insight Community" would be too long we can see that it is still 1 word or 5 letters shorter than "Market Reseach Online Community" ;-) But apart from that I don't prefer including "online" even though I totally agree with Michelle that online is a huge factor in how these communities function and what makes them possible. But for me and I think for many other marketers and researchers the term community used in the market research context is closely related with online!

For me the question is wheter to "replace" the term "Market Research" with "Insight". To answer this question I think four aspects should be considered:
1. What's your message?
I think jasper made a good point in first thinking about what the term/concept should describe.
Is ABC a process?
Is ABC a group of people?
Is ABC an intervention to a current process?
Is ABC a result of a process?
...
2. What's the meaning? a+b=c!?
So let's have a look at the definitions and meaning of the words "community", "market research" and "insight"
a) Community
b) Market Research
c) Insight
...
3. What's the scope?
As @JHenning describes in his post "Online Research Communities by Type" it should be clear that there is not THE "Market Reseach Online Community" or "Insight Community". Like jeff wrote there are different types of "research communities" that differ in terms of "openess & exclusiveness" and "duration". Besides that of course they also vary regarding:
> activites (and functionalities)
> purpose
> interaction
> output
> ...
But these are not nominal nor exclusive sclaes/measures/dimensions. When setting up a "research community" it's a matter of "weighting" the different aspects/dimensions. So a comprehensive research community morphology could be helpful. Maybe we can work on that!
...
4. What's your philosophy?
Last but not least it is a question of "practicability". In times of rss, seo and monitoring "uniqueness" and "exclusiveness" of terms and related hashtags #ic vs. #mroc vs. #ioc vs. #oic should be considered as well.
...
At the end of the day it's a question of perspective, background and what one/we want to emphasize as well as a trade off between philosophy and practcability. Looking forward to the further discussion and consens building process.

Best regards,
Steffen (@netnoblography)

Re: Let’s move away from MROC and towards Insight

I try not to get too caught up on the categorisation and semantics of it all.

I think I may start calling mine idea spaces, think boxes, online insight villages, insight hives or online knowing festivals....