The Online Community Expert Interview is a monthly series that features Online Community thought leaders driving online community strategy and practice at their companies. This month's interview features Steve Nelson from Clear Ink.

Steve's Bio:
Steve Nelson is the master juggler of all the disciplines that Clear Ink merges to create effective online communications. Steve brings the background of a seen-it-all entrepreneur, the discipline of a computer scientist, the spark of a marketer, and the time-tested temperament of a successful corporate executive. At Clear Ink, Steve's role is primarily in the area of digital marketing strategy and planning, ensuring that all our efforts roll up into a sound strategy and lead to a well-defined and high-quality execution.

Steve started his career in 1980 as a software engineer, Internet-enabling everything he could get his hands on. His first start-up, Kinetics, introduced the Macintosh to the Internet in 1985. Kinetics was ultimately bought by Novell, where Steve became VP and General Manager of the NetWare Clients Group.

Impressed (by playing too much Myst) at how much could be done with HyperCard, QuickTime, and a good 3D modeler, he became an independent software author and then cofounder of Kidwise, a learning software company. In this part of his career, Steve became deeply involved in the development, integration, and delivery of multimedia content.

When he cofounded Clear Ink, all of this previous experience was integrated into his self-described role as "keeper of the balance" between technology, marketing, strategy, and design.

Steve gets his inspiration from his wife and two children, who share that rare balance of art and science. In addition to his various outdoor distractions and obsession with Celine Dion, he has turned Web surfing into an art form and is this close to summarizing the whole damn thing in one sentence. He is a graduate of both UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley.

You've been working in the online community space for a number of years. What major online community and collaboration trends have you seen at your company? What has proven valuable and what hasn't?
As usual, it’s a trend-countertrend-synthesis dance, and if you hang around long enough, you see the pattern progress. You see communities emerge and coalesce on their own with whatever tools are available, then you see tools developed to make that experience better and then the tool leads the community. Then the community evolves and needs more capabilities so creates them on the fly. You see communities form themselves, and then vested organizations try to capture and lead the communities, and eventually an equilibrium happens based on mutual benefit. Until a new demand or technology kicks in, and you see the cycles repeat.

Do you have examples of a few major corporations / sites doing interesting things with online communities? Who are you paying attention to?
Without naming names, I’ve seen major corporations trying to game the emerging social media by “astroturfing”, or creating false grassroots communities, hiding the real interests or motivations. On the other hand, other corporations have sponsored communities in an open and transparent manner, making it clear who and why is behind it, but still enabling the community to exist. For example, Autodesk (which is a client of ours — see, I’m being transparent here), sponsored a blog related to the adoption of some of their new technologies. It helped their customers understand the challenges of technology adoption from a customer’s point of view, but didn’t try to hide the fact that Autodesk sponsored this forum.

Another example would be how conferences are extending themselves from a fixed-time event into year-round communities. Conferences chase attendees’ fixed budgets, but can differentiate themselves by moving from their few days in one physical venue into year-round communities using new online media. The TED Conference is oversubscribed for its annual 4 days in Monterey, but through the use of blogs, content-on-demand, community-building software and virtual spaces, the community can be more inclusive and year-round.

What are areas of growth in corporations in the use of online communities, from an investment, feature, or member growth perspective?
Successful corporations become large gravitational bodies, with communities forming in orbit around them. They form themselves, so what corporations can do is to foster their organic growth, not force it. Understand that they will be equal players at the table, respect them and let them thrive. See them as a knowledgebase, whose collective wisdom will help your own mission. They succeed when you succeed; you succeed when they succeed. It’s symbiotic. Deploy information tools that will support them as a community; collect, filter and deliver their emergent wisdom.

Clear Ink seems to have taken particular interesest in Second Life. Can you talk about the opportunities that you see in general, and examples of projects that you have done "in world"?
Second Life, and virtual worlds in general, are the next generation of interface to Internet-mediated communities. Because people share not only their words, but a 3-dimensional, mutually created space, their interactions are richer and more memorable. After an hour with a group in Second Life, you really remember being there, with them, and the bonds are stronger. We use Second Life both in the corporate space, fostering communities of practice as in the case of Autodesk; communities of interest, as in the case of our Second Life Capitol Hill, or communities that extend beyond their physical or temporal limitations, such as the TED Conference.

What should every CEO know about online communities?
They’re there first. Be grateful if there is a community related to your business, or especially to your company, because that means you’ve arrived. Now, don’t squander the opportunity. Do the dance: look at the tools they are using to make their community succeed; support and extend these tools, but turn them over to the community. Trust them. They’re your partners, not your puppets. Respect them, and you’ll do just fine.