Mark William Hansen told us about the communities of Lego and all the virtual initiatives Lego is exploring. Wenger, in his books on communities of practice, explains what makes a group of people a real community. He speaks about the need for a joint enterprise that is negotiated and developed by the participants. Then there is the mutual engagement between participants which makes people feel they belong to the community. And there is the shared repertoire that gives coherence to all the activities, relations and objects involved. Also the negotiation of meaning is important, which Wenger describes by speaking of a balance between participation and reification. A real community is a dynamic and complex process in which people act on and deal with (participation) the objects and concepts and symbols (reifications) of the community. If so much initiative is on the side of the participants themselves, as is also the case in experiences, can we then continue speaking of ‘building’ communities? Lego is an example of a company that provides a platform and access for people to have experiences. They don’t build the experience, they don’t decide what you should build by using their bricks, be they material or virtual bricks, they don’t build the community. They provide a place for people to live out their own creativity and imagination. But how can organisations that have been in control of everything for so long, learn to relinquish some of this control to the individual and to take on a more supportive and serving role?

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