By Ingrid Daschner
The world is awash with the latest buzzword 'communitainment', a term that originated in a report entitled 'The User Revolution' by the analyst firm Piper Jaffray.
The exchange of content, ideas and entertainment in a Web 2.0 or social‑networking context, this concept can also be tailored to the corporate world and/or corporate culture without Web 2.0 as identified by Dr Wilhelm Greiner.
In Germany, communitainment doesn’t always come that naturally. Here, the prevalent attitude is that information should be conveyed neutrally, objectively and soberly, however, from my practical experience, employees (especially techies) would much rather have a bit of humour, parody and satire than yet another dry Powerpoint presentation.
A very clear example is a white paper produced by Google about its Chrome browser. This was created by the famous comic artist Scott McCloud and takes the form of a 38‑page comic. This is a prime example of communitainment, and is aimed at users who are interested in technology and are seeking a browser that is technically superior to and cooler than the usual one. Not only do McCloud's illustrations help depict Chrome’s technical capabilities, but thanks to his unusual presentation, they also support Google’s 'cool’ image, a key differentiator when competing with Microsoft.
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