Heh you, why are you spending your free time in this community?

Professional meetings are constant reminders that the rat race of white collar workers are not typical lives lived. 

Whereas a lot of us work like maniacs and try to fit free time on the fringes (either through extended holidays or sleep deprivation), the grand majority of people lead more balanced lives with a variety of interests outside of their professional domain.

So when it comes to social networking and joining online networks, user-generated initiatives and brand communities - they have a variety of motivations beyond getting ahead or furthering their professional interests.

The three biggest ones are most telling as identified by IBM''s research:
1) intrinsic/feeling part of a community (31%)  - we all want to feel part of some larger whole
2) extrinsic - recognition from peers (28%) - a feeling of validation and respect from you peer network
3) brand kinship (9%) - a genuine affiliation with brands that either solve our problems or reflect our values

Simple right?  Not quite. easily said but not easily done. Creating these 3 conditions for community success is fraught with peril and tenuous binds. Thus, the role of "community manager, advocate or evangelist" has become a designated and almost essential role in companies to make these brand communities work.

These ringleaders are special people who can balance the goals of communities and companies, arbitrate disputes, shepherd solutions and content to the right people, are generally likable, self-effacing folks who are masters of orchestrating the conversation. My LinkedIn reader brings up a top 25 pantheon of these community managers:

1. Will Pate: Community Evangelist -             ConceptShare; Flock; Mazava; ZipLocal; Raincity Studios
2. Mario Sundar:  Community Evangelist - Linkedin
3. Eric Skiff: Community Evangelist - Clipmarks
4. Marilyn Pratt: Community Evangelist - SAP Labs
5. Brett Meyers: Community Evangelist - Zloop
6. Hal Bryan: Community Evangelist - Microsoft
7. Maxwell Gold: Community Evangelist - Brightcove
8. Steve Kapsinow: Community Eevalist - Jupitermedia
9. Jenny Paine : Community Manager - Live World
10. Erin Anderson: Community Manager - Flexpaths
11. Cindy Bowen: Community Manager - Sony Entertainment
12. Ryan Knight: Community Manager - Yahoo
13. Jennifer Puckett : Community Manager - Disney
14. Jim Lynch: Community Manager - Ziff Davis 
15. Melissa Parrish - Community Manager - Real Simple
16. T.J. Degroat: Community Management - Digg
17. Laura Gluhanic: Community Advocate - Ning
18. Jake McKee: Community Guy - Formerly Lego
19. William Azaroff: Community Engagement - VanCity
20. Carole McManus: Community Specialist, formerly Yahoo 360
21. Asa Dotzler:  Catastrophist, Mozilla
22. Scott Wilder: GM Intuit Online Communities
23. Jennifer Lord: Online Communities Producer-Corus
24. Mark Freeman Williams: Online Communities - Apple
25. Peta Haigh: Online Communities Producer - BBC