I came across an interesting interview last week with Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr (click here to view the full article at Fast Company).  In the interview she talks about how Flickr got started, the environment that created their success and the role that viral loops played in Flickr's success.  There were a few takeaways that I thought would be interesting to share for those of us in the market research and online community space...

1. Viral growth is one thing, great moderation is another - In the interview, Catarina talks about how in the early days of Flickr the founders were the ones acting as gracious party hosts and connecting new members to each other.  Here is a quote from the article: "Georgina (George) Oates, an early employee of Flickr, and I greeted everyone who came into the instant messaging conversations or posted on the site. We said, 'Oh you know, I notice you're into Norwegian Metal and I noticed you live in Pittsburgh--here's another person from Pittsburgh.' Communities take on the kind of character of a party at the outset and you need to be a good host."  While they could have relied entirely on free accounts and various gimmicks to get people to join (and stay), they chose to focus on being great moderators and hosts, and it made all the difference in the early days of building the Flickr community.  The same mentality goes for MROCs.  You have to work really hard in the beginning to build that core community before you can scale it into something bigger (and better).   
2. Sometimes small features play a big role - Caterina also describes how the concept of "tagging" photos helped Flickr take off, as it allowed people to easily categorize their photos and find similar photos.  We've noticed the same thing when it comes to running MROCs; namely, that small features can make a big difference.  For example, we recently added a "Twitter-like" feed to the PluggedIN Platform and have watched in amazement as community members are really taking to the feature.  It was something we added as a last minute feature in the latest V1.6 version of the platform, but it ended up being one of the biggest hits with members.  Moral of the story - don't ignore the details of the member experiences, as they can often result in the best participation.
3. The environment is critical - Catarina also mentions how the profileration of social networks (specifically Friendster) helped create the environment for Flickr to grow, as people were interested in bringing their identities online and connecting with each other.  This trend has been happening for a few years now, and is what has sparked the research industry interest in MROCs.  Online environments are where people are talking and naturally connecting, and marketing researchers are now realizing there is tremendous potential to harness these conversations.  In this sense, the same environment that triggered the growth of Flickr is now triggering the growth of new online research methods.   

I would recommend checking out the full interview if you get a chance, especially if you are interesting in learning a bit more about how viral loops work.

--Matt