Online Communities

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• Online Communities

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Defining Online Communities

• Community feeling of membership, sense of
  involvement, shared interests
• A community is a set of interwoven
  relationships, built upon shared interests.
• Relationships imply a higher degree of
  commitment and intensity than interactions.
• Community Characteristics
• 1. Internet communication tools email, chat
  rooms, bulletin boards
• 2. Rules defining community membership
• 3. Collaborative production of materials by
  members
• 4. Repeat use by members

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Ten Criteria that define Successful Community, p.
393

• People Criteria
• Membership by choice (dont subscribe
  automatically to mailing list)
• Critical mass and sustainability (chat rooms and
  bulletin boards active and current)
• Sense of trust
• Process Criteria
• Benefits in scale
• Roles not imposed or hierarchical
  (responsibilities voluntary, no boss)
• Facilitation and site structure keep community on
  track (moderators avoid flame wars and keep
  content focused)
• Culture Criteria
• A spirit of participation and feedback (sustained
  but not dominated by minority)
• A sense of affiliation through equity (incentives
  to participate, but watch out)
• Technology Criteria
• Efficiency in interaction mailing list, bulletin
  boards, chat (depends on nature of community)
• Easily navigable meaningful subdivisions

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CommunitiesRayport and Jaworski

• Community feeling of membership, sense of
  involvement, shared interests
• Community archetypes
• 1. Bazaar many sub-areas no meaningful
  interaction
• 2. Theme park Interests grouped, multiple
  communities, interaction but no strong bonds
• 3. Club lots of interaction focused on one
  area
• 4. Shrine focus, minimal interaction, high
  enthusiasm
• 5. Theatre Interaction is part of content
• 6. Café Primary focus is on conversation btwn
  members

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Value of Online CommunitiesHagel and Armstrong

• Communities of transaction
• buy, sell, deliver info e.g. Virtual Vineyards
• Communities of Interest
• Special topics, high degree of interpersonal
  communication, e.g. GardenWeb, Motley Fool
• Communities of fantasy
• Red Dragon Inn, ESPNet
• Communities of relationship
• life experiences, cancer forum, divorce

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Communities (Mohammed et al.)

• Three Types of Shared Interests , p. 401
• 1. Information-driven communities (built upon
  shared interests in information)
• Tips, opinions, discussions (Motley Fool)
• 2. Activity-driven communities (shared interests
  in activity) Ebay, Sierra Club, EverQuest
• 3. Commonality-driven (shared interests out of a
  commonality) profession, ethnicity, age, weight

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Types of Successful Community, p. 419

• 1. Search Communities (search for old friend,
  classmate)
• 2. Trading communities (eBay)
• 3. Education Communities (University of Phoenix)
• 4. Event-based (schedules, locations, logistics)
• 5. Subscriber-based rely on critical mass
  (forums, etc.)
• 6. Advocacy-based (passion for the cause)

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Virtualvineyard.com / Wine.com
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GardenWeb.com

• The GardenWeb Forums The GardenWeb Forums
  comprise the largest community of gardeners on
  the Internet. Covering more than 90 different
  plants, regions and topics, the forums allow you
  to tap the collective wisdom of the thousands of
  other users who visit GardenWeb each day. You can
  post queries on plant care, how to deal with a
  landscaping problem or perhaps initiate a
  discussion on your favorite subject.

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Defining Online Communities

• Community Characteristics
• 1. Internet communication tools email,
  chatrooms, bulletin boards
• 2. Rules defining community membership
• 3. Collaborative production of materials by
  members
• 4. Repeat use by members

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Communication Tools

• Communication Rings Communication rings send
  messages directly between individuals. Everyone
  in the ring gets all the messages.
• Content Trees Hierarchies that create
  manageable discussions. INDIRECT large scale
  communication. Central gathering points such as
  bulletin boards or a web site, to collect and
  store information.

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Types of Community Tools
Communication Rings Content Trees
E-mail lists Usenet
Net pagers Bulletin boards
Groupware Chat rooms
Games and Simulations Virtual worlds
Web sites
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Internet Pagers

• Internet Pagers ICQ, AOL instant messaging
• Text-based telephone
• Immediacy
• Lack of structure
• User online notification
• Direct chats between members
• ICQ that can be called
• Both one-on-one and group communication

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Groupware

• Technologies that lead to collaboration and
  sharing between members
• Productivity oriented
• Methods for remote individuals to share software,
  files, and ideas
• Examples Group design software, shared digital
  workspaces

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BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM

• An electronic message center. Most bulletin
  boards serve specific interest groups. They allow
  you to review messages left by others, and leave
  your own message if you want.

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Usenet

• Refers collectively to all sites that participate
  in the exchange of network news, regardless of
  the type of network used. Network news is the
  Internet equivalent of a discussion group or a
  "electronic bulletin board" system. Network news
  organizes discussions under a set of broad
  headings called newsgroups. USENET is not a
  computer network, it is not software, and it does
  not require the Internet. It is a set of
  voluntary rules for passing and maintaining
  newsgroups (Krol, 1994). Sites that do not use
  the Internet continue to participate in network
  news using other communication networks,
  including BITNET and the dial-up telephone
  system.
• Google newsgroups alt. rec.
• UTD newsgroups utd.

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Virtual World

• Also referred to as a Persistent State World
  (PSW), a Virtual World is a place you co-inhabit
  with hundreds of thousands of other people
  simultaneously. Its persistent in that the world
  exists independent of your presence, and in that
  your actions can permanently shape the world.
• What if you could take on a new persona? One
  that you could make into anything you wanted.
  That wasn't limited by physical, economic, or
  social restraints. That could be anything and
  everything you ever imagined. If you've ever felt
  like you wanted to step out of yourself, your
  life, into one that was full of fantasy and
  adventure - virtual worlds offer you this
  opportunity.

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Ultima Online

• Ultima Online Members create personalized
  characters that need to earn their place in the
  virtual world. Wealth and status require effort
  A citizen of this vast land is born naked and
  accumulates clothing and possessions, whether by
  making, buying, or stealing them. With practice,
  players become more powerful and skillful.
• There are thousands of items in the game that
  you can make, buy, or carry and with over dozens
  of unique skills to master, youll never run out
  ways to continuously evolve your character and
  your online persona.
• Thousands of game masters, counselors, interest
  volunteers and companions are in the game night
  and day to make sure that the world of Ultima
  Online stays fresh and exciting.

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Community members
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Offline community rules

• Family
• Religion
• Citizenship
• Language
• Initiation rites
• Common interests

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Offline and Online Community Rules

• Strong vs. weak membership rules
• Strong membership difficult to obtain
• Long initiation rites and challenging tasks
• Result in strong ties
• Examples School alumni, fraternities, military
  veterans
• Weak membership easily accomplished
• No barriers to entry
• Result in weak ties
• Celebrity fan clubs, shopping clubs, frequent
  flier membership
• Charities checkbook members do not identify
  closely with goals and objectives of the charity
• Marketing Perspective No commitments or
  participation from weak community members.

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Community rules

• Escalating membership rules
• e.g. Cumulative usage
• Easily attained membership
• Full benefits require graduation
• Churches, airlines, online role-playing games
  (Ultima Online)

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Focus

• Focus is critical to online communities
• -- The more concentrated the community focus, the
  easier it is for search engines and directories
  to point potential members to the community.
• --Content focus triggers search engines to return
  a site HIGH on the result list.
• --Sophisticated search engines use content
  hierarchies to put relevance weights on pages
• Usenet discussion groups are an example for both
  focus and lack of focus
• Focus Barney hating (alt.die-barney),
• Lack of focus Influx of novice users and spam.

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The death of Usenet

• Alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die
• Alt.tv.dinosaurs.barney.die.die.die
• Alt.religion.barney
• Alt.satannet.barney

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• alt.tv.baywatch (3T(B) 3A 0K 0H R )
  
• 1 4 WARHOL SAYS TO STUPID TO BE
  A WARHOL' Warhol
• 3 2 CloneHill
  NewsReader
• alt.tv.melrose-place (3T(B) 2A 0K 0H
  R )
• 1 15 anybody on this newsgroup?
  wonka
• 2 2 GOLD-DIPPED ROSES FOR YOUR
  VALENTIN
• 3 15 Millionaire Spelling Edition
  pertifly

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How to create value out of communities

• Usage fees
• Communities need to maximize of members
• more usage, chat - move to flat fees
• Content fees - per download
• Transactions and advertising
• Synergies -
• CISCO

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Cisco-centric open source community
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Community Potential

• How large is the potential?
• Potential is a function of
• Number of participants
• Frequency of use
• intensity of interaction
• Demographics for advertising
• Propensity to transact often

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Operating the community

• Executive moderator
• manage large number of system operators
• moderate discussions
• transform low quality to intense interaction
• Community merchandiser
• Executive editor - programming, external content
• Archivist
• Usage analyst
• New product developer