Building A Virtual Community The Experience

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Building A Virtual Community The
Experience

• Leif Isaksen,
• Antiquist

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A Community For I.T. Practitioners In Cultural
Heritage

• Antiquist is primarily a communication network -
  a way for us to talk, argue, experiment, share
  ideas, and solve common problems.
• Relaunched in September 2006
• 180 antiquistas (9 mods)
• Academic, commercial and governmental spheres.

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Communities Of Practice Communities Of
Correspondence

• Social networks vs vocational spaces
• Antiquist
• targeted different communities
• Proactive invitation
• Rapid, then steady growth

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Encouraging Participation

• Antiquist
• mixed moderatorship
• relaxed style
• annual workshop
• placements
• Result - hard to tell but contributions from all
  groups.

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Openness

• Encouraging candour was key principle
• Antiquist
• people subscribe personally (not in public role)
• closed list until recently
• Seems to have made no difference.
• Members definitely prefer openness

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(In)formal Membership

• Sign-up doesnt imply representation
• Antiquist
• Requests for information
• Fora for discussion
• Frustrating but necessary.

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Keeping Contact

• Integration vs fragmentation
• Antiquist
• List most successful
• Wiki useful for events/projects
• Blog dead
• Spam an issue
• Regular ArchCamps

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Inter-community Cooperation

• Antiquist
• Quite a lot of cross-posting between DC, DAH,
  FISH.
• Other connections mainly at moderator level (idea
  sharing etc.)
• Would like more, but difficult in practice.

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Final Thoughts

• Innovation tends to be Moderator driven
• Be clear about purpose and demographic
• Provides real service
• Builds social as well as work networks