Fostering Online Communities by Tara Hunt

building online communities Tara ‘miss rogue’ Hunt, Citizen Agency

summary 1. What makes a community? 2. Examples of communities 3. Common community themes 4. Setting fertile ground for your own community

What makes a community?

community Community can include the dimensions of geographic location, psychological ties and/or people working together toward a common goal.

virtual community A virtual space supported by computer-based information technology, centered upon communication and interaction of participants to generate member-driven content, resulting in relationships being built up. (Lee & Vogel, 2003)

characteristics of a virtual community • personal homepage/proﬁle (ie. url.com/ people/missrogue) • personal content creation • ability to interact with others’ content • ability to ‘friend’ and share content

succession community visitor customer member

benefits of community • heightened customer loyalty • self-policing • amplified word of mouth • better feedback • stronger & more personal filters on content

Examples of communities

3 levels of community 1. Lightweight Social Processes 2. Collaborative Information Structures 3. High End Collaboration

lightweight social processes Low-barrier social involvement like voting and the recording of personal participation. • DIGG • Del.icio.us • Last.fm • Amazon • Craigslist • Netvibes

collaborative information structures Core product enhanced by a social component, deeper participation to interact. • Flickr • Facebook • YouTube • Odeo • Threadless • Developer networks

high end collaboration Groups utilizing systems to make sense and share complex materials and data. • Open Source • Wikipedia projects • Lostpedia • Couchsurﬁng

3 levels of community 1. Lightweight Social Processes 2. Collaborative Information Structures 3. High End Collaboration

Common community themes

communities studied • Flickr - photo sharing community • Twitter - sms community • Wordpress - developer community • Threadless - art-based apparel community • BarCamp - geek conference community

common themes • sense of fun/play • keeping the dialogue going • “wouldn’t it be awesome if...” development • maximized the power of word of mouth

more common themes • simple platforms for building on • compelling stories • rewarding of community members

“Have Fun” • Founders having fun, very public about the necessity of fun (the necessity to enjoy one’s work)

“I just wanted to create a company that would be as much fun and as fulﬁlling as possible. Fun in work to me means a lot of freedom, and ton of creativity, working with people I respect and like, and pursuing ideas that are just crazy enough to work. I don't want to have to worry about getting buy-in from executives or a board, raising money, worrying about investor's perceptions, or cashing out.” ~ Ev, Twitter ~

“Have Fun” • Playful messaging and images on the site

twitter’s 404 message

wordpress

keeping the dialogue going • Personal use of the product

Twitter

keeping the dialogue going • Involved personally in customer support

Wordpress From the Future of Web Apps in San Francisco: “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to answer your own customer support emails.” - Matt Mullenweg

keeping the dialogue going • Greeting new customers & introducing them to others

Flickr “The Flickr team spent a lot of time greeting every user that came to the site, offering them help on how to get engaged with the rest of the community....online community-building is just like being the host of the party - if guests come to a party, and they don't know anyone...they'll leave.” ~ from Christine.net ~

“wouldn’t it be awesome if...” • Take an experimental approach to development

Threadless “We basically make all of our decisions to work on a new project after we hear the phrase, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if...” It doesn’t mean everything works, but many things do” ~ Jake, Threadless ~

BarCamp “Everyone was complaining that they hadn’t been invited to FOO Camp, but we thought, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to just have our own?” Nobody thought we could do it. We had 6 days. No location. No people. No food. But it didn’t matter. If it was just the 6 of us in my living room, it would be great.” ~ Chris, BarCamp ~

“wouldn’t it be awesome if...” • Throw away the business plan and learn to embrace the chaos

Flickr "We started the company that produced Flickr to build an online game. Flickr was a side project. It got more popular and then it took over the whole company but it certainly wasn't what we intended to do, so there wasn't any real business plan when we started." ~ Stewart, Flickr ~

Google “The Googley Approach to Business "It's a place where failure coexists with triumph , and ideas bubble up from lightly supervised engineers, none of whom wory too much about their projects ever making money."” from Fortune Magazine Article, "Chaos at Google"

the power of word of mouth • Built-in a variety of ways to share early on: blog, rss, copy & paste urls (Flickr) • Participants are media creators: podcasting, blogging, irc, wiki, etc. (BarCamp) • Instead of adding more features, added more on-ramps: jabber, email, web-based, etc. (Twitter)

involving community in decisions • Listen to your users & be ﬂexible (Flickr) • Let the community create the content & make the decisions (Threadless) • Put the audience in charge (BarCamp)

simple platforms to build on • Google Maps versus Yahoo! Maps

simple platforms to build on • Building blocks [by Tantek Çelik] • Tools, resources, or techniques • Built by experts • Usable by non-experts • Combine with other building blocks • Build larger blocks from smaller blocks

simple platforms to build on • Make your platform simple and extensible (Wordpress) • Provide a simple, but rich API (Flickr) • Keep it simple and document it openly (BarCamp) • Focus on one function well (Twitter) • Keep it to the torso (Threadless)

compelling stories • Twitter (the birth of Obvious) • Flickr (GNE to photo sharing) • Wordpress (Matt, the wonder kid) • Threadless (Jake and Jake just loved art) • BarCamp (6 days, no resources, story of will)

community rewards • Flickr: free pro accounts, anniversary parties, schwag • Twitter: featured members, blogging • Wordpress: featuring developers • Threadless: as they make more $$, so do their artists • BarCamp: more privileges as leaders emerge

Setting fertile ground for your own community

motivation "What keeps them logging in as a regular part of their routine? Because there is a benefit to the person that makes a real difference in their lives....if it helps you find your next job, or connects you with a new friend, or fulfills that need to have good conversation with a bunch of bright people, then it becomes a real bargain." ~ John Coate, Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community, 1993

sense of community 1. Feelings of membership 2. Feelings of inﬂuence 3. Integration and fulﬁllment of needs 4. Shared emotional connection (McMillan and Chavis, 1986)

feelings of membership • arise from the creation of community boundaries • perception of emotional safety • sense of belonging to and identiﬁcation with • use of common symbols, language, etc.

feelings of membership • includes: personal proﬁle pages, 'friending', deﬁning groups within the larger group (groups), invitations to groups • allow for lots of personal & group expression • greet new members and introduce them to others with similar interests

feelings of influence • being able to influence group (voice heard) • being able to be influenced by group (learning) • feedback responsiveness • rule enforcement and creation by members • maintenance of norms within the group

feelings of inﬂuence • includes: forums, chat, comments, blogging, personalized mail • create many ways in which members can connect and platforms for expression

integration and fulﬁllment of needs • feeling of being supported by others • rewards of being a member, such as status, expertise • shared values • feeling of competence within group

maslow’s hierarchy of needs 1. Physiological 2. Security/Safety 3. Social 4. Self-Esteem/Ego 5. Self-Actualization

integration and fulﬁllment of needs • includes: status rewards, featuring members, vips, karma points, etc. • 'in crowd' knowledge - acorns, tricks, traditions & rituals

shared emotional connection • relationships, shared history & experience • high quality, frequent interaction • discrete/shared events/history and crisis • personal investment of time and resources • the effect of honor and humiliation • spiritual bonds

shared emotional connection • can't be created, but shared experiences with members can help (continual, deep interaction with community) • ofﬂine meetups, celebrations and developer days help

in conclusion Fostering healthy communities is complicated, time consuming and requires dedication to your members, but the rewards are high and long term.

licensing:

Photo of Matt Mullenweg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jluster/3392263/ Slide with Photos from Threadless CommunityNext presentation Kitty on Twitter Shot from Twitter.com/error Flickr’s Clogged tubes screenshot of my own Hello Dolly! Album cover: Wikipedia Cute dog waiting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsgreg/90724994/ Thanks to: Chris Messina (for all sorts of stuff), Blaine Cook (Twitter), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr), Heather Champ (Flickr), Tom Coates (Yahoo!), Jake & Jeffrey (Threadless), Matt Mullenweg (Wordpress), Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users), Tantek Çelik, Léon van Gurp (Masters Thesis Student in the Netherlands, who pointed me to some of these resources), David Weinberger (whose O.J. quote I probably stole used), PARC’s amazing research on collaborative networks, and everyone who reads my blog and helps me through these lessons daily.

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Fostering Online Communities by Tara Hunt

by Tara Hunt on Mar 01, 2007

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Fostering Online Communities by Tara Hunt — Presentation Transcript