Online Community Matters

Online Community Matters
Shelly D. Farnham, Ph.D.
March 5, 2009
Panel -- IABC

Research and Development
meeting social goals

Why InteractOnline?
anyone, anytime, anyplace, all together
Information
Connection
Support

Teen Panel
Our questions
How do teens use technology in their day-to-day lives?
Questionnaire (18 students)
PowerPoint “Diary” (5 presentations)
Over one week, document social and collaborative activities
Screenshots, pictures from cell phone camera
Focus on typical use and how usage might be different than other age groups

Technology Usage for Social Life

Socializing and Planning
Social Event Planning
I am able to create groups to invite people to new events.
I have created a Salsa in Seattle group for teens to learn and dance salsa.
I use: Facebook and Yahoo email as my means to setting up social events
I can add members
Write messages for all members

Why Host a Community?
Reason #1:
Social media is about dialogue
Not enough time to engage in 1:1 dialogue
Your community members will carry the conversation for you

Why Host a Community?
Reason #2:
Person
Joins Hosted
Community
Develops
Attachment to
Community
Develops
Attachment and Loyalty to Host

Pathable:Social Networking and Community Development for Events

Figure 9. Life cycle of Pathable activity before, during and after event
Pathable User Behavior Over Time

Pathable BarCamp Seattle Study
Questions:
how important is social networking and community development at events?
can Pathable help?
BarCamp Seattle is a free, two-day conference held for Web 2.0 community
280 people registered for the event using Pathable
78 people total (76% male and 24% female) completed the questionnaire, 18 at the event and 60 afterwards online

Figure 6. People came to BarCamp Seattle primarily to meet others.
Primary Goal in Coming to Event

Attachment and Loyalty to the Event

Figure 7. The more peopel use Pathable, the more people they consider professional friends or colleagues.
Impact on Professional Network

Impact on Attachment and Sense of Community
Figure 8. The more people used pathable, the greater their sense of attachment on the identity factor, and the more their sense of community.

Strands CoCollage:
Place-based Networking and Community Development
Goal: facilitate networking and community in a “third place”
Prototype: Community collage display with online photo sharing
Deployment study:
Questionnaire at Time 1 and Time 2 (~six weeks apart)
At Time 1: sense of community and attachment to coffee shop strongly correlated

Impact on Place Attachment

Impact on Neighboring

On Hosting a Community
How to host a community:
Create an environment where a group people may talk to each other
Facebook groups, mailing lists, messaged boards, Ning
Tips for nurturing:
Set clear expectations for appropriate behavior
Seed the community with desired types of people/ behavior
Invite lots of people
Be a part of the conversation
Use moderation tools
Measuring success:
Count
1:20:80 – for every 1 person talking, usually 20 members and 80 lurkers
Return rate

Online Community Matters

by Shelly D. Farnham, Ph.D. on Mar 05, 2010

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Online Community Matters — Presentation Transcript