Building Web Communities, Continued

Marc Rettig: "Conversations are content"

Up until fairly recently, Marc Rettig worked for a company called Digital Knowledge Assets (dka) whose sceneServer product is making some serious inroads into group information sharing and collaborative content creation. Marc has some insights to offer community builders based on his work with dka and his own studies into groups on the Web.

Beware of "ghost town syndrome"

One of the things Marc warns against is a common problem for sites trying to draw in visitors and get conversation started: "ghost town syndrome." Sites with ghost town syndrome are marked by forums with little or no activity. Why are they ghost towns? Because building a conversation space doesn't mean people will come—and what's more, Marc points out, people don't build communities. They join them. These behaviors extend to the Web, and web communities that rise up around existing communities are likely to have a better chance of thriving.

For site developers and community caretakers, Marc offers some tips on how to avoid ghost town syndrome:

• assemble a core affinity group
• tie it to real-world activities
• seed with good content
• seed with engaging conversation

Integrate publishing and conversation

Marc also advises integrating publishing and conversation, rather than keeping them remote (people are often busy, and integrating these makes it more useful and less time-consuming). One example of integrating publishing and conversation is a site called The Edge, which features high-profile figures having a very selective discussion about a topic which visitors can "listen in on." In these positive examples, conversations become content—they aren't separate from content.

Other recommendations that Marc offers:

• Know your users deeply.
• Serve constellations of people, not necessarily individuals.
• Every web application is potentially a group application.

Marc has slides from a recent conference presentation on communities ("Seven Stories About Groups on the Web") available on his web site.

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