Building Web Communities
Part 1 of 3
10/5/98
Is community the Internet's "killer app" or is it a trendy buzzword? Strangely, both these statements seem to be true.
Site developers are scrambling to add community features, but without a clear understanding of community on the Web, few of them are succeeding at what they set out to do. We've been exploring this question at Anchor recently, and thought we'd let you in on what we've been finding.
What exactly is community? Why do some communities thrive and others fail? What (if anything) can we do to ensure successful communities? There are three web thinkers who have particularly useful insights in these areas: Amy Jo Kim, Marc Rettig, and Howard Rheingold. We'll look at their ideas and recommendations in this guide.
This is the first installment in a three-part series on community-building on the Web. The next installment in the series will feature interviews with selected community builders, and the final installment will explore tools and techniques to complement your "social scaffolding."
Amy Jo Kim: "Social scaffolding"
Amy Jo Kim runs a company called Naima which specializes in strategic consulting for community spaces. She is also the author of a soon-to-be-published book on web community-building. Amy Jo spoke recently at Web Design and Development '98 in Boston, and offered some valuable insights into community-building.
Defining community
"Community" is becoming an increasingly meaningless term—very much like "interactive." Amy Jo offers a working definition of community to help clarify what it is we are working toward. In her definition, a community is "a group of people who gather together around a shared purpose, activity, or interest." She qualifies this with the statement that people get to know each other better over time, and that some of them will develop personal relationships.
This idea that a community is about people gathering together around "a shared purpose, activity, or interest" helps answer one of the most important questions in community-building: why do people join? Amy Jo asserts that they join to meet a need (such as a social, information, learning, or other need), and that they normally stay because of relationships. As site developers, she advises, we should give some thought to how our community spaces can serve the needs of our population. This provides direction and focus, essential underpinnings of a community space.
"Social scaffolding"
From numerous discussions with web community builders, Amy Jo Kim has outlined nine important elements of successful web communities. These elements are the "social scaffolding" of a community, the structure that allows conversation and collaboration. Amy Jo's nine elements are as follows:
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:
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:
Marc has slides from a recent conference presentation on communities ("Seven Stories About Groups on the Web") available on his web site.
Howard Rheingold: "Civil discourse"
Howard Rheingold is one the Net's most well-known community builders. He has written a book on the topic (Virtual Communities, the full text of which is available on the Web) and formerly ran Electric Minds, which is now defunct. Howard offers some insights into the importance of a good moderator in an article called "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations."
The role of a host
The importance of a committed moderator is often overlooked by community builders. In Howard Rheingold's view, a good host is not just a conversation starter (as a party host is). A host also fills other roles, such as:
Communities evolve
One of the most interesting points that Howard makes is that communities are organic: they evolve. As he says in The Art of Hosting Good Conversations, "Communities can't be manufactured, but you can design the conditions under which they are most likely to emerge, and encourage their growth when they do." He also likens communities to gardens, which need care and maintenance to thrive over time.
Based on Howard's writings, it would seem there are three broad phases to this evolution: structure, involvement, and independence. A host first plans conditions and provides rules (structure), laying the groundwork for a web community. As the community evolves, the host still needs to provide attention and intervention when needed (involvement). Howard points out that, eventually, "each community will want the tools and opportunity to make their own rules. This can be facilitated by means of a process handbook for democratic decision-making, and access to people who have experienced the process themselves." This final step allows for growth, self-government, and collaborative work (independence).
To follow Howard Rheingold's writings or apply to join his private web conference, Brainstorms, visit his web site.
Examples of web communities
Rheingold's Brainstorms: Join the Community
http://www.rheingold.com/community.html
Hotwired: Member Central
http://www.hotwired.com/members/
ThirdAge
http://www.thirdage.com/
Parent Soup
http://www.parentsoup.com/
iVillage
http://www.ivillage.com/
Talk City
http://www.talkcity.com
eBay: Your Personal Trading Community
http://www.ebay.com/
NetNoir
http://www.netnoir.com/
The Palace
http://www.thepalace.com/
The Edge
http://www.edge.org
confabulations
http://www.scenemaker.com/anon/s10/cover.dhtml
What do you want in a web community? What would you like to see us do here on Anchor? Tell us your ideas.
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