| Introduction to Building Web Communities: Articles | |
|
| | Article: "Seven Steps to Building Electronic Communities," by Philippa Gamse. Discusses developing a networking plan, define your community, survey your potential users, determine your resource needs, select a networking platform, establish your core group, market to your users, develop a training plan, develop technical support, set up a public forum, promote collaboration, create a sprit of community (be positive and helpful). | http://www.partnerships.org.uk/articles/7-steps.html
|
|
| | Article: "The Impact of the Internet on Cancer Outcomes," by Gunther Eysenbach. Discusses who uses the Internet, how many people with cancer are online, how many friends and family are online, how people with cancer are using the Internet (including research, communication with others, community bulletin boards, mailing lists, newsgroups, and chat rooms, purchasing products, virtual communities, the advantages and disadvantages of virtual communities, why patients are turning to the web for information, and the quality of cancer information available on the web. | http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/full/53/6/356
|
|
| | Article: "Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research on Internet Communities," by Gunther Eysenbach and James E. Till. Discusses the ethical issues of researchers obtaining information by joining online Internet communities. Topics include what an Internet community is, qualitative research on the Internet, Internet community members do not expect to be research subjects, public spaces or private rooms?, can information consent be waived?, how consent can be obtained, and privacy and confidentiality. | http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=59687
|
|
| | The U.S. Department of State's "Global Issues: Internet Communities Linking the World," is a series of articles on building web communities in different fields such as education, government (city, state and Federal), medical, research and media. Articles include: "E-Government: No walls, No Clocks, No Doors," by William Peters and Charlene Porter, "Education for the 21st Century: Using Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning," by Linda Roberts, "The Internet as an Ever-Expanding Platform for Global Research," by Lori A. Perine, "Med Help International: Where There's a Doctor on the Web," interview with Cindy Thompson and Phil Garfinkel, "Old Strategy and New Tactics Drive Environmental Advocacy on the Internet," by Thomas Beierle, and "Crafting the News in a Digital Age," by Brad Kalbfeld. | http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/1100/ijge/ijge1100.htm
|
|
| | Article: "Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute," by Jakob Nielsen. Discusses some interesting statistics on how many people contribute to online communities, the inequality of the web, the downsides of participation inequality (including customer feedback, reviews, politics, and search), and how to overcome participation inequality (such as making it easier to contribute, making participation a side effect, editing, rewarding participants, and promoting quality participation). | http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html
|
|
| | Article: "Web Communities and the Art of Making Money," by Robert Nagle. Discusses the difference between web community sites and media sites, business models for web communities (charging for access), the advertising model, corporate bulletin boards, and where are all the web communities. | http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/essays/mirror/webcommunity1.php
|
|
| | Article: “Community Building on the Web,” by Amy Jo Kim. Discusses what should be considered when starting a web community, including designing for growth and change, the importance of etiquette (laying down the rules and enforcing them), quality, member-run subgroups, and signaling your audience as to what your site is about. | http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/01/16/2352213&mode=thread
|
| |
|
| | Article: “Building Web Communities,” by Jennifer Fleming. Discusses how to build web communities. Includes defining the community, “social scaffolding” (for conversation and collaboration as coined by Amy Jo Kim) that includes the purpose of your community, places, identity for each member, roles (for different users e.g., visitor, member), leadership, etiquette, events, rituals, and subgroups. Additional topics include how to avoid developing sites with no traffic by having a core affinity group, having good content, and having good conversations and publishing. Discusses the role of the host that includes being the enforcer of the rules, the guide to community information, a participant, and a member of a community of hosts. Contains links to examples of web communities. | http://www.ahref.com/guides/culture/199810/1005jef.html
|
| |
|
|
| |
 |
|