Presentation at the User-Centric Media conference in Venice, Italy 10th of Dec. 2009

1. Innovation in online communities - Towards
community-centric design
1st International ICST Conference on User Centric Media - UCMedia 2009
Venice, 9-11 December 2009
Petter Bae Brandtzæg
PhD candidate at SINTEF ICT & University of Oslo
pbb@sintef.no
Twitter @PetterBB
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2. Co-authors
Asbjørn Følstad, SINTEF ICT
Marianna Obrist, University of Salzburg
David Geerts, University of Leuven
Rüdiger Berg, NetColgone
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3. Lessons learned
(IST, FP6 www.ist-citizenmedia.org, 2006-2009) (www.recordproject.org , 2006-2010)
Both projects explore how people interact and create user-generated
content in online communities
Experiences from the user involvement of more than 10.000 people
Challenges and opportunities involving online communities – and a shift
from user centric–design towards community-centric design
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4. “anything that changes the way groups get things
done will affect society as a whole” (p. 23)
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5. A new form of “group action” driven by new tools
and a new usage pattern
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
Browsing Searching Creating/sharing Socializing
Passive information The web got a lot of Blogging and diverse Social networking gets
consumption on the web. information. The amount of Web 2.0 services makes it popular. User collaborate
Activity was related to write in information made easier for the non- and co-create new virtual
addresses to find information it difficult for the users to find professional environments and content.
made by professionals. and retrieve web info. user to create and share They share, tag and educate
Newspapers on the web is New search engines was digital content. YouTube each other. Social networking
typical examples. taking place. Google take off. and Blogging take off. as Facebook is a
Single use, passive consumption Active and collaborative group action
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(Brandtzæg & Heim, 2008)

6. 70%
Online communities reach nearly 70 percent of the
total global online audience, ranking as one of the
most popular categories on the Web (Abraham,
ComScore, 2009).
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7. Transparency
Blogs
Wikis
Sharing Participation
Innovation
Mashups
Co-creation 7

8. A new i economy based on voluntary group activity in
communities
Increased transparency, sharing of knowledge, information, experiences, ideas,
through co-creation in online communities
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9. Mass Collaboration
Wisdom of Crowds
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10. Online communities are blurring the border between
producer and users
PARTICIPATION & SHARING:
Involve non-professional community
users to contribute with ideas
TRANSPARANCY: Companies give
away control (e.g. source code,
professional content) to the
community
CO-CREATION: Enable community
users to improve their product and
extend their services thorough co-
creation (and in that way also
bridge the digital divide)
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11. The key for the Future Internet is to bring together
professional and non-professional media creators
(Daras and Alvarez, 2009)
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Daras, P., Alvarez, F (2009). A future perspective on the 3D Media Internet. In: Tselentis, G.e.a. (ed.): Towards the Future Internet –
A European Perspective. IOS Press. 303-312

12. MyIdea4CA.com, an online community to harvest and evaluate
ideas (16 000 per 7.12.09) for the State of California
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13. Dell IdeaStorm is a website
launched by Dell on February 16, 2007
to allow Dell "to gauge which ideas are most
important and most relevant to" the public
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14. 14

15. Facebook is even innovating for peace
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16. How to build successful online communities
supporting innovation?
Online community success
Content
sharing, Social capital
co-creation
Challenges
(e.g. social distrust, privacy, low usability, etc.)
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Brandtzæg et al., submitted

17. New forms of digital divides emerge
Digital consumer divides;
ability to consume media
content.
Digital production divides;
ability to produce media
content.
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(Brandtzæg, 2007)

18. In large communities: 90-9-1 rule
(Nilsen, 2006) 18

19. 1% contribute
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20. Wikipedia written by single men in the age 18-30 years
1 out 10 are women
Source: Wikimedia/J.Wales (2009): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/strategy/e/eb/State_of_the_Wiki.pdf
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21. Participation and user generated content is not for
the ”average user”
"The average user is too busy"
"They just want to get work
done"
Jakob Nielsen, a Web design expert BusinessWeek Online 2007
with consultant Nielsen Norman 26.Sept. ”It’s a whole new web”
Group
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22. In small communities: 50-30-20 rule
20%
30%
50%
Lurkers
(Brandtzæg & Heim, in press) 22

23. So…how to involve ”all” community-users in the
innovation process?
Foto: michelhrv (Flickr, creative commons)
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24. Challenges
How to filter and analyze all
the contributions
How to identify the right kind
of communities and
participants?
Participation, yes! But what
about commitment in long
innovation processes?
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25. The Living Lab revival
http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/ 25

26. What are Living Labs?
Environments for innovation and development
… where users are exposed to new solutions
… in familiar contexts
… as part of medium – or long term studies
New term within the field of ICT
Emerging concept
Limited literature
Innovation support
Context research
Main target of ENoLL Living Labs
Discovery
…even though Living Labs were not originally
Co-creation thought of as arenas for co-creation and
Commercially community action
Evaluation
available
Technical testing
product 26

27. Beyond the user-centric approach - Towards
community-centric design
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28. Conclusion
Still, community-centric methods are immature, and existing user-
centric design methods need to be adapted in order to fit a new
paradigm for innovation in online communities
New approaches such as Living Labs are promising, but further
development of associated methods and processes is needed
A community-centric design approach is being recognized, as this
will help companies to tap into the enormous potential co-creation
with communities offer for creating new applications and services
on the Future Media Internet
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29. Thank you ☺
This paper was supported by the Norwegian research
council and EC, IST FP6
Presentation shared at: www.slideshare.net/PetterB
More information at:
www.recordproject.org
www.ist.citizenmedia.org
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30. References
Abraham, L. B/ComScore. (2009). Cracking the Code of Social Media
Measurement: ComScore.
Brandtzæg, P.B., & Heim, J. (Accepted September, 2009). Social Network
Sites – A Typology of Users. International Journal of Web Based
Communities (IJWBC)
Brandtzæg, P.B., Lüders, M. , Skjetne (submitted). Social practices and
privacy in social networking sites. Journal of Human Computer Interaction
Brandtzæg, P.B.(2007). The Innovators in the New Media landscape. The
Cost 298 Conference - The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, Moscow,
Russia.
Daras, P., Alvarez, F (2009). A future perspective on the 3D Media
Internet. In: Tselentis, G.e.a. (ed.): Towards the Future Internet - A
European Perspective. IOS Press. 303-312
Shirky, C.(2009). Here comes everybody. The power of organizing without
organizations. Penguin books, New York
Wikimedia/J.Wales (2009):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/strategy/e/eb/State_of_the_Wiki.pd
f
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