2. Community Memory 1973 Community Memory ’73 1st Public BBS – Berkeley San Francisco experiment to understand how people would react to exchanging information via computer
3. History of Communities online Usenet ‘79 – organised into topical categories called newsgroups Usenet resembled Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) which were precursors of today’s internet forums MUD (Multi-User Dungeons) multi-user real-time virtual world represented in text IRC (Internet Relay Chat) a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing
4. History of Communities online Chat Rooms BBS SysOP home-hosted systems Today’s Threaded Internet Forums www.biofind.com Community 2.0 Social web technologies plus a community
5. Definition When people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships Howard Rheingold Author- Virtual Communities (1993)
6. Other Leading Lights Mark Granovetter American sociologist at Stanford University Theories on the spread of information in social networks known as "The Strength of Weak Ties" (1973). Malcolm Gladwell “The Tipping Point” where he talks of “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”
7. What makes up Online Community An enabling technology Ning, wordpress, BB forum, Facebook A core topic (or other connecting factor) Passionate contributors Background crowd An unwritten social contract of trust Moderators (sometimes)
8. Examples of the purpose of online communities Activism Clan (gaming) Research test bed Technology Strategy Board 30,000 representative UK onliners www.innovateuk.org Support Groups
9. Examples of the purpose of online communities Ethnography Hobbies www.flickr.com - photography www.redbubble.com - poetry Answers www.blurt-it.com, Yahoo answers , A highly networked individual’s social graph
13. Make up of a community Peripheral (i.e. Lurker) – An outside, unstructured participation Inbound (i.e. Novice) Newcomer is invested in the community and heading towards full participation Insider (i.e. Regular) Full committed community participant Leader (i.e. Champion) A leader, sustains membership participation and brokers interactions
14. Make up of a community Peripheral =1000 Inbound =100 Insider =10 Leader =1
15. Community participation Lurkers don’t readily participate because they don’t believe they need to and in not doing so they are being helpful Leaders participate because they believe that their actions will have positive outcomes Member participation is not based on hierarchical needs or goals-driven theories but desire planning and they environment Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for human–computer interaction:Jonathan Bishop
18. Monetisation summary Good Old fashioned cpc mechanisms Subscription or freemium models Relationship commissions
19. Other value in community Conversation/dialogue Sentiment Influence Co-learning Collaboration
20. Qualitative Signs of success Signs of ownership within the community Self-policing Rituals Off-line actions begin
21. Quantitative success metrics Number of new members Number leaving members Member satisfaction Number and type of content items created Number of connections / relationships created Time on site Frequency of visits Recommendations & Referrals
22. Building a community Don’t let technology drive the community Seed content with known champions in the topic Inaugural members act as roll models Define code of conduct Moderate Keep participation simple Initially all content open unless as part of a reward
23. Building a community Politely provoke and reward participation Track strangers/lurkers and try to promote them through desire Be active and part of the community yourself Set an example It takes time!
27. Monitor Your brand Everyone should do this Investigate Trending Topics Learn the rules Feedback What are you doing right? Or wrong? DO Listen
28. Listening tools Market Sentinel BuzzMonitor Also... Twitter Search Technorati Search Google Blog search Board Reader DO Listen
29. Respond and React Online Engage (Good or Bad) Campaign (New Goals?) Beware the lonely troll Steer traditional digital activity Offline Act on feedback Tackle problems from the source Use the buzz! DO
35. DON’T Expect a red carpet “Build it and they will come” does not apply A presence is not enough No one likes a pushy salesman People will tell you what they think... ...whether you like it or not
37. Add Value DO Think of way to improve your members’ lives. ... even the smallest ways Advocates are valuable – let them know Make things easy - integrate Facebook Connect
39. @manairport live flight info We plugged the twitter API into the Manchester Airport live flight update service. User DMs flight number to manairport User receives updates by DM
41. Be Dodgy DON’T Spam Hijack Game the system Plagiarise Fake comments / Diggs
42. Habitat Hijacked twitter #hashtags to promote itself #iphone #mousavi #apple #trueblood Backlash on twitter Picked up by mainstream news BBC, Guardian, Sky News Habitat forced to apologize Should have done it MUCH sooner
48. Whole Foods “rahodeb” was an active user for 7 years on Yahoo finance forums (2000 – 2007) Revealed good knowledge of wholefoods and the CEO (in third person) Criticized Whole Foods rival Wild Oats Market During a £600mill buyout of OATS a complaint was lodged Whole foods CEO, John Mackey IS rahoeb Accused of attempting to influence share price.
50. Set your brand free Encourage and support amateur brand champions. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em Develop ideas with crowds Trust the users to be your ceontent providers. DO
53. DON’T Be a Bully If you find users doing something you find objectionable DON’T threaten with legal action DON’T Make demands Use legal action as a LAST resort
56. Guinness VS Failblog Dear Sir/Madam, Thanks for writing us an email regarding the “Record Breaking Fail”. Unfortunately, douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails will only bring upon you more shame on your house. I am also resisting the urge to write this email in ALL CAPS. I believe it is the duty of FAIL Blog(TM) to call out organizations when they encourage the public to do such things as “Break the record” for the “Most Individuals Killed In A Terrorist Act”. We firmly believe that our publication of your fail is protected under the concepts of fair use, commentary and non-trademark use. Please RTFM and we welcome you to tehinterwebs. Since we at FAIL Blog(TM) don’t have a legal defense department, we have complied with your request to remove the trademarked term and logo from the original image. We have used the “naughty bits filter” on the image to secure your naughty, naughty, trademark assertions. However, we have posted your email so that our audience can see why we had to remove the name of the failer from the image. I hope that this is the outcome you have expected as now NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THAT GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED HAS FAILED. The full legal response can be read here: icanhaz.com/legalresponse Cheers,FAIL Blog
