Sep

Understanding Successful Online Communities

Posted by Tish Grier

Steve Yelvington, shares some advice on building successful online communities in response to Rob Miller's OJR essay Five rules for building a successful online community.

Steve is cautious on Rob's interest in

A community is where people get to know one another and develop interpersonal relationships. Cities aren't communities, but they can contain communities -- at the neighborhood, church and social organization level. Communities are small and strong."

Rob's Rule Three: Let your readers judge each other so you don't have to judge them yourself emphasises the use of the right technology for monitoring online communities. However, Steve is a firm believer that it's "not the technology. It's the people." and offers the following to Rob's rule: "Users will judge one another regardless of whether you implement software and ask them to take overt self-moderation actions, and peer pressure is a remarkable thing. Recognize and manage that process.

A well-led online discussion will have social goals and process targets that are carefully thought through by its managers and appropriately communicated. I would never, never counsel a news site to abandon that process to software. Visible human leadership is the single most powerful predictor of success in operating online communities. Focus there."

Mark Hamilton finds he is more convinced that "something real" is happening in the Second Life virtual online community after reading about Rebecca MacKinnon's reason for joining Second Life . Rebecca plans to take a course, Law in the Court of Public Opinion that will be taught both in Second Life and in real life by Harvard law school professor Charles Nesson. Rebecca also notes some of Second Life's limitations for social interactions in Chinese, as well as Ethan Zuckerman's observations on its limits for raising "awareness about the plight of people living in conflict-torn and impoverished parts of the world."