Designing and Enabling Communities

Christina Wodtke

PublicSquare |http://www.publicsquarehq.com

Me?

YouWhat do you want?

Jargon Check

• Social Media• Social Software• The Social Web• The Social Graph• Communities• Web 2.0• UGC

• Twitter• Facebook• LinkedIn• MySpace• Flickr

Whatis community, really?

Social XXX

• Usenet• Forums• Email• Mailing lists• Groupware• Social Networks

Services• Social Software• Social Media

Social Software can be loosely defined as software which supports, extends, or derives added value from, human social behavior - message-boards, musical taste-sharing, photo-sharing, instant messaging, mailing lists, social networking.

Credit Tim O’Reilly

David Armano: graphic Tim O’Reilly quote and list

Virtual CommunityA virtual space supported by computer-based information technology, centered upon communication and interaction of participants to generate member-driven content, resulting in relationships being built up. (Lee & Vogel, 2003)

Webb/Butterfield/Smith Model

Based on Matt Webb, Stewart Butterfield’s and Gene Smith’s writings

The Social Webis a digital space where data about human interactions is as important as other data types for providing value

Communityis when those humans care about each other.

Whereis all this happening?

Where does community happen?

• Blogs– LiveJournal, Blogger, Typepad, WordPress

• Wikis– JotSpot (Google), Wikispaces

• Social Networks– Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,

• Social Media– Ohmynews, Newsvine, Flickr

But not so much in• Tagging & Social Bookmarks

– del.ico.us• Social Filtering

– Digg, Reddit, StumbledUpon

Whendo I have to do something about all this?

When?

Are you waiting for Web 4.0?

Credits: Tim O’Reilly’s The Facebook Application Platform and compete, a a site for web metrics

• MySpace: 170 million unique users

• Blogger: 18.5 million unique users

• Classmates: 12.9 million unique users

• YouTube: 12.5 million unique users (65.000 uploads a day)

• MSN Groups: 10.6 million unique users

• 55% of US teenagers use social networking sites

NowNo time like the present

Why?

Trebor Scholz http://collectivate.net

8 days after a video was posted showing how to pick the lock in 30 seconds using a pen Kryptonite recalled 380,000 locks

Your users have something to tell you. If you don’t give them a way to communicate, they will find one.

Trebor Scholz http://collectivate.net

“I could go on with the benefits of building relationships rather than SEO campaigns, such as:– Longevity and customer

retention, not to mention repeat customers

– Bug tracking and community policing (ie. Flickr’s ‘Flag this photo as “may offend”?’)

– Amplified word of mouth – Built in market research – Buying ads is bloody expensive”

Tara Hunt

Joshua

Porter

“HOLD ON A SEC...are social features economically viable?

1. Direct contact with people who make you successful

2. Amplify customer opinion

3. Data, data, and more data

4. Reduce support costs

5. Engender Trust to form lasting relationships”

How?

Psychology

Reference: bokardo.com

The Social Web is built here, from love and esteem

O’Reilly Report on Facebook

The Facebook Application Platform

Motivation for hours(and hours and hours)of work

Motivations

• Social connectedness

• Psychological well-being

• Gratification

• Material gain

Kollock’s 4 Motivations for Contributing

1. Reciprocity

2. Reputation

3. Increased sense of efficacy

4. Attachment to and need of a group

Reciprocity

What's the motivation of behind these people actually interacting and

participating? … people want to share with the community what they believe to be important …. and they want to see their name in lights. They want to see their little icon on the front page, their username on the front page, so other people can see it.

Reputation

Increased sense of efficacy

Attachment to and need of a group

The New Third Place?

“All great societies provide informal meeting places, like the Forum in ancient Rome or a contemporary English pub. But since World War II, America has ceased doing so. The neighborhood tavern hasn't followed the middle class out to the suburbs...” -- Ray Oldenburg

Pro VS Con• Pleasure of creation• New friendships,

romance• Share their life

experience• Archive their memories• Effective job hunting

(weak ties research)• Contribute to the greater

good• Social enjoyment• Maximum convenience

• Intrusion into the Personal

• Market research, Ads, content swindled away

• Commodification of intimacy (dating sites)

• Spam• Collective intelligence

reinforces mob behavior• It’s good to go outside• Ease of contact on SNs

may erode social skills

Marketing Sneaks In

"The debate keeps getting framed as if the only true alternative were to opt out of media altogether and live in the woods, eating acorns and lizards and reading only books published on recycled paper by small alternative presses" Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins

Tim O’Reilly’s Hippies.

Strategizea communityexercise

Presence

Conversations

Sharing

Relationships

Groups

Reputation

Identity

“Strategy is knowing what not to do”Michael Porter

Break...please be back at2:45 pm...

Webb/Butterfield/Smith Model

Based on Matt Webb, Stewart Butterfield’s and Gene Smith’s writings

1.) If you were going to build a piece of social software to

support large and long-lived groups, what would you design for? The first thing you would design for is handles the user

can invest in.

Clay Shirky, A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

Identity Identity• Avatar• Profile• Activity• Collections

Identity is Context Based

Facebook- Personal LinkedIN - Professional

Presence

Presence Presence

• Status• History• Statistics• Signs of Life• Company

Presence Presence

• Status• History• Statistics• Signs of Life• Company

2.) Second, you have to design a way for there to

be members in good standing. Have to design some way in which good

works get recognized. The minimal way is, posts appear with

identity. You can do more sophisticated

things like having formal karma or "member

since."

Reputation

Relationships

3.) Three, you need barriers to participation. This is one of the things that killed Usenet.

You have to have some cost to either join or participate, if not at the lowest level, then at higher levels. …

anyone can read Slashdot, anonymous cowards can post, non-anonymous cowards can post with a higher rating. But to moderate, you really have to have been around for a while.

Missing block?

Groups

Groups• Norms

- Vilification - Veneration - Rules

• Jargon & In-Jokes• Collective Choices

NormsMissing block?

Vilification

Veneration

Conversations

4.) And, finally, you have to find a way to spare the group from

scale. Scale alone kills conversations, because conversations require

dense two-way conversations.

[Dunbar] found that the MAXIMUM number of people that a person could

keep up with socially at any given time, gossip maintenance, was 150. This doesn't mean that people don't have

150 people in their social network, but that they only keep tabs on 150 people

max at any given point.

Sharing

Presence

Conversations

Sharing

Relationships

Groups

Reputation

Identity

Self

Community

Activity

Rules & Repercussions

Purpose/Passion?

Co-Creation?

Planning?

Caretakers?CollectivelyRate?

Publish?

Rules & Repercussions

Purpose/Passion?

Co-Creation?

Planning?

Caretakers?

CollectivelyRate?

Publish?

Designa communityexercise Presence

Conversations

Sharing

Relationships

Groups

Reputation

Identity

Simple (hard) Steps• Have a compelling idea• Seed• Someone must live on the site

– Community manager or you• Make the rules clear (and short)

– Write a good TOS• Punish swiftly and nicely• Reward contributions• Spread the work out• Adapt to Community Norms• Apologize publicly, swiftly and frequently• Simple good software that grows with group

Does Software Matter?

Robin Miller, Cofounder of Slahdot

Joel Spolsky, Joel on Software

Probably not

Your take?

Christina Wodtke

http://www.slideshare.net/cwodtke

http://www.publicquarehq.com

Where I store my acorns (of knowledge, ‘cause I’m squirrelly)

http://www.slideshare.net/cwodtke

http://del.icio.us/cwodtke/SocialMedia

http://www.eleganthack.com/blog

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/person/9-cwodtke

PatternsSelf• Identity

– Avatar– Profile– Activity– Recommendations

• Presence– Status– History– Statistics– Signs of Life– Keep Company

• Reputation– Rules– Ratings

Community• Relationships

– Add/remove friends– Define relationship– Initiate relationship

• Groups– Norms

• Vilification• Veneration• Interaction

– Jargon– Collective Choices– Rules

Actions• Conversations

– Public– Private– Caretakers

• Sharing– Things– Activities– Progress– Secrets

http://social.itp.nyu.edu/shirky/wiki/?n=Main.PatternLanguage

http://barcamp.org/BarCampBlockSocialMediaDesignPatterns