Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities

From the Book: It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change --Charles Darwin Calling all Community Builders We're living in fluid and dynamic times. It's easier than ever to travel the world and stay in touch electronically with people who live far away. As a society we're working harder, juggling more roles, and spending more of our free time at home exhausted from our multifaceted lives, fearful of the violence that we see in movies, TV and video games, and physically removed from our family, friends and neighbors. So we go online-to shop, play games, trade collectibles, argue politics, or just shoot the breeze. The Web is becoming our collective town square-more and more, people are turning to Web communities to get their personal, social and professional needs met. This translates into a tremendous opportunity for Web community builders. I first felt the power of online communications while working at Sun Microsystems in the mid-1980'S. Soon after joining the company, my boss asked me to name my computer, and I impulsively chose "Naima"-the title of a beautiful, haunting jazz ballad by John Coltrane that I'd learned the night before. My public identity on the Sun intranet became "amyjo@naima"; and within a few weeks, I started to get email from Coltrane fanatics all around the company. They invited me to join a private mailing list, and jam with them after hours. Because of my online identity, I'd found people who shared my passion, and that changed my life for the better. How is a Web community different than one in the real world? In terms of theirsocial dynamics, physical and virtual communities are much the same. Both involve developing a web of relationships among people who have something meaningful in common, such as a beloved hobby, a life-altering illness, a political cause, a religious conviction, a professional relationship, or even simply a neighborhood or town. So in one sense, a Web community is simply a community that happens to exist online, rather than in the physical world. But being online offers special opportunities and challenges that give Web communities a unique flavor. The Net erases boundaries created by time and distance, and makes it dramatically easier for people to maintain connections, deepen relationships, and meet like-minded souls that they would otherwise never have met. It also offers a strange and compelling combination of anonymity and intimacy that brings out the best and worst in people's behavior. It can be near impossible to impose lasting consequences on troublemakers, and yet relatively easy to track an individual's behavior and purchase patterns-which makes Web communities notoriously difficult to manage. To complicate matters further, the legal issues involving privacy, liability and intellectual property on the Web are just beginning to be addressed, and will evolve rapidly over the next few years. Although the focus is on Web communities, this book also illuminates deeper and more fundamental aspects of community building-the social and cultural dynamics, the power of a shared purpose, and the roles, rituals and events that bind people together into a group. Why I Wrote This Book I've been building online communities for ten years; I've worked on AOL sites, Web zines, technical-support message boards, Java chat room interfaces, online trading posts, and a variety of high-end gaming environments. Again and again, regardless of technology, I've found myself bumping up against the same basic issues in my work-issues like persistent identity, newcomer confusion, etiquette standards, leadership roles, and group dynamics. So about five years ago, l summarized these issues into a set of design guidelines, and started using them in my consulting practice. Through conversations with community leaders, both on and off the Web, I learned that the patterns I was seeing in virtual communities were echoed in physical communities, and that all communities are ultimately based on timeless social dynamics that transcend the medium of connection. In other words, people are people, even in cyberspace. This is the book that I wish I'd had when I was first starting out. I've found it incredibly useful to have a framework to help me address the basic design, technical and policy issues that arise in community building. This framework has helped me become a more effective and creative community designer; my hope is that it will do the same for you. How to Use This Book If you're engaged in producing, designing, programming, or maintaining communities that are based on the Web, you've come to the right place. This book is a strategic handbook for community builders; it summarizes the "best practices" of successful Web communities, and brings them to life with behind the-scenes stories from some dynamic and influential sites. Here, you'll learn about the key issues that every Web community designer faces, along with guidelines for addressing these issues within the context of your own community. You'll also learn which communications tools are most appropriate for your community, and which technologies are necessary for a large scale Web community to truly thrive. What you won't find here is an in-depth account of how to program a Web community, configure specific community-building tools, create a business plan, obtain financing, or develop an advertising or subscription strategy. The focus is on teaching you how to grow a thriving community that will attract and sustain members, and on how to address the design, technical and policy issues that will inevitably arise if your community becomes a success. All you need to enjoy and make use of this book is familiarity with Internet basics and a desire to create or improve your own online community. You don't need to be an expert programmer, a sophisticated Web designer, or a savvy business personal though if you are, you'll get even more out of the ideas presented here. If you're preparing to launch (or redesign) your Web community, you can use this book as a planning tool to help you formulate your vision, identify your audience, prioritize your feature set, and plan your staffing needs. Community building is a team effort; and accordingly, this book is written to be useful to people in management, marketing, production, programming, and design-all of whom will have input during the strategic planning phase. If you're running an existing community, you can use this book as a general source of ideas and inspiration to help you meet your goals, improve and develop your community, and better serve the needs of your members. If you're involved in teaching or lecturing on community design, you can use this book as a teaching tool. On the companion Web site you'll find some examples of class outlines, exercises and projects to complement the book.