Blog Posts About: Social Design

James at Column Two has posted some good advice on the use of discussion groups inside a corporate Intranet.

A couple of points with which I agree:

To summarise: discussion groups only succeed if they either support an existing community, or meet a specific need. "Build it and they will come" simply doesn't work.

The good news is that the technology isn't particularly important. There are a huge number of excellent (and free) discussion board packages about, the trick is just to find one that is easy to use.

One point I would add in terms of implementation is the use of a notification or alerts system. Discussions groups change quickly and people can feel left behind and give up on keeping up with the discussion. By using email or RSS notifications, the company help ensure that people have a resource for keeping up with the flow of the discussions.

I’ve lived in a neighborhood with broken windows and I believe in broken windows theory. The theory says that a broken window that is left unfixed can quickly encourage more crime and vandalism because it sends a message of apathy to everyone that sees it.

I first read about the theory in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point. In the book, he shows how New York City used this theory to combat crime in the 80’s and 90's. They found that small things like keeping the subways free of graffiti (Amazon look inside a book) and stopping the fare jumpers helped combat crime because these small actions related a sense of caring as opposed to apathy. It signaled that the city was taking the subway back. Criminals were less likely to act out in an environment that was cared-for -- and caring for the subways helped stamp out crime by fixing the “broken windows�?.

As the book says, critics viewed these practices like scrubbing the decks of the Titanic as it was going down.

Also from Gladwell:

Broken Windows was the brainchild of the criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. Wilson and Kelling argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.

Since reading about the theory, I’ve been thinking about it in terms of web sites, especially social ones. On online communities, weblogs, wikis, etc. visitors thrive on the feeling that the site is well cared-for and they can often sense whether or not the environment is welcoming.

Visiting a social web site with broken links, misleading navigation, missing images, etc. is like visiting a neighborhood with broken windows- you get the feeling that no one cares. Broken windows do not promote return visits.

If you’re trying to create a community around your web site, I think you really have to consider this theory because it prompts you look at the value of the small and seemingly inconsequential problems on your site. By considering the ways that small problems can multiply a feeling of apathy, you may find that your time is better-spent fixing broken windows as opposed to building new houses.

This being said, if you find any broken windows on my site, please let me know. I'd hate to sit down one day to find that my site had been vandalized by a roaming band of window breakers.

Interview - James Atkinson , Founder of phpBB

For those of you who may not know, phpBB is discussion forum software. It allows web site owners to quickly add discussion forums to a web site.

What makes phpBB different is that it is open source. BTW, the acronym came from "php"- an open source programming language and "BB" as in Bulletin Board.

Like Web Crossing (which isn't truly open source) phpBB has a thriving support community, where users support one another.

James provides some tried and true advice for starting forums:

I think the mistake a lot of people make as they start an online community is that they don't start small. I've seen many boards with 10 or 12 forums, and maybe 20 posts between them. That's no way start. Begin with 2 or 3 forums to really get the discussion rolling, then expand as needed.

Thanks to Bill for the link.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how weblogs can be used as a part of an online community- and I think there are some real benefits.

One of the essential elements of successful online communities is leadership. An influential leader’s ability to manage a community can make an incredible difference in community perceptions, member participation and overall success.

Leadership cannot occur without communication. Without an effective way to communicate with members, a community leader cannot be as effective. Most managers participate in ongoing discussions and/or post information to a specific part of the community devoted to “Announcements�? or “News�?. While these are effective, I think there are new tools that can take community management a step further.

For instance, weblogs could play a significant role in helping online communities by giving the community leadership a more effective tool for keeping members updated and engaged.

In this case, an online community could have a weblog that is internally-focused and managed by community leaders. A community leader (or a group of leaders) could use the weblog on a daily basis and post:

• News and Updates regarding the community web site
• Commentary/quotes on current discussions between members
• Community story-telling -- posts about the community’s history
• Anecdotes and observations about the community
• Welcomes to new members
• Commentary on external and related news and links

Weblogs could be most valuable for new members of a community, who need a cultural touchstone to quickly get a “feel�? for how things work in the community. By reviewing weblog posts, a new member could quickly get a feel for the community’s culture by viewing a chronicle of the community’s history, through the words of the leadership.

The combination of a weblog and normal community tools (discussions, member profiles, etc.) makes for an impressive set of resources for the members. The weblog can act as a filter for the various discussions occurring on the site and provide members an easy way to find the most interesting or provocative discussions. Plus, being recognized on the weblog could be a incentive for thoughtful participation.

Another way to look at this is making an online community’s weblog a public resource, but making the community private. In this way, the weblog pulls members into the community membership based on what they see on the weblog. I guess you could call it weblog-based PR for the community.

Everything in Moderation: Bringing Politics into Online Communities

Tom Coates is really trying to be consistent with his newish weblog Everything in Moderation. The problem, as he points out, is that he's posting community-related articles on his ever-popular weblog at PlasticBag.org. Oh well, at least he's writing about it somewhere.

His most recent post was a reflection on an article about how cellists manage their relationships as part of a quartet over many years.

From this article he drew conclusions and lessons about how online communities form and deal with politics over time. I like the post and the lessons, but I didn't get the feelings from the article as he did.

However, it's great to see folks like Tom thinking about what we can learn about online communities from successful and unsuccessful group connections in the real world.

While online communities are a different animal, I think we have a long way to go in terms of building online communities that benefit from what we observe in real life. Too often, in my opinion, online community systems ignore some of the basic things that we observe in real life.

An online community that is formed to serve an existing real world community must take into account how the real world community behaves in real life. People are people in either case and their existing relationships and context must be able show through in their interactions online.

An example of this may be displaying real names, organizational affiliation and title within a professional group's community. Just a name may not do.

This kind of information helps members use the community within the pre-existing relationships and context that may have developed over years in the real world.

Boston.com / An e-neighborhood

Here comes the neighborhood. You've heard me say before that online communities are "community" first and "online" second- meaning that it's all about the real world communities that work together in an online "place."

This article is a good example of how real location-based communities are using message boards, etc. to conduct neighborly business.

"We're often not at home, or if we're at home, we're inside our houses," said Deborah Bier, moderator of a Concord online message board that has seen nearly 20,000 postings in the past six years. "We often have garden services. We don't mow our lawns. We don't have that familiarity with our neighbors. This is our over-the-fence."

If you haven't read "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam- read it. It describes in great detail how and why neighbors and have dis-engaged in the last 40 years. I believe the kinds of online communities described in this article are one way we can reverse this trend.

Like the Dean campaign, these groups are using the Internet to organize off line events:

In Arlington, the message board recently helped organize residents who were angry over the firing of a town employee. After dozens of messages on the topic popped up each day, residents packed a selectmen's meeting where the topic was discussed.

Does your neighborhood have an online "place" to meet? Do you think it should?

Thanks to Tim for the link!