Is it a community yet??
- Comments - the great hunt.
- Some blogs have them, some blogs don't. Almost everyone wishes they had more.
- Is it still a community without interaction?
- Or, do comments alone make it a community??
- 10 things that will make or break your website
User generated content and social software trends
This is a bit of a catchall, but I’d like to list what has been working and not working in the user generated content space.
- Not working:
- Requiring participation from square 1. Not all users need to participate to generate social value.
- Buying communities.
- Social networks for the sake of social networks.
- Wikipedia consensus model (many people contribute to one idea for the greater good) is not a good model in general and probably cannot be duplicated outside Wikipedia.
- Working:
- Giving users control, being open to different uses you did not anticipate.
- Dunbar principle – segments of under 150 people.
- The individual should get value and the organization should derive aggregated value from all the individuals.
- Social sites have and need different types of users and each should be motivated/rewarded equally.
- Many voices generate emergent order: you can get much value out of all that data.
Your turn
- Small groups, quickly discuss what's worked for your blogs (or ??), what hasn't worked, and what's been the biggest obstacle. How have you fostered successful online communities?
- What's working and why?