New Media Initiatives

• Or, do comments alone make it a community??

• Some blogs have them, some blogs don't. Almost everyone wishes they had more.
• Is it still a community without interaction?

• 10 things that will make or break your website
  • http://blog.auinteractive.com/10-things-that-will-make-or-break-your-website

User generated content and social software trends

1. Not working:
   1. Requiring participation from square 1. Not all users need to participate to generate social value.
   2. Buying communities.
   3. Social networks for the sake of social networks.
   4. 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.
2. Working:
   1. Giving users control, being open to different uses you did not anticipate.
   2. Dunbar principle – segments of under 150 people.
   3. The individual should get value and the organization should derive aggregated value from all the individuals.
   4. Social sites have and need different types of users and each should be motivated/rewarded equally.
   5. 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?

Is it a community yet??

• Comments - the great hunt.

10 things that will make or break your website: http://blog.auinteractive.com/10-things-that-will-make-or-break-your-website

1. 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.

   1. Not working:
         1. Requiring participation from square 1. Not all users need to participate to generate social value.
         2. Buying communities.
         3. Social networks for the sake of social networks.
         4. 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.
   2. Working:
         1. Giving users control, being open to different uses you did not anticipate.
         2. Dunbar principle – segments of under 150 people.
         3. The individual should get value and the organization should derive aggregated value from all the individuals.
         4. Social sites have and need different types of users and each should be motivated/rewarded equally.
         5. Many voices generate emergent order: you can get much value out of all that data.