IBM developerWorks Community Offerings

IBM developerWorks community offerings:Best practices to maximize your users’ community experience Document version 1.0

Authors: Ami Dewar, Jason Clark, and Bob Leah

IBM developerWorks community offerings:

Best practices to maximize your users’ community experience...

I B M D E V E L O P E R W O R K S C O M M U N I T Y O F F E R I N G S I

Contents

Profiles .................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Realizing the full potential................................................................................................................ 2

Building the profile ........................................................................................................................... 2

Optimizing search.......................................................................................................................... 14

Making connections....................................................................................................................... 16

My Home............................................................................................................................................................. 19

Personalization.............................................................................................................................. 19

Making meaningful recommendations............................................................................................ 24

Reinforcing brand loyalty ............................................................................................................... 26

Crowdsourcing .............................................................................................................................. 27

Groups ................................................................................................................................................................ 28

Stimulating organic growth ............................................................................................................ 28

Cultivating ownership .................................................................................................................... 28

Encouraging participation .............................................................................................................. 30

Making it relevant .......................................................................................................................... 31

Facilitating feedback...................................................................................................................... 36

Blogs ................................................................................................................................................................... 38

Identifying our community champions............................................................................................ 38

Finding and interacting with blogs.................................................................................................. 38

Requesting a blog.......................................................................................................................... 40

Bookmarks .......................................................................................................................................................... 42

Improving the navigation of bookmarks.......................................................................................... 46

Recognizing user trends................................................................................................................ 47

Activities .............................................................................................................................................................. 51

Teaming ........................................................................................................................................ 51

Managing the learning curve.......................................................................................................... 54

Ensuring accountability.................................................................................................................. 56

Glossary .............................................................................................................................................................. 61

PROFILES

I B M D E V E L O P E R W O R K S C O M M U N I T Y O F F E R I N G S 2

Profiles

Your electronic persona

R E A L I Z I N G T H E F U L L P O T E N T I A L

Its often the first step and the lowest common denominator of the community experience, but undoubtedly, the

profile plays the most important role in a successful social network. The more information we, as community

managers, acquire about our users, the more we learn and this is the kind of knowledge that can pay huge

dividends in our business. But not only do we realize the benefits, but the more that users reveal about

themselves, the easier it is for them to find others and start communicating on a one-to-one level. It represents

the most granular level of interaction. The profile is the user’s electronic persona, and if fully utilized, users can

search for others with common interests, roles and skills or identify topic experts that could offer solutions to

critical problems. The applications of the profile are endless, thus supporting the utmost need to offer a

compelling profile experience with ongoing attention paid to expanding the features and functions offered within

the profile.

B U I L D I N G T H E P R O F I L E

A well thought-out profile showcases the user, what their technical interests are, and why they have joined the

developerWorks community and this information is invaluable for everyone with a stake in this community. We

should definitely encourage and provide incentives for our users to fill out their profiles. The next few steps will

identify the steps of creating a robust profile. While the actual creation of a profile is simple, a user should

carefully consider the information they want to reveal about themselves. A completed profile is only as good as

the quality of the information it contains. As the fields are populated, they should be cognizant of how others will

use this information. Its critical to recognize that the profile is the primary vehicle that members of the community

use to find and reach out to each other. The profile should be thought of as an electronic business card. How

do users want others to view them?

PROFILES


To edit the profile:

1. Choose Profiles from the IBM toolbar

2. Select the Edit my Profile tab on the profile application page

3. Select any of the five areas of the profile to update

I. Contact information

Contact information contains the basic data collected at the time of registration. In addition to the required

registration fields, it contains optional contact information. This information is not publicly displayed in the

profile. However, it can be used by IBM to recommend special promotions tailored to the user’s interests or

role. To update any of these fields select IBM registration, this link will redirect to the IBM registration form as

this information is maintained by IBM.

PROFILES


II. About me

The About me section is all about personalization. This tab contains six categories that allow the user to select

their interests, skills, professional role, and goals for their My developerWorks experience. Plus, the user has

rich text fields to further elaborate on their professional expertise and personal background. This information is

public and represents the real meat of the profile. It’s the basis for search and allows users to find and identify

like-minded individuals. But, its also the information that we can use to further customize the user’s experience

and make logical recommendations that are relevant to their selections. Each category is covered in detail

below.

TIP: Keeping a valid and up-to-date email address is critical within My developerWorks. Many of the community applications have the capability to notify users of updates or broadcasts. For instance, a Groupcan notify its membership of a new article or call to action. The same goes for Activities, where notifications are sent to keep members current on key project dates or the completion of a task. Having a valid email will keep users abreast of all community events in real time.

PROFILES


About me > My roles

Encouraging users to identify their role is important. If we understand the primary roles held by our user base

we can better select technical content to support these roles on developerWorks. And just as is the case with all

the information collected from the user, these selections give us the basis for making relevant product, and skill

development recommendations tailored to the individual and their specific role. Further, if users understand the

roles other individuals play, they can use this information to facilitate cross-discipline teams to complete

Activities or request like-minded individuals to join Groups.

TIP: This is an important step. About Me has six categories that make up the heart of a user’s electronic persona. There are a series of selections pertinent to the developerWorks business designed to assist the user in describing their role, skills, interests and goals. The forms support multiple choices, encouraging users to make all the selections necessary to describe themselves accurately.

In addition, About Me contains two rich text fields which afford the user the ability to describe themselves in their own words, with their own formatting. They can even include photos and web links.

PROFILES


About me > I’m skilled in

Following a natural progression from roles, users are asked to identify their skills, with the likelihood that these

skills support the very tasks required of them by their role, however, they may also be unrelated. Regardless,

users can identify their skills at a high level, selecting just an IBM product brand or technical topic or they can

filter their selection down to specific products within the brand or themes associated with the general technical

topics.

The skills list is based on two categories :

1. IBM products

2. Technical topic

TIP: Users can make selections from the pre-defined roles, or enter a role not specified in the Other field.

PROFILES


About me > My areas of interest

Roles and skills pull from exactly the same list of IBM products and technical topics, however the context of their

selection is very different. For some, their selections will be identical to skills, for others quite different. They

don’t have to be skilled in a technical category to have an interest. Interests can represent technical areas in

which the user is quite knowledgeable or concepts for which the user just has a general appreciation and wants

to learn more.

TIP: Skills are important to making connections within My developerWorks. Encouraging users to make focused selections will afford them the benefit of a community of diversely skilled practitioners, just as they will find value in congregating with users of similar affiliations.

PROFILES


About me > My goals

What is better to understand about our users then their goal for what they are trying to accomplish while

spending time on our website? The insight we can gain from understanding their goals, allows us to build

learning paths and promote themes catered to those goals. If we can understand if they are using our

community to solve a problem or to connect with their peers to grow and build a skill, we are that much farther

along with how we provide the solution or scenario.

PROFILES


About me > My professional expertise & My biography and interests

The real benefit of these fields is for the user. My professional expertise and My biography and Interests are

simply the label to put the user’s input into context, otherwise, the sky’s the limit. This is the individual’s

opportunity to describe themselves in their own words. Users control the formatting, add photos, customize

their input however they want, within the confines of the rich text field. They should consider this an overview of

their professional life, summarizing the expertise and knowledge they have gained through training, projects,

research, work history, and other business-related activities.

For example, "I've worked in a variety of industries, primarily in the area of warehouse logistics. I started with barcode programming, but now I focus on wireless solutions."

PROFILES

I B M D E V E L O P E R W O R K S C O M M U N I T Y O F F E R I N G S 1 0

TIP: This is the fun part! Fully customizable, the rich text area allows the user to insert photos or other objects to describe themselves.

PROFILES


III. Photo

Including a photo on a profile personalizes the experience. It’s a creative outlet for users to pictorially express

themselves with either a real image or a caricature of how they want their colleagues to view them. It

associates a real individual to the words on the screen giving them a presence in the community. The photo is

associated with the user everywhere they make a contribution to the community.

The photo should always be business-appropriate.

PROFILES


IV. Pronunciation

My developerWorks is a global community… as users interact with the larger community, understanding the

pronunciation of their colleagues’ names is an important step to growing relationships.

TIP: The photo appears everywhere the user contributes content within My developerWorks. Having an image helps differentiate users and allows them to standout as an individual, and not just another community artifact!

PROFILES


V. Security information

Security information contains information collected at the time of IBM registration. This information is not publicly

displayed in the profile. To update any of these fields the user must select the link for IBM registration, this link

will redirect them to the IBM registration form.

VI. Favorite links

Favorite links allow users to publically display other web addresses within their profile. It could be a link to their

profile on another social network, a link to their personal blog or a favorite website. Ideal links are relevant to

professional communities, organizations, business goals and interests.

To add a favorite link

1. Within the Favorite links widget, click Add link and enter a URL.

To remove a favorite link

2. Within the Favorite links widget click the X decorator associated with the link to delete.

PROFILES


VII. Recent activity

Recent activity is tracked automatically by My developerWorks applications. Recent activity provides a

consolidated view of the user’s participation across the application suite. Users can track their involvement or

quickly view someone else’s.

O P T I M I Z I N G S E A R C H

I. Tags

TIP: Consider social networks, technical user groups, a personal blog or website or those of a favorite topic expert. Links should educate users about each other. Good examples are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on.

PROFILES


Tagging is as simple as a user adding terms to their profile that are meaningful to them. However minute the

task may appear, the value should never be considered minimal. Tags allow individuals to use their own

vocabulary to describe their professional role, interests, and affiliations with 1-2 keywords. Tags are publicly

displayed and aid significantly in findability as users can perform searches for each other via tags. Consider this

the user’s meta data. Future functionality could allow us to further utilize tagging to associate users and their

participation with other community artifacts. It opens the door to building a user reward system and

incorporating badges.

Using the tag widget is simple:

1. To add a tag, simply type the word into the text field and press enter.

2. To remove a tag, click the X decorator.

II. Search

From the Profile application, under the Search Profiles tab, users can search by name or keyword.

TIP: Use an underscore between words to use a two word tag.

PROFILES


Clicking Advanced search options displays a number of fields to narrow the search results returned.

Substitute “*” as a wildcard, for example: Dav* will result in a match for David or Dave.

M A K I N G C O N N E C T I O N S

I. Colleagues

PROFILES


Colleagues provide a way to electronically display and navigate the social network of associated users that have

connected on My developerWorks.

Connecting with a colleague:

1. View the profile of a colleague

2. Next to their profile picture, click Add to my colleagues

3. An invite is sent to the colleague to approve the connection

Approving a colleague connection:

1. Within the Recent Colleagues widget click New invitations

2. Approve or reject the colleague request

II. The vCard

A “vCard” is conveniently displayed anywhere the user’s name appears within the community. making it easy

for colleagues to connect with one another. It’s associated with every piece of user contributed content. The

vCard provides users with visibility and influence among their peers giving them quick access to each other the

areas of the community they are active in. .

TIP: Connecting with colleagues is simple enough… but the question is often when and with who should a user make a connection? Best advice, start with known relationships. Then, as users participate in Groups or Activities, they may elect to make a connection with these peers. And of course, users should utilize the search function within profiles, looking for individuals who have similar goals, interests, and skills to invite as a colleague.

PROFILES


TIP: The vCard is helpful in identifying where users are participating and who they are interacting with. To activate a vCard, hover over a user’s display name and click the link Click here to view business card.

MY HOME


My Home

A personalized view of developerWorks community offerings

A successful community model manages to attract diverse, and committed users and the content these

users create cannot be replicated by marketing departments or editorial staff. But success is far from

guaranteed. With so many social sites on the world wide web, everyone is competing for our users’

time and effort. As a result, communities that just rely on user contributions could be in a heap of

trouble. It has to be a bit of give and take. We want users to spend time on developerWorks, so we

must offer them the experience that makes them most likely to hang around. And who better to know

what that is then themselves. Personalization is the key. Offering them a place they feel comfortable

calling home is more than just the label on the page. If managed effectively it can mean the difference

between becoming a destination and just another a pit stop off Google.

P E R S O N A L I Z A T I O N

My home offers users a view of their activity within My developerWorks that only they have access to.

While its up to them to realize the full potential that it offers, we need to listen to what it is they want to

see, what formats they want to view it in (do they prefer a mobile accessible view, a desktop widget or

the traditional website?), How they want the information presented (siloed per application and task or

filtered by a more global view of what is going on across the entire community, vs. contributions by their

colleagues, down to tasks completed and recommendations intended for just them), and what features

would keep them coming back (theming, better widgets, ability to track their participation on other

websites within My home– Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Linked in, etc). While much of these ideas

represent future function, we need to always be considering how to stay on top of the curve, because

the minute we become complacent, another site will be waiting in line to take our place.

I. Customizing My Home

My Home allows users to add and arrange widgets as best suits them, creating a unique landing page

from which to navigate to all factions of My developerWorks. Plus, each widget offers multiple views

that a user can configure. With so many options, My home can offer each user a unique experience

catering to what is important to them.

The first step is identifying which widgets to display, and the order in which they are to be arranged.

MY HOME


Widgets that have been closed will exist in a minimized state on the right side of the page. To add a

minimized widget to My home, grab the closed container and drag and drop it into position. Or select

the open decorator (triangle) of a minimized widget and choose the position from the menu.

II. Changing the widget’s view

Most widgets on My home have several different views and configuration options. There is a toolbar

to the right of the widget’s title. The toolbar contains five icons representing possible actions.

Selecting the icons will evoke the following responses:

1. Move – Re-position the widget on your home page via key selection, rather than drag and

drop. (Left, Right, Up, Down)

2. Edit – Configure the widgets’ settings. The following sections detail the possible

configuration settings.

3. Help – Quick tips to assist the user.

TIP: Drag and drop is available for most of the widgets, allowing the user the ability to decide the best page layout for them.

TIP: There are three widgets that are always displayed on My home: Announcements, Community Events, and My feeds. These widgets will not have a close decorator.

MY HOME


4. Refresh – Refresh the contents of the individual widget.

5. Close – Minimize the widget to a closed state.

III. General widgets (Activities, Blogs, Profile, Bookmarks, and Groups)

The home page provides five general widgets that dynamically allow a user to follow their activity and

that of others across My developerWorks.

1. Activities – Allows a user to display new responses, entries, and due dates for their activity

items. The view can be altered to show a user’s private Activities or all public Activities. In

addition, the user can configure the date and number of entries to display. When displaying a

user’s private Activities, the calendar highlights dates assigned to “To Do” items, either

overdue (RED) or upcoming (GREEN). Selecting the date will display additional details and

allow a user to navigate directly to the Activity.

2. Blogs – This widget allows users to keep track of recent blog entries. It can be configured to

show up to ten blog entries within a single view. Selecting a blog entry by title is a shortcut

directly to the full entry. The star graphic and dialog bubble represent the number of user

recommendations and comments respectively. Clicking on the blogger’s name will activate

their vCard.

MY HOME


3. Profiles – This widget provides a glimpse into a user’s profile, highlighting some personal data,

key actions and pending colleague requests. The view can be toggled between basic profile

data and the user’s colleagues. A search input field across the bottom, allows users to quickly

search and find other individuals. Plus, a user can easily navigate back to their profile to make

updates.

4. Bookmarks – This displays bookmarks in one of four views:

My Bookmarks - The user’s bookmarks.

Popular Bookmarks - Bookmarks that have been referenced most often.

My Watchlist – Bookmarks associated with a common tag or individual, that the user

has elected to follow within My Bookmarks..

MY HOME


Recent Bookmarks – All My developerWorks bookmarks in descending order,

beginning with the most recent additions

Up to ten bookmarks can be displayed. Selecting a bookmark takes the user directly to the

original earmarked webpage. “Details” provides additional information, including tags

associated with the bookmark, in the convenience of a popup window.

5. Groups – This widget displays either the user’s groups or all public groups. The widget lists up to ten

groups and keeps the user up-to-date with recent changes within My developerWorks groups. A user

can navigate directly to a Group from within the widget and a convenient popup shows additional

details and a link to the Feeds, Bookmarks and Message Board associated with each listed Group.

TIP: A user can add a bookmark to their own personal list of bookmarks by clicking Add to my bookmarksfrom within the popup window.

MY HOME


M A K I N G M E A N I N G F U L R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S

My home is the ideal platform for us to make individualized recommendations to the user. Whether we

recognize their interests by the selections they choose, or build the functionality to understand them by means

of the contributions they are making, how we market our products and likely next steps to the user can be

presented as a much more natural progression to their learning if we understand where they stand on this path.

I. My feeds widget

This widget will display an entirely customizable view of feeds from nearly any entity within developerWorks. A

user can select technologies or IBM brands, plus one or more artifact types, including articles, tutorials, and

downloads. The My Feeds widget enables the user to selectively filter, from the vast amount of award-winning

developerWorks content, information they find to be useful. This widget is dynamic, pushing the freshest

content to the top of the list. Configuration is simple, yet allows the user to specify a date range, specific

keywords to sort by, the number of entries to view and the areas they are interested in following. Selecting any

result will lead the user directly to that content on developerWorks.

MY HOME


II. Community events widget

The Community events widget is unique to My developerWorks, displaying upcoming technical events such as

webcasts, technical briefings, podcasts and so on. The widget can be scoped to list only those events specific

to one or more technical areas or IBM products of interest to the user.

MY HOME


R E I N F O R C I N G B R A N D L O Y A L T Y

We would be missing an invaluable marketing opportunity that no dollar amount could fairly assess, if

we don’t take advantage of the captive audience and push announcements, ideas, highly rated content,

and themes to our users within My home.

I. Announcement widget

This widget is maintained by developerWorks and used to message the community at large. This

widget should be kept fresh and accurate with the latest happenings, or marketing themes we want to

impart to our users. It’s a pipeline directly to every developerWorks user. This widget cannot be

minimized or removed by the user.

MY HOME


C R O W D S O U R C I N G

Opening the platform to the collective wisdom of our audience is the next logical step. Clearly, there is

only so much time in the day and technical resources are never limitless, but our primary audience is

developers, IT professionals, who for a living, build and support applications. Why not capitalize on the

users willing to contribute features and functions that will benefit them, and undoubtedly thousands of

others? Allowing them to contribute widgets that will surface the information they want to see within My

home (and potentially beyond) can be a win-win for everyone.

GROUPS


Groups

Create your own groups or join an existing group.

While profiles are the cornerstone of community, groups play a critical role when it comes to establishing

relationships and encouraging organic growth. Groups provide an outlet for people to interact, share ideas, add

comments, tag content, and so on. Groups can be the optimal vehicle to drive many of the best practices for

online community nurturing. It stands to reason that if My developerWorks provides this medium, seeds the

user base with owners and subject matter experts and continues to fan the fire with new features, more

incentives and ongoing support, groups, alone, could become one of our strongest community assets.

S T I M U L A T I N G O R G A N I C G R O W T H

Groups reinforce the organic growth model. There is no barrier to create a group, no limits to joining a public

group. Virtually no technical topic is off limits and no skill level is required. The best part is that as more groups

take shape, and the collective energy of the masses is fixed on the My developerWorks global community, the

trend will be contagious, resulting in a natural growth progression of community participation driven almost

entirely by word of mouth and the enthusiam of our user base.

C U L T I V A T I N G O W N E R S H I P

Its up to us as managers of the community to seed the community with owners, those who keep things moving,

content fresh, groups established where there interest, dismantled where there is not. We need to develop and

nuture a handful of external evangelists to carry the flame. It will be these devoted followers of developerWorks

who will insite enthusiasm in the community and keep users coming back for more.

I. Create a group

1. Choose “Start a group” button

GROUPS


2. Complete the form

a. Name the group

b. Choose group permissions

c. Fill in the rich text field for description,

d. Upload an image (optional)

e. Add tags

3. Select “Save” to submit the form

GROUPS


E N C O U R A G I N G P A R T I C I P A T I O N

Trends show us that niche communities that are built around a particular emotional connection or cause

recognized by users tend to become more cohesive and experience lower percentages of participation

inequality.

I. Join a group

1. Public groups visible from the All groups list – select “Join this group” button

2. Moderated groups – groups are designated public but users must request membership by selecting the “Request to Join this Group” button.

3. Private groups – A user must be added as a member by the group owner in order to join.

II. View a group’s membership

1. Select “Members” in the left navigation

2. View all members in the membership list

GROUPS


M A K I N G I T R E L E V A N T

It’s a no brainer that there should be groups established to support every brand and technical topic central to

developerWorks. And what better means of surfacing relevant content to our users on these very concepts

then to post top rated articles and tutorials as bookmarks. Add tags, generate feeds and post topics that will

draw in the audience to discover more, and drive them back out to developerWorks to learn more. Groups

break down the walls by offering one place for users to congregate on a given topic, but providing them several

different tools to learn. Within arm’s reach, there are tools that faciliate communication (message board, group

messaging, membership), and those that promote discovery (feeds, bookmarks). These should be maximized

in order for us to realize the full benefit of groups.

I. Add a feed

1. Select a group

2. Select Feeds in the left navigation

3. Select “Add Feed” (Users must be a member of the group to add a feed)

GROUPS



a. Feed: Paste in the URL of the feed

b. Give the Feed an appropriate name

c. Add a description

d. Add tags

e. Select “Save” to submit the form

II. Add a bookmark

GROUPS


1. Select a group

2. Select “Bookmarks” in the left navigation

3. Select “Add Bookmark” (Users must be a member of the group to add a bookmark)


a. Add the URL to the link

b. Give the bookmark an appropriate name

c. Add a description

d. Designate the bookmark as important, if desired, important bookmarks will always display on the main page of the group.

e. Add tags

GROUPS


f. Select “Save” to submit the form

III. Post to the message board

1. Select a group

2. Select “Message board” in the left navigation

3. Select “Post Topic”

3b. Complete the form to post a topic

GROUPS


a. Add a subject for the topic

b. Fill in the rich text field for message

c. Select “Save” to submit the topic

4. Select an existing topic

4b. Choose to “Reply” to the topic (or “Edit | Delete” if the user posted the original message)

GROUPS


F A C I L I T A T I N G F E E D B A C K

Groups are an ideal place to facilitate feedback. We need to take advantage of the message boards within the

group environment to understand the interests of our audience. These are a perfect real-time user test, allowing

us to understand what they want, what they like, or don’t like whether it be about our community environement

or about another IBM product or technology. Its critical for us to earmark and follow these conversations as this

is where the rubber often meets the road – down in the trenches of basic interaction from user to user.

TIP: Content is king. Keeping content fresh is the easiest way to keep users coming back for more. And if your content is interesting and appealing enough, people will be more inclined to contribute.

GROUPS


Groups are more about user interaction, user involvement and less about marketing. This is an open

landscape where we can follow their trends and better understand our user base in order to make more

intelligent decisions within our business.

I. Subscribe to the message board, Feeds or Bookmarks

1. Within Message Board, Feeds or Bookmarks, users can choose “Subscribe to this X” in order to subscribe to the RSS feed of the artifact.

BLOGS

Blogs

Follow community champions or become one yourself

I D E N T I F Y I N G O U R C O M M U N I T Y C H A M P I O N S

The blogosphere is comprised of many software developers and IT professionals from all over the globe.

These technical experts use developerWorks blogs as a way of communicating news and information that is

essential to our audience. Often times, our bloggers describe concrete ways of utilizing IBM products and

services, which then lead to discussions on broader topics, such as open-source technologies, and software as

a service methodologies.

Blogging is an essential part of My developerWorks. It allows our community members to share their thoughts,

expertise and ideas on topics that are important them, as well as engage in relevant conversations with each

other. My developerWorks blogs feature a tagging system and a recommendation feature, so that our

community members may appropriately categorize their discussions, in addition to rating the value of the blog

posts generated by the community.

F I N D I N G A N D I N T E R A C T I N G W I T H B L O G S

Locating bloggers and interacting with a blogger n My developerWorks is quite easy.

1. Click the Blogs Link from the top navigation bar. This will display the Blogs Landing page.

From the landing page the most recent blog entries, most recommended blogs, most

commented, and most visited are displayed on the right side of the page.

BLOGS


2. Users can track the Most Recent, Most Recommended, Most Commented, and Most Visited

blog posts in recent history.

BLOGS


3. The My developerWorks blog entries and blog comments also support subscriptions through

RSS feeds. You can subscribe to the blog entries or comments by clicking on the appropriate

RSS icon:

4. Tag cloud searches can also be leveraged in order to narrow blog posts searches down to a specifc

area of interest.

Bloggers are the community champions, they are the contributors generally representing a small

minority, yet their words sometimes have more credibility in the eyes of users then even the corporate

generated content. These individuals are our strongest asset and we need to treat them as such. My

developerWorks has a low barrier to entry, If a user would like to create a blog within the My

developerWorks community, all they have to do is request one.

R E Q U E S T I N G A B L O G

1. Find the My Blog tab from the My developerWorks: Blogs application. Once the user is logged in they

may request a blog via the “create a blog” link.

2. Send a blog request email to the developerWorks Blog Administrator

BLOGS


3. Once a user has been granted permission to host a blog in the My developerWorks community, they

can start their blog by simply clicking a link. Its as easy as that.

BOOKMARKS

Bookmarks

Share and follow with others of interest

Bookmarks are a convention widely recognized as a result of internet browsers and websites such as Digg and

del.icio.us. The practice of bookmarking allows users to categorize and organize their collection of favorite links.

Anyone who has saved more than a handful of links can see the benefit, its like putting a bunch of items in a

shared folder. Bookmarks are a way for users to contribute knowledge and information to the benefit of

everyone else, allowing their expertise or interests to be reviewed organically through their contributions. By

offering the ability for users to bookmark, we are facilitating the sharing of ideas and resources, thus promoting

the simplest form of passive collaboration within the community.

I. How to bookmark

1. Select the link in the footer “How to bookmark”

2. Follow the direction to add the plugin to either Internet Explorer or Firefox.

BLOGS


3. Find a URL to bookmark.

4. Select the plug-in link in the browser toolbar

5. Complete the form in the bookmark popup to add the bookmark

BLOGS


II. Sharing a bookmark

1. Find any bookmark

2. Select “Show detail”

3. Select “Notify other users”

4. Complete the form with the user’s name and a brief comment

BLOGS


5. Select “Send notice”

III. Adding a bookmark to a group, blog or activity

1. From within the “add a bookmark” form – select the tab for blogs, activities or groups

2. Select the specific group, blog or activity to add the bookmark. Only the groups, blogs or activities that

the user has joined or created will be displayed.

3. Include a message or description to accompany the bookmark

BLOGS


I M P R O V I N G T H E N A V I G A T I O N O F B O O K M A R K S

Adding tags to bookmarks provides supplemental navigation for users. We’ve learned that allowing a user to

label their contributions with keywords from their own vocabulary results in a folksonomy that users can

understand and appreciate. While tagging is a low threshold activity, each tag represents another possible

doorway to a resource or a jumping-off point to find related tags and content.

I. Adding a tag to a bookmark

1a. Tags can be added at the time the bookmark is added or

1b. A user can edit their bookmarks from any of the lists.

2b. Select “Show details” and choose “Edit”

BLOGS


3b. Add tags to the bookmark from the “Edit bookmark” screen

R E C O G N I Z I N G U S E R T R E N D S

Analyzing bookmarks contributed by users also provides a way for us to discover trends and behaviors that we

might not otherwise have noticed. What are the most popular subjects? How did users tag this content? What

other sites or content did they reveal as significant relative to their roles, skills, interests and goals? We can

make basic assumptions as to what motivates our users, and what keeps them engaged according to the links

they earmark for further evaluation or future use.

I. Most popular bookmarks

1. Select the “Popular” tab

2. View links bookmarked most often or

3. View bookmarks users notified each other about the most

BLOGS


II. Watching people and tags

1. Select a tag from the cloud or list in the left column of the page. Search for a tag by entering it in the input field.

BLOGS


2. View all the bookmarks associated with that tag.

3. Select “Add to Watchlist” to follow all links associated with the tag

Or

1. Select a user from the list within the “People” module or Search for a specific user by entering their name in the input field

BLOGS


2. View all the bookmarks associated with that individual

3. Select “Add to Watchlist” to follow all links that the user bookmarks

ACTIVITIES

Activities

Collaborate with peers on community projects

Communities will always fight the battle of the contributor and participant versus the non-active guest or lurker.

The numbers are staggering with only 1% of users actually contributing as compared to 90%+ consuming. Its

important for community managers to make every effort to lower the bar of entry, yet recognize that no matter

what the level of engagement, users must coexist within the community in order for everyone to reap the

rewards. Activities run the gamut, offering users anywhere on the spectrum of low threshold contributions to

high engagement, an opportunity to participate and add to the collective intelligence of the greater community.

T E A M I N G

Just as groups encourage collaboration surrounding a common interest, role or skill, activities are a teaming

exercise, but tied to a task. It could be as simple as a document review, or as a complex as an in-depth project

plan. It can be private among a select group of users, or designated as public, open for contributions from

anyone. The breadth of Activities is endless, it can be internalized as a workgroup vehicle or utilized as a

general feedback mechanism. Who are we as community managers to limit the creativity of its potential use, but

rather, we should encourage and reinforce this teaming principle, by means of basic instruction, best practices,

and template creation.

I. Creating an activity

1. Login and Select the “Start an Activity” button


ACTIVITIES


a. Add a title for the Activity

b. Describe the Activity goal

c. Add tags to improve findability

d. Assign a due date

e. Consider “Member options” and “Template options”

II. Adding members

1. An activity owner can add members when they set up the activity or

2. Open up the activity and select “Add members” from the link in the “Members” module in the left nav.

ACTIVITIES


3. A member can be designated as an Author, Owner or Reader

III. Designating visibility

1. An owner can designate the permissions of the activity once it has been established. By default, all

Activities are private until visibility is altered.

2. Open the Activity and select “Change” within the “Members” module in the left nav.

3. An activity can be private, public or public with read-only access

ACTIVITIES


M A N A G I N G T H E L E A R N I N G C U R V E

Activities maximizes the idea of “don’t create, edit”, offering users less of an excuse to avoid participation. Users

can build their contributions within Activities by modifying existing templates rather than creating complete

entities from scratch. Editing a template is no doubt more enticing and has a gentler learning curve than facing

the horror of a blank activity.

I. Utilizing templates

1. When an activity is created, the owner can select an existing template to use as a model for their activity. All

available templates will be displayed within the “Template options” section.

2. An activity owner can also make a copy of their Activity and save it as a template.

a. Select the Activity to copy.

b. Choose “More actions” drop and select “Copy as new template” from the drop-down

ACTIVITIES


3. Select the “Activity templates” tab

a. Browse existing templates or filter the list by tags

b. Select an activity

c. Choose “More” and select “Start Activity from this Template”

ACTIVITIES


E N S U R I N G A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y

A team is only as successful as its members. At times, however, users need a slight nudge to prompt

contributions or completion of tasks assigned. Activities has the built in tools to gently prod a user to maintain

due dates, leave a comment, stay in-tune with the general happenings of their activities and expected

participation.

I. Adding a section

1. Open the Activity

2. Select “Add Section”

3. Add a label to the Section

II. Adding an entry


2. Select “Add entry”

ACTIVITIES


a. Write a title for the entry

b. Add a description in the rich text field

c. Add appropriate tags to describe the entry

d. Designate a Section for the entry

e. Select the notification features appropriate for the entry

III. Adding a To Do Item


2. Select “Add To Do Item”

ACTIVITIES


3. Label the “To Do” item

4. Select “More options” to assign it to another Activity member, designate a due date, add a description, tags and select a Section.

III. Adding a comment

1. Open any entry in an Activity and select “Add comment”

2. Users can also respond to another user’s comment

IV. Completing a task and activity

1. A user can mark a “To Do” item complete by selecting the checkbox

ACTIVITIES


2. An owner of an activity can mark an activity complete by selecting “Mark Activity Complete”

V. Deleting an activity

1. An owner is able to delete an Activity by selecting “More Actions” and choosing “Delete Activity”

2. A deleted Activity or entry may be retrieved from the Trash up until the point the Trash is permanently emptied by the community administrator.

ACTIVITIES


GlossaryBookmarks Stored Web page locations (URLs) that can be retrieved.

Plugin A hardware or software module that adds a specific feature or service to a larger system.

Profile Information provided by the user that is stored by the application. Some information is publically displayed which other information is considered private data.

Online community

A virtual meeting place for people on the Internet. Designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration among people who share common interests and needs.

Rich text Text that is formatted with common formatting options, such as bold and italics, that are unavailable with plain text.

RSS Feed A family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content in a standardized format.

Social network The personal or professional set of relationships between individuals.

Tags A label associated with something for the purpose of identification

Widget A small programs which are written to make an application or service perform in a specific way.

®

®

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2002

IBM United States of America

Produced in the United States of America

All Rights Reserved

The e-business logo, the eServer logo, IBM, the IBM logo, OS/390, zSeries, SecureWay, S/390, Tivoli, DB2, Lotus and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both.

Lotus, Lotus Discovery Server, Lotus QuickPlace, Lotus Notes, Domino, and Sametime are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation and/or IBM Corporation.

Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries or both.

Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS PAPER “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you.

Information in this paper as to the availability of products (including portlets) was believed accurate as of the time of publication. IBM cannot guarantee that identified products (including portlets) will continue to be made available by their suppliers.

This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes may be made periodically to the information herein; these changes may be incorporated in subsequent versions of the paper. IBM may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this paper at any time without notice.

Any references in this document to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.

IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter described in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in writing, to:

IBM Director of LicensingIBM Corporation4205 South Miami BoulevardResearch Triangle Park, NC 27709 U.S.A.

Technology

IBM developerWorks Community Offerings