Designing for online communities:

thinking about social and technical design

-- workshop notes --

Nancy WhiteDEANZ – 2008

Wellington, New Zealand

community perspectivepolaritiesorientationshands on

my perspectives for the workshop

your perspectives for the workshop?

OUR PROCESS OPTIONS TODAYspeed networking

human spectrogramconversation cafe1-2-4-whole group

peer assist15% solution

network mapping

Let’s build some “mud maps” (from Shawn Callahan – Anecdote.com)

social purpose, people and processes

technical tools and infrastructure

purpose

• gain > pain• who’s purpose?• orientations

Café round 1 OR 1-2-4“purpose”

• What is the purpose of your group?

Purpose strengths(from our conversations – first workshop group)

• Pedagogically valid • Help the learners• Very specific for group – specificity, focus• A place for experienced to help newer folks• Build relationships, strengthening like or bridges between• Identification of roles• Real problem to work on (goal)• Build purpose – by and with community• Emergence• ownership

Purpose strengths (from our conversations – 2nd workshop group)

• Short• Passionate• Concrete• Pitched at the intended _______• Clear expectations• Inclusive of audience (can I see myself in this)• Language – straightforward, understandable• Invitation

Purpose challenges (from our conversations – first workshop group)

• To get engagement from unwilling/anti folks• Too big• Sustainability• What’s in it for the participant• Design for maintenance/update/reg use• Why bother if you can do it F2F• Fear/trust issues• Work on the problems

Purpose challenges (from our conversations – 2nd workshop group)

• Hard to make it realistic• Clarity • Absence of stakeholders in process of

purpose creation• Brevity• Practicality (whose?)

revise?

• After hearing other people’s ideas, do you want to alter yours at all?

• Share any changes at your table - briefly

Community activities

oriented to …

… meetings

… context… community cultivation

… access to expertise

… projects… open-ended conversation

… content publishing

… individual participation

… relationships

© 2006 Wenger, White, and Smith

activities oriented to …

… meetings

… context… community cultivation

… access to expertise

… projects

… open-ended conversation

… content publishing

… individual participation

… relationships

© 2007 Wenger, White, and Smith

Purpose:

Community activities

oriented to …

… meetings

… context… community cultivation

… access to expertise

… projects… open-ended conversation

… content publishing

… individual participation

… relationships

© 2007 Wenger, White, and Smith

No image skills

Existing relationships

Basis for evaluation - motivated

Diverse skills/motivation

New to web meetings

… meetings

… access to expertise

… context… community cultivation

… projects… open-ended conversation

… content publishing

… individual participation

… relationships

© 2006 Wenger, White, and Smith

Community activities

oriented to …

course

… meetings

… access to expertise

… context… community cultivation

… projects… open-ended conversation

… content publishing

… individual participation

… relationships

© 2006 Wenger, White, and Smith

Community activities

oriented to …

support community

Togetherness Separateness

Interacting Publishing

Individual Group

people

attitude

learning style

motivation

Experience - technology

learning

network maps

• sticky notes• big paper• pens• see Eva Schiffer’s NetMap process

http://netmap.wordpress.com

technical stewardship

access

tool selectionImplementation/

configurationpractices

addressing inherentcommunity tensions Tools

Groupasynchronous

IndividualInteracting

Publishing

synchronousGroup

asynchronous

discussion boards

teleconference

chat

instant messaging

member directory

wikiblog

telephony/VoIP

individualprofile page

e-mail

e-mail lists

scratch pad

RSS

“new” indicators

subscription

podcast

contentrepository

presenceindicator

buddy list

security

Q&A systems

RSS aggregator

newsletter

calendar

videoconference

application sharing

whiteboard

site index

participation statistics

search

subgroups

personalization

communitypublic page

versioncontrol

documentmanagement

UseNet

contentrating

scheduling

polling

commenting

networking tools

tagging

bookmarking

sharedfiltering

geomapping

www.TechnologyForCommunities.com

Etienne WengerNancy WhiteJohn Smith

which tools?

• minimum, elegant configuration• where you do/don’t have choice

processes

driven by purposeshaped by technologyeffected by people

scaffolds/pathstechnical experimentationfacilitation

mapping process

• Draw your sliders…

Togetherness Separateness

Interacting Publishing

Individual Group

15% solution

Noticing and using the influence, discretion and power individuals have right now.

– Keith McCandless

don’t worry – there will be bumps in the road…TALK about them

Resources

Purpose checklisthttp://www.fullcirc.com/wp/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/

Nancy’s Bloghttp://www.fullcirc.com

Nancy’s Wikihttp://onlinefacilitation.wikispaces.com/

Nancyw at fullcirc dot com