Schaffert, Sandra (2009): Successful Initiating of Online Communities. An Analysis of Reports, Projects and Expert Interviews. - Presentation at the I-Know Conference, September 3 2009, Graz, Austria

1. Sandra Schaffert, Diana Wieden-Bischof
comstudy@newmedialab.at
Successful Initiating of Online Communities.
An Analysis of Reports, Projects and Expert Interviews.
I-Know Conference, September 3 2009, Graz, Austria
Gefördert mit Mitteln des BMWA und des Landes Salzburg

2. A lot of successful projects in the Web are
unthinkable with vibrant online communities
... how to initiate such communities?

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Why the Salzburg New Media Lab is interested...
 Film ausschnitt

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Agenda

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Agenda
 (Our working) definitition of „(online) community“
 Methodology
 Lifecycle of online communities: existing theories and
explanations
 General principles of successful initiating of online
communities
 Six applications areas
 Open Innovation

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Definitions

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What are online communities?
 For “community” the geographical proximity and/or
familiar relationships play a role [Stocker, 08, 64f]
 Several terms: virtual community, online
community or Web community

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„Virtual Community“ by H. Rheingold
“Virtual communities are
social aggregations that
emerge from the Net when
enough people carry on
those public discussions
long enough, with sufficient
human feeling, to form
webs of personal
relationships in cyberspace.“
[Rheingold, 93].
Source: http://openp2p.com/p2p/2003/04/25/graphics/h_rheingold.jpg

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„Online Community“ by P. Sloep

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Our (working) definition
 A online community are persons with common
interests, using Internet and communication
technologies to interchange or develop common
contents, developing a strong bond and a feeling of
togetherness. (p. 12)

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Methodology

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Source: http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/client/client_images/cartoon-cmty_building.jpg

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Basis: Literature and Tipps (in German)
(...)

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First steps ...
 we identified
 (i) theories and explanations of the
online community’s life cycle,
 (ii) categorizations of online
communities, and
 (iii) recommendations and examples for
their successful initiating (...or even
research about this) Peak headbanging
(gipfelmoshen.de)

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... next steps ...
 Still open: What are general aspects and principles?
 Selection of six very diverse application areas
 online self-help groups or patient groups,
 online communities on professional news-sites,
 communities of learners,
 customer communities for open innovation,
 enterprise communities for knowledge management,
 communities for open source development.

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...additionally...
 We broaden our research for publications,
statements, projects and potential interview
partners, also to international publications, in the
six applications areas.
i.e. Prof. Andrea Back

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... finally
 Every recommendation was scrutinized if it can
serve as general (or as fitting to just one of the
application areas)

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(background)
 our approach builds on the ideas and concept of
Grounded Theory, which describes a systematic
theory building from data in the process of research
[Glaser, 67]

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Lifecycle of online communities:
existing theories and explanations

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Metcalfe‘s law
states that the value of a
telecommunications network is
proportional to the square of the
number of connected users of the
system (n2
)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law

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Metcalfe‘s law
 Source: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/metcalfes-
law-is-wrong

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Metcalfe‘s law is wrong (for communication
within online communities)
 Source: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/metcalfes-
law-is-wrong

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Lifecylce of online communities:
overview of explanations/theories

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General principles of successful
initiating of online communities

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Initiating online communities: Overview
figure 7, p. 26

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General Principle:
Let it grow!

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General Principle: Let it grow!
 Communities are organic systems ... as plants

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General Principle: Let it grow!
 ... You can cultivate them
i.e. a certain degree
of uncertainness,
of momentum.

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General Principle: Let it grow!
Case Comparison: encyclopaedia projects
Nupedia/Wikipedia
start: 2001
Website: www.wikipedia.org
GNUPedia, later GNE
start: 2001
Website: gne.sourceforge.net/eng/
importance:  – one of the most
famous Websites, worldwide, also in
comparison with traditional
encyclopaedias
importance:  – comparably unknown

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General Principle: Let it grow!
 „Let it grow“ means …
 (potential) community members should be involved and
have to be taken serious
 Participation concerning content, organisation, technical
aspects
 Community‘s activities and goal can be changed – this
have to be okay!

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Commitment on purpose
and goal of the community

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Commitment on purpose and goal
 Example: MiAdidas

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Commitment on purpose and goal
 Example: Rett-Forum (seldom illness)

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Commitment on purpose and goal
 egoistic motives, e.g.
 reputation, image
 customer relationship
 marketing, advertisement
 product development
 quality assurance
 market monitoring
 altruistic motives
 to bring or develop something a step forward (e.g. politics,science,
techonologies)
 To help others (e.g. self help groups).

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Investigate the needs
of the target group

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Investigate the needs of the target group
 Concerning their motives:
 Egoistic motives (reputation, to learn something)
 Altruistic motives: to brings something forward, to help
 Concerning their needs: layout, content, interests,
rituals, technology, design etc.

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Investigate the needs of the target group
 Research for existing studies and data
 Own investigations (single case analysis, group
discusions, questionaires...)
 Important: involvement of potential community
members in an early stage!
 Kim (2000): Members are attrachted by a topic, but
stay because of the others/relationships

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Investigate the needs of the target group
… getting involved in a (online)
community of pick up artists ...

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Foster communication,
collaboration and community

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Foster communication, collaboration
and community
 Fostering community according to Kim (2001)
 Offer flexible and expandable meeting possibilities
 Offer diverse roles
 Develop a clear leadership strategy
 Foster the development of a (n)etiquette
 Regularly events
 Develop rituals
 Support sub group establishment

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Foster communication, collaboration
and community
 Compelling profiles

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Evaluation and measurement
of success

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Evaluation and Measurement of Success
 Not simple – because of two possible perspectives
 of the community
 or of the initiators/ providers?

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Evaluation and Measurement of Success
 Assessing the healthiness of a community
(Spreadloveproject 2008)
 the average length of time it takes for a newbie to become a regular
contributor
 community participation in gardening, policing and keeping the
community a nicer place (eg. people who click on the 'report this as
spam', people who edit the wiki for better layout, etc.)
 Member engagement: activity and "investment" in community
 Member Loyalty & Satisfaction
 Mobile interactions with the community: including views and posts
from mobiles.
 ratio of posts with no response to posts with response
 http://spreadloveproject.pbworks.com/CommunityMeasurements

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Six Application Areas

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Six application areas of online communities
 online self-help groups or patient groups,
 online communities on professional news-sites,
 communities of learners,
 customer communities for open innovation,
 enterprise communities for knowledge
management, and
 communities for open source development.

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(just one application area)...
Open Innovation

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Open Innovation
 Initalisation of a communty of customers to involve
them in innovation processes
 Examples: Swarowski, Acecook, MiAdidas

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Dr. Peter Gloor (MIT) about Open Innovation
 A clear answer of „What is in it for me?“
should be given (from users‘ perspective)
 Fitting persons for advertisment are
needed e.g. Bono für Motorola
 The product have to be „cool“ (for the
community)
 No aggressive sale of products

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Dr. Mark Markus (SRFG) about Open
Innovation
 Customers should have the idea to make
a contribution to a „common good“, that
a product value will be developed and
that they can get reputation
 Involvement of friendly user, without
payment but with attractive special offers
as tests, exclusive products
 Generally: other methods are eventually
more goal orientated.

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Summary
obstacles and
stumbling
blocks
research and acquisition of lead users is
important
it could be problematic if the public and
competitors are able to follow the
community’s activity
Successful
measures
established instruments of innovation
measures, e.g. idea competitions
a member only community
special offers (costs, events, test usage,
exclusive content)
(Schaffert & Wieden-Bischof 2009, table 5, p. 68)

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Outlook

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Open questions ..
 this study was about the first phase of community
building (initialising)
 ... there is still a lack of more research and (meta)
analysis of recommendations for community
management.

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Next steps within the project „ComStudy“
 ComStudy is a project of the SNML (10/2008-
12/2009) about vibrant online communities
 3 additional studies will be published: overview,
good practice and recommendations concerning
 (meta) informationen (11/2009)
 recommender systems (11/2009)
 reputation and engagement systems (12/2009)

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More ...

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More about this:
 Full Study, in German: Sandra Schaffert &
Diana Wieden-Bischof (2009). Erfolgreicher
Aufbau von Online-Communitys. Konzepte,
Szenarien und Handlungsempfehlungen.
Band 1 der Reihe „Social Media“ (hrsg. von
Georg Güntner & Sebastian Schaffert)
 Video, in German:
http://www.vimeo.com/4291468
 English Summary: Sandra Schaffert & Diana
Wieden-Bischof (2009). Successful Initiating
of Online Communities. An Analysis of
Reports, Projects and Expert Interviews. In: I-
Know Proceedings.

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Salzburg NewMediaLab
 Website
 www.newmedialab.at
 pp.newmedialab.at
 Contact
 Dr. Sandra Schaffert
Salzburg Research
Jakob Haringer Straße 5/III
sandra.schaffert@salzburgresearch.at

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References ...
(within this presentation...)

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References
 Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory.
Chicago: Aldine.
 Kim, Amy Jo (2001). Community Building – Strategien für den Aufbau
erfolgreicher Web-Communities. Bonn: Galileo Press.
 Rheingold, Howard (1993). The Virtual Community. Homesteading on
the Electronic Frontier. New York: Addison-Wesley. Online zugänglich
unter: http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/index.html [2008-10-16]
 Schaffert, S. & Wieden-Bischof, W. (2009). Erfolgreicher Aufbau von
Online-Communitys. Konzepte, Szenarien und
Handlungsempfehlungen. Salzburg.
 Spreadloveproject (2008). Community Measurements (Wikipage, unter
anderem unter der Mitwirkung von DavidCary, NurtureGirl und
TaraHunt erstellt). URLr:
http://spreadloveproject.pbwiki.com/CommunityMeasurements