Happy User Strategies
1) Simplicity. Empower users who may not be very technically savvy.
2) You need to set guidelines on how to behave also privacy policy on how information shall be used.
3) Posting/asking questions stimulates community.
4) Explaining status of your service - let users know what is happening pref. with personality.
5) Transparency. Ensure communication is open so users know what hapens.
6) Flame Wars. Watch and manage. Also: angry people can cause problems - how do comm mods deal with this to save losing members.
7) Rewarding users for contribution. Reward systems increase community participation.
8) Mixing. Taste the community. Devs provide ingredients and users make the recipe. Consistency in all aspects of community.
9) Super Loyalty! In users and Devs.
10) Provide ways for users to give feedback.
11) Speed, performance, reliability - also references to Geek movies.
12) Provide good support.
13) Diversity of membership.
14) Common-sense design.
15) Trolls.
16) Value for money. Capital.
17) Who is in charge? No bullying and harassment.
18) Justice. Exercising good judgment.
19) Engagement. Find out what audience is engaged by. Potential age-issues.
TOS and Privacy Policy
Govern all aspects of data-life-cycle.
Outlines expectations of behaviour and responsibilities for both parties - or rights and obligations.
Signing up is tantamount to agreement to policy.
Types of Info Collected
Mandatory personal: collected on registration - vital for having an account.
Optional personal: Identity driven, useful but not essential. These can improve Social Media services but those services are not predicated on providing said info.
Log information: Automatic - IP, browser, page visits. Third party services e.g. Google Analytics. Cookies.
Privacy
Must satisfy legal requirements but this is a terribly fraught area. Particularly around jurisdictional issues. And it is an area I can't really go with so little time...
Showing posts with label virtual communities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virtual communities. Show all posts
21.1.10
@ophil in RL
Context
What, exactly is, free||style? Need the slashes to be able to trademark. What are the implications of free? What opportunities can be found by thinking about free in a different way? What does it mean to be free - not just non-financial. Also breaking free of the normal business-context. Where is the value? How can you get people to understand value before experiencing it? With experience, consumers may find new ways of enhancing value.
We are used to traditional marketers lying to us so we often now listen to our peers. One can't just jump into free - you first need to identify value. In order to determine value, you need to describe community so you can understand what they MIGHT value. Does anonymity mean people take messages less seriously - there is no way to evaluate the authority behind the comment. Value should not be considered only on a financial basis - if you think about it on this level first one will encounter problems. Marketing tends to focus on the user - ignores the network of stakeholders. Also provides a blind-spot in growing this network since you focus on what you already have.
Decreasing barrier to entry often goes along with heightened barrier to exit (see Google). Think about alternative ways of getting paid for your product. Free||style gives you a way to make money off your product without needing to charge the end users.
What, exactly is, free||style? Need the slashes to be able to trademark. What are the implications of free? What opportunities can be found by thinking about free in a different way? What does it mean to be free - not just non-financial. Also breaking free of the normal business-context. Where is the value? How can you get people to understand value before experiencing it? With experience, consumers may find new ways of enhancing value.
We are used to traditional marketers lying to us so we often now listen to our peers. One can't just jump into free - you first need to identify value. In order to determine value, you need to describe community so you can understand what they MIGHT value. Does anonymity mean people take messages less seriously - there is no way to evaluate the authority behind the comment. Value should not be considered only on a financial basis - if you think about it on this level first one will encounter problems. Marketing tends to focus on the user - ignores the network of stakeholders. Also provides a blind-spot in growing this network since you focus on what you already have.
Decreasing barrier to entry often goes along with heightened barrier to exit (see Google). Think about alternative ways of getting paid for your product. Free||style gives you a way to make money off your product without needing to charge the end users.
18.1.10
Keeping the Peeps (Class 10) - Andrew Long
How do we keep people in our community?
What is the lifeblood of community? "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
Typical Community Members
Newbies, guests, visitors: rejuvinate the community over time.
Regulars: do all work and make up bulk of community members. Regularly contribute and therefore shape the community by modeling/reprimanding certain behaviour.
Leaders: energy and skill to take community in particular direction. Help convert newbies to regulars.
Elders: Became weary of day-to-day stuff. Active as repositories of knowledge. Peripheral watchers lurking in the shadows.
Lurkers - not connected, don't contribute: we want to convert these to our lurkers to regulars.
How do we Retain Active Community Membership?
Work Slides
a) Aspect of community. b) Strategy to improve community leading from this aspect.
1)a) Simplicity is Key. b) Keep everything simple-don't over-complicate things.
2)a) Policies to make expected behaviours explicit. b) Keep policies in a public directory and current.
3)a) Think outside the box. b) Being creative will provide new opportunities for members.
4)a) Provide (free) compensation for unexpected down-time. b) Giving people something interesting means they will be more amenable to lack of service.
5)a) In/visibility. b) Provide a way for people to be graphically identified - provide people with a voice.
6)a) Flame War. b) Prevent flame wars before they start - through policies and monitoring.
7)a) Incentives. b) Nerds love being rewarded - provide rewards for involvement in community.
8)a) Stick to the recipe. b) Ensure new fang-dangled-things don't remove previous usability.
9)a)Animals are cute. b) Have animals somewhere on your site; the cuter the better.
10)a) Feedback. b) Have adequate conduits for feedback and ensure you listen to the users-tell them so.
11)a) Speed. b)Ensure your community is not slow to use/load
12)a) Tech Support b) Ensure there is fast, friendly, active response to technical issues.
13)a) Fostering diversity - incl. linguistic. b) Ensure that there are adequate rules to make newbies feel comfortable; if newbies have a bad experience early on then they are likely to not become regulars.
14)a) Accessible via symbols - removing need for language. b) Menu items designated by symbols (particularly "universal" symbols) means people with different linguistic abilities/frames of reference can feel comfortable navigating your site.
15)a) Trolls. b) Trolling should be explicitly prohibited and people who troll should be removed/sanctioned. This action should be carried out reasonably publicly so that people know what sort of behaviour is expected; utilise the Panopticon.
16)a) Money (broadly capital/value). b) If there is no capital flowing (social or fiscal) then there is little chance of sustainability - ensure your community has this flowing.
17)a) Intimidating behaviour from regulars. b) If regulars intimidate newbies then they will not become regulars themselves. Ensure that everyone provides an open, supportive environment. This is best dealt with by private messaging; don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
18)a) Justice. b) Ensure that people are treated fairly and that there are explicit ways of handling disputes.
19)a) Kiddisafe. b) Ensure that there is a way for "adult" material to be posted so that it is not accessible by minors. Similarly, if a person contributes material that may be of an adult nature, this should be readily identified as "NSFW" so that the person viewing the material can decide when or if they wish to proceed.
20)a) People will put their own interpretations on the community - they will make of it what they will. b) Although there should be rules describing acceptable or unacceptable behaviour (and to satisfy legal requirements) these should not be overly prescriptive; too many rules can strangle a community and also reduces the autonomy of self-governance/group governance.
What is the lifeblood of community? "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
Typical Community Members
Newbies, guests, visitors: rejuvinate the community over time.
Regulars: do all work and make up bulk of community members. Regularly contribute and therefore shape the community by modeling/reprimanding certain behaviour.
Leaders: energy and skill to take community in particular direction. Help convert newbies to regulars.
Elders: Became weary of day-to-day stuff. Active as repositories of knowledge. Peripheral watchers lurking in the shadows.
Lurkers - not connected, don't contribute: we want to convert these to our lurkers to regulars.
How do we Retain Active Community Membership?
Work Slides
a) Aspect of community. b) Strategy to improve community leading from this aspect.
1)a) Simplicity is Key. b) Keep everything simple-don't over-complicate things.
2)a) Policies to make expected behaviours explicit. b) Keep policies in a public directory and current.
3)a) Think outside the box. b) Being creative will provide new opportunities for members.
4)a) Provide (free) compensation for unexpected down-time. b) Giving people something interesting means they will be more amenable to lack of service.
5)a) In/visibility. b) Provide a way for people to be graphically identified - provide people with a voice.
6)a) Flame War. b) Prevent flame wars before they start - through policies and monitoring.
7)a) Incentives. b) Nerds love being rewarded - provide rewards for involvement in community.
8)a) Stick to the recipe. b) Ensure new fang-dangled-things don't remove previous usability.
9)a)Animals are cute. b) Have animals somewhere on your site; the cuter the better.
10)a) Feedback. b) Have adequate conduits for feedback and ensure you listen to the users-tell them so.
11)a) Speed. b)Ensure your community is not slow to use/load
12)a) Tech Support b) Ensure there is fast, friendly, active response to technical issues.
13)a) Fostering diversity - incl. linguistic. b) Ensure that there are adequate rules to make newbies feel comfortable; if newbies have a bad experience early on then they are likely to not become regulars.
14)a) Accessible via symbols - removing need for language. b) Menu items designated by symbols (particularly "universal" symbols) means people with different linguistic abilities/frames of reference can feel comfortable navigating your site.
15)a) Trolls. b) Trolling should be explicitly prohibited and people who troll should be removed/sanctioned. This action should be carried out reasonably publicly so that people know what sort of behaviour is expected; utilise the Panopticon.
16)a) Money (broadly capital/value). b) If there is no capital flowing (social or fiscal) then there is little chance of sustainability - ensure your community has this flowing.
17)a) Intimidating behaviour from regulars. b) If regulars intimidate newbies then they will not become regulars themselves. Ensure that everyone provides an open, supportive environment. This is best dealt with by private messaging; don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
18)a) Justice. b) Ensure that people are treated fairly and that there are explicit ways of handling disputes.
19)a) Kiddisafe. b) Ensure that there is a way for "adult" material to be posted so that it is not accessible by minors. Similarly, if a person contributes material that may be of an adult nature, this should be readily identified as "NSFW" so that the person viewing the material can decide when or if they wish to proceed.
20)a) People will put their own interpretations on the community - they will make of it what they will. b) Although there should be rules describing acceptable or unacceptable behaviour (and to satisfy legal requirements) these should not be overly prescriptive; too many rules can strangle a community and also reduces the autonomy of self-governance/group governance.
13.1.10
Social Capital - Erika Pearson (Class 6)
Virtual Communities, Tie Theory, and Social Capital
Virtual communication - communicating through a medium other than verbal language.
Virtual Community
(Rheingold)
Aggregate of agents - you cannot be a community of one.
In public - anyone may join. This may be nuanced so you may need to log in or not.
Share a code - common form of semiotic system. Jargon, hash-tags, language.
Time - it takes a long time for community to be formed.
Emotional investment - "You are not a community until you have a funeral."
Rhizomic - a messy series of over-lapping connections in a non-ordered system.
Social Capital
"The processes between people which establish networks, norms and social trust and facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for mutual benefit" Eva Cox (1992).
Usually takes place in horizontal bands of reciprocity - same status.
1960s-Bowling leagues, knitting circles etc.
Social capital exists only where there is a social connection-there does not need to be a physical connection.
Good will is "nebulous entity" but fulfills the requirements of sufficient human feeling in Rheingold's conception of communities.
Markers of Social Capital
Castle (2002) - is SC simply a neat metaphor that posits a logically comprehended, and comprehendable, ground (social capital) for a vague process (what actually happens). In social capital systems, horizontal social and power relations allow social capital to flow freely.
Few explicit rules or controls - the community is self-controlling partially because there is high trust within the community that members will behave appropriately.
Ingrouping and Outgrouping. We have high good will for those who are within our ingroup and this reduces the greater distance from this ingroup your connection is. However, the dynamic nature of community means that it is possible - and usually desirable - for members of the outgroup to become members of the ingroup.
Obligation towards reciprocity - you pay the SC back to the person from whom you got it or forward to someone else within community. This reciprocity keeps the social capital "sloshing" around the community so there is a desire to see the community flourish.
Tendency toward gift economies - the currency of communities usually runs on thoughts like: "I'll help you so you may help me in the future" Note that this seems counter to the expected reciprocity yet the gift economy, whilst expecting reciprocity, functions on expectations only.
Physical networks can expand to the limits to the technology. But can communities do the same? No, up to 150 connections is the max network a person can sustain.This critical number is limited by our time, social empathy, and attention. Which means social capital is a scarce resource-there are limits to how much can be put in or taken out of the system. Virtual networks tend to get a smaller chunk of the pie because they are not networks one can simply be active in - their technological mediation means one needs to go to a special place to be involved in the community. Although the hand-held devices are reducing this barrier to participation.
Social Capital thinks of "friendship" in terms of ties: strong, weak (friends who have the potential to be strong), and latent. Hence: "Burden of history in your inner circle" (Ze Frank)
Strong and Weak Ties
Strong: those with whom we have high emotional reciprocity.
Differentiated along four criteria. Time: usually take a long and regular period of time. Emotional intensity. Mutual confidence (trust), and reciprocity. So, strong ties are long, intensive, trusting, and reciprocal. Strong ties tend to come with more similarity between people i.e. the stronger the tie, the higher the similarity between the nodes, the stronger the connection. It is these ties who re-inforce who you are.
Although weak ties take less input, they are still a conduit of social capital so make the scarce resource (social capital) go further. These weaker ties require more governance but the overlap of weak-tie networks can provide new conduits of social capital through a bridging tie. One is most likely to find a new job from your weak-tie network. These bridging ties can also provide variety since they introduce you to new people who can, potentially, become strong ties.
Virtual Identity and Group Communication
How we communicate changes depending on whom we communicate with and with whom we think we are adjacent to in the network. Work backwards: look at communication to understand social position. Our code relies on trust: the other will understand the strong tie and the denotation. If we can identify the person from their interactions on the network does it follow that we can shape certain types of community by fostering certain types of utterances?
Social capital is not an unproblematic concept.
Tie theory looks at the micro level - the small-scale connections between people.
Communities are dynamic and there is a feedback system between members of the community and the individuals which constitute that community.
Virtual communication - communicating through a medium other than verbal language.
Virtual Community
(Rheingold)
Aggregate of agents - you cannot be a community of one.
In public - anyone may join. This may be nuanced so you may need to log in or not.
Share a code - common form of semiotic system. Jargon, hash-tags, language.
Time - it takes a long time for community to be formed.
Emotional investment - "You are not a community until you have a funeral."
Rhizomic - a messy series of over-lapping connections in a non-ordered system.
Social Capital
"The processes between people which establish networks, norms and social trust and facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for mutual benefit" Eva Cox (1992).
Usually takes place in horizontal bands of reciprocity - same status.
1960s-Bowling leagues, knitting circles etc.
Social capital exists only where there is a social connection-there does not need to be a physical connection.
Good will is "nebulous entity" but fulfills the requirements of sufficient human feeling in Rheingold's conception of communities.
Do you need social capital to form a community or is social capital an output of community?
Markers of Social Capital
Castle (2002) - is SC simply a neat metaphor that posits a logically comprehended, and comprehendable, ground (social capital) for a vague process (what actually happens). In social capital systems, horizontal social and power relations allow social capital to flow freely.
Few explicit rules or controls - the community is self-controlling partially because there is high trust within the community that members will behave appropriately.
Ingrouping and Outgrouping. We have high good will for those who are within our ingroup and this reduces the greater distance from this ingroup your connection is. However, the dynamic nature of community means that it is possible - and usually desirable - for members of the outgroup to become members of the ingroup.
Obligation towards reciprocity - you pay the SC back to the person from whom you got it or forward to someone else within community. This reciprocity keeps the social capital "sloshing" around the community so there is a desire to see the community flourish.
Tendency toward gift economies - the currency of communities usually runs on thoughts like: "I'll help you so you may help me in the future" Note that this seems counter to the expected reciprocity yet the gift economy, whilst expecting reciprocity, functions on expectations only.
Physical networks can expand to the limits to the technology. But can communities do the same? No, up to 150 connections is the max network a person can sustain.This critical number is limited by our time, social empathy, and attention. Which means social capital is a scarce resource-there are limits to how much can be put in or taken out of the system. Virtual networks tend to get a smaller chunk of the pie because they are not networks one can simply be active in - their technological mediation means one needs to go to a special place to be involved in the community. Although the hand-held devices are reducing this barrier to participation.
Social Capital thinks of "friendship" in terms of ties: strong, weak (friends who have the potential to be strong), and latent. Hence: "Burden of history in your inner circle" (Ze Frank)
Strong and Weak Ties
Strong: those with whom we have high emotional reciprocity.
Differentiated along four criteria. Time: usually take a long and regular period of time. Emotional intensity. Mutual confidence (trust), and reciprocity. So, strong ties are long, intensive, trusting, and reciprocal. Strong ties tend to come with more similarity between people i.e. the stronger the tie, the higher the similarity between the nodes, the stronger the connection. It is these ties who re-inforce who you are.
Although weak ties take less input, they are still a conduit of social capital so make the scarce resource (social capital) go further. These weaker ties require more governance but the overlap of weak-tie networks can provide new conduits of social capital through a bridging tie. One is most likely to find a new job from your weak-tie network. These bridging ties can also provide variety since they introduce you to new people who can, potentially, become strong ties.
Virtual Identity and Group Communication
How we communicate changes depending on whom we communicate with and with whom we think we are adjacent to in the network. Work backwards: look at communication to understand social position. Our code relies on trust: the other will understand the strong tie and the denotation. If we can identify the person from their interactions on the network does it follow that we can shape certain types of community by fostering certain types of utterances?
Social capital is not an unproblematic concept.
Tie theory looks at the micro level - the small-scale connections between people.
Communities are dynamic and there is a feedback system between members of the community and the individuals which constitute that community.
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