Entries tagged with “web community” from Tools of Change for Publishing
New Project Examines Close Reading and Web Collaboration
Mac Slocum
October 31, 2008
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On Nov. 10, Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook will be read and discussed by seven readers in a new experiment that explores "close reading" and the mechanisms of online conversation.
The project is the brainchild of Bob Stein, founder of Institute for the Future of the Book. Stein outlined the project's goals in an email announcement:
Fundamentally this is an experiment in how the web might be used as a space for collaborative close-reading. We don't yet understand how to model a complex conversation in the web's two-dimensional environment and we're hoping this experiment will help us learn what's necessary to make this sort of collaboration work as well as possible.
The seven readers will discuss the book through margin notes and a group blog, and a public forum will be available for others to join the conversation. Further details are available through the project site.
Maintaining a Web Community is as Hard as Building One
Mac Slocum
September 9, 2008
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Finding the balance between the content you take from users and the value you give back is tricky business, especially since "value" and "money" are rarely synonymous in the user-generated space. Yelp, a volunteer-driven hub of local business and restaurant reviews, is one community that seems to have struck the right chord with its most active members. From the New York Times:
Yelp identifies its most consistently praised, prolific and witty reviewers as members of the "Yelp Elite Squad." The company says it looks for those possessing "a certain je ne sais quoi -- we call it Yelpitude." I find that it saves time to read the reviews submitted by the Elite Squad and ignore the rest.
Singling out the best and the brighting contributors in the early days of a community is putting the cart before the horse. You need critical mass -- or a route toward critical mass -- before the natural audience strata appear. Nonetheless, it's smart to develop a notoriety plan in the off chance you catch lightning in a bottle. This could be a complicated mechanism like Yelp's Elite Squad or Slashdot's moderation system, or it could be driven by organic relationships between community moderators and promising users.
Note: Some community systems associate coy user types with users who've met certain thresholds -- i.e. post 100 comments and become a vaunted "Senior Member." Auto-generated user types have a degree of value, but a true notoriety initiative requires a lot more effort.
Even with adequate notoriety tools, the most successful communities still suffer from turnover and diminished interest among key users. When I developed my first few communities I mistakenly assumed that once the audience was in place, the natural organization within the community would replace my development efforts. But that's not how it works. Most members have a lifecycle within a community -- it's a linear progression with an endpoint, not a constant user pattern. It's important to acknowledge this natural line and counter inevitable user drift with ongoing user development.
The Reinvention of the Book Club
Peter Brantley
May 20, 2008
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The Economist has a story on the decline, and partial resuscitation, of book clubs, with a focus on Europe and America:
There is one kind of book club which could have a bright future: specialist clubs that harness the internet. Two successful new clubs in recent years have been Bertelsmann's Black Expressions in America, aimed at black women, and Mosaico, a Spanish-language club. For specialist titles, bookstores cannot compete for range with a book club, and the internet lacks the personal touch of a trusted team of editors.
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