- PowazekChapter1, Chapter 1 [available here∞]

Discussion leader/summarizer: PaulResnick

Key Points/Claims

A vignette about a high school experience sharing notes with an anonymous other user of the same desk. It provides an analogy to many features of on-line communities, including the ability to connect with people you do not (yet) know, and issues of boundaries and regulation of behavior.

There should be some good reason for adding interactive features to a web-site, and coolness and free content aren't good reasons. Running an on-line community takes a lot of work, because the community requires you to keep participating in their conversations in some way.

Public posts can be astonishingly intimate, as illustrated by the outpouring of support to Jeffrey Zeldman (the "moment of silence" thread).

The most important first step in starting an online community (or analyzing an existing one) is to analyze the existing or potential audience: who are they and why are they there? The next step is provide some valauble content around which conversations can form. Third, you have to make some basic technology decision, most importantly whether people will communicate asychnronously (e.g, email or web bboard) or sychronously (e.g,. chat).

Critique

The vignette is delightful.

The emphasis on audience seems good, but there are also times when an unanticipated audience finds a use for a site. It's also important to understand that the audience may be segmented. In his Lotus Notes example, he identifies a "secondary audience" of knowledgeable experts. I'm not sure why this audience is considered secondary-- in fact, much of the work of organizing this online community should probably go into making it a place that those experts like. Of course, it can't be a place that only the experts like.

There's not much guidance in figuring out exactly what is a good reason to have an online community, just a few examples of good things that can happen.

I agree that there has to be some focal point that sparks conversation. In many cases, it may be that people react to content posted on the site. But I can imagine other things, like questions, or events that are unfolding (e.g., a tournament, or a game play-by-play). I suppose in some sense these are "content", but they're not text or other documents posted on the site.

Connections with other readings, ideas, etc.

I've organized our online class discussions around the idea that people will respond to content (these writeups of readings...)

The exericse at the end of the chapter, of answering his interview questions, is one that we'll come back to later, as part of your design assignment.