Building online communities
Online or virtual community is a term referring to a group sharing some common interest connected in some way by the internet. However unlike a lot of online connections which mostly involve one-way interaction – a small group of senders and a large group of recipients such as with a website – online community implies interactions between members that are dynamic and engaging and where a major aim is to encourage members to contribute their ideas.
Some virtual communities are open to anyone, others screen levels of access with password-protected areas so that confidential information is available only to those with access.
It is quite possible that the ‘customers’ (clients, volunteers, partners, sponsors, donors, etc) for your organisation’s offline services are a different group from those whom you might be targeting for your online community. For some organisations, the secondary customer offline may become the primary customer online.
An organisation, for example, that serves children with disabilities as its primary customers, may decide that parents and family members are the primary online customers. The online mission might be to provide schedules, newsletters, parenting tips and links to other online resources. This organisation might develop a virtual community with chat rooms for parents. Parents may value being able to better help their children, get the support they need from other parents, and coordinate with teachers without having to attend meetings.
Tip
Share your favourites
del.icio.us
is a ‘social bookmarks manager’. It allows you to share your Favourites/Bookmarks with others, and to get access to theirs. You can view your Favourites from any web browser.
What makes del.icio.us a social system is its ability to let you see the links that others have collected, as well as showing you who else has bookmarked a specific site. You can also view the links collected by others, and subscribe to the links of people whose lists you find interesting.
Some options for building online interaction
An online community is a tool for encouraging collaboration and interaction. Some of the tools to facilitate online interaction are below.
Bulletin boards
Bulletin boards provide threaded discussions. They aren’t in real time but provide more flexibility where participation doesn’t require real-time coordination. Bulletin boards encourage dialogue since participants post opinions and react to others’ comments. The linear format encourages continuity of comments on a topic and they can be moderated by experts or volunteers, or both.
Chatrooms and discussion forums
These provide real-time communication and can be used for live forums, Q&As with guest speakers, or for online meetings. They require facilitators to get through the agenda and maintain topic integrity. See chatrooms and discussion forums.
Polling
Polls are short surveys. They provide quick, informal opinions or a way to gather input into decisions. See surveys.
Active online calendars
Calendars can be a good tool for organising internal projects or teams, publicising events or meetings, increasing participation and building awareness of your organisation's activities.
Email and listservs
These allow easy exchange of information and ideas, drawing attention to new content on the website and providing follow-ups and reminders of online and offline events. See email newsletters.
10-point checklist for organising a virtual-community
- How can virtual community advance the organisation's mission?
- How can virtual community complement or extend services offered?
- How can virtual community increase participation in educational efforts or decision-making processes?
- Identify target groups.
- Invite existing members and attract new ones with email, fliers or publications to draw attention to community offerings.
- Promote participation by building on common bonds or experience.
- Increase access and skills of target customers.
- Who else is reaching/trying to reach your cyber customers?
- Can you join efforts with other nonprofits that provide complementary services?
- What businesses might want to advertise on or sponsor your site?
True story
Creating a sense of community for Indigenous young people
Based at the Gap Youth Centre in Alice Springs, Deadly Mob encourages an online community of Indigenous young people to actively express their views, hopes, activities and talent online.
Using strong role models and mentors, it helps young people anywhere in Australia participate in community development, and connect with each other and with the wider world.
The website, www.deadlymob.org, is the major gateway to many resources that Indigenous young people can use for work, recreation and networking. There’s a work placement search engine, and resources such as a mentors’ page, an online newsletter, community web pages and Deadly Mail.
Deadly Mob generates a sense of community.
- It's recognising that young people need to look to strong Indigenous role models as their identity develops.
- It's providing communication options for people separated by long distances. It uses visual and audio tools with humour and an informal style in an environment where English is not the first language, and text-based material is often isolating.
- It's giving young people a voice so they can tell their stories and those of the people they admire. This counters negative media images and reports.
The most helpful things in building the community have been identified as:
- local community support;
- having Deadly Mail as a key connector; and
- the development of a range of programs which incorporate a mix of virtual and face-to-face methods.
The lesson from the Deadly Mob experience has been that online activities can be an important tool to reinforce and promote cultural identity and heritage and also that complementary face-to-face programs enrich online communications because relationships and trust have already been established.
See full case study.
More information
The following sites provide free software to experiment with virtual community-building.
- PHP Open Source Bulletin Board package : phbBB
- http://www.zoomerang.com Zoomerang offers customisable survey templates and a fee service is available for those who need more detailed analysis of survey results.
- Yahoo Groups allow fully customisable open or closed groups to work through email lists, shared access to files, databases and calendars, as well as chat rooms.
- A collaborative goal-setting network : www.43things.com
- Tool for creating/supporting online communities : www.wikicities.com
- AMP is a free content management systems suitable for activist web campaigns. It integrates basic web publishing with email list management.
- Another software tool used to foster collaboration and coordination online is CivicSpace, a free distribution of the Drupal open source content management system.
- GroupServer is an open source alternative to YahooGroups, a web and email application that enables people to share files and conversations in groups and communities online.
- Continuous computing – the proliferation of cheap mobile gadgets, wireless internet access for everyone, a new web built for sharing and self-expression where computing means connecting
See also Discussion forums, e-participation, surveys, e consultation.