How To Grow Vibrant Virtual Communities, by David Hinds, Ph.D

How to Grow Vibrant Virtual Communities

Presented to:The Social Media Club of South Florida

January 19, 2009

David Hinds, Ph.D., P.E.

Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences

Huizenga School of Business, NSU

[email protected]

Outline

• What is a “virtual community”?

• Types of virtual communities

– Why should we care?

• How to grow a vibrant virtual community1) Identify population needs

2) Design the host platform

3) Provide seeds

4) Facilitate and guide

2

“Social media”

• Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.[1] The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. [2] This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

• URL accessed 20jan09: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

3What is a Virtual Community?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-generated_content



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_generated_media




What is a Virtual Community?

• A virtual community is a population of individuals with shared or complementary interests who interact across a host platform.

• Not all social media, user-generated content or Web 2.0 initiatives are virtual communities

• The key defining feature of a virtual community is the presence of collective feedback in which bothcontribution and use are open

4What is a Virtual Community?

5

Collective feedback process

Virtual community

Open

contributionOpen use

Facilitator &

core group

Host

platform

What is a Virtual Community?

Types of Virtual Communities

1) Socializing – Facebook, Second Life

2) Gaming – Everquest, Full Tilt Poker

3) Content Sharing – YouTube, BitTorrent

4) Knowledge Sharing – Wikipedia, Slashdot, SMC…

5) Activism – MoveOn, ImmigrationVoice

6) Development – Linux, InnovationJam

7) Exchange – eBay, Craigslist

By defining types, we can learn from others!

6Types of Virtual Communities

Why Should We Care?

• Strategic opportunity (and threat)

– Facebook and YouTube

– Industry disruptions especially in media, entertainment and computers

• Marketing opportunity (and threat)

– Alli weight-loss program (Alli Circles)

– Dell Hell

• Management approach

– IBM InnovationJam


Some Valuations

• Facebook - $15 billion (in 3.5 years)– Presently about 300 employees– $50 million per employee (Microsoft minority purchase)

• YouTube - $1.65 billion (in less than 2 years)– In 2006, had 67 employees– $22 million per employee (Google buyout)

• Compare with (as of March ‘08):– Microsoft @ $4 million per employee– eBay @ $3.6 million per employee– General Electric @ $1 million per employee– General Motors @ $76,000 per employee


World of Warcraft

• December 23, 2008 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide

@ Subscription cost: $14.99 per month

= $2 Billion annual revenues


Suppliers of Web Server Software – Market Share

(Source: Netcraft Web Server Survey, November 2008)


1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Text-based

forumsSource code

repositories

Wikis

3D-avatar

environments

Tagging

The Well

Usenet

newsgroups

Linux

MySpace

YouTube

User profiles

Individuals

Non-profit

organizations

Corporate

strategic

eBay

Corporate

marketing

Corporate

management

Enab

ling

Technolo

gie

sH

osts

SourceForge

Wikipedia Second Life

Weblogs

(blogs)

Del.icio.us

Web 2.0Arpanet www

Everquest

Virtual Community Technologies and HostsH

ost ty

pes


Growing a Virtual Community

1) Identify population needs

2) Design the host platform

3) Provide seeds

4) Facilitate and guide

Like “growing a garden”

12How to Grow a Vibrant Virtual Community

1. Identify Population Needs1) Socializing

Seek approval, support, friendship

2) Gaming

Need for competition, entertainment, fantasy

3) Content Sharing

Need for specific content, desire to express or promote

4) Knowledge Sharing

Require knowledge for a purpose, desire to build reputation

5) Activism

Desire for specific action (e.g. political action)

6) Development

Need for specific artifacts, desire to build skills, need to feel accomplishment

7) Exchange

Buyers and sellers, service providers and service users

131. Identify Population Needs

SMC: Population Needs

• “…to help people find all the relevant communities of interest in which they want to participate. We want to help you explore your personal and professional passions by helping you connect with a community of your peers based on both geography and areas of interest.”

• URL accessed 19jan09: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/about/social-media-club-a-short-history-a-long-and-bright-future/

141. Identify Population Needs

http://www.socialmediaclub.org/about/social-media-club-a-short-history-a-long-and-bright-future/





















2a. Select platform technology

• Technology design for collective feedback

– Threaded discussion (SMC Blog?)

– Personal space

– Virtual landscape

– Text-based repository (SMC special projects wiki)

– Other repository (SMC)

– Others …

152. Design the Host Platform

Threaded discussion (SourceForge)


Personal space (MySpace)


Virtual landscape (ESPN Poker Club)


Text-based repository (Wikipedia)


Other repository (Epinions)


2b. Set the policies and design the procedures and processes

• Host platform includes both technology andpolicy/process

• Key policy decision: who is authorized to do what?

• The platform defines the “protocol of interaction”

• The platform also enables the collective feedback process to occur


SMC: Policies

“In looking at what is most important to us, it would seem most appropriate to focus our efforts on the four areas of our core mission:1. Expand Media Literacy

2. Share Lessons Learned Among Practitioners

3. Encourage Adoption of Industry Standards

4. Promote Ethical Practices through Discussion and Actions

From here, it is important to note that anyone in the advisory group (and any member of the community) may propose projects for the club to support.”

• URL accessed 19jan09: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/projects/


http://www.socialmediaclub.org/projects/

23

Collective feedback in Wikipedia

Articles

Posting Repository

Community of

“Wikipedians”

Abusive or

inappropriate

contribution?

Submitted

article

Submitted

change

Prior versions

are saved

Revert to

prior version

Moderators

only

Anyone

Yes


24

Collective feedback in Slashdot

Troll

filters

Moderator

review

Comment

Contribution

Portal

Initial

posting Comments

Initial

submission

OSDN

review

Ratings

attached

Facilitator (sponsor)

only

Moderators

only

Anyone

Troll

filters

Comment

Contribution

Portal

Initial

posting Comments

Initial

submission

Ratings

attached

Posting Repository

Community of

“Nerds”Threshold

filters


3. Provide Seeds

• Initial postings to public forums by key contributors

• Early game players

• Seed source code provided by founders of open source software projects

253. Provide Seeds

SMC: The Founders

• “SMC is Chris and Kristie’s labor of love. From day one, they focused on growing the organization organically as there were only two of them working on the organization on a part time basis …”


263. Provide Seeds






















4. Facilitate and Guide

• Focus on attracting and motivating participants– Pay attention to community needs

– Make it as easy as possible

– Recruit key members to minimize cost

• Provide just the right amount of structure– Do not command and control

• Respect the norms and culture of the community– Beware that virtual communities tend to set their own

direction

• Be aware of specific legal considerations


SMC: Facilitating Collective Feedback

• “SMC has fallen short on some of our goals - primarily, not connecting the groups as well as we would have liked, and we need to ensure the knowledge shared at SMC chapter events is then pushed back into the system so all can utilize … when groups are talking about a certain topic, we need to ensure there are digital scribes in the room who are then responsible for bringing that info back into the SMC ‘portal’ so other cities can then use it for their events or members can read up on what is hot in that community. ”
























Relevant publications

• Armstrong, A. G. and J. I. Hagel (1996). "The real value of online communities." Harvard Business Review: 134-141.

•

• Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks: how social production transforms markets and freedom. New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press.

•

• Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley.

•

• Tapscott, D. and A. D. Williams (2006). Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything. New York, NY, Penguin Group.

•

• Timmers, P. (1998). "Business models for electronic markets." EM - Electronic Markets 8(2): 3-8.

29

Thank you!

David Hinds

[email protected]

30

Team vs. Virtual Community

Microsoft

(team)

Apache

(virtual

community)


Threadless: a creative hybrid• Users can submit T-shirt designs and rate submitted designs

– 800 designs submitted weekly– 200,000 design reviews weekly– Design tools available on web site

• Weekly design winner gets $2,000 and IP rights to the design other than for T-shirts

• Threadless produces and sells T-shirts with winning design

• With only 25 employees … a highly profitable hosting model

• Combining aspects of 3 markets/models– Gaming: competition– Development: design tools– Exchange: content sharing

• What if YouTube sponsored a video production competition?

32