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The types of virtual communities I can build and the tools available
To start off with, you need to decide what is the purpose of the community that you are trying to build? Are you going to use it for private or public use? Is it to attract other members or is it to discuss sensitive topics. Now that you have decided the purpose of the community you want to have, let’s list what the different types are:
Collaborative workgroups Family groups Social Spaces Role playing Illness support groups Face to face groups Ethnic groups Professional groups Geographically related groups Software support Intellectual discussion groups Special interest groups Creative groups to share techniques and work
Tool for Your Community
As you can see you can have a group for anything that you may want to discuss or gain information from. The next step is to decide what kind of tools are you going to need for you community there are many to choose from I will go over the pros and cons of some of them. 1. Email: You have one email address that the group sends messages, and then it goes out to the subscribers. At that point the subscriber decided whether or not to respond. You can also use email to send out the newsletters for the group. An advantage to this is that it’s inexpensive and can reach everybody online. Disadvantages are that spammers can get in and send messages and there can be lots of messages. 2. Chat: You can send messages instantly or live, can be used for meetings, brainstorming or for help either technically or emotionally. Some advantages are that you have an instant response because everyone is online at the same time. You can have a guest speaker to answer questions or give information. You are able to log the conversations so that if can be posted for everyone to see. Some of the disadvantages are not able to access the chat thanks to issues with Java and some people can’t make the meeting due to time zones. 3. Message Boards: With this tool you will find that not everyone is online at the same time when you post a message. Therefore you will have to wait for a response sometimes it takes till the next day. Message boards can be arranged in a threaded or linear manner. Advantages of threaded discussions are that they can be organized so answers can be found easily. Some disadvantages are that a new page has to load in order to see the next message and it is easy to lose a conversation. Some advantages of a linear arrangement are that you can have in depth conversations and it displays the way people really talk. Some disadvantages are that it is difficult to come to a conclusion and hard to find info for later.
Administrative Tools
Administrative tools are an important part of your virtual community there are two kinds of management that you will need. They are content and user management tools what you will need to have for content is to be able to add a new topic, log chats, and be able to edit, hide or delete posts. With user management you will want to be active in your community and monitor what is being posted if it is out of line then get rid of it. Spotlight the best posts to give positive reinforcement, prevent spammers from automatically posting comments. You may want to require users to register within your community, but make sure that you are sensitive to the concerns that may arise some people might have concerns that they could get fired from the statement that they make. Last but not least keep a sense of humor you must be able to laugh at some of things that irritate you.
Conclusion
Last but not least, if the goal of your virtual community is to gain members or have lots of hits then you will need to do some of the following. Which include banner ads, networking, and advertising, posting in newsgroups or even adding links to your community page? I am sure that you can be inventive and come up with your own ways of getting people to your community page. There are many ideas out there this is just a sampling. You usually have all the information you need on the sites that you can use to create your virtual community.
Citation
Some info was collaborated from this article by Boettcher, S. (1999, May). Full Circle Associates. Seattle, WA, USA.