#30121
The problem with many Web 2.0 applications is the assumption that the community's motives are good, or at least neutral. Perlin's column explores how one of the drawbacks of Web 2.0--potential loss of control over information--has manifested itself.
Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Content Management
#25593
In this essay I assess the potential impact of weblogs on the public sphere, using a model based on the work of Jürgen Habermas to provide an ideal against which we can measure the efficacy of weblogs as a public space.
Baoill, Andrew Ó. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging
#29240
What's Civic About Technical Communication? Technical Communication and the Rhetoric of 'Community' 
Although the concept of community has been advanced in technical communication as a moral reference point for civic rhetorical action, this concept is typically used in romantic, redemptive, and essentializing ways. This article argues for a radical and symbolic/rhetorical view of community, regarding it a discursive construct purposefully invoked by technical writers for strategic reasons.
Ornatowski, Cezar M. and Linn K. Bekins. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Community Building>Rhetoric
#31277
Where in the World Is Second Life?
Like most corporations, computer maker Dell offers a pop-up list of countries and regions on its web site. But, look closely between Saudi Arabia and Senegal, and you'll find a country called "Second Life." Click on it and you'll find that it's not a country but a world—of the virtual kind.
Gronstedt, Anders. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>Social Networking
#31770
Over the last few months as I've settled into my new employment arrangement and my STC administrative duties, I've occasionally reflected on my decision to join STC. I can easily see how much of an impact STC membership has had on my personal and professional life. Further, I can easily see how I will continue reaping the numerous rewards associated with membership in this organization.
Parson, Clyde. Between the Lines (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#13551
Every year, each STC member is given the opportunity to vote twice as a member, once for the next year's Society (international-level) leaders and once for the next year's chapter (local-level) leaders. The Society and its chapters expend much effort and expense each year to recruit candidates and develop and distribute ballots; however, only about 10% of STC's members ever return those ballots. If such a small portion of members participate in elections, why bother holding them? The most fundamental reason is that STC's bylaws and the bylaws of each chapter require a duly elected leadership.
Wing, Liz. Carolina Communique (2000). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#30668
Wikipedia, Champion of User-Generated Content
Encourage user contribution to your Web site by learning from Wikipedia. Wikipedia builds on open source and respects the geographical variety and potential accessibility needs of its users. It provides tools to help users contribute, but also fosters an atmosphere where contributions are verified and discussed by the broader community.
Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>Community Building>User Centered Design
#28376
参加の仕方は一様ではない：もっと大勢のユーザに書き込んでもらうには
多くのオンライン・システムでは、ユーザの90%は読むだけで自ら書き込むことは決してしない。9%は、ほんの少し書き込みをする。システム上にみられるアクションのほとんどは、残る1%のユーザによるものである。
Nielsen, Jakob. U-Site (2006). (Japanese) Design>Web Design>Community Building>Usability
#32158
Changing Dynamics, Economy, and Momentum 
To reinvigorate the chapter, former chapter president, Theresa Putkey suggested that the chapter move to a member-driven, online community. Instead of the eight volunteers currently pulling the chapter along, the chapter’s 250 members can set the pace, build momentum, and provide more value than a handful of volunteers are able to provide.
Putkey, Theresa. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#32285
Rethinking the Fragmentation of the Cyberpublic: From Consensus to Contestation
Recently there has been some debate between deliberative democrats about whether the internet is leading to the fragmentation of communication into `like-minded' groups.This article is concerned with what is held in common by both sides of the debate: a public sphere model that aims for all-inclusive, consensus seeking rational deliberation that eliminates inter-group 'polarizing' politics. It argues that this understanding of deliberative democracy fails to adequately consider the asymmetries of power through which deliberation and consensus are achieved, the inter-subjective basis of meaning, the centrality of respect for difference in democracy, and the democratic role of `like-minded' deliberative groups. The deliberative public sphere must be rethought to account more fully for these four aspects. The article draws on post-Marxist discourse theory and reconceptualizes the public sphere as a space constituted through discursive contestation.Taking this radicalized norm, it considers what research is needed to understand the democratic implications of the formation of 'like-minded' groups online.
Dahlberg, Lincoln. New Media and Society (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Theory
#32336
An Exploration of Concepts of Community Through a Case Study of UK University Web Production
The paper explores the interrelation and differences between the concepts of occupational community, community of practice, online community and social network. It uses as a case study illustration the domain of UK university web site production and specifically a listserv for those involved in it. Different latent occupational communities are explored, and the potential for the listserv to help realize these as an active sense of community is considered. The listserv is not (for most participants) a tight knit community of practice, indeed it fails many criteria for an online community. It is perhaps best conceived as a loose knit network of practice, valued for information, implicit support and for the maintenance of weak ties. Through the analysis the case for using strict definitions of the theoretical concepts is made.
Cox, Andrew M. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Academic
#32467
Abuse has made me seriously consider – several times – disabling comments. I’m ambivalent about it. On the one hand it would make writing and publishing much easier. Write something, proofread it, publish.
Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Interaction Design
#32492
Here’s a complaint I’ve heard from most of the technical writers I’ve met: “I never get to meet my users.” User input helps us decide what content to include and in what form, and can confirm whether our books are effective. But getting user input can be difficult—at least I thought so, until I discovered a fun way to meet hundreds of users each year.
Heninger, Barbara L. Indus (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Community Building>Audience Analysis
#32567
Facebook Groups vs. Facebook Pages
Many nonprofit early adopters of Facebook set up groups as their organizational hubs because that was the only option. Later, Facebook Pages were introduced and many nonprofits have set these up as their institutional hubs. There has been some discussion in nonprofit forums, blogs, and listservs about the pros and cons of Facebook Pages versus Groups. Below are the notes I've drafted on the topic so far.
Davies, Tim. Tim's Blog (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#32583
How and Why to Build an Online Community
A community has to be grown wild and organically or it will fail. Control comes with time and growth. The success of a community and its size may vary. The effort may not give expected results but the work still pays off in knowledge and experience. Community members will change and accept different roles and participate in different manners. Being user friendly and being willing to allow change to happen is most important.
Hiveminds (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#32625
Why Are Online Communities So Popular?
In An exploration of the internet publishing revolution, I discussed the implications of the increased self-publishing on the web. The discussion covered general concerns and possible impacts of the sudden growth, but not the reasons behind it. What has prompted the expansion of people’s voice on the web? Where have these communities of bloggers and posters come from? Why have they arisen? In this article I intend to find answers to these questions and ask: ‘What makes online communities so popular?’
Mercurytide (2006). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#32701
Getting Everyone’s Foot in the Door with SIN (Shy, Inactive, and New) SIG
In addition to providing a welcoming atmosphere, SIN SIG offers newcomers a jump-start to networking. As a new member, Thuy Vu took advantage of SIN SIG for exactly that purpose. She says, "To have the support and resources of SIN SIG from day one was very valuable to me as a new member. SIN SIG made it much easier to connect with the group and to learn my way around." We've found that the casual SIN SIG meeting with its small group provides an avenue to get to know a few faces and learn about opportunities for involvement without intimidating new people.
Miller, Elisa. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#32702
Keep Everyone Informed with Twitter!
At this year's Technical Communication Summit, I introduced social networking at Leadership Day by telling those in attendance about Twitter. Some folks already knew about it, but for others, it was a new concept ... letting people know what was going on in real time? Setting up meetings? Getting the A/C fixed in the conference rooms? By the end of the Summit, about 20 people had sent messages, or tweeted, consistently throughout the conference.
James-Tanny, Char. Tieline (2008). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#33044
Six Steps to Effective Discussion Forums on your Intranet
When you have a small base of users (say, under 10,000), everything has to be perfect to create effective discussion forums. Here are 6 guidelines.
McGrath, Chris. One Intranets (2006). Articles>Content Management>Community Building>Intranets
#33111
In this article, the authors argue that online learning conversations need to go beyond the common “information exchange” to a deeper level of interaction in order to help learners build situated knowledge that is useful in their local contexts. The article begins by looking at the commonly-used framework of a Community of Practice (CoP) and in particular, the challenges that designers can expect to encounter when knowledge building moves online, and conversants do not have a shared practice. The authors explain why this is problematic in terms of having insufficient grounding for the conversation and describe how online designers can compensate for the lack of shared practice by providing a common referent. Finally, the authors discuss three considerations that online designers should take into account in crafting a common referent (the richness of representation provided, the domain specificity required, and how the referent is conceptually framed) and explore their implications for both formal and informal learning environments.
Wise, Alyssa, Thomas Duffy and Poornima Padmanabhan. Educational Technology Publications (2008). Academic>Collaboration>Community Building>Participatory Design
#33631
Communities, Audiences, and Scale
Communities are different than audiences in fundamental human ways, not merely technological ones. You cannot simply transform an audience into a community with technology, because they assume very different relationships between the sender and receiver of messages.
Shirky, Clay. Shirky.com (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Online
#33642
Caught in the Current of Writer River: Building and Participating in Community-Driven Websites 
When hundreds of people engage in content-generation and exchange, impressive results can happen — namely, you find a lot of interesting, accurate content. Writer River doesn’t have nearly enough community to be on par with these sites, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Johnson, Tom H. Intercom (2009). Articles>Content Management>Community Building>Taxonomy
#33643
Embracing the Un: When the Community Runs the Event
With the explosion of Web 2.0 come two new kinds of community events: BarCamps and BookSprints. Gentle and Swisher share their experiences with these unconferences.
Gentle, Anne and Janet Swisher. Intercom (2009). Articles>TC>Community Building>Social Networking
#33651
Keep Your Web 2.0 Community Happy
Running a web community can be fun and rewarding, but you’re always reliant on the good faith of your members. So what happens when rogue elements threaten to disrupt, even destroy, the foundations of your virtual society? Derek Powazek has some suggestions
Powazek, Derek. Dot Net (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#33712
Creating an Online Survey with SurveyMonkey
Surveys have always been a great way to gauge users' opinions and reactions toward new and existing products and services. With SurveyMonkey, an online survey software program, creating a survey has become a quick and easy way to create useful surveys for a multitude of needs. In this reprint of David Farbey's article, originally published in the January 2006 edition of Forward, the newsletter of the UK Chapter, Farbey gives a step-by-step guide on creating a survey with SurveyMonkey.
Farbey, David. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>Surveys
