Forum and CMS Integration

The nucleus of building an online community is a popular an well run forum. When building a community using php CMS software the forum is the first thing that should be configured. Unfortunately most opensource php CMS software is lacking in the area that it should be strongest, the forum. For users a lot of time and effort goes into choosing the right software to accomplish the task of building an online community. Missing is the effort by the CMS developers to ensure that the software is up to the job.

Hiveminds (2006). Articles>Content Management>Community Building

Free Culture

The modern-day equivalents of the early twentieth-century radio or nineteenth-century railroads are using their power to get the law to protect them against this new, more efficient, more vibrant technology for building culture.

Lessig, Lawrence. Lessig Blog (2003). Books>Intellectual Property>Community Building

Free Professional Development: Starting a Journal Club

Have you ever wished that someone would offer advanced training for technical communicators in your community? In Winnipeg, we certainly did. However, we found that most training is expensive. Our chapter would bring in workshop leaders, but have difficulty getting enough people to sign up. Those of us who wanted training often had to leave the city, but not all of us could get our companies to pay to send us for training, or even to annual conferences. About four years ago, the Manitoba chapter stumbled upon an easy, cheap solution: We started a journal club. Four times a year, several chapter members meet to discuss the contents of the latest issue of Technical Communication.

Campbell, Alexa. Tieline (2003). Articles>TC>Community Building

From Starfish to Butterfly ... the Amazing Story of the AccessAbility SIG  

This paper describes the remarkable history of the Society's newest Special Interest Group--the AccessAbility SIG--tracing it back to its origins in 1997 as the Special Needs Committee (SNC). The SNC, founded by Judy Skinner, was originally chartered to assist technical communicators with disabilities in the practice of our profession by researching and publicizing assistive technologies and techniques to overcome those limitations. Over its 5-year lifespan, the committee expanded its mission to include a second overarching goal--assisting all technical communicators in developing information products that are fully accessible to end users with disabilities. Its accomplishments included a data-rich yet eye-pleasing online newsletter, an ever-growing comprehensive web site that is becoming a definitive resource on accessibility, and a robust and dynamic listserv.

Voss, Daniel W. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Accessibility>Community Building>STC

The Future Web 2.0 Social Experience

A long article describing a future more connected world-wide-web and a few killer applications that it makes possible.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Community Building

Green Giving: Engagement, Values, Activism, and Community Life  

Philanthropic campaigns typically offer value identification and identity rewards for gift giving. These rewards may be increased by engaging the gift-givers within the work and activity of the charitable organization; moreover, fund-raising may reach beyond the limited budget people typically allocate to psychic goods if charitable gifts are perceived as part of the costs of one's way of life and as part of the meanings, activities, and communities within which one lived one's life. In support of these claims, I examine environmental fund-raising in Santa Barbara through interviews with fund-raisers involved with the Community Environmental Council and the campaign to purchase a major coastal property for a preserve. The fundraising for CEC indicates ways in which people's identities and commitments may be drawn on and reinforced and how people's interests in sustaining a way of life can become the basis of funding campaigns; CEC fundraising suggests that activism does not necessarily translate into giving, depending on the nature of the active engagement. The case of the preservation of the Wilcox property suggests how commitment to a community way of life can mobilize extraordinary giving when the community as a whole starts to perceive itself engaged in common endeavor and commitment. The success of the campaign itself then becomes a sign of community strength and community values.

Bazerman, Charles. UCSB. Articles>Rhetoric>Community Building

Guide to Weblog Comments

Leaving a comment on someone's weblog is like walking into their living room and joining in on a conversation. As in real life, online there are some people who are a pleasure to converse with, and some who are not.

Trapani, Gina. LifeHacker (2005). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging

Handling Negative Feedback on Blogs

Despite blogs’ potential for creating valuable online communities, many communicators are still uneasy with the blog format. Communicators worry about the possibility of readers posting negative comments and feedback on the company blog. Angry customers leaving stories of poor experiences for all to see or employees submitting bitter public complaints are nightmare scenarios for most communicators. So how should we respond to negative feedback on corporate blogs? The process begins with shifting our perspective to see the risks as opportunities.

Drennan, Scott. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Blogging

Have Chapter Meetings that Members Love to Attend!  

To improve your chapter meetings, begin by forming a vivid ideal of how you would like the meetings to be. You can realize your dream if you: (1) find out what chapter members want, (2) form an enthusiastic team to do the many tasks involved, (3) publicize meetings beyond your membership list, (4) ensure good presentations, (5) energize the audience for lively meetings, and (6) keep looking for ways to meet your members' wants. For advice and encouragement in doing these things, participate in a support group with leaders of other chapters.

Dean, Morris. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Hosting the Traveling Exhibits: A Primer

In April 2005 the Vermont Chapter STC hosted the STC traveling exhibits, which include award-winning entries from the five major STC competitions: the international technical art competition (ITAC), international technical publications competition (ITPC), international online communication competition (IOCC), Society newsletter competition, and Society public relations competition. If your chapter, like ours, is in a small market, you probably don’t get the opportunity to network with technical writers from different industries or to see documentation for other markets. Hosting the traveling exhibits is a great way to see what other technical writers are doing in the field.

Myers, Patricia. Tieline (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

How to Avoid Networking Faux Pas

It's no secret that networking is a key factor in career success. And failing to keep an active network can hinder your employment prospects if you suddenly find yourself in the job market with no contacts or references. As a professional communicator, you already know how important connections are. But a network must be continually nurtured, and you may be neglecting yours unintentionally. Here are 10 common networking mistakes and tips to avoid them

McDonald, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building

How to Be a Great Host

Online communities can take time to get off the ground. Like small businesses, most fail to thrive due to poor planning and support. John Gladding explains how anyone who can host a great party can start a successful forum.

Gladding, John. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Community Building

How to Find Volunteers

All STC community leaders know the difficulty of finding volunteers. In recent years, the Orlando chapter has seen steadily increasing membership counts and meeting attendance figures, implemented creative and successful chapter initiatives, and even won consecutive Chapter of Distinction awards. But when it comes to soliciting volunteers for chapter leadership positions, you may as well be asking them to wrestle the sharks at SeaWorld! On the other hand, there are some things you can do to at least lessen the pain.

Murray, Mike. Tieline (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

How To Justify Conference Attendance

As a manager you may often be faced either with your own need to attend a professional conference or requests by your team members to attend one. Professional conferences can be expensive and not all budget managers understand their importance or the benefits derived by conference attendees. In this article, Mike Doyle discusses how to go about justifying the expense of attending a conference and provides some handy worksheets you can use to do so.

Doyle, Mike. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Management>Community Building>Assessment

How to Organize Educational Meetings for Community and Professional Organizations    

Successful meetings are the end result of a∆ careful planning process. To successfully organize an educational meeting for a community or professional organization, you need to follow a series of steps.

Carliner, Saul. Tieline (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

How to Stage a Successful Student Competition  

One of the functions of the Society for Technical Communications (STC) is to promote and encourage the professional development of its members. A student chapter of STC has additional responsibilities; it must also seek to build bridges between the students and the professional community.

Bowman, Michelle L., Leonard B. Jones Ill, Winnifred R. Leonard and Marisa J. Mueller. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Community Building>STC

Ideas to Invigorate a Chapter  

As a chapter leader, you work hard towards the goal of getting maximum interest and participation in chapter activities by the chapter membership. But are you on target? Probable accurate answers to this question are 'some times,' 'probably,' 'maybe,' etc. As any of us who have served in an STC chapter leadership role can attest, the fact is that the target is a moving one. What is on target today may not necessarily work tomorrow. And vice-versa. However, there are some 'tricks of the trade' which you can use to help you increase your on-target percentage. Come and interact with a panel of past and present chapter presidents as each shares specific ideas for increasing membership involvement and for tailoring activities to meet the needs of members and potential members.

Cantando, Mary Myers, Mark Hanigan Bruce E. Cone, Michael P. Bates and Judith N. Skinner. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC

IEEE PCS Forum

The IEEE PCS Virtual Community has been established to provide you with a more robust environment to facilitate your online collaborative efforts. Enhanced capabilities not featured in static web pages or email listservs include: calendar function; polling function; file sharing; enhanced search function; and im (chat).

IEEE PCS. Resources>TC>Community Building>Social Networking

If You Build It, They'll Come

If you create a community around your Web site, look beyond providing the outer semblances of community: design a site that can potentially work the way each of these very different members of the community wants it to work.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Imagined Electronic Community  

In contemporary business texts corporate sponsored online communities are described as central to the commercial development of the Internet. This paper presents a history of how online community has been represented in models of Internet commerce. It critically examines the arguments, narratives and rhetorical strategies drawn on within business texts to represent online community. The paper discusses why academics have an interest in involving themselves in helping organize alternative models of online community formation in the context of moves to corporatize and commodify higher education.

Werry, Chris. First Monday (1999). Articles>Cyberculture>Community Building

Imagining the Blogosphere: An Introduction to the Imagined Community of Instant Publishing

Blogs above the waterline—those which are frequently updated, widely read, and consistently linked—may represent the conception of blogs in the public mind, but they are not representative of blogs in general.

Lampa, Graham. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging

The Impact of Social Media on Technical Communication

In this podcast, I talk with Bill Albing, founder of KeyContent.org, about the impact of social media on technical communication. Bill talks about different ways social media helps audiences interconnect and interact. Good social media technologies enable professionals to collaborate easily, without being encumbered by complicated technology or even burdened by managing and filtering feeds. Bill explains that the web is more than just a venue for publication -- it's a medium that allows people to interconnect and work/collaborate with information. This is the direction we're moving towards, and technical communicators are starting to integrate social media, such as user forums, directly into their help.

Albing, Bill and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>Online