#30659
Learn to build a chat system into your Web application with Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) and PHP. Your customers can talk to you and to each other about the content of the site without having to download or install any special instant-messaging software.
Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Ajax
#30677
In the age of the people-powered Web, allowing your readers to rate and review content on your site is critical. Discover just how easy it is to add rating and commenting features to a site with Ajax.
Herrington, Jack D. IBM (2007). Design>Web Design>Community Building>Ajax
#28353
Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters
While anonymity may allow people to feel more free and disinhibited to discuss otherwise embarrassing or stigmatizing topics, it can also be a community's biggest enemy.
Grohol, John M. List Apart, A (2006). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#23760
On mailing lists, at conferences, in conversations at cocktail hours, I'm starting to see a growing awareness of how our various disciplines form a community of practice.
Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#31419
Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow
Any community—online or off—must start slowly, and be nurtured. You cannot “just add community.” It must be cared for, and hosted; it takes time and people with great communication skills to set the tone and tend the conversation.
Oates, George. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#20990
Web technology makes it very easy to quickly communicate with so many people that it's easy to forget the overriding purpose of creating a powerful Web site.
Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2003). Design>Web Design>Community Building
#27616
CSS Beauty is a project focused on providing its audience with a database of well designed CSS based websites from around the world. Its purpose is to showcase designers' work and to act as a small portal to the CSS design community.
#14197
Design for Community: An Interview with Derek M. Powazek
Derek M. Powazek has worked on community features for Netscape, Nike, and Sony, along with creating the community sites, {fray}, Kvetch!, and SF Stories. Christine Perfetti, a consultant at User Interface Engineering, recently talked with Derek about his experience. Here is what he had to say about creating effective online communities.
Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#31871
Designing a Different Kind of Intranet: An Intranet for a UX Team
Most of us who are working as part of a design team in a services company, a product company, or even a design boutique have to live with a generic intranet. In this article, I’ll describe how to leverage your company’s intranet and how to build a community around an intranet for a UX team.
Mallik, Anirban Basu. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Intranets
#31057
Designing Online Social Networks: The Theories of Social Groups
It's important to fully understand the theories of social groups before designing online social networks - find out all you need to know!
Halabi, Lisa. Webcredible (2008). Design>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#28424
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
#31233
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
#28236
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
#29433
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
#28977
Implementing a Community RSS Feed 
After implementing www.stc.org's RSS feed, I decided to develop one for my own chapter's site. I researched RSS, copied an .rss example file, tweaked the code, and was able to successfully implement a chapter RSS feed.
Flaherty, Brian. Tieline (2007). Design>Web Design>Community Building>RSS
#21231
Moving a Community to the Web: Creating Hyperviews: Online 
This panel discusses the issues involved in creating Hyperviews: Online, the web-based newsletter for the STC Online Information Special Interest Group (SIG). The panel explores why Hyperviews, the hardcopy newsletter for the Online Information SIG, was moved to the web and the design decisions the editorial staff made to accomplish the move. The panel also discusses what tools and methods they used, what worked and what didn’t, as well as future directions for Hyperviews. The panel includes the Online Information SIG manager, newsletter editor, and newsletter assistant editor. The panel will also encourage feedback and brainstorming from the Online Information SIG community it serves.
Bledsoe, Bill, Karen Mobley and Scott DeLoach. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#13730
Moving Toward Knowledge-Building Communities in Health Information Website Design
In this paper, we describe our work with the Arthritis Source website and our efforts to develop a community of learners in that context. We argue that given proper architectural support, efforts to listen to learners can effectively foster collaboration between the authors of an informational web site and its users and help community building among its users through a dynamic knowledge base.
Turns, Jennifer, Kristina Liu and Tracey S. Wagner. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#25243
Moving Toward Knowledge-Building Communities in Informational Web Site Design 
In this article, we describe how a knowledge-building community perspective can lead to a framework for designing an informational Web site. We illustrate the framework through our work on the Arthritis source, an informational Web site helping users acquire information about arthritis. The resulting framework provides one means of addressing challenges that arise in the design and development of such informational Web sites.
Turns, Jennifer, Tracey Wagner and Kristen Shuyler. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#28108
Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action. Your website's design undoubtedly influences participation inequality for better or worse. Being aware of the problem is the first step to alleviating it, and finding ways to broaden participation will become even more important as the Web's social networking services continue to grow.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Design>Web Design>Community Building
#32000
Putting Our Hot Heads Together
The web is a conversation, but not always a productive one. Web discussions too often degenerate into whines, jabs, sour grapes, and one-upmanship. How can we transform discussion forums and comment sections from shooting ranges into arenas of collaboration?
Wood, Carolyn. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#20837
What will be the key to web-site survival in 1996? My bet is the establishment of relationships between the site and its users.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Design>Web Design>Community Building
#31271
Social Media Is Changing Everything
When Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwarz needs to communicate with the world, he doesn’t necessarily call a press conference, issue a press release, or even convene a webinar or videoconference. He blogs. His online diary gives him an unfiltered channel leading to the employees, customers, analysts and resellers who represent the first wave of perception formation regarding important company products and service initiatives. Sun is leading a transformation of the communication profession, as the Web transitions from an information repository to a platform of collaboration and community building.
Gronstedt, Anders. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#31238
Social Networking for Business: Measuring the Results
The online world is abuzz with talk about social networking. With companies such as Facebook seemingly constantly in the news, 2007 has been the year that social networking took its first adolescent steps beyond being the sole purview of, well, adolescents, and started to become a tool that is getting noticed in the business world. But with all the hype out there about online social networking, how can organizations begin to better understand the tangible business impact of their forays into this area?
Carfi, Christopher. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#29675
Social Networks And Group Formation: Theoretical Concepts to Leverage
Understanding the formation, evolution and utilization of online social networks becomes important. While the Internet contributes to the information overload, it also provides useful tools to effectively manage ones social networks and through them gain access to the right pieces of information.
Singh, Shiv. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#27494
Luke has made some great slides about Social Web Application Design, saying some very sensible things very well. I particularly like the 'System' diagram that shows how, when thinking about a simple photo, how it can be connected to other entities and related, aggregated and re-presented.
Smith, Tom. Other Blog, The (2006). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>User Centered Design
