Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real P

“Community” has joined the ranks of words hijacked for new meanings in online settings, with terms like “online communities,” “virtual communities,” and “Web communities.” Since fuzzily defined terms can be a source of mis- communication, author Derek M. Powazek ducks this confusion by focus- ing on what people can do in a Web environment. Based on his six years of experience working with the Web, he advises us not to call our Web sites “communities,” but to think in terms of Web sites that provide their users with community features.
According to Powazek, “Communi- ties happen when users are given tools to use their voice in a public and imme- diate way, forming intimate relation- ships over time.” (Powazek defines inti- mate relationships as strong emotional bonds that users have with each other and with the site. For more on this idea of intimacy and its importance, see the Viewpoint article in this issue, “A Dif- ferent Kind of Legacy Problem.”) In Powazek’s definition of communities we encounter both the strength of this book — its honest, no-holds-barred conversational style — and the work that information technology profes- sionals or academics may have to do to harvest useful ideas applicable to higher education.
Luckily, the format of this eminently readable book keeps that work from becoming too onerous, with its story- telling approach, wide-ranging inter- views, and dozens of examples (admit- tedly, none from higher education). The book is that helpful hybrid of ideas and concrete, practical examples that will give you the necessary understand- ing of what constitutes online commu- nity features, how such features have been used in different settings, what it takes to build community features into your Web site, and what resources are necessary to help support and maintain community features. It can help you whether you are I a faculty person designing a distance education class who wants to create an engaging, lively, and vibrant learning environment for students; I a faculty support person who wants to create a sustainable support envi- ronment; I a student services staff person charged with developing the e-com- merce aspects of managing customer relationships and transactions; or I an alumni services staff person assigned to create a portal to build long-term relationships with alumni. Powazek assumes that community tools include chat, Web-based discus- sions, and e-mail, although he does address newer technologies such as instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing programs, and video confer- encing. He describes a sensible approach to designing community features:
1. Examine site content, which is what brings people to a Web site to begin with.
2. Describe what members of the com- munity will be able to do, using detailed scenarios that describe how different members of the commu- nity will view and participate in it.
3. Prototype what the community fea- tures will look like.
4. Evaluate back-end software that powers the community functional- ity articulated.
5. Pilot some communities using some existing Web-based tools (such as communityzero.com or yahoo. groups.com).
6. Make the buy/build decision, to use one of the following: I an absolutely free tool like one of those given above, I open-source shareware or freeware (such as the Slash engine), I a low-cost tool (like infopop.com), or I a complex but full-featured system, either run on your own servers or through an application service provider. Powazek also asserts some general design principles: I To create effective, sustainable com- munity features, connect the fea- tures with the site’s content both architecturally and visually. I Design the site in terms of an expe- rience with a beginning, middle, and end. I Invite high levels of user participa- tion to help you identify flaws in your design and functional needs that you hadn’t predicted. One way is to develop a meta-thread about site design. I Design quality control for content into the site. Powazek gives exam- ples of sites that have simple func- tions to support sophisticated prac- tices such as self-moderation, meta-moderation, the idea of “karma,” and the theory of inevitable consequences to help the community maintain itself and to manage vandals and trolls (those who don’t conform to the commu- nity’s values). Although primarily a design book, this volume also provides consider- able, valuable advice about growing and maintaining communities. The author argues that once the commu- nity features are provided, a commu- nity is grown by its users, not built by designers and site administrators (think farmer, not construction worker). In this environment, the role of the community host is critical to helping the community under- stand and enforce its own norms, rules, and values, and to providing the occasional “seeds” for creative discussion.
Finally, Powazek warns, all good things come to an end. So, in addition to design, policy formulation, and maintenance, a well-defined exit strat- egy is essential. The book has a supplemental Web site, <http://designforcommunity.com>, that provides more information.