Online Community Matters

Shelly D. Farnham, Ph.D.

March 5, 2009

Panel -- IABC

Research and Development

meeting social goals

Party Report

41%

Invitation 18%

Question

16%

Bond Building

15%

Request 1%

Party report

w ith address

9%

Prototyping

Deployment &

Evaluation

Study

Target Users

Design

Importance of Information in

selecting chat partner

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Rank

Rating

Similarity

Interacts with friends

Ratings by friends

Why Interact Online?

Information

Connection

Support

anyone, anytime, anyplace, all together

Teen Panel

Our questions How do teens use technology in their day-to-day lives?

Questionnaire (18 students)

PowerPoint “Diary” (5 presentations) Over one week, document social and collaborative activities

Screenshots, pictures from cell phone camera

Focus on typical use and how usage might be different than other

age groups

Technology Usage for Social Life

Importance of Tech for Social Life

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Landline phone

Email - one to many

Blogs

Email - one to one

Instant Messaging

Social Networking Sites

Cell phone -- voice

Cell phone -- text

Importance

Socializing and Planning

I am able to create

groups to invite people to

new events.

I have created a Salsa in

Seattle group for teens to

learn and dance salsa.

I use: Facebook and

Yahoo email as my

means to setting up

social events

I can add members

Write messages for

all members

Social Event Planning

Why Host a Community?

Reason #1:

Social media is about dialogue

Not enough time to engage in 1:1 dialogue

Your community members will carry the

conversation for you

Why Host a Community?

Reason #2:

Person

Joins

Hosted

Community

Develops

Attachment

to

Community

Develops

Attachment

and Loyalty

to Host

Pathable: Social Networking and Community Development for Events

Figure 9. Life cycle of Pathable activity before, during and after event

Pathable User Behavior Over Time

Pathable BarCamp Seattle Study

Questions:

how important is social networking and community

development at events?

can Pathable help?

BarCamp Seattle is a free, two-day conference

held for Web 2.0 community

280 people registered for the event using

Pathable

78 people total (76% male and 24% female)

completed the questionnaire, 18 at the event

and 60 afterwards online

Figure 6. People came to BarCamp Seattle primarily to meet others.

Primary Goal in Coming to Event

Attachment and Loyalty to the Event

.00

.10

.20

.30

.40

.50

.60

.70

.80

Next Year

Co

rrel

atio

nC

oef

fici

ent

(sta

tist

ical

ly s

ign

ific

ant

if >

.30

)

Intention

to Come

Back:

Predictors People's Intention to Come Back to Event

Figure 7. The more peopel use Pathable, the more people they consider professional friends or

colleagues.

Impact on Professional Network

Impact on Attachment and Sense of

Community

Figure 8. The more people used pathable, the greater their sense of attachment on the

identity factor, and the more their sense of community.

Strands CoCollage: Place-based Networking and Community Development

Goal: facilitate networking and community in a “third place”

Prototype: Community collage display with online photo sharing

Deployment study:

Questionnaire at Time 1 and Time 2 (~six weeks apart)

At Time 1: sense of community and attachment to coffee shop strongly correlated

Impact on Place Attachment

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6

6.2

6.4

Time 1 Time 2

Pla

ceA

ttac

hm

ent

--D

epen

den

cy

CoCollage Users' had More Place Attachment at Time 2

Impact on Neighboring

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Time 1 Time 2

Sesn

eo

f C

om

mu

nit

y --

Nei

ghbori

ng

CoCollage Users' had More a Sense of "Neighboring" at Time 2

On Hosting a Community How to host a community:

Create an environment where a group people may talk to each other

Facebook groups, mailing lists, messaged boards, Ning

Tips for nurturing:

Set clear expectations for appropriate behavior

Seed the community with desired types of people/ behavior

Invite lots of people

Be a part of the conversation

Use moderation tools

Measuring success:

Count 1:20:80 – for every 1 person talking, usually 20 members and 80

lurkers

Return rate