Search Headquarters : Computers : Internet : On the Web : Online Communities : Community Management

About.com: Community Online
Editors' web site picks for fostering an online community and personalizing web sites.
http://webdesign.about.com/od/community/

The Admin Zone Forums
Online resource for administrators of bulletin board communities. All topics dealing with running and setting up a forum community are discussed.
http://www.theadminzone.com

Benton Foundation: Community Building
Detailed articles, tools, and resources about community building. Topics range from software recommendations to profiles of successful communities.
http://www.benton.org/publibrary/toolkits/community.html

Building an Online Community: Just Add Water
The dos-and-don'ts of building a website community by Matt Haughey, the creator of MetaFilter.
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/building_an_online_community/

Building Community: Online Resources
Has papers, presentations, stories, indexs, and surveys.
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/resources/center.html

Club about Online Communities
Whenever you provide people with the ability to communicate online then community develops. This club is about the development and management of online communities.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clubaboutonlinecommunities/

Community Networking Movement
"Realizing that communication and information are increasingly dependent on networked digital information, community activists all over the world are developing community computer network systems."
http://www.scn.org/ip/commnet/

Community Networks: Putting People First
Editorial by Michael Mulquin. Discusses the role of Community Networks in delivering new information and communications technologies to UK residents. Most content is applicable elsewhere as well. [PDF]
http://www.iscommunications.co.uk/media/PeopleFirst.pdf

CommunityAnswers.com
Questions and answers and advice for online community builders, users, moderators, managers, and owners.
http://communityanswers.com/

Communitybuilding.com
The secret to success on the web is to build a community, not just a web site. Here one can find tools and tips to make a web site interactive and, as a result, a place of community.
http://communitybuilding.com/

CornerWays: Community Development, Training, and Moderationn
Online community development company that provides online community building, consulting and design services worldwide.
http://www.cornerways.com

Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community
Essay by former Wells conferencing manager John Coate explaining what happens in an online social environment.
http://www.cervisa.com/innkeeping

Design Principles for Online Communities
Academic paper by sociologist Peter Kollock, drawing upon community design principles by Axelrod (1984), Ostrom (1990), Godwin (1994).
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/design.htm

Full Circle Associates
Provides strategic facilitation, online community development, marketing, and project management services. Includes a listing of online community building and virtual group facilitation/moderation resources.
http://www.fullcirc.com/

How To Kill Community Networks
By Doug Schuler. Essay describing three common means for the downfall of community networks.
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/tno/january-1996.html#schuler

Membership Agreements
Article by lawyer Ivan Hoffman discussing membership agreements and resolving issues that arise from them. Applicable only to U.S. Law.
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/membership.html

NTT Social Communication Laboratory
Aims to develop a social information infrastructure and create a new lifestyle for interpersonal communication via the Internet.
http://www.kecl.ntt.co.jp/csl/

Online Community Building Concepts
List of fundamental principles to consider when starting a new community site.
http://www.well.com/user/gail/community.tips.html

Online Hospitality: Moderator Guidelines and Community-Building Tips
Gail Ann Williams writes about building conversation and community in online environments, adapted from the WELL Host Manuals.
http://www.well.com/confteam/hosting.html

Peter Kollock
Associate professor of the University of California, Los Angeles. Includes curriculum vita, course syllabi and recent papers on online communities and markets, which is his current research.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/

Suite101.com: Communication in Cyberspace
Articles, links and discussions on various programs used to communicate on the internet. Covers messaging, conferencing, discussion forums, telephony, chat and email.
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/9189

The Virtual Communities (VirCom) Project
Five PhD students out to study virtual communities, their rise and development, evolution, meaning and its effect to traditional organizations. (Some papers are in Swedish.)
http://www.informatik.umu.se/nlrg/vircom.html

VirtualCommunities Start4all
Directory of resources and tools for building online communities. Rich content for analysis of virtual communities. With a list of popular communities and vendors in this field.
http://www.start4all.com/?A=page&subject=virtualcommunities

WELL Conferencing Team - Community Building and Hosts Manual
The WELL's description of conferencing, why it's the best tool for building community, and how to get starting in a conferencing environment. Links include the WELL Host Manual.
http://www.well.com/confteam/

Xgencia - Best Practice in Online Communities
UK online community specialists providing planning, RFP and ROI analysis services. Requires Flash.
http://www.xgencia.com

First Monday - Phantom authority, self–selective recruitment and retention of members in virtual communities: The case of Wikipedia
Peer-reviewed journal article by Andrea Ciffolilli. (December 1, 2003)
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/ciffolilli/

First Monday - A Social Network Caught in the Web
The authors present an analysis of Club Nexus, an online community at Stanford University. Through the site they were able to study a reflection of the real world community structure within the student body. (May, 2003)
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/adamic/

Salon.com Technology: Must AOL Pay "Community Leaders"?
Article by Janelle Brown discussing issues on the use of volunteers to manage a site's online community. "The volunteers may feel good about giving their time, but the for-profit online communities are clearly profiting from those volunteers' services." (April 16, 1999)
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/04/16/aol_community/index.html

Salon.com Technology: Netscape to community: You're evicted
As Netcenter's forums fall casualty to AOL-merger cutbacks, participants mourn. (April 6, 1999)
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/04/06/netcenter/index.html

CNet.com: Will Media Giants Bulldoze Communities?
News Analysis by CNET observing how Disney and Time Warner, by building enhanced entertainment sites, threaten topical online communities. (March 31, 1999)
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-223726.html

Community is Dead; Long Live Mega-Collaboration
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen's take on Online Communities: "The Web is not a community: a huge impersonal city is a better metaphor. User-contributed content can be valuable (if edited), but chat rooms should be avoided because of participation inequality." (August 15, 1997)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9708b.html

Fragmented by Technologies: A Community in Cyberspace
Early academic paper studying the human interaction within an online community. The author observed antinomy, atomisation, carnival, decentralization, disembodiment, impersonality, intensification and lurking. (April, 1997)
http://www.helsinki.fi/science/optek/1997/n1/davis.txt