– I wrote this presentation in November 2000 – I have no idea who I presented it to – It outlines the benefits of social media and a user centric

process for making functional/technical platform decisions – We called social media “online community” back then – This is the only slide I’ve edited…(in 2016)

Talkcast Corporation plcRobin Hamman MA MPhil Communities Evangelist

29 November, 2000

Why Community? B2C

– Collect Information: obtain demographic info, usage info, and collect feedback from users (consumers)

– Repeat Visits: bring users back to your site

– Brand Loyalty: help users to think positively about your site, making them more loyal to the brand

– Respond Directly to Consumer Demands: improve product lines, service offerings, etc by talking directly with your consumers

Why Community? B2B or Intranet

– Knowledge Sharing: tap into the knowledge already held by your organisation and/or partners

– Product/Service development: cultivate new ideas

– More lateral communication within organisations or industries

Choosing Tools for Building Online Community: Getting Started

– Who is your community and what do they want?

– How and when do your users access your site? How technically skilled are your users?

– What are your editorial/business goals?

– How much control do you need of what information is exchanged on site?

– How important is the reporting of statistics / usage information to you?

Choosing Tools for Building Online Community: 1st Steps

– Conduct research of your target audience - and talk to them about who they are, where they access from, and what they want to do

– look at sites of competitors, if any exist, to see what community technologies are being used by users and which are ignored

– create a technology specification document (see next slide)

What tool for what community?: Email

• Almost anyone who uses the internet has and understands how to use email.

• It can be personalised easily and targeted well.

• Users need not be in the same time zone as each other since it doesn't matter when they respond.

• Email discussion lists are very easy to moderate.

• But… people may be growing tired of having a full in-box and there is little reason for them to spend time on site if they can read and respond to other users via email.

What tool for What Community?: Message Boards

– Like email lists, users of message boards do not all have to be online at the same moment in time.

– Message boards can have a steep learning curve, but are powerful technologies for making long, indepth discussions available to users.

– Taking part in a message board discussion is habit forming and brings people back to the site, but may take too much time for some users to continue to engage.

– Message boards are easy to moderate, but it can take time and dedicated staff to do so.

What tool for What Community?: Text Chat

– For chat to work, you need to have a critical mass of users all on your site at the same exact moment in time. If your site isn't very busy, forget about chat - people who find the chat room empty will wonder why there isn't anyone else there, then they'll start to question their own judgements about the value of your site.

– Chat is difficult to moderate and you'll probably find that you need at least one person monitoring every 50-100 users at all times.

– Many users think of chat as being “childish” and/or a place which is only really used by “perverts” trolling for sex.

What tool for What Community?: 3D Avatar Chat, Voice Chat, etc

– Some sites have recently experimented with more technologically advanced forms of chat, but these have shown to be expensive, difficult to moderate, and nearly impossible to archive.

– My personal feeling, although probably not one that is shared with all community managers, is that this is of little value to B2B or B2C except for in certain niche market situations (such as DooBeeDoo).

Sample Tech. Specification: A Chat Server (1/2)

– Accessible via browser, SMS, WAP, and iTV – Easy for inexperienced users to enter chat – Easy for inexperienced users to enter text/questions in chat – Ability to run both “live chat events” (pre-moderated using a

question queue) and “chat rooms” (post-moderated) – room logging capability – Ability to remove problem users from chat – Stability under high user load – Ability to link/chain together multiple servers as user numbers grow – Ability to run simultaneous live chat events and chat rooms – Logging of user numbers and other stats – Should be accessible to site users with disabilities – Links easily to registration database – Fully hosted / administrated (ASP) option

Sample Tech. Specification (2/2)

– Features to be configurable by licensee:

– Look and feel of browser interface – Profanity filter on/off – Profanity filter words added/deleted – Predetermined usernames reserved on/off – List of users visible to all users in chat on/off – Total number of users available to all users on/off – Private messages between system users on/off – Pre-moderation/Post-moderation on/off – Working html links in chat on/off

Wireless Community Applications: SMS, WAP, Location Based Services, 3G

– Wireless can deliver community when people want it, wherever they are at.

– More people in the UK have mobile phones than have internet connected computers.

– Other than on the tube, wireless access is available just about everywhere

– Forthcoming location based services will allow users who have pre-registered for a service, for instance a dating service or nightlife service, to obtain information and/or personal contacts as they walk the streets, tracked by their mobile provider.

Wireless Developers

– www.TalkCast.com: anonymous SMS chat, query/answer driven services, SMS games, ringtones, icons

– beta.flytxt.com: SMS buddy lists (possibly based on IRC server as backend?)

– www.xtremetxt.com: SMS games, free SMS send, SMS make a quote

– www.iobox.com: just about anything you could want for you mobile

– www.quios.com: SMS information services created by users

General Tips for Choosing a Technology Vendor

Look for technologies with a clear development path from Proven "old" Standards: IRC Chat, for example, has been around nearly 15 years. Why? Because it has been proven to be stable, adaptable, and scaleable.

• For an industrial strength chat server, I favour ConferenceRoom from Webmaster.com - it's like an "IRC server on steroids".

• When the BBC decided to write it's own Message Board System (Codenamed: Howerd2), they decided to use a modified (but still largely compliant) Usenet server. Old standards are still around because they work!

• It’s probably unwise for most sites to develop their own community software. It’s expensive, time consuming, and the technology will be largely untested. Get something off the shelf unless you have a very specific reason for not doing so. I like UBB for small scale communities with little need for policing and WebCrossing (WebX) for larger sites. I also like Caucus, but haven’t seen any large communities using it. Organik is great for internal or b2b knowledge sharing communities.

General Tips for Choosing a Technology Vendor

When looking at a community ASP or hosted solution, look closely at the contract:

• who owns your community database? • who owns and has rights to use what is said in your community?

are there any branding issues? • will you be penalised as your community grows in members and/or

usage? • does the vendor conform to the data protection act? • can their technologies be easily linked to any legacy databases

you may have? • Are existing clients happy with the after sales support they have

received and is there a billing structure for such support?

Some useful links…

– ForumOne is home to the Online Communities Newsletter and many other resources for community builders: http://www.forumone.com

– David Woolley’s article on choosing message board software: http://thinkofit.com/webconf/wcchoice.htm

– David Strom’s listing of message board software packages and their features: http://www.strom.com/places/wc.html

– PC Magazine’s review of message board systems: http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/_open.htm

– PC Magazine’s review of Chat Software: http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/chatserver/_open.htm

– EveryThing E-Mail’s list of group email software: http://everythingemail.net/email_discussion.html

TalkCast CorporationFor further information on TalkCast products and service, contact John Graham, Head of Sales

Email: john.graham@talkcast.com Tel: 020 7959 1500

Robin Hamman…

Next week, Robin will be joining Granada Media’s Broadband division as Development Producer – Communities. Robin is also a PhD researcher at the Hypermedia Research Centre, University of Westminster.

Permanent Contact Details: Email: robin@cybersoc.com URL: www.cybersoc.com Mobile: +44 (0) 7970 188 030