Analisi e progettazione di un’iniziativa di comunicazione per il potenziamento della community di itsme

Analisi e progettazione di un’iniziativa di comunicazione per il potenziamento della community

di itsme (PREVIEW dic 2010)

a cura di David Carollo

lunedì 21 dicembre 2009

Chapters

• Theorical Background

• Itsme community analysis

• Itsme website analysis

• Advertising strategies


Theorical Background


Theorical background

• Itsme project

• Oss

• Community


Itsme project

• All the user interfaces of the personal computers of the present days are based on the desktop metaphor, i.e., on an analogy with the physical work-place. However, that metaphor reflects the complexity of human activities without helping people to manage it.

• We propose a new way of presenting information in venues, i.e., according to the context in which objects are generated, or needed. We envision the design of a new generation of workstations, built (from the core) around the metaphor of stories and venues to substitute the desktop one.

... / Theorical background / Itsme project


Itsme projectLet us point out three of the main limitations of the present-day personal computers, provided with a user interface built on the desktop metaphor:

• filling the desktop with all the objects users create, find or receive during their everyday actions and interactions generates an amount of confusion that some people try to manage by filing items in different folders. This method does not solve the problem, since the content is hidden by folders, which also have names that become obscure with time;

• the two major internet applications – email and the Web – store their objects (e.g., messages, bookmarks, cached pages) in two other distinct places so there is no contiguity with other information;

• the file systems of the most popular operating systems neither allow to quickly tag objects (with one click only) or to cross-link them, nor to make their inner structure visible to other objects, like XML does for the web.



Design & Development• Like the desktop metaphor started spreading when the Macintosh hit the market in 1984, the new

metaphor of stories and venues is being developed for, and is going to be launched with a dedicated workstation, called itsme. ITSME is also a company started in March 2008 as a spin-off of the University of Milano-Bicocca to practically develop the research plan. The first prototype release of this new workstation is scheduled for Spring 2010.

• As it can be easily understood, itsme is a rather ambitious and risky project from many viewpoints. First of all, we are trying to create something radically new in a vast and in some sense mature worldwide market: its chances to be successful depend therefore, besides the quality of the machine we are designing, upon our capacity of reaching and attracting a large number of people from all over the world. Secondly, even if and when the users of existing workstations are not satisfied by the computers available on the market, what we propose with itsme is going beyond what they request in terms of workstation innovation: we need, therefore, to convince them that itsme has great value for them and that switching to its new paradigm is not a heavy cost.

• itsme is a challenge, we are facing barriers that are not easy to overcome: the same cure we dedicate to the design of its software and hardware must be paid to its communication plans and to its development strategy. We consider these last issues of our endeavor as an integral part of the design we have to do: on one hand, we are trying to keep a strict coherence between what we design and how we implement it, and, on the other, between our industrial plans and our communication strategy.



Stories & Venues• Everything users do is in the context of the different stories they live with other people (sometimes,

alone). Any of these stories is populated with all the items (objects of different types, people’s addresses, relevant URL’s, exchanged messages) created or imported during their experience and users need to have this information readily available, in the venues within which they are acting or interacting. A previous research on the language/Action perspective claiming the importance of conversations, forms the bases of the proposed metaphor

• A conversation defines a context that is represented by a venue;

• Venues aggregate related objects, that should then be managed all together, being the constituents of a context;

• New venues are created as new conversations begin, from scratch (i.e., by replying to a new message) or spinning off existing ones (e.g., when the topic of a conversation changes or multiplies);

• Users can modify venues sorting the objects they contain, merging different venues, creating sub-venues, deleting them (different policies can be characterised), and so on

• Objects only exist within a venue: an object can be accessed through replicated references, if it is referred by different conversations.



Stories & Venues



An OS project• Both the fact that we are developing a new workstation for a particular class of users (other users may be satisfied

by other workstations, both adopting the desktop metaphor or not) and the fact that we want to develop it in collaboration with the users, listening to their needs and desires and conversing with them on our design choices, has brought us to choose the Linux operating system as the basis of the system implementing the ‘stories and venues’ metaphor. This choice has several advantages: first, it allows us to concentrate our efforts on the front-end of our system and on the layer connecting it with Linux core, since its open-source software allows the development of new features and functions on top of it; secondly, being other major workstation front-ends based on Linux, we can keep the openness and interoperability of our software at its maximum, granting to our users the capability to interact with other people, who are not using itsme; third, it allows us to develop itsme within the large open source community, discussing within it all the technical issues arising from our design and development process and trying to push it towards innovation so that Linux becomes always more capable (e.g., augmenting the file system with tags, and links) to be the basis for radical changes at the workstation level (e.g., new office suites and applications, new interaction protocols).

• In fact, the itsme system is going to be deployed as a Linux distribution with a peculiar front end that will exploit a set of characteristic services: in particular, with a novel graphical user interface relying on and allowing to describe the relationships between the various kinds of objects in the file system (e.g., email messages, documents, contact details). itsme will represent a radical innovation and carry a significant contribution (in terms both of technology and of presence of practitioners) to the existing community.



An OS project• The affiliation of itsme to the Open Source scene goes beyond the adoption of Linux development as a

platform: one of the slogans with which the itsme concept is currently being demonstrated is “let’s team up” meaning that the involvement of people in the project is perceived to be essential. Itsme has its technical staff (in January 2009, 8 people) but we are also involving other people in the design and development of the software: e.g., we are establishing a collaboration with various open source projects to co-develop parts of the system, and we are involving the development team of a Linux distribution. Coupling user participation in the design process through the concept evaluation and similar initiatives with the above recalled enlargements of the development team, we are seeking to create a community having itsme and its creation at its center.

• These ideas basically translate to three aspects:

1. The constitution of a community following and providing directions for the project, implementing participatory design;

2. The search for contributions from outside the company: new ideas, concepts, visual design components, and code. Community members are also being involved in the evaluation of ideas and the validation of design products;

3. Community members are helping us to generate hype on what we are doing, and on the (long disregarded) issues that we are trying to solve. People are helping us to create the market before the real workstation is ready to be sold. In this way, itsme is going to be the fulcrum for the innovation in consumer applications such as productivity tools, web-based and email-based applications.



Os definition

• Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials—typically, their source code. Some consider it as a philosopy, and others consider it as a pragmatic methodology. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet and its enabling of diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Subsequently, open source software became the most prominent face of open source practices.

... / Theorical background / Oss


OSI

• The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community.

• One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the community. The Open Source Initiative Approved License trademark and program creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation.




OS definition by OSI• Free redistribution - the license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component

of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty orother fee for such sale.

• Source code - the program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost–preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

• Derived works - the license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

• Integrity of the author's source code - the license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

• No discrimination against persons or groups - the license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.



OS definition by OSI

• No discrimination against fields of endeavour - the license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavour. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

• Distribution of license - the rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need forexecution of an additional license by those parties.

• License must not be specific to a product - the rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

• The license must not restrict other software - the license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.



Elements of OSS ideology

• Norms

• Beliefs

• Values



Norms

• Forking - there is a norm against forking a project, which refers to splitting the project into two or more projects developed separately

• Distribution - there is a norm against distributing code changes without going through the proper channels

• Named Credit - there is a norm against removing someone’s name from a

project without that person’s consent.



Beliefs

• Code Quality - open source development methods produce better code than closed source

• Freedom - outcomes are better when information, especially code, is freely available

• Bug fixing – The more people working on the code, the more quickly bugs will be found and fixed.

• Practicality - practical work is more useful than theoretical discussion

• Status Attainment - Status is achieved through community recognition



Values

• Sharing - sharing information is important.

• Helping - aiding others is important.

• Technical knowledge - Technical knowledge is highly valued.

• Learning - there is a value on learning for its own sake.

• Cooperation - voluntary cooperation is important.

• Reputation - reputation gained by participating in open source projects is valuable.



3 types of OSS projects

• fijrifjipjre

From: Kishida K., Nakakoji K., Nishinaka Y. & Ye Y., Evolution patterns of Open-Source Software System and Community, 2002.



Exploration-oriented

• This type of OSS, aims at pushing the frontline of software development collectively through the sharing of innovations embedded in freely shared OSS systems. This is very much similar to the culture of scientific research community in which scientific results are shared through conferences and journals for peer justification, mutual inspkation, and continued development.

• In the world of software, source code, which is the embodiment of its developer's understanding of the real world or innovative ways of changing and designing the world through soft-ware systems, is the scientific results to be shared. Due to its free access, it can spark the ideas of other developers so that something new may grow that otherwise would not have been born, and it enables others to go further by stepping on the shoulders of the previous developer through reusing the open solace code.



Utility-oriented• This type of OSS aims at filling a void in functionality. Most of such OSS systems consist of many

relatively independent OSS programs and those OSS programs are developed because the original developers cannot find an existing program that fulfills their needs completely. Rather than waidng for others m provide the needed functionality, capable software developers decide to develop their own systems and put it on the web for others to shale.

• OSS programs in Utility-Oriented OSS projects are completely developed from scratch. Most developers search the lntemet for a partial solution and then modify it to their own needs. Their primary concern is not to use the source code as a way of scientific exploration as the Exploration-Oriented OSS developers do, but to create a program that can solve theirpersonal needs, or scratching their personal itch.

• Because the development is motivated by an, often emergent, practical need, timeliness is of essential importance. Moreover, because the development is driven by an individual need, developers are concerned with developing an operational system rather than delivering a refined solution as in the Exploration-Oriented type.



Service-oriented• This type of OSS aims at providing stable and robust services to all the stakeholders of OSS systems.

We use the term stakeholder to refer to both the member of the OSS community who uses the system and the end-user whose work relies on thesystem developed by OSS community members with the OSS system.

• In a Service-Oriented OSS system, because the population of stakeholders is much larger than that of the OSS community, any changes made to the system have to be carefully considered so that they do not disrupt its provided services on which many endusers rely on. Therefore. Service-Oriented OSS is usually very conservative against evolutionary and rapid changes. in accordance with its conservative nature, the control style of Service-Oriented OSS is often collectively controlled by a group of Core Members, and there is no single Project Leader, Any changes are subject to debate in the group and only the changes that won the majority of the group arc incorporated.

• Most members of Service-Oriented OSS communities exist as Passive Users, with some of them may become Bug Reporters and Bug Fixers as they report or submit bug fixes back to the Core Members (Council).



Determinants of open source project software

• Success in OSS projects is better understood by examining the development environment which is more publicly visible. Scholars have proposed measures such as project activity levels, release of newfeatures, and the time taken to fix software bugs. Since OSS projects rely on voluntary input, the ability of a project to attract the interest of and contributions from the developers is a key success measure. OSS is not just about developing or modifying software. Increasingly more non-developer users are relying on open source software for personal and business needs, and the interest shown by these users for open source software may be an important indicator of the project's success. This interest can be measured by the traffic on the OSS project website and the extent of downloads of the software code. The various success measures for OSS projects focus on the project activity and the interest of the main beneficiaries — developers and non-developer users.

• Hence, we use developer interest, user interest, and project activity levels as the three measures of OSS success in our model. In addition, these three measures are more readily available from a single source (Sourceforge.net) for thousands of OSS projects for many months, which facilitate our longitudinal study show that the user-interest in a particular time period is correlated with the project activity in the subsequent time period and propose that project activity in a prior period mightspur developer interest in the following period, though this specific relationship was not tested. Hence, we believe that all three measures of project success are inter-related and include these interrelationships in our model.

• There are two broad categories of factors which impact OSS project success — time-invariant factors related to the OSS project and timedependent project characteristics. The OSS project attributes that are incorporated in our model have been identified in literature as affecting the development and use of OSS. These project attributes are — (a) OSS license ; and (b) Interest shown by developers and non-developer users in an OSS .We also include the operating system and programming language of the OSS in our model because these factors impact the participation of developers and users in the OSS, and hence its success. Each factor and its effects on project success are discussed in detail below.



Determinants of open source project software

From: Nelson M.L., Subramaniam C. & Sen R., Determinants of open source software project success: A longitudinal study, Elsevier, 2008.



OSS roles members• Passive Users just use the system in the same way as most of us use commercial soRwarc; they are

attracted to OSS mainly due to its high quality and the potential of being changed when needed.

• Readers arc active users of the system; they not only use the system, but also try to understand how the system works by reading the source code. Readers are like peer reviewers in traditional software development organizations.

• Bug Reporters discover and report bugs; they do not fix the bugs themselves, and they may not mad souse code either. They assume the same role as rosters of the traditional software development moclel.

• Bug Fixers fix the bug that is either discovered by themselves or reported by Bug Reporters. Bug Fixers have to read and understand a small portion of the source code of the system where the bug occurs.

• Peripheral Developers contribute occasionally new functionality or features to the existing system. Their conlribution is irregular, and the period of involvement is short and sporadic.



OSS roles members• Active Developer. Active Developers regularly contribute new features and fix bugs; they arc one of the

major development forges of OSS systems.

• Core Member, Core Members arc responsible for guiding and coordinating the development elan OSS project. Core Members are those people who haw been involved with the project for a relative long time and have made significant conllibutions to the devvlopmcnt and evolution of the system. In some OSS communities, they arc aJso called Maintainers.

• Project Leader. Project Leader is often the person who has initiated the project. He or she is responsible for the vision and overall dircction of the project.

Not all of the eight types of roles exist in all OSS communities, and the percentage of each type varies. Each OSS community may have different names for the above roles.



General structure of OSS

From: Kishida K., Nakakoji K., Nishinaka Y. & Ye Y., Evolution patterns of Open-Source Software System and Community, 2002.



DeLone & McLean success model

... / Theorical background / Community


Community

• Community - a group of people who come together for a common purpose,interest or goal.

• Learning Community - a group of individuals engaged intentionally and collectively in the transaction, or transformation of knowledge” (Kowch &Schwier 1997 quoted in Grozdanic & Weatherley 2001)

• Learning Network and Community Network - Wheeler (2001) provides a useful summary table comparingattributes of these two types of initiatives. Community networks are typically grass roots initiatives focused on public access to the Internet and the development of localcommunity content. Learning networks are typically government initiatives focused on the provision of formal and informal learning opportunities.

• Community of Practice - groups of people who share aconcern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, quoted in Mitchell 2002)



Online community

• A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as newsletter, telephone, email, internet social network services or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online community. Virtual and online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life. Many means are used in social software separately or in combination, including text-based chat rooms and forums that use voice, video text or avatars. Significant socio-technical change may have resulted from the proliferation of such Internet-based social networks.



Research in different disciplines

• From 1993 to 2007, research on online communities grew inwaves of overlapping stages through the disciplines. For example, in the early 1990s, computer science contributed the technological medium, the standards, and the mechanisms to facilitate online communication and interactions. These technologies include the Internet and the Web as the platforms on which communities developed. During subsequent years, many more applications such as email, Usenets, discussion boards, chat rooms, electronic meeting rooms, Web logs, wikis, and, more recently, multimedia technology and applications known as Web 2.0 were added.

• Innovation and advances in the availability and ease of use of this communication technology led to the popularization of online communities and to the initiation of the first wave of research on online communities.



Research in different disciplines

From: Iriberri A. and Leroy G., A Life-Cycle Perspective on Online Community Success, 2009



First wave• During the first wave, which started in 1993 when Howard Rheingold coined the term virtual community, sociology

took the lead focusing on online communities as asocial phenomenon capable of modifying how people interact in society. Sociologists compared online communities to physical communities and explored the presence of various community-related concepts such as social aggregations, identity, social networks and ties, and social and collective action. They also studied the impacts of Internet use on individuals and society, such as social isolation, social involvement, and well-being.

• For example, Wellman [2005] found that online communication can strengthen face-to-face communication in local communities, as opposed to producing social isolation. Moreover, they found that online interactions can facilitate accumulation of social capital which may enhance civil involvement. Those interested in the impact of online communities on society found that by facilitating strong social relationships, trust, and reciprocity, an online community may gather enough social capital to engage in social action to achieve a collective goal.

• Hampton proposed implementing mechanisms to encourage trust, such as discretionary levelsof anonymity, which can help promote lasting relationships. Most recently, empirical studies have been carried out to test independent success factors such as presence of content quality, interaction support, organization of online and offline events, rewards for contributions, volunteerism, and posting of member pictures and profiles. The four waves of online community research have produced an extensive and rich body of research that began with theoretical and conceptual effort and has started to focus on empirical and theory testing activities. In this research, extensive discussions on the definition, benefits, and classifications of online communities abound.



Second wave• A second wave in research on online communities started around 1996 with management researchers

analyzing the value to business organizations of the content generated by online communities. Hagel and Armstrong [1997] studied online communities as viable business models capable of attracting customers who are searching for information on products or activities of interest to them, and who want to find and build relationships, conduct transactions, or live fantasies. They suggest that if organizations provide mechanisms to identify and satisfy customer needs more accurately this can then turn into profit for vendors. When businesses provide the space for interaction, vendors can strengthen customer loyalty and also extract customer information to further improve marketing and customer service programs.

• Wegner et al. [2002] focused on online communities that emerge in business organizations and are used by employees as repositories of organizational knowledge. In these communities of practice, the knowledge created and stored by members contributes to the organization’s ability to solve problems, create new products, innovate, and ultimately increase productivity [Millen et al. 2002]. This is evident in the widespread use of wikis, electronic boards, and electronic meeting rooms where team members in organizations add content and share online documents, thus reducing by one-half the time it takes them to complete projects [Conlin 2005; Goodnoe 2006].



Third wave

• In the third wave of online community research, psychology researchers focused on members’ relationships and attachments within online communities. Blanchard [2004] and Blanchard and Markus [2004] studied sense of community including feelings of belonging, safety, and attachment to the group. When these feelings are present, members develop lasting relationships with other members, feel attachment to the community, and perceive the online community as a source of social and emotional support. In one online community of multisport athletes, Blanchard and Markus [2004] found that active participants develop personal friendships that in some cases move into private and face-to-face interactions.



Fourth wave• Last, in the fourth wave, information systems researchers integrated previous perspectives, developed

working definitions, and created research agendas to initiate a more focused and controlled empirical study of online communities [Gupta and Kim 2004; Lee et al. 2003; Li 2004]. The focus shifted to members’ needs and requirements, development of electronic tools to support online communities, adoption and implementation of these tools, online communities for new purposes such as teaching and, finally, outcome assessment [Arnold, et al. 2003; Kling and Courtright 2003; Stanoevska-Slabeva and Schmid 2000, 2001]. For example, Stanoevska-Slabeva and Schmid [2001] described the activities members conduct in online communities and matched those activities with the technology platform capable of supporting those activities; and Arnold et al. [2003] presented a model to translate member needs into technology requirements.

• In the latter years of this fourth wave, the focus of the information systems discipline moved toward proposing conditions that would increase member participation and ensure online community success. For example, Preece [2000] recommended following a participatory design approach, which takes into consideration user needs, and establishing a clear purpose combined with policies of behavior to govern the interactions of members. She referred to the fostering of “tacit assumptions, rituals, protocols, rules, and laws” that define the community identity.



Fourth wave

• Similarly, Leimeister et al. [2005] proposed implementing mechanisms to encourage trust, such as discretionary levels of anonymity, which can help promote lasting relationships. Most recently, empirical studies have been carried out to test independent success factors such as presence of content quality, interaction support, organization of online and offline events, rewards for contributions, volunteerism, and posting of member pictures and profiles.

• The four waves of online community research have produced an extensive and rich body of research that began with theoretical and conceptual effort and has started to focus on empirical and theory testing activities.



Online community publications indifferent fields




Sociology

• Sociologists have suggested modeling online communities after physical communities to ensure success. In their recommendations, they used theories that explain identity, social interaction, and social organizations. Kollock’s [1996] design principles for online communities and Wasko and Teigland [2004] research agenda used theories on social dilemmas, cooperation, public commons, and collective action. The most salient design principles resulting from their work are the incorporation of identity persistence (i.e., the ability to recognize members by names), group boundaries (i.e., the ability to differentiate rightful members), and permeated control (i.e., the ability to allow group members to monitor and sanction members’ behaviors).



Management

• Business practitioners and management researchers have provided development strategies and focus on the value of online communities to organizations. Kim [2000] contributed a set of nine strategies and three design principles. Similarly, Cothrel and Williams [1999] contributed seven principles for success based on an extensive study of 15 successful business online communities. These authors have agreed on the importance of three conditions: focusing on the needs of users and explicitly indicating that satisfying these needs is the purpose of the online community, providing support for individual roles of members, such as moderators or experts, within the community, and facilitating the organizations of online and offline activities or events. Furthermore, management researchers have focused on creating successful business models to attract customers and enhance customer loyalty.



Psychology

• Psychology, human computer interaction, and computer-supported collaborative work researchers study people’s motivations to participate in and contribute to online communities. Blanchard and Markus [2004] applied theories of sense of community and emphasized the importance of having facilitators to encourage discussions and reward members for their contributions, and ensuring member’s legitimacy and persistent identity.

• Similarly, Beenen et al. [2004] highlighted the need to encourage contributions by explicitly acknowledging members’ uniqueness of opinions.



Information system

• Information systems researchers reference these theories and propose frameworks for developing successful online communities. Preece’s [2000] and Tedjmulia et al.’s [2005] frameworks stress the importance of incorporating sociability-support and usable components in the design of online communities. Sociability-support components include the existence of clear purpose, protocols, and codes of behavior.

• Usability components include the ease of use with which users can find information or the speed with which users can navigate through the online community. Incorporating these conditions in the design ensures the path to success. Tedjamulia et al. [2005] went further and encouraged the incorporation of extrinsic reinforcements such as gifts, social recognition, and feedback to motivate online community members to contribute actively to the community.



Success factors• Leimeister and Sidiras [2004] compiled a list of 30 different success factors drawn from existing research in

information systems and other fields and ranked them according to importance from the perspective of participants and operators. They found that participants and operators value in the first and second places the ability of the online community to handle member data sensitively and the stability of the online community Web site. Leimeister et al. [2005] empirically tested the impact on success of factors such as exposing the identity of managers and content providers, clearly establishing their goals for the online community, making up-to-date and expert-generated content available, making members’ profiles available for other members, and providing varying levels of anonymity. They found that these components build trust among members and motivate continued membership.

• Others are testing many other components such as rewards for contributions, assignment of administrative roles to members, acknowledgment of members’ longevity, organization of online and offline public events, and posting of member’s pictures and profiles, among others. The one factor researchers focused on most is member recognition and rewards for contributions [Ginsburg and Weisband 2004; Andrews 2001; Andrews et al. 2001; Beenenet et al. 2004; Butleret et al. 2005; Chan 2004; Hall and Graham 2004; Hars and Ou 2002; Tedjamuliaet et al. 2005]. Providing rewards for contributions seems to increase the number of messages posted by community members, making it more active and more successful. The current volume of online community research is vast but findings related to success are isolated.

• Online community designers face a myriad of design strategies and features with little guidance on how to integrate these when building online community platforms.



Success factor as...




Success metrics• In order for benefits to become available, an online community has to succeed. There are various ways to

define and measure success. The most common metrics used in the empirical research we reviewed were volume of members’ contribution and quality of relationships among members. Researchers who focus on measuring success agree that, the larger the volume of messages posted and the closer members feel to each other, the more successful the online community becomes. In addition to contribution and quality of relationships, metrics that are more precise are also advocated.

• Preece [2001b] identified a great number of success metrics and classified them into two groups: those related to sociability and those related to usability. Sociability measures include number of participants, number of messages per unit of time, member’s satisfaction, reciprocity, and trustworthiness. Usability metrics include number of errors when using the interface, user productivity, and user satisfaction, among others. She emphasized the importance of considering both categories in evaluating the success of online communities.

• Although many different metrics could be used, most empirical studies used metrics that were either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative metrics include size (number of members), participation (number of visits, hits, logins), contributions (number of messages posted per period), and relationship development (extent of contact between members). For example, Ludford et al. [2004] measured the increase in the volume of contributions in terms of the number of messages posted as a result of letting members know how unique their contributions are, which in turn results in a more lively community.Size is a common and often quoted measure of success.



Success metrics

• The common qualitative metrics of success are member satisfaction and quality of members’ relationships. Zhang and Hiltz [2003] studied the impact of making members’ profiles and pictures available to the community on how satisfied members are with being part of the community. They found that geographically distant members enjoy and appreciate getting to know each other by viewing each other’s pictures and reading each other’s profiles.

• Cummings et al. [2002] found that the quality of members’ relationships is lower in communities where there is limited communication and high turnover. Thus, these researchers have stressed the need to focus on increasing participation and maintaining a tightly knit community.

• The variety of metrics shows that success is a complex concept but also that it is an important variable to measure. If researchers want to compare online communities, assess their outcomes and, more importantly, measure the impact of adding design components to an online community, they will be focusing on these success metrics.



Importance & benefits• A great number of online community case studies have emphasized that many people are

drawn to the Internet for social interactions. When people become part of an online community, they enjoy a wide variety of benefits.

• A first category of benefits are inherent benefits that come from forming a social group, such as opportunities to exchange information, give and receive social and emotional support, develop friendships, and have fun [Ridings and Gefen 2004]. For example, members of a community of practice for researchers on asynchronous learning networks (i.e., online teaching) use the platform to exchange information and comment on the effectiveness of these networks [Zhang et al. 2001].

• Members of online communities also receive social and emotional support when they need it. Moreover, online communities facilitate social bonding and friendship development among members and give individual members interactive entertainment opportunities. Chess players, for example, enjoy playing online with others and setting up online tournaments to challenge their skills against those of other members [Ginsburg and Weisband 2004].



Benefits for individuals

• A second category of benefits inherent to an online community, in contrast to a physical one, originates in the medium and technology. The Internet and its applications provide 24/7 access and operation, global geographical reach, asynchronous interaction, text editing capabilities, and permanent storage facilities.

• Members in online communities can communicate and interact with other members located in geographically distant places from the comfort of their own homes. Members can interact anytime they want to (i.e., synchronously or asynchronously), and for some communities this is an essential capability.




• Those members who contribute actively to the online community receive a third category of benefits. Wang and Fesenmaier [2004] found that people find self-satisfaction and pride in fulfilling their altruistic goals of helping others out within their community. Along with these individual benefits, communities have benefits as a whole. When enough members actively participate, and as relationships, trust, and reciprocity build up in the community, the community fulfills its goals and can even achieve collective goals and actions for the benefit of all, such as improving housing conditions, educating children, and conserving water. These actions would not otherwise be possible if members acted alone [Blanchard and Horan 1998; Butler et al. 2005; Chaboudy and Jameson 2001; Hampton 2003].






Benefits for organizations• Different types of benefits of online communities arise when they are hosted by profitoriented

organizations. Online communities of customers are believed to promote customer loyalty when customers perceive value in the ability to communicate with other customers regarding products and services they purchase or wish to purchase [Hagel and Armstrong 1997]. For example, buyers of fitness videos share their experiences and results at beachbody.com after using these videos. Potential buyers look for information to support their decisions to purchase those videos. Similarly, organizations with online communities of employees benefit from improved communication and trust, enhanced collaboration and access to expert knowledge, and increased productivity.

• In a study of nine online communities in seven organizations, Millen et al. [2002] found that employees participated in the creation, accumulation, and diffusion of knowledge within the organization through online community platforms. The organization was able to enhance problem solving, create new business and products, and increase team productivity as the collective use of the technology facilitated interactions and reduced the time needed to seek, gather, and share information.

• As more members participate actively in the online community, more of these benefits are accrued for each member and for the community as a whole. As more members contribute to the community, the community sustains itself and achieves success.



Benefits for organizations



Understanding why people partecipate in online communities

• Some investigations into identifying practical methods of designing online communities have suggested hierarchical needs theory (Maslow, 1943) as an appropriate method of understanding and supporting users of online communities. Kim (2000) suggests that the theory can be helpful in designing effective online communities. This was supported in a study by Grosso (2001), which suggested that it is useful to refer to the theory as individuals may fulfil some of their so-called needs in online communities, as well as in a study by Bishop (2002), which recommended that such communities should provide the basic ‘deficit needs’ of users so that their higher ‘being needs’ can be also be met.

• The theory was further suggested as a means to understand online communities by Shneiderman (2002), who indicated that it appealed to him because it is ‘orderly’. Hierarchical needs theory seems to suggest that the reason lurkers do not participate is that their physiological or security needs are not being met and the reason elders participate is that they are meeting their social and esteem needs. However, whilst on the face of things this may seem plausible, the supposition that community members are participating in order to satisfy needs is unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the idea that there is a hierarchy to an individual satisfying so-called needs is also questionable, particularly as it is possible for an individual to be sociable and be creative at the same time and it might not be necessary for them to become secure before they act out social desires.

• Indeed, Mook (1987) found that when individuals were not fulfilling what Maslow (1943) described as security needs, they still wanted to be sociable with those in a similar situation to themselves, with some exhibiting altruistic behaviours. This suggests that it is not necessary for actors that use online communities to feel safe or physiologically satisfied in order to interact with the system. There have been numerous cases of actors going with out sleep and food in order to act out social desires in virtual environments, which have been reported in the media (e.g. Griffiths 2005).



Understanding why people partecipate in online communities

• Some research suggests that actors that use human-computer systems are goal-driven as opposed to needs-driven and will seek out opportunities to meet these goals. Nielsen and Norman (2003) argue that if the attention of a user is focussed on meeting their goals they will ignore distractions, such as advertisements that interfere with them. Mantovani (1996a) supports this in his model of social context in which he indicates that a user, which he refers to as an actor, will construct a situation based on their goals and competencies.

• Frameworks suggesting that actions are linked to goals seem more appropriate for online communities as needs-based theories do not explain why community members such as lurkers do not participate if their ‘deficit needs’ are being met. March (1991) indicates that one of the primary ways in which individuals develop goals is by interpreting the actions they take and developing new beliefs based on them. It is possible that a lurker may believe that their contribution may not be welcomed, particularly if they have posted in a community before and received an unfavourable response.

• These beliefs will have a direct influence on their goals meaning they may not have the same willingness to participate as an elder for example, who may hold more positive beliefs about what their actions will achieve. Whilst goals play an important part in determining whether an individual participates in an online community, it does not seem plausible that they are the driving force behind the actions individuals take.



The ecological cognition framework

From: Bishop J., Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for human–computer interaction, 2007.



The ecological cognition framework

• Bishop [2007] proposes a 3-level framework for understanding why members of online communities either participate or do not participate. The framework accepts many of the principles of action put forward by Mantovani (1996b), including that actors construct interpretations of their environment based on their goals, which are referred to as situations. Mantovani’s metaphor of users of virtual environments as actors seems appropriate for users of online communities.

• The ecological cognition framework indicates that these actors will experience a desire to carry out an action, such as solving a problem of another actor (level 1), interpret whether taking this action is consistent with their goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests (level 2) and use their abilities to carry out the action and perceive the environment they are part of (level 3).



Level 1• Level 1 of the framework is made up of an actor’s desires.

• Social (which includes the desire to become part of the community through socializing and communicating)

• Order (which includes the desire to arrange and sort artefacts and other external representations as well as the desire to take control of situations)

• Existential (which includes the desire to eat food and drink water)

• Vengeance (which includes the desire to retaliate to someone, such as through posting negative comments or through ‘flaming’)

• Creative (which includes the desire to create content in a wiki for example). The main difference between this framework and needs-based theories is the concept that individuals are not needs driven, but driven by their desires to carry out actions.



Level 1• The five categories of desires presented in this framework are the desires that lead to the actions that are most

likely to occur in online communities.

• The ‘social’ category is included because online communities are inherently social spaces, and nearly all users will participate through posting messages or taking part in chat sessions. Indeed, Rhiengold (2000) describes ‘the social Web’ in which people like him participate as a result of being driven by their longings to participate.

• The ‘order’ category was included because Internet users carry out actions such as organising bookmarks, rearranging pages and specific members such as leaders may desire to take control of a situation, such as when members are flaming each other in a chat session. Leaders may also experience an order desire if a bulletin board goes off-topic and will carry out actions to bring it back to the original topic, despite the fact that allowing bulletin board to go off-topic can increase sociability in the community (Bishop, 2002).

• The ‘existential’ category was included because despite the environment being computer-mediated, online community members will still experience desires to carry out actions such as eating and drinking, which will have an effect on their interactions in these environments.

• The ‘vengeance’ category was included because online community members are known to be more aggressive than those from traditional communities (Kiesler & Sproull, 1992; Wallace, 2001), carrying out actions such as flaming, and posting negative feedback on other community members for purposes of revenge.



Level 2• Level 2 of the model is made up of an actor’s cognitions – their goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests. Research

has already established that individuals will seek to achieve consonance of their beliefs (O’Keefe, 1990). The ecological cognition framework extends this by suggesting that individuals will try to make their beliefs consonant with their goals, plans, values and interests as well.

• Plans are conceived as a result of experiencing desires and are stored in memory as a result of reflecting on a plan that has been acted out.

• Goals can be short-term objectives or more long-term ideas or targets to achieve.

• Beliefs are assertions that an actor believes to be true, for example, a lurker may believe that by posting a message they are being unhelpful. Beliefs can be changed fairly easily by experience and resolving dissonance.

• Values are less easily changed than beliefs, as they are clearly defined principles that the actor has accepted through interactions with their environment.

• Interests are connections with something or somebody that the actor attempts to maintain.



Level 3

• Level 3 of the model is made up of an actor’s means to interpret and interact with theirenvironment.

• Haptic abilities, such as the sense of touch, and capacity to interact through touch;

• Auditory abilities, such as the sense of hearing and ability to interact through speaking;

• Visual, such as the sense of sight and capacity to imagine visual images;

• Olfactory, such as the sense of smell, and gustatory, such as the sense of taste.



Enviroment

• The environment is made up of other actors, artefacts, and structures among otherthings.

• In terms of human-computer systems, artefacts take the form of text or graphics that offer perceived affordances, such as the perceived affordance of clickability (Bishop, 2005) and structures take the form of applications and software, such as Web browsers and plug-ins.



Principle 1: An actor is driven to act by their desires

• The first principle of the ecological cognition framework is that actors are driven by their desires to perform an action as opposed to satisfy an internal entity, such as a need.

• This departs from traditional theories that individuals are needs-driven, a concept that is not appropriate for online communities. Unlike it is commonly thought, desires are not responses to emotions, as they are not sufficiently connected with feelings (Kenny, 1963). Recent research has acknowledged the existence of desires (Reiss, 2004), but these regard desires to be much like what Maslow (1943) describes as needs in that they need to be ‘satisfied’ as opposed to acted out. In the context of the author’s model, desires are thoughts or requests for action that an actor experiences as opposed to a requirement or want.

• It is acknowledged that one of the reasons online community members participate is that they are driven by their desires to participate (Rhiengold, 2000) and the ethos behind the ecological cognition framework is that online community members are part of the community to give in the form of acting out their desires, as opposed to take from them as hierarchical needs theory suggests.



Principle 1: An actor is driven to act by their desires

• Under this framework, an elder, who regularly replies to posts in an online community, can be seen as acting out several desires. The elder could be acting out their creative desires, by solving the problems of other actors, or they could be acting out their social desires, by communicating with others to share their community’s values and beliefs.

• Kim (2000) identifies three other categories of online community members who are neither lurkers nor elders. They are novices, who were once lurkers, but have become new members who need to learn about the community and its values; regulars, who were once novices, but now are established in the community and comfortably participating in community life and leaders, who are volunteers and staff who keep the community running and go on to become elders.

• Like elders, novices will have desires to be social, but like lurkers they may not participate fully, but for different reasons. Regulars act out their desires to be social and creative, and as Wallace (2001) points out, they are sometimes known to act out their less constructive desires if another regular posts a message to a novice that is contrary to their beliefs. Leaders may act out their order desires, by ensuring that bulletin boards do not go off topic, or by ensuring that everyone is able to participate.



Principle 2 – an actor’s desire to act is limited by their goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests

• The second principle of the ecological cognition framework is that an actor will take into account their existing goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests before taking action based on their desires, which may have made such cognitions dissonant.

• The framework suggests that once an actor has a desire, they will develop a plan to act out that desire, much in the same way that when they perceive an affordance in the environment they develop plans to interact with the artefact that offered it. The actor may then find that this plan is dissonant with their beliefs. For example, a lurker may desire to be social and develop a plan to communicate with another actor, but believe they will not be being helpful by doing so, so they do not act out their desire, thus experiencing temperance.

• Even if the actor did not have any beliefs that prevented them from acting out their desire, if the plan to act out the desire was inconsistent with their existing plans, their values, their goals or their interests, then they will experience temperance and not act out the plan.

• This is a significantly different concept to those models that propose that actors are goal-driven. According to this framework, actors are not driven by goals, but use their goals to validate the plans that develop from their desires. In their online community framework (OCF), De Souza and Preece (2004) appear to support this concept by indicating that an actor will share goals with other community members and have their actions influenced by them. The OCF also indicates that actors will adopt the norms and rules of the community and such beliefs will also influence their actions.



Principle 2 – an actor’s desire to act is limited by their goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests

• An important aspect of this second principle is that an actor’s cognitions are regularly dissonant and the actor is always trying to make them consonant in order to achieve consonance and experience intemperance through taking actions that reflect their desires.

• For example, an actor may have a desire to help someone in an online community and plan to go to the community to seek out an opportunity to help someone, but when they find that opportunity they may have a belief that they will not be helpful by posting. They have to resolve this dissonance by either changing their belief or changing their plan. To do this they could use their values, which could include a value to always help someone in need, or their goals, which could include a goal to be a valued member of the community.

• Unlike hierarchical needs theory, the ecological cognition framework does not suggest there is a hierarchy to an actor’s desires. The prepotency of a desire is not determined at Level 1 by an inbuilt structure, it is determined at Level 2 by the way in which an actor has made their cognitions consonant.

• For example,an actor using an instant messaging tool may have an existential desire to eat, but they may also have a social desire to continue with the conversation. The desire that is prepotent will be determined by whether the actor believes it is more important to have food or be sociable.

• However, strong an actor’s desires to contribute to an online community, if they are unable to make their cognitions consonant, they are more likely to experience temperance than intemperance.



OCF

• The purpose of the OCF (Online community framework) is to help designers understand online communities, keeping in mind: the structure of their constitutive entities and the relationships among them; and the communicative aspects of computer-mediated human interaction that affect such communities. The ease with which community members interact with each other and with the technology will depend on how well designers support sociability and usability.

• Thus, by analyzing existing communities or candidate design solutions using the OCF, designers will be able to make their understanding about how their design is intended to meet community needs more explicit and potentially more perspicuous. Since design is a knowledge-intensive activity, any tool that improves the level of the designer’s knowledge contributes to the outcome of the process.




OCF



OCF

• Each one of the three constituents (in white boxes) will be described in more detail in the sub-sections that follow.

• The online community constituent is embedded in a software environment and thus achieves computer-mediated human experience.

• The usability and sociability constituent provides the goals (requirements and inspiration) for designing the online community.Since sociability is concerned with the social interactions in the community, whereas usability describes human–computer interaction, sociability and usability directly affect the online community.

• Finally, the interpretive constituent matches the usability and sociability design goals with how they affect the community’s experiences, and explains how technology enables the achievement of computer-mediated experiences.



OCF



OCF

The online community constituent can be described at various levels of abstraction. The constituent is represented as a directed graph in which:

• nodes (i.e. the rounded shapes) stand for entities (e.g. community, people, purposes, policies, etc.)

• arcs (i.e. the uni-directional lines linking nodes) stand for binary relations between entities (e.g. community has purposes, has policies etc.); and

• nodes and arcs have attributes (e.g. all entities and relations have a name, entities may be types, like for instance communications of type ‘request’).


OCFEntities, the relations between them, and their attributes are subject to two types of rules:

• structuring rules generate particular sub-graphs (i.e. compound entities) under conditions determined by the entities, relations and/or attributes of the framework;

• inference rules generate implicit relations between conceptual entities or place constraints on the values of the attributes (including establishing a unique value for an attribute) in the framework.

Entities may be simple or compound:

• simple entities must be explicitly represented as nodes in the graph;

• compound entities may be explicitly represented as nodes in the graph, but must all be derivable from the set of structuring or inference rules stated in the framework.

Relations may be direct or indirect:

• direct relations must be represented explicitly as arcs in the graph;

• indirect relations may be explicitly represented as arcs in the graph, but must be derivable from the set of structuring or inference rules stated in the framework.


Principle 3 – An actor will act based on how they perceive their environment

• The third principle of the ecological cognition framework is that an actor will carry out an action based on how they perceive their environment. Mantovani (1996a) has already demonstrated that an actor will take into account their goals when interacting with artefacts and other actors, but the ecological cognition framework indicates that they will take into account their plans, values and beliefs as well. If an actor has the desire to do something that results in a plan, this plan is consonant with their cognitions, and they have the ability to act out the desire, the next stage is to interact with the environment.

• The environment is made up of among other things, actors and artefacts, with the actor limiting their attention focus to those aspects of the functional system they are within that provides them with the opportunity to act out their desires. Indeed, the region of the brain associated with coding the affordance of artefacts (the left inferior parietal lobule) is the same region associated with selective attention (Frederikse, Lu, Aylward, Barta, & Pearlson, 1999; Gre´zes & Decety, 2002). Furthermore, this region of the brain is also associated with motor planning (Winstein, Grafton, & Pohl, 1997), suggesting that when an actor perceives an affordance they are influencing their plans to act out their desires.

• Mantovani’s framework (1996a) indicates that actors will seek out opportunities in their environment to meet their goals through limiting their attention focus to those artefacts within their competencies. The ecological cognition framework partially supports this by indicating that an actor will seek out opportunities to meet their desires and how they act out these desires will depend on the situation they have constructed based on how they have perceived their environment. An actor will take into account their goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests when perceiving their environment. If for example, a regular had a desire to be social, they may seek out actors with whom to be social with.

• They would take into account their beliefs about these actors when deciding whether to act out their desires with them and also whether communicating with these particular actors is consistent with their existing plans, goals and values.



Persuading actors to participate in online communities

• Encouraging participation is one of the greatest challenges for any online community provider. There is a large amount of literature demonstrating ways in which online communities can be effectively built (Figallo, 1998; Kim, 2000; Preece, 2000; Young, 2000).

• However, an online community can have the right tools, the right chat platform and the right ethos, but if community members are not participating the community will not flourish. Encouraging members to change from lurkers into novices is proving to be a challenge for community providers and whilst there is a lot of research into why lurkers do not participate (Nonnecke & Preece, 2000; Preece et al., 2004; Takahashi, Fujimoto, & Yamasaki, 2002) there are few suggestions about how to change their behaviour. Traditional methods of behaviour modification are unsuitable for virtual environments.

• Methodologies, such as operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938) would suggest that thecway to turn lurkers into elders is to reward them for taking participatory actions. Evencif the concept that participatory actions, such as posting messages will be repeated if they are rewarded was accepted, this method would still require a lurker to take the initial step and post a message.

• The ecological cognition framework proposes that in order for actors to carry out a participatory action, such as posting a message, there needs to be a desire to do so, the desire needs to be consistent with the actor’s goals, plans, values, beliefs and interests and they need to have abilities and tools to do so.

• Some actors such as lurkers, may have the desire and the capabilities, but hold beliefs that prevent them from making participatory actions in online communities. In order for them to do so, they need to have the desire to do so and their beliefs need to be changed.




• Traditional methods, such as operant conditioning may be able to change the belief of a lurker that they are not being helpful by posting a message, but it is unlikely that they will be effective at changing other beliefs, such as the belief they do not need to post. In order to change beliefs it is necessary to make an actor’s beliefs dissonant, something that could be uncomfortable for the actor. Indeed Bishop (2004) points out that actors will be less willing to be persuaded if the presented arguments conflict with the beliefs, plans and values they have already developed.

• However, the use of persuasive text, which is any message devised to counter the beliefs of man actor and provide them with new information (Chambliss & Garner, 1996; Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1954) can be one way of changing the beliefs of lurkers, although some studies have questioned the effectiveness of persuasive text in human-computer systems (Murphy, Long, Holleran, & Esterly, 2003).

• When presented with a piece of persuasive text that is dissonant with their existingbeliefs, an actor will take into account factors including the credibility of the source before changing their beliefs, as well as their other cognitions, such as their goals. This suggests that a lurker may be persuaded to change their beliefs that lead them to experience temperance if they consider the community members suggesting they participate credibly and changing the belief would be consistent with the goals that they hold.

• Bishop (2002) investigated using a rating system, whereby community members indicated whether they found a particular member trustworthy or not. In the system, which worked similar to the rating system used by eBay.co.uk, individuals were given one point by each member who thought they were trustworthy and lost one point by each member who thought they were untrustworthy.

• This system would indicate to lurkers which members are most credible, meaning they may be more likely to be persuaded by them to change their beliefs and participate.




• However, despite the potential of using persuasive text to change the beliefs of lurkers, it may be difficult in an online community for elders and leaders to identify the beliefs that cause a lurker to experience temperance preventing them from becoming a novice, so other methods are required.

• Perhaps one of the most effective means to change the beliefs of lurkers so that they become novices is for regulars, leaders and elders to nurture novices in the community so that lurkers can see that those who are new to a community are treated well. Often lurkers will be actors that have posted in other online communities and not received a reply and will hold a belief that they will be ignored if they contribute. These lurkers can be persuaded to change such a belief if they see that novices have their posts responded to in a constructive way.

• Whilst changing the beliefs of a lurker will mean they are more likely to experience intemperance and act out a desire to participate, communities also need facilitate the actor in developing desires to participate. One way of doing this is through using mediating artefacts that offer perceived affordances, as suggested by Bishop (2005).

• Mediating artefacts such as hyperlinks can offer the perceived affordance of clickability, in that they lead the actor to develop a plan to click them. If such a plan is consistent with an actors goals and does not conflict with their beliefs they are likely to experience intemperance and act out the plan, which could be to participate. An actor that immediately acts out the plans that come from mediating artefacts could be engaged in a state of flow, in that they will experience deference, which is another way of encouraging lurkers to contribute to an online community.




• Csikszentmihalyi (1990) indicates that when an actor is engaged in a state of flow, the concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over meaning that the worries about problems disappear. This suggests that when in a state of flow, an actor will be acting upon their desires and experience deference. It is likely that when in a state of flow an actor’s plans are based directly on acting out their desires. It seems clear that if the actor is in a state of flow, they are more likely to take a participatory action. Achieving a state of flow that results in deference is potentially difficult in online communities, as many of the actions taken by actors will be as the result of resolving dissonance in order to experience temperance or intemperance. However, there have been studies that have determined ways in which flow can be achieved, even in these environments.

• An empirical investigation by Novak and Hoffman (1998) identified 13 factors of flow; arousal, challenge, control, exploratory behaviour, focused attention, interactivity, involvement, optimum level stimulation, playfulness, positive effect, skill, telepresence, and time distortion.

• The study demonstrates that flow can be achieved when an actor has a reduced attention focus, loses track of time and becomes immersed in the environment at the same time. As Mantovani (1996a) indicates, an actor will reduce their attention focus to those aspects of an environment that are within their capabilities, and the author further argues that an actor will reduce their attention focus to those aspects of the environment that are consonant with their cognitions.

• This suggests that if an online community has artefacts and actors that do not create dissonance with an actor’s cognitions then the actor is more likely to become engaged in a state of flow and act out their desires. However, whilst engaging an actor in a state of flow might mean that they are more likely to act out their desires to be social, there is also the possibility that they will act out their vengeance desires as well.

• Indeed, some studies have indicated that in human-computer systems where actors are likely to experience deference they are also more likely to flame others (Orengo Castella´ , Zornoza Abad, Prieto Alonso, & Peiro´ Silla, 2000). This suggests that any attempt to increase the flow experience of an actor should be done with caution.



Community tipologies

• As the number of online communities continues to increase and millions of people participate in them, researchers have attempted to classify communities to better study them. They have generally differentiated between communities based on the need they fulfill.

• Hagel and Armstrong [1997] and Kannan [2000] stated that online communities satisfy different needs at any given time in a nonexclusive way. According to them, a community can be of interest, relationship, fantasy, or transaction.



Focus-oriented typology



TO• The main function of transaction-oriented communities is to bring sellers and buyers together. Many

communities such as eBay.com facilitate completion of the transaction. Others such as CraigsList.org only help members to find one another. Completing the transaction is up to the individuals. Because of the substantial risk associated with transaction making, transaction-oriented communities cannot exist without trust. To reduce risk, participants need to know that the other party has the competence to complete the transaction, has no ulterior motives, and will not act maliciously to harm the other party.

• Of particular interest are the trust mechanisms built into eBay, Amazon and others. Ba and Pavlou (2002) and Bolton et al. (2004) find strong evidence that rating systems do affect trust and that the effect of trust is stronger with more expensive items. Pavlou and Dimoka (2006) report that text comments significantly improve our understanding of price premiums. Dellarocus (2005) finds that eBay feedback mechanisms are almost able to maximize efficiency. Hu et al. (2004) describe a third party escrow service to mitigate the effects of risk.

• Psychological contracts are closely related to social contracts and are useful and applicable to transaction-oriented communities. Psychological contracts are the beliefs a party has about the explicit or implicit reciprocal exchange agreement with another person (Rousseau 1989, 1995). In contrast, social contracts refer to the general population and what that group expects in return for the rights or freedoms forfeited. Pavlou and Gefen (2005) apply the theory of psychological contract violation in a survey of eBay and Amazon customers.



TO• Psychological contracts form from the understanding buyers and sellers have of the environment. They

explain why users feel that the implicit contracts are violated even when the explicit promises are not and vice versa. They also find that the psychological contract violation has a negative impact on a buyer’s trust of a group of sellers as do Bolton et al. (2004).

• Business participation in transaction-oriented communities is the most well-adopted and understood business practice in relation to virtual communities. A long-term approach to a transaction-oriented community requires an effort to keep feedback scores positive. Research shows that feedback scores have a positive impact on price premiums (Ba and Pavlou 2002) and that negative negative feedback has a stronger impact on price than positive feedback (Bolton et al. 2004). Meeting and exceeding expectations of these contracts will contribute not only to buyers’ sense of trust toward that individual but to a group of sellers in general (Bolton et al. 2004, Pavlou and Gefen 2005).

• It is a common practice for retailers to liquidate old, aging or excess inventory on eBay or Overstock.com. Often the account used to liquidate inventory is not publicly connected to the real-world brand. Gefen (2000) finds that familiarity builds trust. Leveraging a real-world brand is likely to decrease or remove price penalties for risk. However, the benefits of lower price penalties must be balanced with risks of channel conflict if the brand is used online.



IO• Interest-oriented communities gather users around a common theme such as Macintosh computers

(www.macrumors.com), development on platforms (www.msdn.com) and support of products (support.dell.com).

• A salient social contract is the exchange of time and quality contributions for access to the information of the community. Users who create accounts to access information and never contribute may lose their account. If a user starts a threaded discussion that closely relates to a previous discussion, they will be told to move their comments to that previous discussion. This allows expert members to answer questions in one place.

• Individual members, and in some cases individual messages, are rated for their expertise and the quality of information they share such as in Experts-Exchange.com (www.experts-exchange.com).

• If a user believes that advice given in an interest-oriented community is tainted by financial motives or lack of integrity, negative intentions or lack of benevolence, or does not come from a reliable source, indicating a lack of competence, the advice will be ignored. In worse cases, the user will be defamed or removed.



http://www.macrumors.com

http://www.macrumors.com

http://www.msdn.com

http://www.msdn.com

http://www.experts-exchange.com

http://www.experts-exchange.com

IO• Interest-oriented communities use social pressure and moderators to reduce negative contributions.

Without close moderation, too many tainted contributions will kill the community. When participating in the community, businesses must be cautious that postings do not appear to have ulterior motives. Posts that seem to be tainted will damage the reputation of the business. Matching community and business needs can help to avoid this issue. To this point it is worthwhile to consider simple participation in a virtual community.

• A business may also sponsor and govern an interest-oriented community. Sponsoring the community means supplying technical, knowledge, and administrative resources. When sponsoring a community, the business must dedicate sufficient resources to monitor the community and moderate its discussions. When posts come from a sponsor, the bar of untainted information is not held as high.

• Porter and Donthu (2008) find that a belief that a sponsor will act opportunistically does not have an effect on trust in this situation. This is because members of a sponsored community expect that the sponsor will use the community for its own purposes.

• Members understand the motivations of the sponsor when they join the community. These pre-set expectations effectively provide a different social contract.



RO• Relationship-oriented communities generally focus on real-life relationships such as family (MyFamily.org) or

business relations (LinkedIn.com). However, in the last couple of years, sites such as MySpace.com allow, and even seem to encourage members to develop online relationships with community participants they have never met. One of the most important social contracts in a relationship-oriented community is that, in exchange for personal information, the user is assured that the information will be used properly.

• Relationship-oriented communities rely on real information to build real relationships. Users feel vulnerable or betrayed when their information is used for purposes beyond the scope of the community. This contract also implies that contact information is accurate. Accurate information and authenticity of contributions are vital because users will act on the information. The user is likely to go somewhere else if she does not believe that the community is capable of delivering accurate information about contacts or if information is not from an authentic source.

• The lines between these communities can blur significantly. MySpace (www.myspace.com) was originally designed as a relationship-oriented community. Groups such as music bands began to list their band as a person in MySpace. The creators of MySpace have adapted this practice formally into the system. As members mark the band as a friend, they begin to form interest-oriented groups. Interest-oriented communities may attract people for social support such as RevolutionHealth.com with its cancer forums. It is easy to imagine such a community developing into a relationship-oriented community as users come to create support groups.



http://www.myspace.com

http://www.myspace.com

FO

• Fantasy-oriented communities are seeing a surge over the last decade with the development of MMORPGs and recent popularity of virtual worlds such as Second Life. Over one million residents of Second Life were active in mid-2008 (Second Life 2008). Residents of Second Life are allowed to play out their fantasies in the community.

• Entertainment in fantasy-oriented communities has been compared to watching a movie of yourself (Clemons et al. 2007).

• One of the strongest social contracts in these communities is that in exchange for time involved in the learning and participation, the virtual environment will be respected. In World of Warcraft, whether you are human, orc, or undead, you must stick to your role. Besides destroying the sense of reality, by not playing your role, you will make playing the game difficult for others. Residents of Second Life can quickly become offended when a third-party shares real-life information about another resident (Carr and Pound 2007).



• Without an understanding of the social contracts of each community, businesses are likely to throw resources into virtual communities in an unsustainable manner. Much like the dot-com era, many companies seemed to be working on the attitude of ‘‘build-it-and-they-will-come.” Companies such as Coca-Cola and H&R Block did not seem to understand the expectations of Second Life residents and thus did not create new and interesting entertainment for residents. Only after firms know how to participate with in the boundaries of social contracts can they hope to find benefits in participation in these communities.


Implications for mktg• Virtual communities are used for both advertising and building brand loyalty. There has been some

success in this area; however, marketing in virtual communities is still very experimental in nature. Each type of community requires a different approach to marketing.

• In interest-oriented communities, loyalty can be built in two ways. As discussed earlier, interest-oriented communities focus their trust on the exchange of reliable and objective information. A sponsor must do its best to listen to the community and post clear, useful, reasonably objective information. If a sponsor tries to manipulate information or bulldoze community members that do not agree with it, members will find the information to be less reliable. The sponsor then risks the dissolution of the community.

• Sponsorship of an interest-oriented support community can be a marketing tool as well as a support tool. The participants of a support community are likely to be repeat customers if they enjoy their experience. The sponsor will need to show effort to respond to the community either through posts, real-world action or both.

• Indeed, the best opportunities for a company to shine are through earnest responses to negative criticism.


Dell community case

• A great example comes from the Dell Community. In an article from Business Week, Jeff Jarvis wrote: ‘‘Terminally frustrated with a lemony laptop and torturous service, I vented steam on my blog under the headline: ‘Dell sucks.’ . . .

• Thousands of frustrated consumers eventually commented on and linked to my blog, saying, ‘I agree.’ . . . I blogged an open letter to Michael Dell suggesting his company read blogs, write blogs, ask customers for guidance, and join the conversation your customers are having without you” (Jarvis 2007).

• In response, Dell developed ‘‘Idea Storm.” Dell hired bloggers and technicians to answer questions and solve issues. Dell’s blogs linked directly to the criticism and used responses to change customer service (Menchaca 2007). This developed into Direct2Dell (http://direct2dell.com). Jeff Jarvis calls Dell’s Chief Blogger a ‘‘credible human voice” for a large company (Jarvis 2007).


http://direct2dell.com

http://direct2dell.com

Ps:

• Fare anche noi una FAQ page?


Community tipologies 2• At the same time, communities are classified by geographic characteristics, that is, formed

by members in close proximity, by demographic characteristics, that is, formed for or by people of specific age, gender, life style, or ethnicity, by topical characteristics such as specific interests, hobbies or pastimes, or by activities such as shopping, financial investment, or gaming [Kim 2000].

• Lazar and Preece [1998] argued that existing online communities can also be classified based on four dimensions: attributes, supporting software, relation to physical communities, and boundedness. According to Lazar and Preece [1998], the attributes of a community include its goals, topic of interest, type of activity, type of interaction, size, level of support, levelof anonymity, type of conventions, language, and protocols, among others. As for the relation to physical communities, online communities may require frequent, periodic,or no face-to-face interactions. Online communities may use such software applications and technologies as email lists, newsgroups, bulletin boards, Internet-relay chat, and meeting rooms, and can be tightly or loosely bounded to an organization.






Community tipologies• Others build on the classification provided by Lazaar and Preece [1998].

Leimeister and Krcmar [2004] added source of revenue, such as subscription-based revenue, membership revenue, or usage-based revenue.

• Preece and Maloney-Krichmar [2003] added other supporting software possibilities such as mailing lists, usenet news, discussion forums, chats, immersive graphic environments, and e-groups.

• Kim [2000] added areas of interest such as spirituality, health, work, politics, and education as goals of an online community. As the use of online communities for transactions has increased substantially, transactions have been added as a possible goal of some communities [Resnick and Zeckhauser 2002; Hiltz and Goldman 2004].



Community tipologies• Finally, in an analysis of 50 online communities, Hummel and Lechner [2002]

identified five genres of communities.

• These genres are games, interest or knowledge, and three other mixed genres also oriented to transactions, business-to-business (knowledge and transactions), business-to-consumer (interest, commerce, and transactions) and consumers-to-consumers (interest, trade, and transaction).

• These genres are based on four dimensions that characterize a community, namely, a defined group of actors,interaction, sense of place, and bonding. Each of these dimensions exists in each community in the form of features and management activities. For example, a community has a clearly defined group of actors if it has a precise content focus and clear entry and access rules.




• For a period between 2005 and 2007, there was an explosion of a new type of online communities, known as social networking sites. These social networking sites are online community whose only purpose is the creation and maintenance of social relationships or friendships. Because of the growth in this new type of online communities, compared to the limited growth of traditional communities of interest, it seemed that this community type would become the most prevalent. Members of these social networking sites use multimedia and Web 2.0 technologies such as social bookmarking and photo and video sharing to build their profiles and introduce themselves to other members [Parameswaran and Whinston 2007].



Another online communities classification (by Schrammel et al., 2009)

• Business Networking Sites. These are networking sites that are mainly used to maintain and administer existing and new business contacts. Typical examples for such networks are LinkedIn or Xing.

• Social Networks. This term comprehends sites that are mainly used for maintaining private relationships and contacts. The most prominent example for such a site is Facebook, but there are also several other very popular communities such as Orkut or StudiVZ..

• Content and Media Sharing Networks. On these sites the major focus is on sharing content with others and not on maintaining relationships (even though sharing contents is an important aspect of maintaining relationships). Typically networks are specialised on different types of media, e.g. Flickr is focusing on pictures and YouTube's main medium is video.

• Social News and Bookmarking Sites. These sites are used to share and discover interesting links to news and contents in the web. Sites can be more focused on the collaborative bookmarking aspect (e.g. del.icio.us) or the social news aspect (e.g. Digg).



• Oltre che per focus di interesse e per funzionalità è possibile classificare le community online anche in base alla loro struttura, creata dalle relazioni che intercorrono tra i suoi utenti.



Basic community structure

From: Mudambi S., Oliva T. & Thomas E. Industrial marketing firms and knowledge transfer: Toward a basic typology of community structures, 2009.




• Crew, Séance, and Guru, three generic or basic community structure types, are fundamental and represent open and closed communities. Crew, Séance, and Guru are the basic atoms, and everything else can be built from them.

• The Crew structure may be characterized as “we are all in the same boat, but someone (the coxswain) is in charge to see where we are going”. This is a basic linear structure which in most cases is a “top down” or from a single source like an opinion leader.

• Replicated, the linear segments generate the standard organizationalchart (Molina, 2001), which is a larger and more complex boat, but a boat just the same, with a common fate. The coxswain in this case only directly interacts with the next closest neighbor and is dependent on each succeeding member to reach the goal.




• In Séance structures everyone is linked in a circle. There really is no head, as the medium is a facilitator. Each individual must stay connected to the individuals on either side or nothing will happen. If one person breaks the chain, the community cannot function. It is a closed structure that cannot be deformed into an open structure. There is also no end-point as one could start any place.

• Guru structures are open structures with open nodes. The Guru interacts with every element (member) directly and there is no linkage between non-Guru members. In this structure everything is centralized, and very tightly controlled by nature of the structure.

• This basic typology draws on past research across several fields.



Complex communities structures

• The extensiveness of applications provides a strong argument for a “back-to-basics” approach of the typology of Crew, Séance and Guru, as these constitute the building blocks for more complex communities.

• The Caveman structure is at its essence a combination of the Crew and Séance structures, the Ivy structure is also a composite structure, as it contains elements of Crew, Séance and Guru.

• Whereas the three basic typologies are regular and symmetrical, Ivy can “grow” in what appear to be random directions or ways. Ivy's unique property is its random and non-regular structure. Ivy tends to grow based on the need of the participants in a random way by linking individuals according to interest or need just like an informal organization chart (Molina, 2001). It can have both open andclosed segments, but cannot be deformed into either a crew or séance structure, hence has its own characteristics.

• In such communities, opinion leaders may emerge at the center of nodes, still others may form a smaller closed community within the larger structure as a group of friends might do on Facebook or MySpace, yet still be part of the larger group through external connections of the group members. It is not uncommon in an Ivy structure for closed groups to arise with only minimum connectivity to the larger group. This is similar to terrorist cells that operate almost autonomously (Krebs, 2002).



Community Structures

From: Mudambi S., Oliva T. & Thomas E. Industrial marketing firms and knowledge transfer: Toward a basic typology of community structures, 2009.



SNA• La social network analysis (SNA), ovvero analisi dei reticoli sociali (a volte

detta anche network theory, teoria della rete), è un ramo della network analysis.

• L’analisi delle reti sociali è un settore particolarmente fertile della sociologia contemporanea che si differenzia dalla ricerca sociale mainstream per l’attenzione posta sull’influenza della relazione sociale sul comportamento collettivo. L’approccio della Social Network Analysis è basato sul concetto intuitivo che il pattern dei legami sociali nei quali gli attori sono inseriti abbia per questi conseguenze determinanti. Il tentativo è quello di scoprire schemi riconducibili a strutture relazionali, di determinare le condizioni di origine e di rilevarne le conseguenze per l’azione.



SNA

• Perchè applicare la SNA a community online/virtuali?

• Innanzitutto per poter determinare la struttura della community in esame

• Inoltre potrebbe essere utile per poter sviluppare strategie al fine di coinvolgere i membri più isolati del network.

• “Analisi delle reti sociali. Teorie, metodi, applicazioni” (Salvini)



Life-cycle model

• Online communities evolve in stages, and each stage presents distinct characteristics and needs.

• Five stages of the online community life-cycle as follows: inception, creation, growth, maturity, and death. We chose these names because they match the stages in the information systems life-cycle (ISLC), a widely known concept used by information systems developers. The ISLC is a comprehensive model that describes the development and operation of any information system.



Life-cycle model



Inception stage• Purpose. Before the online community support hardware and software platform isput together, creators must have a clear

purpose for the community, and this purposeneeds to be explicitly written in the online community interface (i.e., the homepage).Potential members need to know what the online community’s purpose is before theycan decide to participate.

• Focus. Creators must decide on the need they will address and identify characteristics of the target audience (i.e., interests, age, gender, and ethnicity). They need to ensurethat they cater to those needs. At this stage, Wegner et al. [2002] recommended also specifying clearly the community’s area of interest to its members.

• Codes of conduct. Operators need to establish regulations clearly to be able to contain possible conflicts and allow for effective monitoring of members’ behavior such as the language used, age of members, and whether or not they are allowed to advertise products or services. In the case of online communities that are born in business organizations’ platforms, stricter codes of conducts or regulations may exist.

• Trademark. Kim [2000] emphasized the need for a tagline that differentiates the community and expresses its nature. “News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters” is the tagline of Slashdot.org, an online community for open source enthusiasts. She suggests that an appealing tag would trigger, in the right audience, the desire to participate.

• Funding and revenue. Depending on the goals of the creator, sources of funding or revenue must be secured. Several options to fund online communities exist: private funding, membership fees, fee per use, and advertising, among others.




Establishment & planning• Define the goal / purpose of the proposed community. Be clear on the reasons for establishing an online community.

Make surethere is not an existing community with similar objectives which could be used.

• Understand your user group. What skills and experience in using online technology do your proposed user group have? What do they require? Do you need to provide support or training? Will their access to computers, email and the web influence your choice of technical platform?

• Define roles and expectations for key participants Is it necessary or important to promote leadership from within the group to progress and manage the ‘community’? If major activities are through online discussions is it necessary to moderate discussions? Will you have one or several moderators? Is there a defined role for ‘visiting experts’, mentors etc.? Are they, and participants, aware of what is expected of them, including response times? Are records to be kept and who will do this? What protocols will be established to maintain harmonious relationships?

• Ensure adequate resourcing. Are adequate resources allocated to support the success of the community(time, people, technical support)?

• Establish a plan to deal with technical issues. This includes choice of software and setting in place and documenting support arrangements.What are the conditions for and characteristics of effective online learning communities?

• Achieve a critical mass of users. If your community is not a predefined group (eg a class or project team) how will you ensure that sufficient members join to make your community viable? Beware of doing a lot of publicity and then having potential members turn away because there is an empty technical shell when they first visit. Populateyour site with discussion starters and background information before you publicise it.



...

• (coming soon)


Designing Online Communities

• All online communities embody technical and social choices that influence how visitors or members interact with the information and people that comprise the community.

• Technical and social choices that influence people’s interactions in the community are implemented through ‘community design’, that is, the navigation architecture, site features, interactions, and organization structures and policies of the community.

• People involved in community design are the software developers, list owners, web managers, and managers or owners of the community, who construct and maintain the community. They also may include core participants in the community, whose actions and explicit comments set the norms for how peripheral members should behave. We will refer to all these actors as ‘community designers’.

• Community designers make numerous large and small design decisions that influence the way the community motivates participants.



Group attachment

• Online communities depend upon the commitment and voluntary participation of their members. Community design — site navigation, community structure and features, and organizational policies — is critical in this regard. Community design affects how people can interact, the information they receive about one another and the community, and how they can participate in community activities. We argue that the constraints and opportunities inherent in online community design influence how people become attached to the community and whether they are willing to expend effort on its behalf.

• Two theories of group attachment. Common identity theory makes predictions about the causes and consequences of people’s attachment to the group as a whole. Common bond theory makes predictions about the causes and consequences of people’s attachment to individual group members.



Common identity & common bond

• The concepts of common identity and common bond derive from social psychological studies of voluntary real-world groups such as fraternities and clubs (Prentice et al. 1994). The distinction between identity and bond refers to people’s different reasons for being in a group, that is, because they like the group as a whole — identity-based attachment, or because they like individuals in the group — bond-based attachment (Back 1951).

• When people feel identity-based attachment to a group, they tend to perceive others in the group as interchangeable(Turner 1985). One implication of this perception is that identity is comparativelystable in the face of turnover in membership. In contrast, in bond-based attachment, people feel connections to each other and less to the group as a whole.

• Prentice et al. (1994) studied the distinction between common identity and common bond feelings in university clubs. They classified topic-based groups, such as art groups, the school newspaper, and sports teams, as common identity groups, and relation-based groups, such as residential units, fraternities, and eating clubs, as common bond groups. Members of the common identity groups reported feeling more attached to their group as a whole than to their fellow group members, whereas members of the common bond groups reported feeling attached both to the group as a whole and to group members. The authors argued that ‘the two perspectives might ... be viewed as describing two separable processes in the development and maintenance of groups, either of which might dominate under a given set of circumstances’ (Prentice et al. 1994).



• Following Prentice et al., many researchers have studied common identity and common bond by categorizing groups into identity-based versus bond-based groups, based on the typical motivation of group members (e.g. Sassenberg 2002).

• One of the complexities, however, of purposeful design is managing the trade-offs among the design choices, so that decisions for example that increase the likelihood that group members will grow to like each other do not at the same time reduce their chance of becoming attached to the group as a whole (see Postmes et al. 2005,for an example of these trade-offs.)

• The distinction between identity-based and bond-based attachment also has been applied to online communities (e.g. Postmes and Spears 2000; Sassenberg, and Postmes 2002; Utz 2003; Utz and Sassenberg 2002).






Causes of common identity

• Social categorization

• Interdependence

• Intergroup Comparisons



Social categorization

• One can create group identity merely by defining a collection of people as members of the same social category (Turner 1985; Turner et al. 1987). Categorization can be based on objective criteria, such as organizational membership, or on subjective criteria, such as participants’ political values or choices (Amichai-Hamburger 2005; Postmes and Spears 2000; Karasawa 1991).

• Researchers have categorized people using group names (Michinov et al. 2004; Postmes et al. 2002), uniforms (Worchel et al. 1998), and even random assignment to an arbitrary category (Tajfel et al. 1971; Hogg and Turner 1985). While earlier research used face-to-face groups, recent research also shows that random assignment can create feelings of group identity in online settings (Amichai-Hamburger 2005).

• Many online health support group members are attached to their group because of their shared identity as sufferers or survivors of a particular illness or treatment. In these communities, people can share their common experience regardless of who specifically is listening and answering questions.



Interdependence

• Groups whose members are cooperatively interdependent tend to become committed to the group. Interdependence through a joint task, a common purpose, common fate, or joint rewards fosters group identity. A joint task is a task that involves inputs from all members (Culnan 2005; Worchel et al. 1998; Sherif et al. 1961; Cartwright 1968). A common purpose is a goal that the group as a whole can attain, such as a high group score (Postmes et al. 2001). Common fate means that the group members benefit or receive the same treatment or outcomes(Michinov et al. 2004; Worchel et al. 1998).

• Interdependence can cause feelings of common identity in online communities. Online communities that build open source software (e.g. http://www.apache.org/) or online reference books (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org) have an interdependent task and common purpose that focus motivations on the community as a whole. Bryant et al. (2005) describe how the common goal of developing the world’s best encyclopedia led readers of Wikipedia to become ‘Wikipedians’, active contributors committed to the community and its goal.



http://www.apache

http://www.apache

http://en.wikipedia.org




Intergroup comparisons

• People who define and categorize themselves as members of a group compare themselves with other groups (Hogg and Terry 2000), and raising the salience of out-groups intensifies people’s commitment to their in-groups. Researchers have divided participants into two or more groups to highlight group boundaries and to stimulate intergroup comparisons (Postmes et al. 2001; Rogers and Lea 2005; Worchel et al. 1998). The out-group do not have to be physically or even virtually present to elicit intergroup comparisons and in-group commitment (Utz 2003; Yuki et al. 2005).

• In online communities, designers can encourage members to attend to group boundaries and to assume in-group homogeneity by increasing members’ awareness of an out-group. For example, postings on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on apache.org, home of the Apache web server opensource development project, compare the speed, performance, and market share of the Apache server with other commercial servers, fostering the common identity of those who work on Apache software.



Causes of common bond

• Social interaction

• Personal information

• Personal attraction through similarity


Social Interaction

• Social interaction provides opportunities for people to get acquainted, to become familiar with one another, and to build trust. As the frequency of interaction increases, their liking for one another also increases (Cartwright and Zander 1953).

• In online communities, members’ frequency of interaction with others is a major determinant of the extent to which they build relationships with one another (McKenna et al. 2002). More exchanges among community members, through private messages, for example, provide opportunities for members to build social connections and create both liking and trust. Utz’s (2003) study of Multi-User Dungeons and Dragons (MUD) players showed that the longer their involvement in the MUD and the more real-world contact they had with others, the more they felt a bond with other players. Attachment increases if members have a sense of virtual co-presence or a subjective feeling of being together with others in a virtual environment (Slater et al. 2000).



Personal Information• Opportunities for self-disclosure — the exchange of personally revealing information about the self — are both a cause and a

consequence of interpersonal bonds (Collins and Miller 1994). Accordingly, members of online communities are more likely to form relationships if they have opportunities to self-disclose and learn about each other. Opportunities for self-disclosure and self-presentation shift attention from the group as a whole to individual members (Postmes et al. 2002; Sassenberg and Postmes 2002).

• In online communities, private messaging, including both personal electronic mail and synchronous communicationtools, such as chat rooms and Instant Messenging, is the basic mechanism for self-disclosure and social interaction more generally. In addition to these communication channels, awareness tools that show who is currently online andwhat they are doing may help people gain and maintain a sense of others and their habits. In addition, many communities offer user profiles, containing personal information such as photos, background, experience, and interests, that helps members know more about the people in the group.

• Some communities even allow people to append a personalized signature or an avatar to their postings. These personalized options can signal a member’s style and personality. There is some evidence that personal information promotes interpersonal bonds even among people who have not yet interacted (Walther 2002).

• Personal information increases the likelihood of interaction. Including members’ home towns and current residences in their personal profiles enables others to identify those who live in the same region. They can then become real-life contacts. Likewise, the inclusion of contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and instant messenging (IM) accounts enables members to connect and interact through multiple channels. Seeing social networking information about others also helps to build bonds with them. For example,Yuki et al. (2005) found that people were more trusting of those who they knew had a shared acquaintance among their in-group members. A friend’s friend was a friend online.



Personal attraction through similarity

• People like others who are similar to them in preferences, attitudes, and values, and they are likely to work or interact with similar others.

• In his pioneering longitudinal study of college students, Newcomb (1953, 1960) found that high interpersonal attraction developed among those who initially had attitudes in common. In the studies we reviewed, researchers frequently manipulated perceived similarity among group members to vary group members’ attachments to each other. Typically, participants completed a personality and friendship questionnaire and were told that they were assigned to a group whose members probably would become close friends (Hogg and Turner 1985; Postmes et al. 2001).

• Similarity can create common identity as well as interpersonal bonds. Similar member background such as profession, school, locality, race, ethnicity, occupation, and age, especially when these attributes are shared among people who otherwise are strangers, may lead to common category membership. Further, people tend to dislike groups whose members are heterogeneous, and these groups experience high turnover, especially when conflict arises (Williams and O’Reilly 1998).

• Similarity of background or expertise leads to common identity mostly when the similarity is relevant to the group’s context and functioning (Cartwright 1968).



Behavorial outcomes

• Cohesion, Commitment and Evaluation

• Content of Discussion

• Social Loafing

• Group Norms

• Response to Newcomers

• Reciprocity

• Group Robustness


Cohesion, commitment and evaluation

• In terms of evaluation of a group and commitment to it, identity-based attachment and bond-based attachment seem to have similar effects. Both lead members to perceive a group as cohesive and to evaluate their group more favorably than other groups (Back 1951; Hogg and Turner 1985; Michinov et al. 2004).

• Likewise, both increase positive feelings toward the group, participation, and the likelihood of remaining in the group (Back 1951; Levine and Moreland 1998).


Content of discussion• Communication is the core of many online communities, with collective action, exchanges of social

support, and sense of community rooted in the conversations that members of the community have with each other (Culnan 2005; Ginsburg and Weisband 2002). The nature of the communication exchanged is likely to depend on the type of attachment most members have to the group.

• In an early social psychological study, Back (1951) created identity-based groups by telling participants that they were working for a special group prize in a group that had all the qualifications to be the best group. He created bond-based groups by telling participants that they had been matched with a person who was very much like themselves and whom they would like. He found that members of the identity-based groups completed their tasks efficiently and discussed only those matters that they thought were relevant to achieving their purposes, whereas members of bond-based groups engaged in longer conversations on a broader range of topics.

• Fifty years later, members of online communities in which people engaged in discussions on a narrow range of topics reported high group identity and high evaluation of the group as a whole, whereas those who discussed a wide variety of topics reported that other members of the group were more personally likable (Sassenberg 2002). The Sassenberg study is correlational but, together with Back’s study, suggests that online community members who feel bond-based attachment to the community will be more likely to engage in off-topic discussion and will be more tolerant of off-topic discussion than people who feel identity-based attachment to the community.


Social loafing• In laboratory experiments, group members contribute more money to public goods, work harder to achieve

group goals, contribute more, and slack off less when they feel more committed to their group (Karau and Williams 1993; Karau and Hart 1998).They also tend to prefer equal rewards for their contribution.

• These effects, however, seem to differ depending upon the nature of members’ attachment to the group. Utz and Sassenberg (2002) found that labeling others as members of a volleyball team (common identity) versus friends playing volleyball together (common bond) led to significant differences in members’ preferences for how to distribute responsibility within their group. When participants were primed to focus on the volleyball team (identity-based attachment), they agreed to contribute an equal share of money for a broken window even though they were not directly responsible for it. When participants were primed to focus on their relationship with fellow members (bond-based attachment), they were not willing to contribute money for the broken window and preferred a solution whereby only the guilty person paid for the broken window.

• From this work, we suggest that people with identity-based attachment to an online community may be more likely to take over responsibilities from lurkers or slackers and compensatefor their lack of contribution. At the same time, they are also likely to have strong opinions against behaviors that jeopardize group survival or success such as social loafing. By contrast, people with bond-based attachment to the community may be more tolerant of one other’s lurking and social loafing and they may feel less obligated to compensate for others’ lack of effort.


Group norms

• Generally, anonymity fosters common identity and strong group norms. By contrast, making personal identity salient or individual members identifiable increases common bond-based attachment and weakens group norms .

• Postmes and Spears (2000) compared the influence of group norms in common-identity versus common-bond online groups. They found that attitudes were more similar in common identity groups than in common bond groups.

• Sassenberg (2002) found similar results using a behavioral measure of compliance to group norms. Thus research so far indicates that online community members who feel identity-based attachment to the community will be more likely to conform to group norms than those who feel bond-based attachment to the community.


Response to newcomers• Groups are more welcoming of new members when the groups are newer or when they are

understaffed or can otherwise benefit from the resources that newcomers bring (Moreland and Levine 1989).

• Because bond-based groups depend upon the development of friendships between pairs of members, we speculate that it will be harder for newcomers in online communities, who do not yet have these connections, to feel welcome in bond-based communities as compared with identity-based communities. The off-topic conversations typically found in bond-based communities may be confusing or off-putting to newcomers. Bond-based communities also may set up greater obstacles for newcomers to join than identity-based groups do.

• As reported in Prentice et al.’s (1994) study of university clubs, common bond groups such as eating clubs were discriminating and vetted new members before accepting them, whereas common identity groups such as art clubs selected members using a lottery system. Under extreme circumstances, old-timers may not want newcomers at all out of the fear that increased group size may dilute their friendship and lead to more conflict and subgroups.


Reciprocity• People often help others with the expectation that their help will be compensated or reciprocated,

either by those they have helped or by the group as a whole (Blau 1964; Emerson 1972).

• Thus, reciprocity can occur at the dyadic level or at the community level. A direct exchange occurs between two people in a dyad when one’s giving is reciprocated by the other. In contrast, a generalized exchange occurs when one’s giving is reciprocated by a third party rather than the recipient ( Mauss 1925/1967; Faraj and Johnson 2005). People who are committed to community purpose, such as open source software developers or members of electronic knowledge networks, are more likely to engage in generalized reciprocity because they are attached to the community as a whole.

• For example, in open source development communities, old-timers often give help to newcomers, even though the newcomers have not yet contributed to the community (e.g. Lakhani and Hippel 2003). Members who have bond-based attachment to the group, in contrast, are more likely to exchange help with particular others. We hypothesize that they will be less likely to help unless they know the other person or feel obligated to return a favor that they have received in the past.

• The research indicates that those with bond-based attachment to an online community will be more likely to engage in direct reciprocity, and those who feel identity-based attachment to the community will be more likely to engage in generalized reciprocity.


Group robustness• A person’s feelings of common identity, and the role of the group in his or her life, changes with the

situation (Ashforth and Johnson 2001; Brewer 2001; Brewer and Gardner 1996).

• For example, a young man’s status as a cancer patient will be salient in his online cancer support group, but may be much less salient when he is participating in a parent–teachers’ association meeting. His identity-based attachment in the cancer support group may remain strong as long as the group continues talking about relevant health-related topics. Further, it should be robust against turnover in the membership in the group.

• Common bond-based attachments may be less affected by context, especially if the relationships on which attachment is based cross group boundaries. Thus it should matter less what the cancer support group is discussing if the young man has personal friends in the group. Attachment to the group should be robust against drift in conversation topic. On the other hand, common bond-based attachments are vulnerable to member turnover because friends can leave as a clique (e.g. Krackhardt and Porter 1986).


Partecipation


Social influence model

From: Dholakia U.M., Bagozzi R.P. & Pearo L.K., A social influence model of consumer participation in network- and small-group-based virtual communities, 2004.



12 commandaments for promoting community partecipation

• Demonstrate an awareness of their status as outsiders to the beneficiarycommunity and the potential impact of their involvement.

• Respect the community’s indigenous contribution as manifested in theirknowledge, skills and potential.

• Become good facilitators and catalysts of development that assist and stimulate community based initiatives and challenge practices which hinders people releasing their own initiatives and realize their own ideals.

• Promote co-decision-making in defining needs, goal-setting, and formulating policies and plans in the implementation of these decisions. Selective participatory practices can be avoided when development workers seek out various sets of interest, rather than listening only to a few community leaders and prominent figures.

• Communicate both programme/project successes and failures – sometimes failures are more informative.

• Believe in the spirit of ‘Ubuntu’ – a South African concept encompassing key values such as solidarity, conformity, compassion, respect, human dignity and collective unity.

• Listen to community members, especially the more vulnerable, less vocal and marginalized groups



12 commandaments for promoting community partecipation

• Guard against the domination of some interest groups or a small unrepresentative leadership clique. This article pleads for a co-operative spirit and for a watch for oligarchic tendencies among community leadership.

• Involve a cross-section of interest groups to collaborate as partners in jointly defining development needs and goals, and designing appropriate processes to reach these goals.

• Acknowledge that process-related soft issues are as important as productrelated hard issues. Any investment in shelter for the poor should involve an appropriate mix of technological and social factors, where both hardware and software are developed together. In this regard many scholars recognize the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to project planning and development. The inclusion of a social scientist, and someone with the appropriate skills from within the community, to work together with planners, architects and engineers is very important. A multi-disciplinary approach will only succeed if technical professionals recognize and include the contributions of their social scientist partners in the planning process.

• Aim at releasing the energy within a community without exploiting or exhausting them.

• Empower communities to share equitably in the fruits of development through active processes whereby beneficiaries influence the direction of development initiatives rather then merely receive a share of benefits in a passive manner.



Partecipation’s motivations



Member-community rel



Relationship & community partecipation



SOC & partecipation• The importance of SOC comes from its implications for planning and social intervention. As predicted

by Sarason (1974), sense of community is related to various indexes of quality of daily life, such as life satisfaction (Prezza & Costantini, 1998); mental, physical, and social well-being (Chavis & Newbrough, 1986); perception of safety and security (Perkins & Taylor, 1996); and even individual ability to use problem-focused coping strategies (Bachrach & Zautra, 1985).

• In addition, many studies found SOC positively related to social and political participation (see among others, Berry, Portney, & Thomson, 1993; Brodsky et al., 1999; Chavis & Wandersman, 1990; Davidson & Cotter, 1989; Florin & Wandersman, 1984; Kingston, Mitchell, Florin, & Stevenson, 1999; Obst et al., 2002; Prezza et al., 2001; Wenger, 1998). Nevertheless, although SOC results closely intertwined with participation, the direction of the relation is unclear.

• According to Levine and Perkins (1987), SOC and participation develop in parallel: participation leads to a greater sense of community, which, in turn, leads to more participation. Moreover, in some cases SOC can be detrimental to collective action.



SOC & partecipation• If, on the one hand, high levels of SOC can increase in-group cohesion and positive self-image, therefore fostering

collective strategies aimed at change—as suggested by social identity theory (Tajfel, 1981)—minority groups in segregated conditions with a strong SOC can internalize social stigmas, and develop a negative collective identity (Fisher & Sonn, 1999, 2003; Sonn & Fisher, 1998).

• In analyzing the relationship between SOC and participation, it is important to note that many types of participation can take place, varying in activities, aims, and effort required. For instance, instrumental and expressive participation may have different relationships to SOC, or to its subdimensions. The former is specifically goal oriented, and is very sensitive to the efficacy of the action undertaken, and to the influence it can or cannot exert on the social context. The latter is basically aimed at expressing belonging and common values, and thus it is more tightly linked to membership and emotional connection. In the literature, it is also customary to distinguish between political and social (or civic) participation.

• Just to mention a few examples, political participation includes behaviors such as voting, campaigning, signing a petition, boycotting, and taking part in a sit-in or a demonstration, whereas social participation encompasses behaviors such as volunteering, organizing cultural events, or mobilizing to defend an area (e.g., one’s neighborhood) or to promote the quality of services. From a more comprehensive point of view, it seems appropriate to differentiate one form from another, according both to the structural and to the psychosocial aspects of participation. This operation can definitely enable more subtle analysis of participation’s relationship with SOC.



4 dimensions of PSOC

• McMillan and Chavis (1986) conducted an in depth review of the literature on PSOC, and found that this work was being conducted in the absence of any overarching theoretical base. They developed the first psychological theory of PSOC, which to date has remained one of the few theoretical discussions of the concept and still the most widely used and accepted one.

• They suggest that PSOC consists of four elements: Membership, Influence, Integration and Fulfillment of Needs, and Shared Emotional Connection.



Membership• Membership refers to the feeling of belonging, of being part of a collective. A

major part of membership is boundaries; if you belong to a particular community, this implies there are those who do not. This concept seems to be intuitively a necessary part of any definition of community; to have a sense of community, first you must belong to a community. From the earliest sociological research into communities this notion of membership and boundaries has been present (e.g., Parks & Burgess, 1921).

• McMillan and Chavis (1986) extend the concept to include emotional safety derived from membership, the sense of belonging and identification with the community of interest, personal investment in the community, leading to stronger bonds, and some kind of common symbol system, which unites a community.



Influence

• The second dimension is that of Influence, a bi-directional concept, as for a group to be attractive, an individual must feel they have some control and influence over it, while, on the other hand, for a group to be cohesive it must also influence its individual members.

• McMillan and Chavis (1986) state that pressure of conformity from community members actually comes from the needs of individual members for consensual validation. In turn conformity serves as a force for cohesiveness.



Integration & fulfillment of needs

• The third dimension, Integration and Fulfillment of Needs, refers to the idea that for a community to maintain a positive sense of togetherness, the individual-group association must be rewarding for the individual members.

• Some of the more obvious rewards examined in their paper are status of membership, success of the community, and the perceived competence of other members.



Shared emotional connection

• The last dimension is that of Shared Emotional Connection. McMillan and Chavis (1986) suggest that this is in part based on a sense of shared history and identification with the community. The authors suggest that the more people interact, the more likely they are to form close relationships. The more positive this interaction, the stronger the bond developed.

• Investment in the community determines the importance to individuals of the community’s success and current status. Those who give time and effort to community organizations and events will be more concerned about seeing the positive effects of these events than are those who have not been involved.



McMillan revisited• McMillan (1996) revisited the theory developed in 1986 in the light of ten years’ research into the

area. Membership was reinterpreted as Spirit, emphasizing friendship and belonging over boundaries. Influence was replaced with Trust, emphasizing the development of community norms leading to order, and the equal distribution of power leading to authority based on principle and clear decision making capacity, all of which allow spirit to grow and flourish. Fulfillment of Needs was replaced with Trade, acknowledging the myriad kinds of rewards individuals gain from belonging to communities. The importance of similarity between members was also highlighted as an important bonding force previously neglected in this dimension. The final dimension, Shared Emotional Connection, was replaced with Art, or collective memories, which McMillan (1996) described as stories of shared dramatic moments in which the community shares in common experiences representing the community’s values and traditions.

• However, the primacy of contact and of quality interaction to emotional connection is again highlighted in McMillan’s (1996) reinterpretation. These dimensions work together to create an overall PSOC. Art supports Spirit, Spirit with respected authority becomes Trust, Trust forms the basis of social Trade, and together these elements create a shared history symbolized by Art. In this way, McMillan’s four elements of PSOC are linked together in a reinforcing circle.



• From a more human ecological perspective, researchers have worked on the concept of communities as a social unit. To what extent and under what conditions they exist has come to be examined under the construct of neighborhood cohesion. For example, Buckner (1988) developed the 18 item Neighborhood Cohesion Index. This measure attempts to combine the individual’s sense of community and the overall social cohesion of their community. Buckner conducted an extensive review into the literature on cohesion, both the social psychological literature on small group processes and the sociological tradition examining cohesion within neighborhoods. From this he drew three dimensions of importance to cohesion: Residents’ Sense of Community, Residents’ Degree of Attraction to being a part of and remaining in the community, and the degree of Member Interaction. However, in a factor analysis during the development of his scale, he found that only one factor emerged, and hypothesized that the concept of neighborhood cohesion subsumed these individual level dimensions.

• He concluded that the Neighborhood Cohesion Index could be used to examine these individual level dimensions, and that a mean neighborhood cohesion score could also be derived for whole communities to also indicate the strength of cohesion at the system level.



Skjaeveland, Garling & Maeland• Skjaeveland, Garling, and Maeland (1996) aimed to develop a measure of community that extended on

previous efforts by introducing the possibility of negative community relations, and by including the traditionally environmental psychological concept of place attachment, which highlights the importance of the sociophysical environment to social interactions and positively experienced bonds (Brown & Perkins, 1992). They operationalized the construct of neighboring as the positive and negative aspects of social interactions, expectations, and attachments of individuals with the people living around them and the place in which they live.

• They hypothesized six dimensions underlying neighboring: Overt Social Interactions, Weak Social Ties, influenced by physical and spatial features of the environment, Psychological Sense of Community, Sense of Mutual Aid, Neighborhood Attachment, and Neighbor Annoyance.

• Analysis of their data revealed only four distinct dimensions. As proposed, Weak Social Ties, Neighborhood Attachment and Neighborhood Annoyance emerged as distinct factors. However, Overt Social Acts, Sense of Mutual Aid, and Sense of Community amalgamated into a single factor, which the authors labeled Supportive Acts of Neighboring, tapping similar dimensions to Buckner’s (1988) Neighborhood Cohesion Index. The 14 item four-dimensional Multidimensional Measure of Neighboring (MMN) was the result of the study.



PSCW

• Many empirical studies have been conducted in the area of psychological sense of community, but few have empirically examined a theory-based framework of factors related to psychological sense of community in the workplace (PSCW). Relatedly, measurement systems for PSCW have been requested by researchers (Pretty & McCarthy, 1991; Klein & D'Aunno, 1986), but only one has been developed to date (Royal & Rossi, 1996). As Shamir (1991) pointed out, there is still a need for “theories that can explain individual sacrifices for collective concerns and which account for the role of values and moral obligations in energizing and directing work behavior”.



PSCW• Several definitions of psychological sense of community exist in the literature. Sarason (1974) stated

that a psychological sense of community could be achieved through perceptions of similarity to others, acknowledged interdependence with others, willingnessto maintain interdependence by giving to, or doing for, others what one expects from them, and feelings that one is part of a larger dependable and stable structure.

• McMillan and Chavis (1986) proposed that sense of community may be seen as consisting of four elements. The first of these elements is membership, “the feeling of belonging or of sharing a sense of personal relatedness”. The second community element is influence, a sense of mattering and of making a difference to a group and the group mattering to its members. The third element, integration and fulfillment of needs, has to do with the reinforcements a group provides its members to motivate their involvement in the group. The final element is shared emotional connection, “the commitment and belief that members have shared and will share history, common places, time together, and similar experiences”. McMillan and Chavis’ conceptualization of community has been applied to both schools (e.g., Pretty, Andrews, & Collett, 1994) and workplaces (e.g., Pretty & McCarthy, 1991).

• More recently, however, McMillan (1996) rearranged and renamed these four elements as Spirit, Trust, Trade, and Art. Finally, Klein and D'Aunno (1986) coined community in the workplace as an employee's sense of membership, participation, and identification with some work or work-related group.



PSCW• Similarities can be identified between our definition of PSCW and existing definitions of the concept. The dimensions we

incorporated were based on current literature and interviews with experts who provide community-building workshops to organizations.

• Like McMillan and Chavis’ (1986) first element of membership, our dimension of Sense of Belonging addresses the trust and security component of membership and the extent to which individuals in a group are well-known to each other and willing to help each other; in essence, the “feeling of acceptance by the group and a willingness to sacrifice for the group” (McMillan and Chavis, 1986, p. 19).

• Like the second community element mentioned above, influence, our dimension of Coworker Support is related to the influence of the individual over group activities, as this dimension is concerned with individual's opportunities to work with others, play a part in the decision-making process, and freely express their ideas.

• The third element, integration and fulfillment of needs, is addressed in our dimension of Team Orientation which show concern for social support, the acknowledgment of various contributions and accomplishments, and the feeling on the part of individuals that the activities of the group are important and valuable.

• Our dimension of Emotional Safety is similar to the final element in McMillan and Chavis' (1986) framework, shared emotional connection, in that it addresses the extent of contact individuals in a group have with one another and to the quality of those interactions.



PSCW• Two additional dimensions, Truthtelling and Spiritual Bond, are also included in our definition of PSCW. The Truthtelling

dimension is based on McMillan’s (1996) recommendations that the first task of a community is to make it safe for a member to tell the truth, which requires the member to have personal emotional courage to take a psychological risk, and for the community to have empathy, understanding, and caring.

• Additionally,Lorion and Newbrough (1996) suggest that “we need to understand what enhances the human spirit and what makes sense of community a spiritual matter”, so the dimensions of Spiritual Bond was also included in the current study’s definition. While this is one of the first studies to empirically examine spirituality at work, it has been discussed by many writers including Conger (1994), Peck (1978), and Senge (1990).

• We suggest that a PSCW is made up of coworker support, emotional safety, sense of belonging, spiritual bond, team orientation, and truthtelling. The elements of PSCW, particularly truthtelling and spiritual bonds, are unique aspects of organization behavior to be explored. They focus on whether the members of an organization honestly communicate and have deep relations with one another—relations that extend beyond the tasks of the day or the psychological economy of the workplace, but that are communal in nature. Furthermore, they assess whether the organization serves as an important place for meaning, growth, and connection for workers. Individuals with a PSCW are likely to be knowledgeable about themselves and through self-reflection, exploration, and analysis, develop relationships between their private and public lives and the formal organizational structure in which they work. These same individuals are likely to confront difficulty and discomfort when resolving internal conflicts so that their actions may be guided by a rationality that fosters a spirit of service and community in the organization.



PSCW• As such, PSCW differs from traditional affect-laden group constructs, such as cohesion. Cohesion refers to “the sum total

of all the forces attracting members to a group” (McGrath,1984) and is based on liking among group members, attraction to the task facing the group, and attraction to the status associated with group membership. This suggests that for a group to be cohesive, members need to view themselves as an entity, be working toward a common task, and reap benefits associated with the group's status. PSCW, as described in the current study is clearly distinct from this construct.

• Most notably, PSCW does not require liking among specific group members (Groody, 1995), only a sense that the organization represents a vehicle through which individual needs can be met and that workers see themselves as part of a larger network of relationships.

• PSCW also differs from organization-level constructs such as affective or continuance commitment in its emphasis on reciprocal interdependence between the individual and the organization, rather than merely an individual’s attachment to his or her organization.

• Finally, PSCW differs from the notion of psychological contracts and perceived organizational support, both of which refer to an individual’s obligations to his or her organization.

• While related to these constructs, PSCW is more complex and multifaceted. Specifically, a PSCW is expected to result from the reciprocal exchanges which occur between individuals and between individuals and the organization through past experiences and anticipated future interactions. In addition, PSCW encompasses commitments and attachments not typically found in perceived support or psychological contracts literature (e.g., spiritual bonds) that focus on relatedness among people and the larger world.



Definition of social role

• The concept of social role has been the subject of analysis for over 100 years. The term’s meaning is therefore broad and varies from area to area. Despite this variation, the concept remains important because of its utility: the classification of types of social relations and behaviors into a smaller set of roles reduces the analytic complexity of social systems and facilitates the comparative study of populations across time and setting.

• This categorization of users can be particularly useful when designing or managing social media spaces. By identifying roles and mapping participants to one or more role categories, designers and managers of computer-mediated social spaces may focus on meta-level management tasks like monitoring the relative proportions of roles.

• The creation and maintenance of these social spaces depends on the complex social ecology created by the interaction of several social roles. Identifying roles is a critical step in the effective management of these social spaces.



Conceptual operationalization of roles

• Social roles can be conceptualized at several different levels of abstraction. At the most granular level, social roles can be defined in terms of behavioral regularities and network attributes. Consistent behaviors resulting in persistent or recurrent nteractions between individuals in a social group are potential signals of a meaningful social role. Social actions, loosely defined as individual behavior that includes an action targeted at one or more of the other members of a social group, are a higher level measure which is often useful for identifying the existence of a role.

• Beyond behavioral metrics, researchers can look for self-identification with a given role. Once the data from these levels of analysis has been processed, role researchers might come up with a definition for a particular role. That might be a definition for a role which is emergent and as yet unknown to the participants in the social group or one for a fully recognized social position.

• The researcher can then move from that role definition to more abstract categories or classifications that provide theoretically or practically relevant information about the purpose and function of a given role.



Utility of definition

• Building a catalog of social roles is an important first step towards understanding complex social systems. As a set of social role definitions is developed, these systems can be defined by the interaction of a relatively small set of roles that exist in different proportions, making up a variety of role ecologies. Faced with populations of millions of users, role identification allows these systems to be reduced to the interactions among a relatively small number of roles. With the capability to reduce social media system populations to simplified role ecologies, many practical and theoretical questions can be addressed.

• Are social media services better served by recruiting more leaders or a relatively larger population of moderate supporters? Are participants playing roles associated with enforcing informal social norms? Do rapidly growing populations overwhelm the ability of existing members to socialize new participants? Which social roles play a disproportionately important function in their environments? Without a model of different roles and their relationships to one another, these questions are difficult to frame, much less empirically evaluate.



Roles, actions & actors



Trust• Trust in the traditional offline market has been examined from multiple disciplines, and naturally, different definitions of

trust emerge within each discipline. Still, these studies have contributed significantly to the study and application of online trust.

• Rousseau et al. (1998) defined trust as “a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based on positive expectations of the intentions or behaviors of another.” This definition implies that consumers must have a certain level of confidence in the seller's reliability and integrity, as conceptualized by Morgan and Hunt (1994) early during the emergence of the Internet.

• Using the definition of offline trust as a starting point, researchers widened the definition of trust and applied it to online trust. Bart et al. (2005) elaborated upon Rousseau's definition and emphasized that “online trust includes consumer perceptions of how the site would deliver on expectations, how believable the site's information is, and how much confidence the site commands.” In essence, trust is developed when consumers form positive impressions of an electronic merchant's site, and are willing to accept vulnerability. In practice, advertisers also recognized the critical issue of vulnerability and some defined trust as “not being afraid when you are vulnerable.” (Saint Paul Insurance 2000).

• In the traditional sense, trust often connotes credibility, integrity, reliability, confidence and benevolence. Researchers examining offline trust were able to establish that such associations also apply to online trust.

• The definition of trust has evolved over the past decade and, although semantics may differ, has now reached general consistency among researchers. Trust can be distilled down to three dimensions: integrity/confidence, ability/competence, and benevolence.


Trust

• From: Urban G., Amyxb C. & Lorenzon A., Online Trust: State of the Art, New Frontiers, and Research Potential, Journal of interactive marketing, 2009.


Trust & roles in VC discussions• In discussions we can intuitively distinguish between information providers and information

consumers. Especially in online discussions we can easily track who provides information, e.g., by posting a comment in a forum or writing an e-mail to a group of people. In contrast to that, determining information consumers is tricky. We can never be sure, that people read received e-mails or new comments in a forum, even when they open forum entries in their browsers. However, if somebody replies to a particular comment, then we can certainly assume, s/he has read the message and found it worth for discussion. Thus the replier can be identified as an information consumer, but as an information provider as well.

• In our approach we track exactly this discussion behavior and define, that whenever one replies to a comment of another one, an interaction between them takes place. We process these interactions and build a notion of trust on top.

• We apply Mui’s definition of trust, which states that trust is ”a subjective expectation an agent has about another’s future behavior based on the history of their encounters”. We extend this definition by the notion of context, which means trust is established by considering past interactions in particular situations as widely agreed. In the area of online discussions, contextual information is for instance the overall discussion topic or the type of forum being used.



Trust & roles in VC discussions• Particularly, in discussions it may seem intuitive, that the more comments somebody provides the more s/he can be

trusted to be a good discussion partner.

• On the other side lurkers [5], referring to people just watching discussions but not actually participating, can be less trusted regarding their ’openness’. They lack the willingness to exchange information, motivation or communication skills, thus they are bad collaborators. However, a simple comment count does not truly reflect if somebody’s statements are real contributions and worth reading and discussing. Thus, we consider threaded structures as well and analyze how comments are recognized by others.

• To this end, we define the following novel social roles within discussion scenarios:

• Activator - the role of an Activator reflects, that the more replies a discussion participant receives, the more one’s comments seem to to be worth for discussion, thus one can be trusted to have the competencies and skills to provide comments, interesting for a broad base of participants.

• Driver - the role of a Driver reflects, the more somebody replies to comments, the more s/he can be trusted to actively participate in a discussion, thus s/he represents a ’driver’ evident for a fruitful discussion.

• Affirmed Driver - an Affirmed Driver is defined as a Driver whose contribution is affirmed. This is the case if there is at least one reply to a driver’s comment.



Members satisfaction approach

• Satisfaction or gratification is an ex post evaluation of member experience with the community and is conceptualized in related literature as a positive feeling, indifference or a negative feeling. Gratifications are also defined as some or all aspects of satisfaction self-reported by users. It can be studied as a surrogate to measure success or failure of a virtual community similar to information systems success or failure to in human computer interaction. In marketing satisfaction is studied as a consumer product or service purchase need satisfaction.

• We argue that similar to product manufactures and service providers, virtual community organizers remain viable by their task performance and by providing benefits to members. Gratifications are difficult to measure because these are affected by both economic and non-economic factors. We propose that needs fulfillment is a motivator that affects user satisfaction. Below we present theoretical foundations for our research, within the U&G theory, and to develop our measures.

• U&G theory proposes five categories of uses gratifications namely cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension release needs.



U&G in virtual community context

• Cognitive needs represent the intrinsic desire for information acquisition for knowledge and understanding in an increasingly information rich society while affective needs are related to emotional experiences, and intrinsic desire for pleasure, entertainment and aesthetics.

• Personal integrative needs derive from individual’s desire to appear credible, be perceived as confident, and have high self-esteem. These needs are closely related to an individual’s value system.

• Social integrative needs are affiliation needs where audience want to be part of a group, and want to be recognized as part of the group and relate to sense of belonging.

• Tension release needs, relate to the need for escape and diversion from problems and routines. The latter three categories can be both intrinsic and extrinsic in nature.

• Satisfaction of these needs determines the attitude toward media. This attitude in turn leads to individual’s choice for the type of media and its content to gratify needs. This attitude formation process can be mediated by other variables affecting the final behavioral outcome, and repeat or continuance usage of media or its content.

• The importance of content gratification in internet media has been validated by earlier research.



U&G in virtual community context• U&G theory is based on a set of assumptions which include that audience is active and goal directed, thus not a passive

recipient of information; the initiative to link need gratification and media choice lies with the individual who has alternative sources of need satisfaction at disposal; media goals or content is derived from the data supplied by the audience, and lastly, culture based media use perceptions are not significant because audience explore gratification in individual context.

• These needs gratification concern with what members do with the virtual community, and suggest that members will be motivated to select a virtual community that best gratifies their needs. Prior research shows cognitive need gratification for information acquisition, as one of the principal motivator for VC usage.

• A virtual community of knowledge may evolve beyond its commercial orientation of fulfilling member specific needs. It may serve several other needs that are beyond contractual agreement through communication and interaction amongst members, or members and the host organization. These needs may relate to users affective needs for entertainment through virtual participation or social integrative needs for sense of belonging through virtual social interaction.

• Most researchers recognize the interpersonal and social communication use of virtual environment that distinguishes a community from a mere group of individuals. Members can share experiences or insights, solve problems, meet peers at conferences and events, explore social and career opportunities or keep current with developments in their interest area. A knowledge base repository can be built up slowly and this repository becomes a valuable information resource for all community members.

• Virtual community presents personal integrative needs gratification by opportunities for self expression and tension release needs like escape from real world.



U&G in virtual community context

• Information for knowledge and understanding is gained through surveillance or participation and leads to learning, better decision making and improved time management.

• U&G theory suggests that members are active and goal directed, thus not a passive recipient of information. Virtual communities have largely been characterized by their common purpose of interest (leisure time, technology, research or business basis), which has an identified goal for active member participation. Community of is formulated around specific needs as against the broad realm of common interest, and member active participation and content quality central knowledge.

• U&G theory also suggest that members have alternate choices to satisfy their needs and are aware of these choices and have easier access to these alternatives. To continue to use a virtual community, user must believe that it offers better choices than alternatives and quality of content becomes deterministic. The content generation and its quality is dependent upon various mechanisms like interaction by experts, opinion leaders, community host, and member community.



• An online community operates on policies, in the form of tacit assumptions, rituals, protocols, rules, and laws that guide people's interactions. These rules and regulations are core attributes to moderate content and to shared resources but if a member experience these measures as restrictive, these can negatively affect a members participation in a community.

• Moderators from the user base act as experts in answering questions and channelling discussion of different topics. Participants gradually begin to develop a sense of shared values and responsibilities and develop sense of credibility and responsiveness, and over time. Large membership and prominent members who are well connected and influential in their areas of expertise instil higher quality and higher faith in the contents. Varied information sources from members of different backgrounds, offer more objective views and insights and value to all.

• Feedback and comments from other members also provide objectivity on the topics being discussed, giving the members less biased information. Members meet experts, opinion leaders and communicate while learning and generating content. There is an opportunity to forge multiple connections to people and information and to deepen their learning.

• For virtual community users, spatial convenience of information gathering and sharing, reducing time in receiving information by choice, increased pleasure by ownership of actions and improved decision making, and by being part of a larger knowledgeable community can be seen as critical needs gratifications outputs.



The snowball effect maintaining community interaction

From: Olsson T., Toivola H., Wäljas M., Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila K. & Lehikoinen J., Collective Content as a Facilitator of Community Interaction: A User Study of Four Close-Knit Communities, 2009.



• The community has to be formed around a common interest. The common interest acts as a framework and topic for content creation. It binds the members together and provides a motivation to stick together.

• The community has to have a common forum to create a feeling of togetherness and serve as a forum for social interaction. The initiator acts as an inspirer and is pivotal in organizing and attending community events. Additionally, the initiator often inspires others to share captured content in order for it to become collective via comment and discussion. Of course, the community requires content creators.

• The community members must also have enough competence to be able to use the required technology to manage the collective content throughout its entire life cycle. Not surprisingly, we found bad usability and lack of skills to hinder sharing and using content, especially with less technology-oriented users. Furthermore, the members need access to the content, which requires proper technology and services for interacting with the content online.



• The most major elements sustaining the growth of the snowball are reciprocal activity, community events, and light content. Users shared a need to receive comments so as to maintain their motivation to participate. Moreover, people need to know that their contributions to collective matters are appreciated. Hence, the interaction needs to be bidirectional and reciprocal. Without common activity the community loses its reason for existing. This means that the maintenance of the snowball requires events as highlights and continuous activity to trigger and motivate capturing. The role of light content was seen as keeping the social interaction and content creation constantly active.

• The feeling of social presence from a constant flow of light content kept the community active and motivated to interact with existing content or create new content. Because of the lower requirements and expectations of its content, light content offer an effortless way to contribute to the collective content.

• On the other hand, certain factors might prevent the snowball from expanding too much. Exhaustion describes the situation where the interaction with and through content has become too extensive, making the snowball ever harder to maintain. Users stated that when too much content is shared the individual content objects would lose their significance, i.e. decrease in value. Unlike its namesake, the snowball effect does not seem to be ever-growing.

• The snowball effect seemed to increase the appreciation of collective content in communities, but the time used for individual content items seemed to decrease with a rise in the total amount of content. The amount of content and its appreciation may thus increase the requirements to create higher-quality content, and the snowball could thus slow down or collapse.


Itsme community analysis


Itsme community analysis

• Itsme community

• Data collection & analysis


The Itsme Community• The people we are trying to engage in our project are more than those in the open source community. We

know, or better we foresee, that our target users may benefit from using itsme, since it will avoid continuously searching for the things they need and it will increase the quality of what they do, since they will have all what they need ready in hand. Moreover they will get these benefits without being constrained in any way: they will be free of choosing the degree of structure of their work-space, by deciding if and when creating new venues or keeping most of their things in the limbo (in the part of the workspace where things are undifferentiated); they will be free to choose whether to create small or large venues (small venues encourage focusing on specific activities, while large ones support cross-fertilization among activities).

• But what we know or foresee is not yet what our potential users know or foresee: for most of them, probably, PCs are not subject to change. They can expect to get some new help from new Web-based services, but they do not expect any serious change at the workstation level. We need therefore to convince them that different workstations are possible and that itsme is a major breakthrough in the workstation domain. Communicating with them as early as possible in our design and development process is therefore of paramount importance for our endeavor.

• We will distinguish two main focuses of the debate of our community: its background scenario where strong and weak trends in the workstation sector at the economical, technical and social level will be discussed, and its design process, where all the question related to the development of itsme will be the center of attention, so that everyone will find the right discussion space to address their interests.

... / Itsme community analysis / The Itsme community


Quindi...

• Nel precedente capitolo abbiamo avuto modo di osservare alcune tipologie di classificazione offerte dalla letteratura

• Possiamo dire che Itsme è un progetto open source di tipo exploration-oriented, in quanto ha come obiettivo condivisione della conoscenza ed innovazione

• La community di itsme è una community online di tipo IO (interest-oriented, secondo la classificazione di Kannan e quella di Hagel & Armstrong) e con una struttura complessa irregolare aperta di tipo ivy (ad edera)

• Più opinion leaders

• ...


...

• (coming soon)


Dimensioni analisi community

• Demografica

• Contesto

• Caratteristiche dei membri

• Ambiente tecnologico


Dimensions for analysis


Dimensions for analysis


...

• (coming soon)


Log analysis

• The log files are text files that can range in size from 1MB to lOOMB, depending on the traffic at a given a Web site.

• Web servers automatically generate and dynamically update four usage log files. These log files and types of information each captures are as follows:

• Access Log (e.g., hits);

• Agent Log (e.g., browser, operating system);

• Error Log (e.g., download aborts);

• Referrer Log (e.g., referring links).


Log analysis• Transactional log analysis is a three-step process that involves planning, data analysis, and interpretation activities. In

particular, it is important to:

• Determine what types of information server administrators and decision-makers need. Log analysis is one means through which to determine whether Web-based services meet their intended missions, goals, or objectives. As such, server administrators and decision makers need to know what types of information they want prior to the analysis of Web server log files, thereby ensuring the collection of data that will assist in assessing mission or goal attainment.

• Develop a program that can parse through, manipulate, and present value-added information from the log files. Server administrators have the option of writing their own programs, downloading free software, or purchasing one of many off-the-shelf analysis products to do this. Although continually increasing in their analysis capabilities, most programs tend only to parse through specific variables, leaving many important pieces of information untouched.

• Analyze the information generated from the program. This is not as straight-forward a process as one might think. For example, most log analysis software programs analyze the number of “hits’‘-not accesses-a server receives. In this case, the hit count reflects the number of items (e.g., images) downloaded when a user accesses a particular page. So, if a site has a corporate logo image file on every page, that image will more than likely be the most frequently downloaded-“hit’‘-item on the site. Analysis information such as that is relatively useless in determining the site’s actual usage.


Log analysis• The program selection and analysis processes complement each other. Depending on the log analysis

software used, server administrators are limited to certain types of log analysis. Based on those analysis limitations, server administrators need to know the meaning of the log analysis output (e.g., whether the statistics represent “hits” or “accesses.‘)

• In determining the amount of traffic a site receives during a specified period of time, it is important to understand what, exactly, the log files are counting and tracking. In particular, there is a critical distinction between a hit and an access, wherein:

• A hit is any file from a Web site that a user downloads. A hit can be a text document, image, movie, or a sound file. If a user downloads a Web page that has 6 images on it, then he or she “hit” the Web site seven times (6 images + 1 text page).

• An access, or sometimes called a page hit, is an entire page downloaded by a user regardless of the number of images, sounds, or movies. If a user downloads a Web page that has 6 images on it, then that user just accessed one page of the Web site.


Data collection

• Utilizziamo i log di registrazione, accesso all’emulatore e i post per valutare aspetti come la crescita della community, l’avvicendarsi dei post e l’utilizzo dell’emulatore.


Crescita della community

(non aggiornata)

0

100

200

300

400

10/apr/0926/apr/09

12/mag/0928/mag/09

13/giu/0929/giu/09

15/lug/0931/lug/09

16/ago/0901/set/09

utenti


• I dati sembrerebbero indicare una crescita continua ed abbastanza costante, con un periodo di particolare incremento nel periodo di giugno 2009.

• E’ un caso o è avvenuto qualcosa a livello di comunicazione/advertising in quel periodo?


Giorni attività emulatore

(non aggiornata)


• Le “stanghette” arancioni indicano l’intervallo di utilizzo dell’emulatore dal primo all’ultimo accesso

• I primi utenti sono i più motivati

• Serve qualcosa per invogliare a provare l’emulatore


Andamento post+reply

(non aggiornata)


Quindi...

• Ciò che risulta subito evidente è che nel 2009 sono aumentati i threads, ma sono anche aumentate le risposte degli utenti.

• Sotto un certo punto di vista possiamo dire che questo risultato rifletterebbe un aumento del cosiddetto “sense of community”

• Inoltre da questi dati sarebbe possibile astrarre dei veri e propri ruoli in base alla quantità di partecipazione di ciascun membro (passive users, ecc.)


And what about users?

• Abbiamo poche informazioni su di loro

• L’indirizzo email con il quale l’utente si è registrato sul sito e (per quei pochi che l’hanno inserita) una breve descrizione sul profilo personale.

• Le uniche da cui possiamo provare ad estrapolare qualche informazione sono le descrizioni nel profilo del proprio account itsme


Nelsenso.it


Nelsenso.it

• Nello specifico l’applicazione IRzer permette di analizzare un testo da cui estrarre le parole salienti (con relativo coefficiente di significatività) con una granularità variabile selezionabile dall’utente (25, 50 o 75%), eliminando le cosiddette “stop-words”.


Americans sort into 10 distinct groups of users of information and communication technology

From: Horrigan J. B., A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users, 2007.


Itsme website analysis


Itsme website analysis

• General criteria

• Log analysis

• SEO


General criteria• The evaluation of community organisation web sites is an area of frequent discussion among researchers,

who have expressed differing views on the content, value and usefulness, multimedia employed, interface design and site structure of such web sites.

• Although organisations or individuals can create their own criteria for web site evaluation, they often do not have enough knowledge or technical expertise to ask the most appropriate questions and evaluate the answers. According to Alexander and Tate (1999), community network web designers appear to value guidance and instruction from specialist evaluators or from researchers who have developed evaluation criteria. Alexander and Tate (1999) also provided detailed discussion of factors associated with each of the five evaluation criteria – authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage – that play an essential role in evaluating web content. Their research employed the criteria checklist, which is the method most commonly accepted by organisations in the public sector, and companies and individuals, according to Alexander and Tate (1999), Smith (2005), Beck (2006) and many other commentators cited by Smith (2005).

• Web site evaluation criteria have been discussed by many researchers, such as Beck (2006), Brown et al. (2002), Standler (2004) and Smith (2005), and there is a variety of such evaluation criteria available on the internet.


General criteria• The following are some examples of web sites advocating different evaluation criteria:

• Sandra Wittman (2004), Oakton Community College, summarises the criteria associated with both the content and the design of web sites, and also provides a long list of links to other web articles on evaluation criteria (www.oakton.edu/ user/%7Ewittman/eval.htm, accessed March 2007).

• Michael Engle (2005), Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University, provides a set of criteria and tools for evaluating web sites (www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webeval.html, accessed March 2007).

• Alastair Smith (2005), School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, maintains a webpage (www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/)that is part of the Information Quality WWW Virtual Library (www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-InfoQuality.html, accessed February 2007). This contains a series of descriptions of web resources for evaluating web sites and information quality. Each description includes the author and title of the resource, a summary and alink to the resource.

• Margaret Phillips (2006), UC Berkeley Library, suggests a number of criteria for content evaluation (www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Evaluation.html,accessed March 2007).


http://www.oakton.edu

http://www.oakton.edu

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/

http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/

http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/

http://www.ciolek.com

http://www.ciolek.com

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Evaluation.html

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Evaluation.html

General criteria

The general criteria selected for each category for use in this research are shown below.

(1) Web content (Alexander and Tate, 1999; Beck, 2006; Smith, 2005; Wittman,2004):

• authority;

• accuracy;

• objectivity;

• currency;

• coverage.


Google


General criteria(2) Web design (Smith, 2005; Wittman, 2004):

• multimedia applications;

• the user;

• usability;

• accessibility;

• searchability;

• navigation and organisation;

• interactivity.


General criteria

The reasons for their selection include:

• These criteria represent comprehensive guidelines for the evaluation of organisational web sites. They have been developed and tested through community organisations and community networks that focus on lasting, positive social change and building networks as vehicles for community action.

• These criteria have been analysed by Alexander and Tate (1999), Smith (2005), Cohill (2000a, b) and other researchers in association with the evaluation of organisational web sites in various sectors (education, the government sector, community organisations, etc.). Their selection of general evaluation criteria is based on findings from their own research. As noted by Marino (1994), the findings of community network researchers in general are based on “our learning of the successes and impediments community networkers have encountered, and on our own experience in interpreting similar trends in technology and organisational dynamics”.


Example of a criteria checklist


...

• (coming soon)


SEO• Con il termine SEO (Search Engine Optimization

in inglese) si intendono tutte quelle attività finalizzate ad aumentare il volume di traffico che un sito web riceve dai motori di ricerca. Tali attività comprendono l'ottimizzazione sia del codice sorgente della pagina, sia dei contenuti.L'ottimizzazione è parte di un'attività più complessa, quale il marketing dei motori di ricerca(Search Engine Marketing, SEM).


Tool SEO• Nella fattispecie sono stati utilizzati tre web

tool seo gratuiti, dai quali è stato possibile determinare alcune interessanti informazioni statistiche:

• Alexa

• Blog grader

• Website grader


Alexa


Alexa


Alexa


Blog Grader


Blog Grader


Websitegrader


Websitegrader


Websitegrader


Websitegrader

PageRank into these broad categories:

• 0-3: New sites or sites with very minimal links

• 4-5: Popular sites with a fair amount of inbound links

• 6: Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links

• 7-10: Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies or A-list bloggers.



Advertising


Advertising strategies


Advertising strategies

• Offline

• Online


Offline

• Introduzione

• Sviluppo di una strategia di guerrilla marketing

• Sviluppo di una strategia di ambient advertising

• Organizzazione di un openday


Introduzione

• (coming soon)


Tradizionale Vs Non-convenzionale

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQPzmsyg-Go


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQPzmsyg-Go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQPzmsyg-Go

Tradizionale Vs Non-convenzionale


Guerrilla marketing

Indica una forma di promozione pubblicitaria non convenzionale e a basso budget ottenuta attraverso l'utilizzo creativo di mezzi e strumenti aggressivi che fanno leva sull'immaginario e sui meccanismi psicologici degli utenti finali.


Toyota g.m. example


Fasi campagna pubblicitaria

• Cognitiva

• Precisiva

• Esplorativa

• Ideativa

• Esecutiva

• Consuntiva


Cognitiva

• Raccolta ed esame delle informazioni

• Area competitiva (non so se a noi interessa)

• Distribuzione

• Target group

• Comunicazione


Precisiva

• Identificazione del problema

• Definizione degli obiettivi


Esplorativa

• Ipotesi di strategia

• Verifica delle ipotesi strategiche


Ideativa

• Creatività

• Generazione delle idee

• Verifica e ricalibratura delle idee

• Formulazione del piano media


Esecutiva

• Realizzazione della campagna

• Produzione di uno spot (nel nostro caso produzione di report video-fotografico)


Consuntiva

• Controllo dei risultati

• Mutamento di rotta


Origami

• L’utilizzo degli origami non è nuovo al mondo dell’advertising

• Papershake origami


Papershake origami

• Papershake Origami specialise in working closely with our clients to create tailor made origami solutions. Be it for a new advertising campaign, PR, an event or as a special gift for a birthday or anniversary, we follow your specifications to create exciting and unique designs. We also have extensive experience in combining origami with graphic design.

• Previous projects include work for American Express, British Petroleum, Scandia, Oasis Fashion as well as smaller one-off bespoke wedding anniversary gifts and decorations.

• http://www.papershake.com/


http://www.papershake.com

http://www.papershake.com

Onitsuka Tiger origami advertising

• Un esempio simile a quello di progetto è stato utilizzato dalla nota azienda di calzature Onitsuka Tiger a Londra

• Gli origami consistevano in un flyer/invito per l’apertura dello store

• (noi potremmo utilizzarlo per l’open day x esempio)


Onitsuka Tiger origami advertising


Hyperflyer


Hyperflyer

• Grafica e contenuti da rivedere (coming soon)


Hyperflyer

• Il concept dovrebbe essere questo...


Hyperflyer

• How to make it?

• http://www.origami-club.com/en/fun/balloon/index.htm


http://www.origami-club.com/en/fun/balloon/index.htm

http://www.origami-club.com/en/fun/balloon/index.htm

Hyperflyer


Hyperflyer


Hyperflyer

• La forma dell’origami per l’applicazione non è definitiva, anche se piacevole dal punto di vista estetico

• Inoltre rende possibile un advertising “a livelli”


Hyperflyer

Componenti:

• Origami

• Nylon (da vedere prezzo al mt)

• Ventose (le ho già, credo 500)


Hyperflyer

• Tempo di produzione: 2 min circa

• Costo di produzione: vedi preventivo scritto a mano


Piano d’azione

• Chi?

• Come?

• Dove?

• Cosa?

• Quando?


Chi?

• Io (ed al max un’altra persona)


Come?

• “Attaccando” direttamente le zone in cui stazionano i target di interesse (facoltà, biblioteche, ecc)


Dove?

• Affissione in bagni e biblioteche delle facoltà universitarie di interesse (es. Bicocca, IED, IULM, NABA)


Map


Cosa?

• Un “hyperflyer”, particolare tipo di flyer 3d in cui la consultazione dell’informazione è non-lineare


Quando?

• a prescindere ma potrebbe essere fatta in concomitanza dell’organizzazione dell’openday


Quindi...

• Costo: quasi zero

• Numero affissioni (da 100 a 300, a seconda del numero di luoghi colpiti)

• Azione supportata da report video e fotografico, sia per constatare la qualità dell’operazione sia per utilizzo degli stessi in canali di socialnetworking


• Cosa sul lato B del flyer, ovvero al suo interno?

• Idea augmented reality (x esempio per la visualizzazione dell’invito all’openday, ecc)


Augmented Reality• La Realtà Aumentata (dall'inglese Augmented Reality) è un sistema di grafica

interattiva che permette di intervenire su un flusso di immagini video live, modificando la realtà con l’aggiunta, in tempo reale, di contenuti ed animazioni virtuali. Se in un primo momento una definizione del genere può risultare complessa o può erroneamente far pensare ad un’associazione alla realtà virtuale o alle tecniche di montaggio e post-produzione video, basta soffermarsi su alcuni concetti fondamentali che rendono la Realtà Aumentata unica nel suo genere.

• La differenza fra realtà virtuale e Realtà Aumentata è che, nel primo caso, ci si trova ad osservare su uno schermo la proiezione di un mondo totalmente fittizio e costituito interamente da oggetti virtuali. Nel secondo caso, invece, innanzitutto non si è vincolati ad una visualizzazione su schermo, ma qualsiasi superficie può diventare un supporto per visualizzare il flusso video in Realtà Aumentata; ciò che viene ripreso, inoltre, è un’integrazione fra immagini reali ed oggetti virtuali.

• Per cui: realtà virtuale = mondo virtuale, Realtà Aumentata = mondo reale + oggetti virtuali


Augmented Reality

• Si tratta sostanzialmente di stampare con il proprio pc una pagina che contiene uno speciale simbolo. Sucessivamente attivata la nostra Web Cam non dovremo fare altro che cercare di inquadrare questo simbolo, e nell’ apposita appilcazione web, realizzata in Flash, vedremo apparire oltre a quello che stiamo riprendendo anche la sagoma dell’ oggetto publicizzato.

• Nel sito tedesco della Mini è stata realizzata un’ applicazione con il modello digitale dell’ automobile inglese stessa. Anche in questo caso dobbiamo stamparci con la stampante di casa il foglio con i simboli dove poi apparirà il modello 3d dell’ auto.


Augmented Reality• Ciò che rende differente la Realtà Aumentata da un video con oggetti 3D ed effetti

speciali realizzati con tecniche di post-produzione video (N.d.A.: montaggio di immagini video precedentemente filmate e registrate) è che il software per la Realtà Aumentata opera le integrazioni fra le riprese video e gli oggetti virtuali in tempo reale. Questo vuol dire che, se riprendiamo con una videocamera una persona che parla e si muove e le applichiamo degli occhiali virtuali con la Realtà Aumentata, su un monitor o su qualsiasi altro supporto vedremo che questa persona continua il suo discorso ed i suoi movimenti indossando il suddetto paio di occhiali, senza alcuna interruzione delle immagini o effetto in differita.

• Altro concetto fondamentale è l’interattività. Gli oggetti virtuali che “aumentano” il flusso video live non sono statici, ma possono eseguire movimenti ed animazioni in risposta a delle azioni umane.


Augmented Reality

• La Realtà Aumentata è una tecnologia resa possibile grazie ad un software dotato di particolari dispositivi di rendering e tracciamento. Individuando dei punti fissi in uno spazio, tali dispositivi tracciano degli oggetti o delle forme e vi agganciano gli oggetti virtuali desiderati (immagini, flusso video, oggetti, scritte 3D, personaggi virtuali, ecc.), permettendogli di seguire tutti i movimenti che avvengono in tempo reale. L’operazione di rendering può avvenire anche attraverso un tracciamento radio, aumentando notevolmente la precisione dell’applicazione.

• Per realizzare ed assistere a performance in Realtà Aumentata non è necessario usare occhiali speciali o indossare dispositivi che rendano possibile il tracciamento, eccetto in alcune occasioni particolari.


AR per pubblicità e marketing

• Dato l’enorme impatto visivo in grado di produrre, la Realtà Aumentata è lo strumento ideale per ottenere visibilità. La sua applicazione più comune per scopi commerciali è, pertanto, all’interno di eventi, convention, punti vendita o sul web.Data la sorprendente capacità di interazione, viene utilizzata soprattutto per valorizzare prodotti e servizi attraverso l’animazione di brochure o l’utilizzo dei cosiddetti “chioschi interattivi”, dove è possibile coinvolgere il cliente in esperienze immersive che lo divertono e allo stesso tempo lo informano su brand e prodotti in questione.

• Il massiccio utilizzo del web, inoltre, ha incrementato lo sviluppo di piattaforme che permettono di lanciare applicazioni di Realtà Aumentata via internet. L’opportunità di poter sperimentare da casa gli effetti di questa tecnologia diventa un ottimo appeal per il lancio di campagne web, innovativa risorsa per la pubblicità non convenzionale. Stesso discorso per i cellulari e i dispositivi mobili dotati di webcam, che diventano anch’essi strumenti per ottenere informazioni in tempo reale ed usufruire della Realtà Aumentata a portata di mano!


AR

• Si potrebbe fare qlcs del genere:

• http://blog.papervision3d.org/2009/01/07/augmented-reality-with-flartoolkit/

• (ps:siamo in grado di farlo)


http://blog.papervision3d.org/2009/01/07/augmented-reality-with-flartoolkit/

http://blog.papervision3d.org/2009/01/07/augmented-reality-with-flartoolkit/

Ambient Advertising

• Tipologia di marketing non-convenzionale in cui il messaggio pubblicitario viene trasmesso direttamente nelle piazze o tra le strade delle nostre città, con relativo effetto sorpresa

• sarebbe utile farlo nei pressi di una fiera/meeting/conferenza con tematiche coerenti con le nostre (es.fuori dalla Smau)


Adidas a.a. example


Volswagen a.a. example


Vodafone a.a. example


Defining Ambient Advertising• ‘Ambient’ is a term being used by clients and agencies, and is just starting to appear in the literature, but there

exists some uncertainty about what it really ‘is’. Because of its ‘newness’ and perhaps the difficulty in ‘pinning it down’, there has been very little written on the subject and no attempts have yet been made to adequately define it.

• Ambient was first used in relation to advertising in 1996 by Concord Advertising, a UK agency specialising in outdoor campaigns. It evolved from a need to apply a single term to what was an increasing request from clients for ‘something a bit different’ in their advertising. Clients, concerned with issues of cut-through, competition, decreased effectiveness and disinterested audiences wanted (and still want) advertising ‘with bite’ from their agencies. This push by clients for something different saw agencies placing ads in unusual places, such on as floors, petrol pump handles and backs of toilet doors - previously not considered as locations for advertising. Such campaigns did not fit neatly into existing categories like out-door, print, radio or television and hence a new term was coined.

• Unusual locations are considered a defining characteristic for Ambient advertising. However, ‘unusual locations’ lose their point of difference with repetition and time, and so cease to be something different. This suggests two things. Firstly, that if ‘unusual locations’ is a part of the definition of Ambient advertising then, what might be considered Ambient one day may not be the next, as audiences become familiar with any given location and the point of difference or ‘unusuality’ fades. Secondly, and related to the first point, is that Ambient could be seen as a moveable term and defined by advertising norms of the day.


Defining Ambient Advertising• The preceding discussion has highlighted the factors of location, execution and temporal issues as being important to

Ambient advertising. These are considered essential factors and provide a sound basis from which to explore a potential definition.

• “The placement of advertising in unusual and unexpected places (location) often with unconventional methods (execution) and being first or only ad execution to do so (temporal)”.

• Newness, creativity, novelty and timing are key themes in Ambient advertising. This definition is deliberately narrow and attempts to exclude ‘mainstream’ advertising as referred to earlier. Implicit in this definition is that Ambient is a moveable and somewhat subjective term and will shift according to the advertising norms of the day.

• One of the fundamental premises of Ambient is that the world is an advertising stage. Everything is a potential advertising medium—sides of cows, rockets, golf-hole cups etc. This raises a number of key questions beyond the scope of this paper: What are the implications of omnipresent advertising and what does it say about contemporary culture? How have we arrived at this stage and where might it lead?

• Ambient advertising has seen a massive increase in popularity in a short period of time. In the UK, expenditure on Ambient has doubled in the past two years to $A156 million and has outgrown all other sectors. (Burbury 1999). It is also starting to take off in Australia and has been adopted by brands such as Nike, Daiwoo, travel.com, Imodium, Levi’s, I can’t Believe it’s Not Butter and others in local campaigns. World wide, major advertisers including Coca-Cola, Kellogg, Virgin, Nestle and numerous car companies have also invested in Ambient advertising campaigns. Yet despite this, Ambient remains relatively unexplored and almost no analysis exists.


Ambient & Out of Home advertising

• The origins of Ambient can be linked to out-of-home advertising and hence it is appropriate to introduce this for consideration as a potential framework to facilitate the advancement of knowledge and understanding of Ambient advertising.

• ‘Out-of-home’ is a more general term than its cousin ‘outdoor advertising’ and refers to all advertising that is literally out-of-home. There are strong similarities between out-of-home and Ambient advertising, especially in terms of locations, rate-setting, effectiveness measurements and similarities in communication effects – that is, useful for a quick prompt (awareness/reminder) – not suited to rovision of lengthy information (cognitive engagement).

• Also, like out-of-home advertising, Ambient is often used in conjunction with other campaigns and is not generally a stand-alone tactic. (Azari & Kamen 1984) Because of the generally low processing time both out-of-home and Ambient requires good creativity to leave a lasting impression. (Maloney 1962, King & Tinkham 1990) Both out of home and Ambient can be very cost effective, have broad reach, be difficult to avoid, and Ambient can also lead to mainstream media coverage (PR effects).

• However, they can also be visually polluting, difficult to measure effectiveness (isolate effects) (Bhargava & Donthu 1999), have wastage, limited message capabilities, and Ambient in particular can also have negative associations (intrusive/tasteless), and the medium may overshadow the message (‘fantastic ad but can’t remember what for’).


Key differentiator of ambient• Greater emphasis on tactics such as surprise, humour, creativity and consequently audience involvement (participation by receiver reinforces

message, Schiffman 1997).

• More engaging than out-of-home and hence less wastage. Unlike billboards, selective perception in terms of noticing the ads for the brands you buy and avoiding those ads for brands not in the considered set, is not applicable because such ads can’t so easily be selectively ignored (East 1997).

• Draws upon incomplete message more than out-of-home. The ‘unusualty’ raises level of interest in consumer and hence their willingness to expend cognitive effort to process message.

• Greater importance of reference group, opinion leadership, resonance with target audience (‘like the ad like the brand’) - ie Word-of-mouth.

• The importance of the way in which the consumer ‘discovers’ Ambient to its effectiveness. Ambient works partly through surprise and creativity and the discovery of the communication by the recipient. The recipient is invited to believe that they have ‘found’ something and is empowered by this and can better identify with the communication - leading to a relationship with the target audience.

• Importance of target audience, more specifically targeted than out-of-home. Creators of Ambient campaigns are generally young, (under 30 - Generation Xers) and targeting audiences of similar age. Typically this has been seen as a notoriously hard to reach demographic (AdNews 1999) - not as gullible as their Baby Boomer parents, and consider themselves to be quite media literate and able to ‘see through’ advertising.

• Another important differentiator is the way the consumer engages with the medium. Semiotics or symbols are an essential way of conveying meaning especially in low-processing time advertising situations. (Fiske & Hartley 1989) Well chosen images, colours, contexts etc can connote certain meanings more effectively and quickly than text alone. With Ambient advertising, the medium can be seen as a sign. It might, for example, connote innovativeness, cleverness or even arrogance and forcefulness.


Proposed Ambient advertising model

From: Luxton S., What is this thing called ‘Ambient Advertising’?, Visionary Marketing for the 21st Century: Facing the Challenge, 2000.


Online advertising strategies


Online

• Introduction

• Newsletter

• Social network

• Video su youtube

• Advergame


Introduzione

• (coming soon)


Concetto di engagement

• "L'engagement marketing, spesso chiamato "marketing partecipativo" è una strategia di marketing che incoraggia i consumatori a partecipare alla crescita del brand. Piuttosto che considerare il consumatore semplicemente come un ricevitore passivo di messaggi, l'engagement marketing, crede che il consumatore possa essere coinvolto nella produzione e nella co-creazione dei programmi di marketing."


Dalle 4p alle 4eRoberto Venturini, esperto di Web marketing, ha elaborato una teoria su come coinvolgere i navigatori, e non solo, verso un brand, creando una relazione più dinamica che modifichi atteggiamenti e comportamenti attraverso forme di interazione.Trasforma infatti le 4P (prezzo, prodotto, punto vendita, promozione), classiche leve del marketing, in 4E:

• Engagement: focalizzare la comunicazione e il marketing sul coinvolgimento del target, incoraggiando una partecipazione attiva dell’audience, possibilmente con azioni basate su più media e strumenti;

• Experience: fare sperimentare il prodotto/servizio al pubblico, cercare l’occasione di generare una buona User Experience;

• Enhance: migliorare la relazione tra azienda/marca e il suo pubblico;• Emotion: rendere la comunicazione e il rapporto con la marca fortemente

emozionale.


Newsletter

• Ne abbiamo una?Si

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Newsletter

• “Contattare nuovi clienti grazie alla posta elettronica dà buoni frutti, ma si ottiene il massimo quando si raggiunge l’obiettivo di inviare messaggi regolari ad un crescente elenco di clienti potenzialmente interessati.”

• Le newsletter tengono informati gli utenti ed il nome dell’azienda resta loro bene impresso

• E’ necessario impiegare un pò di tempo per formattare la propria newsletter


Psicologia dell’e-mail

• ed altri argomenti potenzialmente utili (se davvero vogliamo usare la newsletter) sul libro “E-mail marketing...”


Social media marketing• While some in the search marketing industry debate the linkability of even the most unsexy Web sites—and by

“unsexy”, they often mean “small business”—there’s an important element missing from the discussion: return on investment.

• The Investment: No one debates that an investment is required; viral marketing through social media demands a big chunk of your time, your money, or both. But we’ve already established, in What’s So Different About Being Small?, that time and money are two things many small businesses have in short supply.

• The Return: No one debates that there are legitimate returns from social media marketing. These returns often come in the form of a short burst of traffic and/or an increase in links. That can improve your search engine visibility, but small businesses, in particular, still have to ask: Is the return greater than the investment of time and money?

• For what it’s worth, I agree that nearly every business, big or small, unsexy or not, can come up with something that’s unique and linkworthy—something that will play well on Digg, YouTube, or whichever social media site offers the best audience fit. I also think it’s imperative that small businesses use social media marketing in order to decrease their reliance on traffic from one or two search engines; you have to diversify to survive.

• With that in mind, here are seven ways small businesses can jump on the social marketing bandwagon with a moderate investment of time and/or money.


http://searchengineland.com/070228-193446.php


http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/2007/03/14/you-can-diversify-or-you-can-die/

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/2007/03/14/you-can-diversify-or-you-can-die/

Social media marketing• 1a. Start a blog. Blogging is old news to many (Web 1.5, perhaps?), and it’s certainly not as sexy as chasing a link from the

front page of Digg. But it’s still a great way to open up a dialogue with your customers, and that connection is the reason social marketing exists. WordPress is free, open source software—so the price is right. The time investment is completely up to you, but this truism applies: The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out. Still, it’s okay—and I’d even say it’s recommended—to start slowly and increase your time investment as you get comfortable with using a blog.

• 1b. Comment on other blogs. You can’t blog into a vacuum. Blogging is about creating and joining conversations, and that includes reading what others in your industry are saying and joining the discussion on other blogs. It’s free, and again, the time investment is up to you. You’ll be able to supply your name and URL when leaving a comment, and there’s no debate that intelligent comments on other blogs helps build traffic to yours.

• 2. Get active at Yahoo Answers. If you’re a service-based small business, you already know that your expertise is your No. 1 marketing tool. Yahoo Answers is a great way to share your knowledge with people who are looking for it—a direct connection with potential customers. I spend about 1-2 hours a week answering SEO and marketing questions there, and that small investment of time never fails to bring more traffic to my blog. Never. (It helps that I have a blog to refer people wanting more information, so don’t skip #1 above.)

• 3. Make and share videos. Good video cameras are cheap these days, and a short video needs little editing/production. Even if you do decide to add some sizzle to a video, the required software won’t break the bank. How-to videos are an obvious choice. “Tour” videos—tours of your business, restaurant, the homes you build or sell, etc. are also a good idea. In addition to using them on your own Web site or blog, YouTube is an obvious sharing destination. Local search is also embracing video: CitySearch recently announced that local video ads will be added to its listings, and YellowPages.com is also pursuing video opportunities.


http://answers.yahoo.com/

http://answers.yahoo.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Social media marketing• 4. Take and share photos. I’m a longtime believer in using Flickr as a marketing tool. The time and cost investment is

minimal. And thanks to Flickr’s incredibly active photo groups, you can share photos of your products with people who are interested. A pet store owner could share photos with the 2,000+ members of the pet parade group, which is one of dozens of animal-related groups. A company that makes iPod accessories could post nice product photos in the Apple group, with its ~2400 members. And a construction company that makes custom homes could post photos in the appropriate city group, like San Francisco or Chicago. For more on this, I invite you to read How to Market on Flickr on my blog.

• 5. Try StumbleUpon. Of all the discovery-type of social sites (Digg, Reddit, Netscape, etc.), I believe StumbleUpon requires the lowest time investment. Joining groups related to your industry and adding friends from those groups can be done quickly. Once you do that, as you add pages to StumbleUpon—including your own great content—other users will “stumble upon” what you’ve added. As those visitors give it the “thumbs up”, your content is then shown to even more users. Unlike Digg or del.icio.us, you don’t need to spend several months building up a great user profile. StumbleUpon was the No. 1 referrer to my blog in 2006, and that’s without spending a lot of time working it. I should note that the main benefit of StumbleUpon will be traffic, more so than links, sales, etc. So rather than hope it becomes a direct source of revenue or higher rankings, you should hope that it increases awareness, blog readership, feed subscribers, and the like.

• 6. Join groups & mailing lists. Social marketing is about finding your customers where they are. There’s a good chance at least some of your customers are using Yahoo Groups or Google Groups to share interests. Much like the Flickr examples above, there are probably groups/lists that are highly related to the products or services you offer. And much like the Yahoo Answers suggestion, being able to help others in this community setting can be a great marketing tool.


http://www.flickr.com/

http://www.flickr.com/

http://flickr.com/groups/petparade/

http://flickr.com/groups/petparade/

http://flickr.com/groups/appleusers/

http://flickr.com/groups/appleusers/

http://flickr.com/groups/sanfrancisco/

http://flickr.com/groups/sanfrancisco/

http://flickr.com/groups/chicago/

http://flickr.com/groups/chicago/

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/alternative-sem-opportunities/marketing-on-flickr/

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/alternative-sem-opportunities/marketing-on-flickr/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://groups.google.com/

http://groups.google.com/

• Every social marketing opportunity will have its own rules to follow, and you should make sure you know those rules. But here’s one general rule for using these sites as marketing tools: Don’t spam the system. Flickr doesn’t want your entire product inventory posted, and they have rules against doing so. But a few high-quality photo submissions that add to the community are fine. Whatever social marketing you do, be an active contributor. Add to the signal, not the noise.

• http://searchengineland.com/social-media-marketing-for-small-business-10850


http://searchengineland.com/social-media-marketing-for-small-business-10850




Youtube marketing

• http://www.masternewmedia.org/it/2007/05/04/video_marketing_online_10_modi.htm

• Molto ben fatto, in italiano


http://www.masternewmedia.org/it/2007/05/04/video_marketing_online_10_modi.htm




Youtube marketing tips

• Stephan Spencer writes a good post at MarketingProfs.com about How to Market on YouTube. This is something I believe small businesses can and should be looking to, which is why it was one of the seven ideas I listed in my Social Media Marketing for Small Business article last month on Search Engine Land. Stephan’s YouTube marketing tips, which come from the experience of several companies who’ve found success on the site:

• 1. Focus on something fun, something that people will want to share with friends.

• 2. Clearly demonstrate the product you’re marketing.

• 3. Make sure the video is real; no tricks, no “smoke and mirrors.”

• 4. Encourage viewer participation and support, i.e. — “make your own video like ours.”

• 5. Take advantage of YouTube tags; use adjectives to target people searching based on mood; and match your title and description to the tags.

• 6. Experiment!


http://www.marketingprofs.com/7/how-to-market-on-youtube-some-examples-spencer.asp

http://www.marketingprofs.com/7/how-to-market-on-youtube-some-examples-spencer.asp





Youtube

• Idea: se oltre a contenuti di carattere tecnico facessimo qualcosa del tipo “6 come 6” di italia 1?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR6u6aKy_Yo

• Potrebbe essere un’idea per il contest (registra con la tua webcam o il tuo telefonino il tuo video e invialo a [email protected])

• In questo modo verrebbe creato un pò di WOM, verrebbe data un pò di visibilità al sito e avremmo del materiale per fare un bel video da far girare su youtube, con il montaggio di tutti i video ricevuti.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR6u6aKy_Yo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR6u6aKy_Yo

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Facebook


Facebook marketing tips• Create una rete. I vostri potenziali fan capiteranno sulla vostra pagina casualmente. Vedranno un

messaggio lasciato dai loro amici segnalato da Facebook e cose di questo tipo. Aumentate le possibilità di interazione mettendo link sul vostro sito oppure sul vostro blog che punta alla pagina Facebook. Usate Twitter, Flickr e anche Tumblr per indirizzare il traffico verso la pagina.

1. Fate della vostra Fan Page Facebook una risorsa per i vostri clienti. Informazioni utili attinenti al vostro business possono aiutare a spargere la voce e creare un meccanismo di buzz e porta sempre più utenti a visitare la vostra pagina.

2. Se non avete risorse o informazioni utili da offrire, pernsate ad un contest. Segnalate sconti e offerte. Rendete ben visibili i coupon. Come fate ad essere sicuri che i visitatori sono diventati vostri fan? Fategli riempire un questionario e speditegli un email di conferma.

3. Se vi trovate nel caso in cui qualcuno ha già realizzato abusivamente la vostra fan page domandatevi che intenzioni hanno e cosa hanno realizzato. Se sono veri fan non fate nulla di negativo anzi contattateli e cercate di collaborare insieme. Ricordate che sono vostri alleati e vi fanno pubblicità gratis, ricompensateli e fateli sentire come parte della vostra famiglia.

4. Olio di gomito. Sì perché se pensate di stare in televisione vi sbagliate di grosso. La televisione opera sul mucchio e porta grandi numeri ed è anche per questo che costa tanto. L’ultimo ingrediente è dedizione e pazienza. Vedrete che con il giusto lavoro otterete risultati.


Social network

• Azioni simili sul canale di Twitter

• Utilizzo di ulteriori canali (es.Fotolog, 27 milioni di utenti, dove si potrebbero pubblicare foto delle operazioni di marketing e dialogare con possibili utenti target)


Contest

• In particolare sarebbe utile lanciare un contest, magari con riferimento ad una effettiva utilità o semplicemente per creare interesse e visibilità

• Altro es., “Disegna la mascotte di itsme e scrivi una breve descrizione al riguardo”)

• Lavori creativi come piattaforma dove reclutare “forza-lavoro motivata”

• Da lanciare anche su sito, newsletter, fb, ecc


Advergame• Il termine advergame è il risultato della crasi tra le parole advertising e game, ovvero pubblicità e

“gioco”. Si tratta di giochi interattivi per comunicare messaggi pubblicitari, sviluppare la brand awareness e generare traffico verso i siti di tipo consumer, diffusi negli Stati Uniti a partire dal 1998.

• A partire dai suoi esordi l'advergaming è maturato: la tecnologia ha fatto molti passi avanti e già nel 2005 il suo mercato valeva oltre un miliardo di dollari.Bill Gates nel 2004, durante un summit dell’industria pubblicitaria ha detto: «la tecnologia sta cambiando la pubblicità, i consumatori non subiscono più qualunque messaggio gli venga inviato. Dobbiamo trovare il modo di raggiungere gli utenti senza annoiarli». Proprio questa è l'azione dell'advergame: coinvolge l’utente con un gioco semplice e accattivante, in questo modo, cattura la sua attenzione in modo non intrusivo e fidelizzante, per imprimere nella sua mente il marchio che vuole promuovere. A differenza dei siti che offrono giochi gratuiti on-line per incrementare il traffico di utenti sugli stessi, e di coloro che si sponsorizzano nei videogame (innergame advertising), chi utilizza gli advergame lo fa per diffondere un messaggio, per “spingere” la propria marca, perciò la comunicazione pubblicitaria costituisce il cuore del gioco on-line.


Obiettivi di marketing• Sviluppare la brand awareness (crescita della consapevolezza relativa al brand veicolato dall’advergame).

• Promuovere o lanciare brand e prodotti.

• Creare associazioni di marca (l'interazione consente all’utente finale di associare al brand i valori di cui l'advergame è portatore).

• Ricordo di marca/prodotto (l'interazione dell’utente con l’advergame fissa nella sua memoria la user experience, facilitando il ricordo nel tempo).

• Elevare il gross rating point (o indice di pressione pubblicitaria), ossia l'esposizione ripetuta dell'audience al messaggio veicolato dall'adevergame.

• Raggiungere un'ampia fascia di consumatori.


Obiettivi di marketing

• Costruire una relazione duratura con il target (fidelizzazione).

• Creare un database di clienti potenziali.

• Aumentare l'efficacia delle azioni svolte su altri canali di comunicazione.

• Aumentare il traffico sul sito Web.

Con gli advergame si possono effettuare operazioni di marketing che consentono di comunicare le caratteristiche di un prodotto o di un servizio divertendo l’utente/cliente in sinergia con i canali tradizionali. Infatti, l’utente può visualizzare un breve spot prima di poter giocare su Internet, oppure - durante il gioco - può essere esposto al nostro marchio.


Per esempio

• Con gli advergame si possono effettuare operazioni di marketing che consentono di comunicare le caratteristiche di un prodotto o di un servizio divertendo l’utente/cliente in sinergia con i canali tradizionali. Infatti, l’utente può visualizzare un breve spot prima di poter giocare su Internet, oppure - durante il gioco - può essere esposto al nostro marchio.

• http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=3762


http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=3762

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=3762

...

• Feedback per proseguimento lavori...

• Prossimamente: word of mouth, approfondimento web marketing, ecc


Bibliografia (quasi completa)• Iriberri A. and Leroy G., A Life-Cycle Perspective on Online Community Success, 2009

• Simulating Newcomer Socialization in Online Communities

• What are the conditions for and characteristics of effective online learning communities?

• Stewart S., IMPACTS OF IDEOLOGY, TRUST, AND COMMUNICATION ON EFFECTIVENESS IN OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

• Nelson M.L., Subramaniam C. & Sen R., Determinants of open source software project success: A longitudinal study, Elsevier, 2008.

• Botes L. & Van Rensburg D., Community participation in development: nine plagues and twelve commandments, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL, 2000.

• Ren Y., Kraut R. & Kiesler S., Applying Common Identity and Bond Theory to Design of Online Communities, Organization Studies, 2007.

• Sense of Community in Science Fiction Fandom: Part 1, Understanding Sense of Community in an International Community of Interest

• An Exploration of the Interplay between Psychological Sense of Community, Social Identification and Salience

• Sangwan S., Virtual Community Success: a Uses and Gratifications Perspective, 2005.


Bibliografia (quasi completa)• Ducheneaut N., Socialization in an Open Source Software Community: A Socio-Technical Analysis, Computer Supported Cooperative

Work, 2005

• Giuri P., Rocchetti R. & Torrisi S., Open Source Software:From Open Science to New Marketing Models.An Enquiry into the Economics and Management ofOpen Source Software, 2002.

• Kishida K., Nakakoji K., Nishinaka Y. & Ye Y., Evolution patterns of Open-Source Software System and Community, 2002.

• Schrammel J., Köffel C. & Tscheligi M., How Much do You Tell?Information Disclosure Behaviour in Different Types of Online Communities, 2009.

• Bishop J., Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for human–computer interaction, 2007.

• Horrigan J. B., A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users, 2007.

• Mudambi S., Oliva T. & Thomas E. Industrial marketing firms and knowledge transfer: Toward a basic typology of community structures, 2009.

• Luxton S., What is this thing called ‘Ambient Advertising’?, Visionary Marketing for the 21st Century: Facing the Challenge, 2000.

• Spaulding T. J., How can virtual communities create value for business?Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 2009.


Bibliografia (quasi completa)

• Class Map for Community in Online Education Course

• MULTIPLE SENSES OF COMMUNITY: THE EXPERIENCE AND MEANING OF COMMUNITY

• PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE OF COMMUNITY AT WORK: A MEASUREMENT SYSTEM AND EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORK

• itsme: Interaction Design Innovating Workstations

• Skopik F., Truong H. & Dustdar S. , Trust and Reputation Mining in Professional Virtual Communities, 2009.

• A Conceptual and Operational Definition of ‘Social Role’ in Online Community

• De Souza C.S. & Preece J.,A framework for analyzing and understanding online communities, Interacting with computers, 2004.

• Olsson T., Toivola H., Wäljas M., Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila K. & Lehikoinen J., Collective Content as a Facilitator of Community Interaction: A User Study of Four Close-Knit Communities, 2009.


Bibliografia (quasi completa)

• Come si realizza una campagna pubblicitaria

• E-mail marketing, Elaborare messaggi mirati e costruire un rapporto con i clienti

• New media e comunicazione di marketing, Verso i mercati post-pubblicitari

• Urban G., Amyxb C. & Lorenzon A., Online Trust: State of the Art, New Frontiers, and Research Potential, Journal of interactive marketing, 2009.

• Sang-Yong T.L., Hee-Woong K. & Sumeet G., Measuring open source software success, Elsevier, 2007.

• Dholakia U.M., Bagozzi R.P. & Pearo L.K., A social influence model of consumer participation in network- and small-group-based virtual communities, 2004.

• Tran L. A., Evaluation of community web sites: A case study of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto web site, 2008.
