Posted: 27 June 2004 at 10:20am | IP Logged

So here is my Question: What are the factors that makes a portal valuable to users? By this I mean what drives the users...

• to return to the Portal?
• to contibute content?
• to transform the portal into a community?

I am very interested in what the Soops think, so please toss in your two cents.

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 10:22am | IP Logged

I came across this in my Quest for understanding these issues...

http://epdigest.com/articles/community/20000801/

Why Web Communities?
by Brian Alt
[August 1, 2000]

"Community" is as popular an Internet buzz word as just about any I can think of. Unlike some though, which come and go on an almost weekly basis, "community" is used to describe a phenomenon on the Internet that has definite staying power, and may in fact help define the power of the Net for its users.

When pundits speak of "community" on the Net, they're referring to the unique power of that medium to bring people together across incredible physical boundaries. This "togetherness" may manifest itself as a Web-based discussion forum, an email discussion list, a collection of user-created Web sites, a thriving chat room, or any number of alternatives to or combinations of these things. People use these spaces to interact in a number of ways, based on topical interests, similar lifestyles, shared activities, alternatives to real-life meetings, and so on.

This article looks at some of the reasons why an online community creates value for both the community's participants and the creator or owner of the community.


Member-Generated Content

A crucial benefit that online communities bestow upon their owners is the steady stream of member-generated content that the community will create. As community members interact, their conversations will over time create a knowledge base that is extremely valuable. Smart community developers will leverage this content in several ways, including archiving the content on the community Web site and possibly publishing it in an email or Web publication. The editorial cost to create similar content would be quite significant, and an online community's ability to create this content for free should not be overlooked.

For the members themselves, the storehouse of member-generated content is quite valuable as well. Members receive information from each other rather than from a single published source, and are thus receiving not only a wider variety of views, but are receiving that information from a source similar to themselves. This often translates into that content being more trustworthy. (There are certainly exceptions to this, however. The Yahoo! stock message boards, for example, come to mind as a community where intentional misinformation is nearly as common as "good" information.)


Power Shift from Vendors to Consumers

With the arrival of the Internet and the community-building power that can be harnessed through it, we have begun to see over the past few years a power shift from the vendors of products and services to the consumers who use them. Through the interaction of the members of topic-specific communities, the collective knowledge of the group begins to transcend marketing hype and hoopla. Community members are able to make more informed purchasing decisions by comparing their own experiences with those of the group.

For community owners, the benefits here should be obvious. Because the owner now commands the attention of an audience of empowered consumers -- who are also an aggregate of people with shared interests, backgrounds, and opinions -- this audience can be introduced to the products or services of a multitude of vendors. Perhaps the owner itself is a vendor. Certainly vendors can be introduced to community members as paying sponsors.


Repeat Traffic and the Word that Spreads

Online communities are the ultimate "sticky" sites. Web site visitors will return over and over if they value the member-generated content of your site or develop important relationships through your site. This in turn creates a virtual "perpetual motion" machine (also often referred to as "critical mass"), where member interaction and discussion feeds off itself and sustains itself over time.

At the same time, satisfied members of your community will spread the word, attracting their friends or business associates to become active members themselves. It's this movement among Internet users that has often earned the description of "viral" among marketers, referring to the ability of a some kinds of information (such as site recommendations) to spread like a virus. While this kind of marketing is extremely valuable, it usually can't be bought. It is, however, usually present to a certain degree in most successful online communities.


Built in Feedback Mechanism

If you're curious about the success or future direction of your online venture, there's no greater resource than a community of users built around it. Online communities are an instant feedback mechanism for their owners. Do something your community members don't like and you'll hear about it, whether you specifically ask for their feedback or not. Effective community managers are responsive to the needs of their members, and while following the guidance of your members will not necessarily lead you in the direction you originally had in mind for your community, it will evolve in the way most valuable to the members.


Communities Support Themselves

Online communities (and communities in general) have a rather unique power to support themselves. Existing community members attract, train, and socialize new members simply through the act of participating in the community.

While a community owner can and should support things like new member orientation, rites of passage, and special events, many of these things will be taken care of from within the dynamics of the community itself.


Recruitment from the Community

Community owners running the community as a business have an exceptional source of potential leaders, administrators, and employees: the community itself. Active participants in your community have already gone through the learning curve of your organization. Their familiarity with your community and the audience it caters to will only serve to enhance their ability to excel within your organization, as either volunteers or paid employees.

If I've overlooked a major benefit created by online communities, let me know! Send any feedback to: feedback@epdigest.com.


Brian Alt is the founder and CEO of Email Possibilities, a provider of comprehensive email publishing solutions. He also publishes the weekly Email Publishing Digest and is the author of several ebooks on email publishing-related topics.

© Copyright 2001 Email Possibilities, LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 10:44am | IP Logged

By adding the funcionality of Discussion Forums to the Portal you enable the user to add content to the site via an airing of his/her views or sharing of knowledge. Once the user has posted and been acknowledged by means of a reply, they will be hooked, and thereby you have the reason to return to the Portal.

What transforms the Portal into a community, well there must be many reasons for this, but a one that I can think of are as follows,

Your views/utterances whatever you may call them will be taken at face value based upon what you have said. Because of the anonymity of the Internet we do not judge somebody by his appearance, social standing, ethnicity as these are things that we cannot see, we therefore actually listen to what people have to say and make our judgements good/bad/indifferent.

We will begin to ally ourselves to people whom we consider have a similar mindset as ourselves but as we are all just that slightly bit different we become entangled in one large friendship/alliance /community where paradoxically our differences actually enhance the community via differing points of view which encourage discussion and thought.

just my 2 cents, feel free to shoot me down in flames, agree with me whatever you feel like doing, as long as you are provoked into an answer, that is sufficient for me

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 10:46am | IP Logged

1. Target a niche.
2. Encourage discussions and involvement. Encourage all forms of community-making.
3. Provide useful and interesting info (targeted News).
4. Coherent site design, powerful but easy to use services that attract the auditory's attention. One common mistake I've seen here (and I'd make too) is going too far with techie stuff (messy Flash, obstructive DHTML, unreadable color palettes). Such sites becomes cumbersome and usable only for nerds. 

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 10:56am | IP Logged

I agree with OT. The chance to become "somebody" only because of your concrete actions and not because of void and vain appeareances, is a main flow of invigorating energy that keeps this kind of community-making approach alive and growing.

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 11:04am | IP Logged

I am taking us a bit off-topic (which I really want to stay foQused on) but, this is a very interesting snipet OT. This fact must be very frustrating to those poseurs who (in my meat community) are many.

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 11:09am | IP Logged

This is a powerful concept, although I would not dismiss the power of vanity to drive participation (I just looQed in the mirror).

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 11:19am | IP Logged

I am in the processes of "porting members" over to my Soop from a web front-end for an email discussion group I run. In the process I have gotten a quite a few of my new members excited by creating custom Avatar's for them and then Admin uploading them to their profile. The next time they logged on they saw their new Avatar and it created a buzz. So far I have managed not to insult anyone.

In addition, yesterday I implemented several new Skins.

With both of these actions I hope to create customizable user experience that the members will become "fond of."

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 11:40am | IP Logged

So allow me to start to build The List and forgive me for not Quoting (not necessarily ordered by value)...

Things we can Qontrol:

1. WebOwner/Administrator driven content
2. Targeted towards a specific audience or niche by creating an alliance of people who have a similar mindset
3. Coherent site design that is not too complicated for the neophyte to use and navigate
4. Providing an ejoyable and friendly user experience
5. Providing useful and interesting information (targeted News)
6. Providing the opportunity to "be somebody" by assignment of Moderation Rights

Things we can not control:

1. Member driven content
2. Engagement by way of user/member acknowledgement
3. Participation though vanity/self promotion
4. Providing the opportunity to "be somebody" by way of participating in the community
5. Providing the user with opportunity to rise and "make a difference"

I am going to provide one quote which I edited ever so slightly. This is freakin' b e a u t i f u l :

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 11:56am | IP Logged

From day 1 here I quickly got aware OT is the Think-Tank of SooP

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 4:23pm | IP Logged

Age=Experience=Maturity......

Then the rot sets in...............

age-experience-maturity-dementure

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 4:54pm | IP Logged

strange you likening me to a mummy

you must have overheard my wife yesterday,

what was it she called me ....a right mother................

oh my memory deserts me

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 5:16pm | IP Logged

What hath become of my wonderful and much-needed topiQ!

Sssstttteeeellllllllaaaa!!!!

Posted: 27 June 2004 at 5:35pm | IP Logged

This Topic gave birth to this wonderful concept (thanks again OT)...

Which led me to a rewrite for a PPT I am preparing...

Which led me to some research on "critical thought", and this...

Which made two beautiful things to contemplate today.

Today was a good day.

P.S. I am not going to cite "OldTimer" in my PowerPoint Presentation!

Posted: 28 June 2004 at 6:58pm | IP Logged

Virtual community

A virtual community is a group whose members are connected by means of information technologies, typically the Internet. Similar terms include online community and mediated community.

The term "virtual community" is attributed to the book of the same title by Howard Rheingold in 1993. The book discussed a range of computer-mediated communication and social groups. The technologies included Usenet, MUDs (Multi-User Dungeon), IRC (Internet Relay Chat), chat rooms and electronic mailing lists. He pointed out potential benefit of such a group one can belong to via communication technologies for personal psychological well-being as well as for the society at large. (The proliferation of the World Wide Web started after the book was published)

Today, "virtual community" is loosely used and interpreted to indicate a variety of social groups connected in some ways by the Internet. It does not necessarily mean that there is a strong bond among the members. An email distribution list on Star Trek may have close to one hundred members, and the communication which takes place there could be either one-way (the list owner making announcements) or merely informational (questions and answers are posted, but members stay relatively strangers and uninterested to each other). The membership turnover rate could be high. This is in line with the liberal use of the term community.

The idea that media could generate a community is quite old. Progressive thinkers such as Charles Cooley, early in the 20th century in the United States, envisioned a nation whose members are united strongly because of the increased use of mass media. Also well-known is the term community without propinquity, coined by sociologist Melvin Webber in 1963.

The explosive diffusion of the Internet into some of the countries such as the United States was also accompanied by the proliferation of virtual communities. The nature of those communities and communications are rather diverse, and the benefits that Rheingold envisioned are not necessarily realized, or pursued, by many. At the same time, it is rather commonplace to see anecdotes of someone in need of special help or in search of a community benefitting from the use of the Internet.