This page is a resource for the Macworld Session: Online Communities - Lessons Learned. The Macworld New York 1998 session was held Thursday, July 9, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Hosted by Ilene Hoffman, Macintosh / Internet Consultant, the panel also included Joe Holmes, Contrib. Editor, MacAddict Magazine, Andy Ihntako, Contributing Editor, NewMedia, Katherine Pourty, VP of Product Development, The Family Education Company, and Donna Sanclemente, Apple Forum Consultant, America Online. Panel biographies.

The San Francisco 1999 user conference session was held Friday, January 8, 2:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Panelists include: Gail Ann Williams, Exec. Dir. of The Well, Cys Bonner, Community Director, World Without Borders, and Joe Holmes, Contrib. Editor, MacAddict Magazine. Panel biographies.

The Powerpoint slides used in the New York presentation are available for your perusal. We hope you find them useful in building community on your web site.

Table Of Contents:

• What Is Community?
• Hands On - How To Do ...
• Sample Virtual Communities
• Building a Business
• How Can I Find Out More?
• Software Tools
• Other Tools

What Is Community?

Circle of Friends...

An anonymous poem about community.

Duck Duck Goose...

Some lessons are best learned by analogy.

Community Described

From Foundation for Community Encouragement (FCE), a non-profit, educational foundation.

Between Local and Global: Placing the Mediascape in the Transnational Cultural Flow

Scholarly article by Willard Uncapher which covers community from the interpersonal realm, collective action, and transnational or global realm.

"Studying Online Social Networks"

by Laura Garton, Barry Wellman Univ. of Toronto, and Caroline Haythornthwaite, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"The Virtual Community"

by Howard Rheingold: Introduction

Psychology and OS Platform Preferences

Interesting "article" on platforms, and preferences; ergo community building of sorts.

Hands On

Electric Hosts

Learn The Art of Hosting Online Communities

Resources for Moderators and Facilitators of Online Discussion

How to moderate LISTSERVS and discussion groups in mailing lists, not live chat.

Resources & search engine for Message Board hosts - Forum One

"Web Forums" are areas on the web where you can post and respond to messages. Also called "bulletin boards" or "message boards," this page includes many good resources for board managers.

Thriving Internet Communities

Moms Online

A new growing community for mothers.

Talk City

A clean well-lit community produced by LiveWorld Productions. Java enabled chat client or IRC.

Theglobe.com

An online destination resort produced by WebGenesis.

Third Age

Mary Furlong's 50+ Network. ichat chat server.

World Without Borders

A Macintosh community. Java chat client.

Building a Business

Business Plan Tutorial - Small Business Association
Service Corps of Retired Executives
Apple Solution Professionals Network
Claris Small Business Home Page
Edward Lowe Foundation - SmallbizNet
International Small Business Consortium

How Can I Find Out More?

If you jump off a cliff you might just as well try to fly because you have nothing else to lose -- source unknown

Before you jump off a cliff, you should speak with others who are attemping to provide community on the Internet; talk to hosts, talk to moderators, talk to administrators, plus look at research of what works and what doesn't.
Ziff Davis University provides a course in Building Online Communities which has a good business orientation. America Online Forum staff are always willing to talk to people about their experiences.

CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE - "Ahead of the Game"

CIO WebBusiness Magazine - May 1, 1998 - Interesting tidbits on community.

Cyberspace: An Architecture A New Model for Human-Computer Interaction

Universidade de Coimbra "As personal computing gives way to interpersonal computing, the existing models for the description of human-computer interaction prove incapable of accommodating the indispensable decentralization of control..."

Integrating and Guiding Collaboration

Lessons Learned in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Research at Georgia Tech

Community of Inquiry and Practice

From Awakening Technology - pay particular attention to this section: Some Lessons Learned: Community, Timing, Relationships, Groups

Macintosh Software Tools

Other Tools

Chat @ Talk City Program

Put a link to a free g-rated Talk City chat room on your site.

CommunityWare

Build a free homepage, "live" services like chat, instant messaging and whiteboard, plus group email and message forums.

Delphi CustomForum

Delphi will host your small business or family message board or chat for free.

VantageNet Web Polls

In exchange for advertising banners, VantageNet will host your customized web polls.

Credits
coshol.gif ©98 by "Be" Germany.
colibrary.gif MacTown Vol. 3 ©1997 Matthew Kelleigh
Some icons © eworld (and I assume Apple Computer, Inc.)

Page design and updates by Ilene Hoffman (IleneH@aol.com) Created 5/18/98; Updated: 12/12/98. Moved server: 1/26/01 Page count as of 2/01/01: 2792 people hit this page prior to the move to this server

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