I came across this article today which discusses the phases a participant goes through in online participation. I was interested in this article because I am attempting to research how a learning community naturally thrives in a blog format.
Based on the article, I believe a great deal of the growth and development in a single blog is the responsibility of the owner or “commentator”. He gives suggestions for this role such as analyzing the thoughts of others and creating links among articles. I also like the description of the other roles which I think would enrich my experience as a commenter on my classmates blogs. These include tips such as: ask questions, seek clarification and test opinion.
I am guessing the primary goal to encourage participation for any blog and therefore nurture a community is to generate interest in your topic. It seems these are good tips to help accomplish this.
Michelle
Thanks for the article on the “four Cs of participation in online communities.”
Carolyn
I agree that leadership is a key issue with virtual communities. That’s also an irony, because early thinking about online communities was that they don’t need leaders – instead, everybody participate in distributed power sharing or decision-making. Since those early days we’ve learned that leadership is critical for fledgling communities to really take shape.
It is a trick, thouogh, knowing how to draw strength from the group and not over-regulate, while still providing energy, leadership, and some degree of direction going forward.
Michelle:
Great resource! As I was reading through this, I was assessing my online behavior. Depending on the community, I range from consumer to contributor. Perhaps, one of these days I’ll bump it up to commentator.
Betsy
Thanks for your article. It was interesting to relate it to a yahoo that I belong to. I’m a consumer – maybe not even that because I mostly lurk. There are several moderators who step in to keep order, but some of the more experienced members are informal leaders. They are very supportive to new members, reply to requests for help and are always willing to share information. From your post they fit in the commentator category. It will be interesting to watch the group and see the different roles people take.
Debra
THanks for the article – there is one column missing tho – the Lurker! I guess it depends on your definition of “participation” – but a lurker could be an “observer” if you prefer a more positive label – like someone in a class that only observes, but never says anything unless the teacher makes them. I’ve had lots of kids in my classrooms that just learn by observing and not saying anything.
Lynne
I have yet to look over the article, but a strange question popped into my head after reading the tips you mentioned. Is the purpose of a blog to stimulate conversion? To me it seems the answer is no. Although readers can easily comment and ask questions (as I am) of the blog author, the traditional blog set-up doesn’t lend itself to discussion as it is hard (at least in my blog) to respond to questions in a systematic and clear way.
Thanks for the article Michelle.
Thanks for the article. I feel that since I am still a beginner I’m pretty low in the rankings, but slowly getting better. I was just reading Erin’s comment and I would agree with her, in that blogs don’t really stimulate conversation, but rather a place to share thoughts/feelings. Regardless, it was an interesting article!
Wow, this suggests that all of us have reached the contributor stage, just by creating our own blogs – you’ve made my day, Michelle!
I think Erin has pointed out a fundamental flaw in the blog concept – maybe blog designers will start looking for a way to enhance the commenting function to better enable conversations, or perhaps come up with an entirely new idea.
K