Online Communities of Practice
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Apr 22 15:21 UTC
Short link
Actually Pete, you proved my point by using a web feed to follow this forum.
:-)
People should be able to choose their preferred method of participation -
e-mail, web forum, web feed, even a Facebook application - and still be part of
the same online community of practice.
If it took someone as wired as you, X years to covert to web feeds (something
like 7% of net users have used them directly), imagine how many years it will
take for others. What I have found is that the invasive, broadcast character of
e-mail is essential to reach busy people. People you need to be part of the
exchange or it dies. They may not read most messages, but they will tune in if
the subject is compelling. If you are trying to get local government staff for
example to share knowledge, making participation a "destination" versus part of
their daily online experience (location, location, location), excludes 50% of
your audience. (Of course, if folks can't turn off e-mail you lose the other
50%!)
I'd like to venture the reason mySociety.Org succeeds with tools like
TheyWorkForYou.com compared to most other e-democracy projects, is their active
use of e-mail hooks to users. Most projects are simply too timid with
communication to succeed.
Steven Clift