Tools for Online CommunitiesWhat Has Worked

Ann Walker Smalley, Metronet

Choosing the Tool

• Why do we need the community• What functions does the community need• Is there an all-in-one tool• Ease of use for us & users• Cost of tool• Security & privacy concerns

Camp Year 1: How do we….• Provide the Campers with all the info they need to participate• Collect the participants’ reviews• Make reviews available to all• Avoid a lot of paper(!)• Make our work easy for checking on reviews

PBWiki • Easy to build Web site• Participants can edit• Customizable Security (upgraded version)• Easy navigation via sidebar• Add hyperlinks to connect pages

http://campreadalot.pbworks.com/

All the PagesEasy navigation for Campers

InformationBooklists, Guidelines, How-to, FAQs each had a page

Participants Added to Wiki as Writers

Edit pagesUpload files

Create new pages

Every Camper Had a Page

Entered reviews here

Linked Their Review to Book Title

A lot of steps:

For us as creators

and For

campers as writers

Pros & Cons of Wiki

ProsFlexible within

pagesEasy to buildPage level securityDifferent types of

membersUnlimited number

of participants

ConsA lot of work to

create Camper pages

Add member emails manually

Not easy to monitor participation

Unfamiliar to many Campers

Year 2: New Issues

Addition of virtual camp

Changes to PBWiki More Campers! Added Grades 6-12

Ninghttp://www.campreadalot.org/

Ning Advantages

Unlimited number of Campers

Social Networking FeaturesIntegrated ForumsIntegrated Groups

Members join; we don’t add them via email

Broadcast email to members of Ning

More Advantages

No creating individual pages—automatic MyPage for every member

Easy tracking of reviews

More visually appealing

Flexible features

Control over who joins (optional)

Free

Front Page

Customizable

• Easy to add and delete features• Add slideshows, recent activity, and other features to front page• Control order of posts, what members can do, and other operations

Reviews as Blog Posts

One review per post

View all Campers’ Posts

Camper PageAll activity in one easy-to-check spot

Easy to Find All Member

s• Members can post comments to others’ walls, add as friend,send message• Encouraged to add a picture or avatar and add info to profile

Virtual Camper

Groups & Forums•Each book

has a group•Forum

Questions for each

book

Best of All

Very easy to track

participation both for

Day Campers

and Virtual Campers

DisadvantagesPossibility that Ning would be

blocked by filters

Some HTML required for admin & posting

Unfamiliar tool to most participants

Still had work to do to create groups and forums and add discussions

Sorting/Display of members & groups

Ning Worked much better than wiki as a learning communityBut still some problems with organization

Restructuring groups & forums

Adding virtual counselors

MILI, the Early Years

How can participants record progress

Where to store MILI content

Can participants interact

Report Progres

sBlogger

Keep Up with

Others

RSS Readers

Deliver ContentWiki & Blogs

Complicated & Confusing to Novice

UsersHow to streamline the content delivery and

interaction

Wiki as “Textbook”http://metronetmili.pbworks.com/

http://metronetmili.pbworks.com/Month-7

An “Aha!” Moment

Ning is the “Teachers’ Lounge”

Creating aNing

Community

Smaller Communities through Groups

Ability to

interact

across group

s

DComments

Discussions

PersonalizationAggregationInteraction

Power of NingInteraction across school

district cohorts

Willingness of novice users to blog in secure environment

Ability to add the personal touches

Encouragement & support

More

•Ease of use•Common ground & interests•Customizable with apps•Focused on the project

Managing the Community

• Need one or more administrators to stay on top of things

• Set-up• Permissions• Approvals, if needed• Spam

Moving It Forward

• Moderators• Make things happen• Post questions• Comment on blogs/content• Forums

Unmoderated Ning

http://23thingsonastick.ning.com/

23 Things On a Stick Ning

Has 2 administrators

Just watch for spam & respond to questions

No approval of members

Anyone can post/uploadhttp://23thingsonastick.ning.com/

Membership

Content

All user-generated

Members Create the Connections

Groups Include:• By library• By region• By interest• By Activity

Join the SCLS Ninghttp://

sclslibraries.ning.com

/

Connect

Collaborate

Communicate