Facilitating the experience of belonging in web-based communities

Christopher A. Kosovich
Kosovich Media Group

Introduction

The current financial crises effecting people and nations all over the world illustrates concepts of globalization are more prevalent than ever in our increasingly global society (International Monetary Fund, 2008).

In light of the financial crisis, there are people attempting to create dialog and generate potential solutions that examine the core of the educational system in the fields of economics, business, and management. Exploration about the ways economics, technology, and spirituality can find balance in education and business, leading toward supportive global relationships for the common good is among many topics of discussion (Mofid & Kirabaev, 2011).

Such dialog is critical and the platform on which the ongoing dialog is built should accommodate a global audience that addresses the experience of belonging within the platform of discussion.

New web-based community platforms, modeling popular social media features and attributes, can expand open dialog access, exploring potential solutions and alternatives to problems that exist today. Most importantly, an understanding of the dynamics of the technology available needs to be appreciated by the web-based community leaders cultivating the dialog to help facilitate the experience of belonging.

Establishing Opportunity

It is important to consider how communication technology, particularly among innovations within web-based communities, can open new solution and idea markets on a global scale that reach beyond traditional national boundaries.

However, the technical parts of technology or the lack of technology, aren’t the greatest barriers to leveraging the opportunity a global web-based community could produce.

The greatest barriers to leveraging the opportunity within the global web-based community are defining the web-based community itself and what is means to be a participant in that community.

Establishing a web-based community begins long before a computer server is installed, software configured, and users login. A web-based community begins when the initial creators first vision the purpose of the community and how participants engage within that community as citizens.

A web-based community shares some fundamental characteristics with physical communities.

According to Peter Block (2008), “community” at the core is the experience of belonging. Block explains the word “belong” carries two meanings. Firstly, “belonging” is to be related to and to be a part of something. Secondly, “belonging” has to do with being an owner, acting as a creator and co-creator of the community.

Both of these meanings are important in the web-based community just as they are in a physical community.  Ultimately, simply having a username/password combination to login to an online space signifying membership does not create community. The username/password may be the first step for a user to become related with a web-based community, but the ability to be a creator within that community is also important.

Before any technology is installed, it is critical to examine the purpose of the web-based community along with the ways participants will create and co-create within that community.

What is the end experience like for participants in this web-based community? How will they be able to be creators within this community? How will the community leadership maintain open dialog? How will the community leadership deal with participants steering dialog in new directions, perhaps in directions the community leadership had not anticipated? How will the dialog begin within the community among participants? Who will be the first voices? What features of the web-based community are conducive to generating the experience of belonging?

It can be challenging to match the hopes and dreams for a web-based community with technical functionality and feasibility of rapidly evolving web-based tools, but establishing time for discovery is important for the future leaders of the web-based community, before any technology takes root. Obtaining an outside perspective of a consultant can be helpful to the initial creators of a web-based community by creating the space for exploring the vision for the community.

Web communication strategy consultants, such as those at Kosovich Media Group, perform a “Client Needs Analysis” at the beginning of every project with clients to provide the opportunity to explore the vision for web-based communities before rushing technical solutions (Kosovich Media Group, 2011). It can be tempting to rush into a project with an exciting piece of technology on hand, but taking time to explore the vision and needs for the community with some sort of needs analysis can help create the right space to explore technology that best fits the purpose of the project, leading to a more successful implementation overall. Understanding the vision and culture of the proposed web-based community will inform the technical requirements.

The initial leaders of the web-based community need to examine some of the suggested questions to establish a base of information and expectations for evaluating technical options that exist.  Quickly trying to launch a web-based community without preliminary discussion and discovery time could lead to sustainability problems for the community over time because the experience of belonging for the future community members wasn’t addressed.

Opportunity in Action

With a common understanding about the meaning of the web-based community among the founding members, and an understanding about how they will be creators within the community, the stage is set for dialog to begin within the technical structure of the web-based community.

The technical structure can take place in many forms, from commercially available to open-source technology solutions. One popular open-source platform on which a web-based community can be built is called the “Joomla!” content management system (Kosovich, 2007).

There are thousands of commercial and open-source modules and components available for the “Joomla!” content management system. Once such component called “JomSocial” contains features that support both definitions of Block’s (2008) belonging.

The web-based community framework of “JomSocial” provides the ability for users to have a personalized username/password combination to access the web-based community. This helps to satisfy some aspects of one of Block’s (2008) definitions of “belonging” – to be related to and to be a part of something. This username/password is the link for someone to enter the web-based community. It provides the access to similarly minded people in an online space. It is the key to engaging in the dialog within that community.

Within the “JomSocial” framework, after a user logs in, the ability to satisfy Block’s (2008) second definition of “belonging” – to be a creator and co-creator of the community. After login, the user, now a participant and citizen of the web-based community, has a variety of options to be a creator within that community.

The user is able to create a personal profile page sharing information with other members of the community. The user is also able to send “friend requests” that establish relationships with the web-based community (JomSocial, 2011).

To engage in dialog, users can participate in text-based discussion threads, chats, post comments, upload images, and link to videos in various discussion groups within the web-based community.

Users also have the ability to create new groups within the web-based community and entirely new vectors of dialog. These groups and the dialog within them provide for the creation of new information, not anticipated by the founding members of the web-based community. This represents a key part of Block’s (2008) second definition of belonging. Users are not just co-creators in existing, defined groups setup by the founding web-based community members, the users have the ability to create entirely new opportunities for dialog within the community.  

Sustainable Opportunity

Sustaining the opportunity for new dialog and idea cultivation within the web-based community in the long term is a blend of offline communication planning and online technical consideration.

Having a common understanding among the founding members of the web-based community who took the time to establish goals and expectations for the community is an important first step. Identifying a technical solution that facilitates the experience of belonging is another critical part of establishing a web-based community.

Acquiring new and retaining web-based community members requires ongoing effort and exploration throughout the existence of the community. The founding members of the web-based community may evolve into leadership roles moderating some dialog within the community or evolve into leadership roles that maintain the integrity of the open dialog space within the community over time.

Khe Foon Hew (2009) notes several determinants such as willingness to share knowledge, high quality content, and technology play a role in the success of a web-based community. Hew also noted that well-known authors or conference speakers along with high boundary crossing were antecedents to high quality content.

Over time, as the web-based community evolves the founding members, along with new community members need to relentlessly engage one another within the community and invite new voices to join the dialog.

Hew (2009) further notes it is important for community moderators to continually engage in the web-based community to support the development of high quality content. As new members join the community, moderators are able to elicit more information from the new user by sending welcome messages and helping the new user to experience that sense of belonging Block (2009) speaks about.

Planning ahead among the founding members of the web-based community can help reduce “moderator fatigue” (Hew, 2009) that could happen when community members designated with a moderator role become overwhelmed or disinterested in the duties of a moderator over time.

Hsiu-Fen Lin and Gwo-Guang Lee (2006) cite the reliability, access convenience, and ease of use as criteria that influence the acquisition and retention of web-based community members.

Choosing the right technical platform for a community is important because the platform can impact all of these criteria particularly over time. As technology rapidly evolves, it is important for the community to evolve with the behaviors and expectations of the community members.

An “off-the-shelf” commercially available and proprietary technical solution may serve the needs of a web-based community today, but modifying that system over time may be challenging or impossible depending on licensing restrictions on the software used to create the community. This could negatively effect the ease of use for community members.

Alternatively, an open-source technical solution may provide unlimited opportunity for modification, but it may lack the support required by the leaders of the web-based community to keep the community stable and secure. This could negatively effect the reliability of the community over time.

Ideally the issues of reliability, access convenience, and ease of use will be considered during the initial discovery phases as the founding members vision the web-based community before any technical implementation occurs. However, even the best planning and forethought will not be able to anticipate every aspect of the evolving web-based community over time. Again, engaging an outside perspective early in the web-based community development through the use of web communication strategy consultation could help the web-based community leaders focus on cultivating the experience of belonging within the community.

Conclusion

There have been an increasing number of web-based community platform software alternatives available. Many or these model popular social media features and attributes. There is opportunity to expand open dialog access with these web-based communities to help explore potential solutions and alternatives to problems that exist today.

However, it is important for founders and developers of web-based communities to not strictly focus on the technical components. Purely technical features and gadgets cannot produce the experience of belonging by themselves. The experience of belonging in a community requires the input of people and the relationships that develop among those people.

The most successful web-based communities have an understanding of the people and behaviors of the future community members and match these characteristics with the most appropriate technology available.

Additionally, the founding members of the web-based communities also devise plans for sustaining the community relating to both the technical and the content – there are plans to upgrade and update the community over time and plans to engage community members to facilitate dialog.

It is the understanding of the dynamics of the technology and the experience of belonging that best position web-based community leaders to cultivate meaningful dialog that lead to ownership and action by the citizens.

References

Block, P. (2008). Community: The structure of belonging. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Hew, K. F. (2009). Determinants of success for online communities: an analysis of three communities in terms of members’ perceived professional development. Behaviour & Information Technology, 28(5), 433-445.

International Monetary Fund. (2008). Globalization: A Brief Overview. Retrieved from the International Monetary Fund web site: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2008/053008.htm

JomSocial. (2011). Introducing open source social networking software. Retrieved from http://www.jomsocial.com/overview.html

Kosovich, C. A. (2007). Globalization and glocalization: Leveraging technological tools to serve the common good. Interreligious Insight: A Journal of Dialog and Engagement, 5(4), 72-81.

Kosovich Media Group. (2011). Client Needs Analysis. Fishers, IN: Kosovich Media Group

Lin, H. F., & Lee, G. G. (2006). Determinants of success for online communities: An empirical study. Behaviour & Information Technology, 25(6), 479-488.

Mofid, K., & Kirabaev, N. (2011).  The significance of self-perception, moral, education and renewing the systems of education. Retrieved from the Rhodes Forum web site: http://www.rhodesforum.org/2011-panel-5

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