1) Online communities can foster social connections, support, and information sharing. Research shows that developing attachment to an online community and its host leads to greater loyalty. 2) Studies of social networking sites like Pathable and place-based networks like CoCollage found that increased participation correlated with stronger professional networks, sense of community, and place attachment over time. 3) When hosting an online community, clear expectations, seeding with desired members, inviting people, participating in discussions, and moderation can help the community thrive, as measured by conversation levels and return rates.

1. Online Community Matters
Shelly D. Farnham, Ph.D.
March 5, 2009
Panel -- IABC
Pathable.com

2. Research and Development
Prototyping
Design
meeting social goals
Deployment &
Study
Evaluation
Target Users Party report
w ith address
9%
Request 1%
Bond Building
Importance of Information in 15%
selecting chat partner
7
Party Report
41%
6 Question
16%
5
Rank
4 Rating
Similarity
Interacts with friends Invitation 18%
3
Ratings by friends
2
1
0

3. Why Interact Online?
anyone, anytime, anyplace, all together
Information
Connection
Support

4. Teen Panel
Our questions

How do teens use technology in their day-to-day lives?

Questionnaire (18 students)

PowerPoint “Diary” (5 presentations)

Over one week, document social and collaborative activities

 Screenshots, pictures from cell phone camera
Focus on typical use and how usage might be different than other

age groups

5. Technology Usage for Social Life
Importance of Tech for Social Life
Cell phone -- text
Cell phone -- voice
Social Networking Sites
Instant Messaging
Email - one to one
Blogs
Email - one to many
Landline phone
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Importance

6. Socializing and Planning
Social Event Planning
I am able to create
groups to invite people to
I can add members
new events.
I have created a Salsa in
Seattle group for teens to
Write messages for
learn and dance salsa.
all members
I use: Facebook and
Yahoo email as my
means to setting up
social events

7. Why Host a Community?
Reason #1:

Social media is about dialogue

Not enough time to engage in 1:1 dialogue

Your community members will carry the

conversation for you

8. Why Host a Community?
Reason #2:

Person Develops Develops
Joins Attachment Attachment
Hosted to and Loyalty
Community Community to Host

9. Pathable:
Social Networking and Community Development for Events

10. Pathable User Behavior Over Time
Figure 9. Life cycle of Pathable activity before, during and after event

11. Pathable BarCamp Seattle Study
Questions:

how important is social networking and community

development at events?
can Pathable help?

BarCamp Seattle is a free, two-day conference

held for Web 2.0 community
280 people registered for the event using

Pathable
78 people total (76% male and 24% female)

completed the questionnaire, 18 at the event
and 60 afterwards online

12. Primary Goal in Coming to Event
Figure 6. People came to BarCamp Seattle primarily to meet others.

13. Attachment and Loyalty to the Event
Predictors People's Intention to Come Back to Event
.80
.70
(statistically significant if > .30)
Correlation Coefficient
.60
.50
Intention
.40
to Come
.30 Back:
Next Year
.20
.10
.00

14. Impact on Professional Network
Figure 7. The more peopel use Pathable, the more people they consider professional friends or
colleagues.

15. Impact on Attachment and Sense of
Community
Figure 8. The more people used pathable, the greater their sense of attachment on the
identity factor, and the more their sense of community.

16. Strands CoCollage:
Place-based Networking and Community Development
Goal: facilitate networking

and community in a “third
place”
Prototype: Community

collage display with online
photo sharing
Deployment study:

Questionnaire at Time
1 and Time 2 (~six
weeks apart)
At Time 1: sense of

community and
attachment to coffee shop
strongly correlated

17. Impact on Place Attachment
CoCollage Users' had More Place Attachment at Time 2
6.4
6.2
Place Attachment -- Dependency
6
5.8
5.6
5.4
5.2
Time 1 Time 2

18. Impact on Neighboring
CoCollage Users' had More a Sense of quot;Neighboringquot; at Time 2
3.5
3
2.5
Sesne of Community -- Neighboring
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Time 1 Time 2

19. On Hosting a Community
How to host a community:

Create an environment where a group people may talk to each

other
Facebook groups, mailing lists, messaged boards, Ning

Tips for nurturing:

 Set clear expectations for appropriate behavior
 Seed the community with desired types of people/ behavior
 Invite lots of people
 Be a part of the conversation
 Use moderation tools
Measuring success:

 Count
1:20:80 – for every 1 person talking, usually 20 members and 80

lurkers
Return rate
