advisory report project wikipilot community building

8/7/2019 Advisory Report Project Wikipilot Community Building

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Project Wikipilot

Communitybuilding

Authors:Paul GoedhartSandra PotgiesserTjebbe ZijlstraJana SagerRobert Klooster

Kerry MooneHendrik VeenstraShardee de RoosGerben Piter IJedema

Study course: Information Services (specialisation)Course code: IFS


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Date: 19 January 2011


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Education: Media & Information managementPlace, date: Groningen, 19 January 2011


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Summary

Desk researchThere are three different categorize of communities; Social-, Professional- andCommercial communities. Each can be divided into two types. A social

community consists of relationship building and communities that focus onentertainment. A professional community is business established and can bedivided into expert networking and learning types. The last category ofcommunities is the commercial community, which can be divided into Business toBusiness (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) types .The fundamental parts of a community can be described as follow: content,community manager and budget. High quality content is a reason for members tocome back to a community.Regular participation on the community is important, especially in the start-upstage.Communities have to be kept active and maintained, this can be done by thecommunity manager. Characteristics of a community manager are; intermediate,facilitator, administrator and relationship manager. Being the representative of acommunity requires certain qualities such as patience, dedication, determination,passion, maturity, proactively or curiosity. The community manager isresponsible for interaction between members and the company. Communitymanager responses are necessary to stimulate community growth and userparticipation. Besides these tasks, four activities can be distinguished;facilitation, content, evangelism and innovation.Several costs need to be taken into consideration when building a communityand investments need to be made for managing the community. Increase ofrevenue by the community is often immeasurable. Return Of Investments (ROI)of an online community are not solemnly determined by financial benefits. To

measure other benefits (new customers/customer loyalty) goals need to be setand critiques need to be used.To make an online community a success, several parts of the community need tobe kept healthy. An online community can be divided into members, content,traffic, responsiveness, topic interaction and liveliness. These topics can lead toachieving community and company goals. A community health index can give anoverview of the subjects that need special attention.Crowdsourcing can help a company solve problems by using the public (crowd).Crowdsourcing is a quick and cheap way of solving problems which will give acompany insight in customer desires. A successful crowdsourcing project relieson five conditions; problem statement, network of people, rewarding participants,reactions and usage of obtained information.

Two types of motivation can be distinguished namely intrinsic and extrinsicmotivation. The difference between the two is the reason why people aremotivated to participate. Intrinsic motivation describes the satisfaction someonegets from executing an activity. Extrinsic motivation describes what someoneneeds (money or grades) to get satisfaction from executing an activity. Contentand usability of a community are important to attract and retain members and tomotivate them to contribute on the community.Members have to be the centre of the community. Besides content placed by acompany or other companies, members are the creators of content. Thecommunity life cycle describes the development of a system in stages.Communities arise in different stages; inception, creation, growth, maturity anddeath. Furthermore, there are several reasons why a community can fail:members become inactive, not enough new members , no updated profiles, nobudget, incapable community managers, too much trust in technology, no


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strategic planning and managing, incapable community starters and unclearadded value.

Potential end-usersMariners use the Internet for two reasons; leisure and professional use. The mostcommonly used online software services are; email, RSS, social media, newsservices, online learning tools, weather services and websites regardingprofessional information. The survey described what content mariners would liketo see and share on a platform; general information about the maritime industry,maritime related information, information about sailing and information aboutother ships.Social media platforms are visited frequently by the mariners. By far the mostused social media networks are Facebookand Skype. Most mariners use theInternet to keep in contact with their family and friends at home. Informationshared on the community platform needs strict monitoring and content on thecommunity platform should be exclusive . Anyone associated with professionalshipping should be able to join the community. To make the online community

platform a success it is important to create a strong network.

ExpertsFour factors of an online community are information, members, activities andmarket. These define the type of community and the environment it operates in.An online platform can be created by using the so called three layered structure,which consists of federation, communities and workgroups. The essence of thethree layered structure is knowledge exchange.The decision of an open or closed community depends on the goals of thecommunity. An open community gives people a chance to participate and gaininformation on activities. A closed community gives the community manager abetter opportunity to monitor the members on the platform.When building a community five factors should be considered; management,users, growth, content and platform. For the benefit of crowdsourcing three stepsneed to be considered; listing, connecting and interacting. Exclusivity of an onlinecommunity is important to create added value for community members. This canbe done by linking communities or existing accounts.When using social media it is important to know where customers are on theInternet and how they can be reached. Fan page gives the customer theopportunity to learn more about the company and create a two waycommunication possibility between customers and the company.


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Preface

The study, which has been conducted and completed within a outstanding timeof five months, is an excellent example of cooperative endeavour amongst anumber of institutions and organisations in the northern part of the Netherlands .This study was established during the specialization Information Services which ispart of the Faculty of Communication & Media at the Hanze University of AppliedSciences, Groningen.The study is realized in an international context and involves professional thirdparties. The end results of the conducted research will be presented in thisadvisory report.Advice will be given in this advisory report to the company Xabout communitybuilding concerning the Wikipilot project. The Wikipilotproject is a collaborationof many different parties to realise an online platform for mariners to exchangenautical data.

Special thanks to the following parties for helping with the realisation of thisadvisory report:

The director of the company X Frank Willems; project initiator Dirk Jan Hummel; innovation advisor Riet Grevelink; project coordinator Jan Balj; information technology coordinator Josef Sennekool; information services coordinator Loes Damhof; English teacher Sander Polhuijs; project group coordinator

IT-students of Hanze University; application developers

A special thanks to our five amazing field experts for their incredible insights: Greald Henstra; crowdsourcing expert Martine Blok; entrepreneur and social media expert Jan van Bon; community development expert Fleur Graper; communication and social media expert Richard Millington; community building expert

Also special thanks to the customers ofcompany X,, Facebookgroup Seafarersand the seafarers school at Delfzijl:

Abel Tasman Seafarers school; future end users Facebookgroup Seafarers; current end users


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Table of contentsINTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1

TERMINOLOGY ..............................................................................................4

1.0. DESK RESEARCH......................................................................................6

1.1. COMMUNITYTYPES............................................................................................................81.1.1. Social orientation..............................................................................................81.1.2. Professional orientation.....................................................................................81.1.3. Commercial orientation.....................................................................................9

1.2. FUNDAMENTALPARTSOFACOMMUNITY.....................................................................................91.2.1. Content.............................................................................................................91.2.3. Budget............................................................................................................13

1.3. HEALTHOFANONLINECOMMUNITY.......................................................................................141.3.1. Members.........................................................................................................151.3.2. Content...........................................................................................................151.3.3. Traffic..............................................................................................................15

1.3.4. Responsiveness...............................................................................................161.3.5. Interaction.......................................................................................................161.3.6. Liveliness........................................................................................................171.3.7. Community health index.................................................................................18

1.4. VALUABLEFUNCTIONSOFSOCIALMEDIAPLATFORMSFORPROFESSIONALCOMMUNITIES...............................191.5. HOWCANCROWDSOURCINGBEUSEDFORASUCCESSFULCOMMUNITY.................................................20

1.5.2. Five conditions................................................................................................201.6. MOTIVATION, PARTICIPATIONANDSTIMULATION..........................................................................21

1.6.5. Summary........................................................................................................231.8. SUCCESSFULPROFESSIONALCOMMUNITY..................................................................................26

1.8.1. Success...........................................................................................................261.8.2. Online Communities Life Cycle........................................................................271.8.3. Fail..................................................................................................................28

2.1. ONLINEMARINERCOMMUNITIES............................................................................................322.1.1. Online platforms communities........................................................................32

2.1.1.1. ActiveCaptain.........................................................................................................322.1.1.2. VisitMyHarbour.......................................................................................................34

.................................................................................................................................342.1.1.3. TeamSurv...............................................................................................................352.1.1.4. Oceanuslive............................................................................................................362.1.1.5. Overview................................................................................................................37

2.1.2. Online Wiki communities.................................................................................392.1.2.1. Yachtpilot...............................................................................................................392.1.2.2. Captainwiki.............................................................................................................402.1.2.3. Skipperguide..........................................................................................................41

2.1.2.4. Overview................................................................................................................422.1.3. Social platform communities...........................................................................432.1.3.1. Facebook communities...........................................................................................432.1.3.2. LinkedIn communities.............................................................................................44

2.2 COLIN JENKINS SEAFARERS ..............................................................................................452.3 ONLINESURVEY; FACEBOOKGROUP SEAFARERS......................................................................472.4 STUDENTS (ABEL TASMAN)................................................................................................49

3.0. EXPERTS...............................................................................................52

3.2. OPENORCLOSED...........................................................................................................56

4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................62

4.1. ENDCONCLUSION...........................................................................................................62

REFERENCES................................................................................................68


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Introduction

Nautical information is of great value for mariners at sea. Information aboutchanges that take place at sea should therefore be exchanged as soon aspossible, so that each person at sea can be well-informed about the currentsituation. Changes at sea, known as nautical data, currently get registered andexchanged by a system called Navtexor the old fashionedway, sent by mail.The Navtexsystem has one disadvantage, it's a static system. This system worksby using radio waves and is only usable within a certain region. Sending nauticalchanges by mail also has a disadvantage, it takes weeks before any changes arenoticeable for the end users of the sea charts.The Internet could be a good mean for exchanging nautical data at sea due to itsaccessibility and usability. An important aspect of exchanging importantinformation through the Internet is having a well-structured online communitysupporting this information exchange. Changes would immediately be madevisible for all members within the community of the shipping industry. The

changes will be made available by members of and for members of thecommunity.

The Wikipilotproject was founded for the benefit of starting a professional onlinecommunity focused on the shipping industry for exchanging up-to-date nauticaldata.. The Wikipilotidea originated from the fact that distribution of up-to-dateinformation is very time consuming at this moment. It should be possible to keepeach other well-informed with the latest changes by sharing this informationwithin an online community. By using this community everyone will be keptinformed with important aspects related to nautical safety. Furthermore, it givesvessels (crewmembers) the opportunity to stay in contact with each other.

Company Xstarted a collaboration with the Hanze University of Applied Sciencesfor the first phase of the Wikipilotproject. The project initiators Franks Willemsand Riet Grevelink used their network to determine which education's would beessential to the Wikipilotproject. As a result the specializations Agile SoftwareDevelopmentand Information Services were chosen to be involved in theWikipilotproject. The Information Technology students from the specializationAgile Software Developmentwere asked to develop several web applications.Besides the IT students, several students from the specialization InformationServices are involved in doing a study related to setting up a professional onlinecommunity and managing it. The cooperation between the different parties anddisciplines was guided by Sander Polhuijs, who is a student from the study courseHuman Technology.

Our study is divided into two categories, desk research and field research. Aninvestigation will be conducted about community building and the end users ofthe Wikipilotproject (i.e. people within the shipping industry). These two topicswere the guidelines for the research questions. The conducted study which wascompleted by the project group "Clearys" will be processed as a advisory reporttowards company X. The advice consists of how to build and manage an onlinecommunity.

The project group Clearys of the specialization Information Services has takenresponsibility concerning the first phase of the desk- and field research of the

Wikipilotproject. A problem statement has been formed for the Wikipilotprojectin combination with several research questions for guiding the study into

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community building.

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The problem statement is as follows:How can an environment be created that an facilitate a professional communityof mariners which can be used for crowdsourcing with ambition of exchangingnautical data among community members

The goal of this study is to give advice to company Xon the 19th of January 2011concerning the Wikipilotproject on how to build and manage an onlinecommunity . This advice will be based on the conducted expert interviews, deskresearch and field research.

The following model shows the methodology that will be used as a basis for theconducted study.

Figure 1. Research methodology model

The model above is translated as follows:

(A) A study will be conducted with regards to community building, crowdsourcingand mariners (end users). This will help us distinguish what type of communitywill be suitable for company X, how company Xcan build and manage thatcommunity, who the end-users are and how they can be motivated to activelyparticipate on the community. (B) To discover this information, users will beinterviewed where a distinction will be made between current users and futureusers (marine school). Furthermore, several experts will be interviewed who havedifferent specialties to get a broad view of basic and specific community building,crowdsourcing and user information (see chapter 5.2). Also, several books andwebsites (see chapter 5.1) will be analysed to get a better understanding ofcrowdsourcing and community building. (C) The study results will be analysedwhich will result in an advisory report (D).

This advisory report consists of the following components: Terminology Desk research End user conclusion Expert interview conclusions End conclusion Recommendations

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Terminology

Community health index: Helps to investigate where special attention in anonline community is needed.

Community manager: This is a relatively new function that is still undergoingheavy developments. There is no standard definition of what a communitymanager exactly is yet.

Community platform: The online community platform is a tool that allowspeople to share knowledge and interpretations. The interaction betweencommunity members is moderated with guidelines and protocols, but there is noofficial compact with members.

Content: Everything that is included in a collection and that is held or included

in something For media and publishing this means: content is information andexperiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specificcontexts. (Content, 2010).

Creators: An initial workgroup of people within a community that place contenton a platform in order for the community to start functioning.

Crowdsourcing: Creating solutions for problems or creating ideas with a largegroup of people. The best outcome is created by a diverse group of people withdifferent expertises.

Extrinsic motivation: This is motivation determined outside a person. Examples

of extrinsic motivation can be rewards, money, grades and threat of punishment.Extrinsic motivation can be internalized if the task fits with someones morals andbeliefs and therefore helps to accomplish their basic psychological needs.

Inactive (lurker): Most common Internet user. Uses basic social media toolssuch as photo search.

Intrinsic motivation: Describes that a task is performed because people getsatisfaction from the activity. It indicates that people undertake a task for theirneed or satisfaction or for their own sake. Borst states that examples of intrinsicmotivations are fun or learning.

Online Communities Life Cycle: Describes the development and exploitationof a system. In general the model stated that every system has to follow thesame process without missing a stage.

Online community: A community consists of people that share the sameinterests and have the need to talk about the same discussion topics. Members ofa community have a social connection with each other. An online community is agroup of people that share those interests and discussions on the Internet withinan online community platform.

Return of investments: A performance measure used to evaluate the

efficiency of investment to compare the efficiency of a number of investments.

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The calculate ROI the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost ofthe investment; the results is expressed as a percentage or ratio.

Professional community: A professionally oriented community is businessestablished.

Unique selling point: The feature that makes a product or brand stand outfrom others.

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1.0. Desk research

The following chapter describes the results of the desk research. Two definitionsare given to get a better understanding of the subjects that are described in thischapter.

Definition of an online communityA community consists of people that share the same interests and feel the needto talk about the same discussion topics. Members of a community have a(social) connection with each other. An online community is a group of peoplethat share interests and discussions on the Internet within an online communityplatform. An online community platform is a tool that allows people to shareknowledge and interpretations. The interaction between community members ismoderated with guidelines and protocols, but there is no official agreement withmembers.An online community can be used for discussions, building relationships,

maintaining business goals and a stronger relationship between companies andtheir customers. (Atkinson, n.d.)(Borst, 2010)(OMahony & Ferraro, 2007)(Porter,2006)

Definition of crowdsourcingCrowdsourcing is creating solutions for problems or creating ideas with a largegroup of people. The best outcome is created by a diverse group of people withdifferent expertises. The crowd thinks about a certain subject and interact witheach other to reach the best answer or solution. Companies can usecrowdsourcing for advise, innovation and improvement of products. (Wat is, n.d.)(Borst, 2010)(Kuipers, 2009)(Drewes, 2009)(Condron, 2010)

The first paragraph 1.1 Community typesdescribes the different types ofcommunities using a model created by Ursula Markus in 2002. This model waschosen because it has a clear and concrete structure.

Furthermore, there are several parts that are fundamental for having a successfulcommunity. The different elements are described in paragraph 1.2 Fundamentalparts of a community. The parts are content, community manager and budget.

To keep a community healthy the following factors need to be considered: Members Content

Traffic Responsiveness Topic interaction Liveliness

These factors are explain in the paragraph 1.3 Health of an online community.

Different types of social media functions can be used in a professionalcommunity. The types useful for a community are mentioned in the section 1.4Valuable functions of social media platforms for professional communities.

Not only social media are important to create a successful community, but alsocrowdsourcing. How crowdsourcing can be used in a successful community isexplained in paragraph 1.5.

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It is important to keep users motivated and stimulated to participate on acommunity. This is stated in the section 1.6 Motivation, participation andstimulation.Rewarding is a way to motivate and stimulate users to participate on acommunity. This approach is explained in paragraph 1.7 Rewarding.

Several factors determine how a community can be started successfully. Theseare described by using the community life cycle model. However, there are somefactors that can cause a community to fail. These all are described in paragraph1.8 Successful professional community.

In numerous previous paragraphs factors of a successful community aredescribed. In addition to the previously mentioned factors paragraph 1.9Building an online communitywill describe how a community can be built.

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1.1. Community typesDifferent types of communities can be distinguished. This model was chosenbecause it has a clear and concrete structure. Ursula Markuss model (2002)divides virtual communities in three orientations namely, social, professional and

commercial. Secondly, every orientation is divided into two types.

Figure 2. Ursula Markus model

Source: http://www.aitdspace.gr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/176/AhmadAlMadadhaThesisFinal.pdf?sequence=1

1.1.1. Social orientation

The two types of the social orientation are: theme communities that focus onrelationship building and social communities that focus on entertainment.

Relationship building and EntertainmentThe main goal of a relationship community is building relationships with othercommunity members. Usually a relationship community is built around a certaintheme, for example sports, illness, politics or environment. Because everymember is connected to another, members feel related to a group this enhancesmember involvement. Examples are Studenten.netand Ajax network(Football).

The goal of an entertainment community is socializing, which is done by sharingfor example profiles, pictures and videos. Entertainment communities are mostpopular and have the highest amount of members. The communities mainlyfocus on communicating with friends, acquaintances and strangers about verydiverse topics. Examples are Facebookand Hyves. (Markus, 2002) (Soorten

communities, 2010)(Pieters, Van Brienen & Brinkman, 2008)(AlMadadha, 2008)

1.1.2. Professional orientation

A professionally oriented community is business established. The two types thatcan be distinguished are, expert network and learning community.

Expert network and LearningThe aim of an Expert Network is primarily on a professional target group thatcan be divided into two categories;

1. Experts that share information and knowledge who can work on a projecttogether.

2. As a social platform where member profiles serve as an online CV.Examples are LinkedIn and Xing.

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Another type of Expert Network is an internal community that focuses on theinternal organization. The community is created to enhance information sharingby employees of a company. The goal of the community is improvingcommunication between employees and optimizing accessibility of companyinformation. Examples are KLM: Costumer relation managementand CafEurope.

A learning community focuses on learning from the community. The targetgroups of an learning community are students and people who want to share andexpand their knowledge. An online learning environment can be created wherepeople can listen to online lectures and share as well as gain information,assignments, projects and research related to a certain study. An EducationCommunity can be described as a combination of an expert- and internalcommunity. Examples are INHOLLAND Blackboard (online learning environment)and Fontys highschool portal. (Markus, 2002) (Soorten communities, 2010)(Pieters, Van Brienen & Brinkman, 2008)(AlMadadha, 2008)

1.1.3. Commercial orientation

The two types that the commercial orientation has, are business community andconsumer community.

Business-to-Business (B2B)Business to business communities can be divided into two parts. The first focuseson people and businesses sharing information and knowledge on a businesslevel. The second is created to stimulate cooperation between companies for thepurpose of gaining revenue or locating business partners. Examples are KLMClubs (China, Africa) and Covisint Automotive (Collaboration portal).

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)Business-to-consumer communities are created and managed by businesses, thecommunity supports a product or brand. The purpose of a Business-to-Consumercommunity is increasing sales and performing cost saving market analysis. Anexample is LEGO Club. (Markus, 2002)(Soorten communities, 2010)(Pieters, VanBrienen & Brinkman, 2008)(AlMadadha, 2008)

1.2. Fundamental parts of a communityThe following paragraph describes what content is fundamental for having asuccessful community. The chapter explains how content can be used as a tool,what content is in the start-up stage of the community and gives ideas forcontent on a community. Several sources have been used to complete thischapter which are listed below each paragraph.

1.2.1. Content

Content can be described as: everything that is included in a collection and thatis held or included in something. For media and publishing this means: contentis information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audiencein specific contexts. In this chapter content is used to sum up information in theform of posts, uploads, articles, responses or movies. High quality content can bedescribed as content that is useful for a variety of community members. It shouldgenerate responses and new high quality content. (Content, 2010)

Content as a tool

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Content on a community can be seen as a tool, like ratings, reviews andfeedback. When content is posted on a community, people will go back to readthe content or read related content. This is more likely to happen on acommunity, than on the open web. When people search by using a searchengine, websites chosen to gain information are chosen at random and willtherefore differ for each search. In other words, when searching with a searchengine, an overload of results is given which leads to someone not alwayschoosing the same link for each search. When content is posted on a communityplatform, a solid place is created to store the content. Therefore people have theopportunity to choose from selected content. (deGeyter, 2007)

Content in the beginning of a communityWhen starting a community it is important to have high quality content. This isneeded to convince potential members to join the community. In the start-upstage there will only be a small group active on the community platform. It isimportant that this group posts content on the community platform and remainsdoing so on a daily basis, especially in the start-up stage of the community.

(Reed, 2007)

Another essential matter is that the content posted on the community platformshould demonstrate the communication objectives of the company. Therefore thecommunication of a company on a community platform should have the samepurpose as the communication via others channels. Furthermore thecommunication should have the same intention as the company objectives ingeneral. (Rhinesmith, 2010)

Ideas for content on a communityWhen owning a community it is important to invite experts to writeguestblogposts. This helps create high quality content on the community.

Another way is letting members of the community give their opinion. This couldbe done by using a rotation scheme. (Millington, 2010a)

Member created content is very important but should not be the only content.When a company has a community it is important for a company to post originalcontent like whitepapers or case studies.(Need content, 2009)

1.2.2. Community managerThe role of a community manager can be described as: A growing anddeveloping profession. People in this position are working to build, grow and

manage communities around a brand or cause. (Online Community Manager,2010)

Community manager characteristicsNowadays nearly every company has an online community. These onlinecommunities differ per company and have to be kept active by maintaining them.Ideal for this task is a community manager. This is a relatively new function thatstill undergoes development stages. There is no standard definition of what acommunity manager exactly is but there are characteristics all communitymanagers have in common. (Reed, 2009)

The common characteristics are described below:

A community manager is the intermediate and facilitator between thebusiness (brand) and an online community. Important aspects are

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exchanging information, stimulating interaction and executing businessobjectives.

A community manager is the administrator of the online community withregards to managing the members, ensuring that the rules are followed,sending newsletters and managing and monitoring discussions.

The community manager stimulates and develops new relationshipsamongst members and ensures that the community members feelinvolved within the community. This is also known as the functionrelationship manager.

The community manager has to support and improve the cooperationbetween involved parties, enforcing business strategies, developingbusinesses and community objectives.

In short a community manager is responsible for all activities within thecommunity and is seen as the leader of the online community. (Morgan, 2009)(Wagenaar, 2010)(Grimes-Viort, 2010)(Owyang, 2006)(Derksen, 2007)(Reed,2009)(Fisher, 2010)

Important qualities of a community managerThe person occupying the function of community manager has to have certainqualities. This is important because he or she is the representative of the onlinecommunity. Important qualities being a community manager are as follows:

Patience;A community cannot be an overnight success because relationships arentbuilt overnight.

Dedication;A community manager has to truly believe in the community becausesometimes member participation can be overwhelming and at other times

it can be disappointing. Determination;

There is a high risk that the community targeted is already being targetedby existing communities. This should be seen as an opportunity, not athreat.

Passion;Money is a good initial motivator but community managers who arepassionate about their job are far more likely to succeed than moneydriven community managers.

Maturity;Always taking moral high ground is an essential quality of a community

manager. Community managers have to be mature and cool headedbecause they are often caught in the middle of member disputes.

Proactively;The community manager has to be aware of the wants and needs of thecommunity, and react accordingly. It is important to react fast otherwisecompetitors might steal community members.

Curiosity;A good community will repeatedly ask itself, community members and thecompany they work for questions in order to set new objectives. Theanswers to these questions are essential because they can help thecommunity improve on specific areas.

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Modesty;The emphasis has to be on the community members and not on thecommunity manager.

Empathy;The community manager needs to be a part of the community and the

community members need to be able to relate themselves to thecommunity manager.

Hard working;A community manager has to have high availability. It is not a nine to fivejob. (Reed, 2009)

The importance of a community managerSeveral factors have to be considered when starting an online community.Having a community manager that has the previously mentioned qualities is oneof these factors. The Internet is always available. Therefore it is necessary tohave someone who constantly monitors the community member discussions, aswell as postings about the company by external parties. The community managerhas to respond appropriately to all discussions. The community members and theexternal parties portray the community manager as the representative and thecontact person of the online community.Another important factor is content. The community manager has to post highquality content on a daily basis for the community members to read. This keepsthe community members motivated to come back. (Kloos, 2008)(Haiko, 2010)(Reed, 2010)Furthermore, growth is an essential factor. An online community that doesn'tgrow will slowly die.It shows that passive online communities that do not have a community managerhave less member growth and participation than online communities that do

have a community manager.(Humbarger, 2009)(Happe, 2010)(Askanase, 2010)(Silverton, 2010)

Community manager tasksThere are four community manager activities that can be distinguished from eachother. These are as follows:

Facilitation;A community manager is like a super user that stays in contact with thecommunity members, keeps track of active discussions and involvesadditional community members in these discussions.

Content;A community manager is responsible for updating the community platformwith fresh and regular content. The community platform does not generatethis content itself, it is done by the community members and managers.For example, a company can place content related to their products andservices on the community platform or a community member posts aninteresting video about a product of the company. Basically, the mainobjective of content on an online community platform is to informcommunity members, expand their participation and to start newconversations.

Evangelism;Another main activity that a community manager has to fulfil, is tell otherpersons (potential community members) on the Internet about the

company and the activities that happen on the online community platform.

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Not only customers should be enticed by the community manager toparticipate in the online community but also partners and employees.

Innovation;Innovation is an additional ingredient to the community managers task.The virtual world is always on the move, just like society is changing on a

daily basis. This means new technologies are continuously beingdeveloped and a different way of thinking by people are aspects thatconstantly have to be adopted by the community member and integratedin the community platform in order to keep it active and interesting.(Owyang, 2007)(Foster, 2009) (Online community, 2010)(Foster, 2007)(Grimes-Viort, 2010)

1.2.3. Budget

The following chapter will describe costs, budget and Return Of Investments(ROI). A distinction will be made between hard and soft costs. Furthermore, anoverview will be given of possible costs. When looking at Return Of Investmentstwo types of benefits are discussed namely monetary benefits and other

benefits. Finally, a list of critiques regarding before named benefits will be given.

Costs

Budget is essential when building an online community. Several costs areinvolved when building and managing an online community.Two types of costs can be distinguished, hard and soft costs. Hard costs consistsof costs spent on hardware, software and other technical parts needed to start anonline community. When companies do not have the opportunity to build thecommunity, an agency has to be hired to do so. Soft costs consists of timeinvestments made for the community.A substantial amount of the budget is needed for community management after

designing the community platform. This is needed to manage the community andachieve community success. Time investments are made when people, besidesthe community manager, have something to do with the community. An exampleof this is people working for the marketing department of a company who areinvolved in the marketing aspects of a community. (White, n.d.)(Cartigny, 2008)(Millington, 2010b)

Cost overviewAs described above the following costs have to be considered when building acommunity:

Design of the online community; Integration with other disciplines of the company; Training people in how to manage the online community; Project manager for the implementation of a community/social media; Community management;

IT support (costs for the IT infrastructure and support); Marketing and promotion of the online community website; Planning goals and policies for the community;

Software.(Petouhoff, 2009)

Budget

Often companies do not provide the community with an extensive budget, thisbecause it is unclear how investments will increase revenue which is often

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immeasurable. Return Of Investments can be expressed in money and otherbenefits for the company.Benefits for the company can be: recruiting new customers through thecommunity platform, gaining involvement in the community and the company.Involvement describes the trust people have in a company and the loyaltycustomers have to a brand.Members and customers involved in a company talk about their experience withothers. This cannot be measured in money but will give valuable benefits for thefuture. Benefits can be measured by comparing a companys current income withthe past income (past income, in the absence of a community). (White, n.d.)(Johnston, 2007)(Millington, 2010b)

Return Of InvestmentsMeasuring the Return Of Investments of an online community is different of theROI for a company. For an online community more extensive measurements areneeded besides financial benefits.Goals need to be set for an online community before it can be clear what should

be measured. Goals help define what makes an online community successful.Several critiques can judge if the community provides increased value for acompany. The critiques differ per company.When measuring the ROI qualitative and quantitative metrics can be used by acompany. An overall overview of gained revenues from the online community canbe created by using these metrics.(Johnston, 2007)(Rhodes, 2008)(Online community, 2008)(Johnston, 2007)

Critiques that could be important for measurement: Traffic and statistics; Member engagement;

Unique visitors; Member registrations; Member satisfaction and loyalty; Feedback and idea creation; User generated content; Transformation from inactive to active users;

Company and brand mentions on the Internet; Number of comments on posts;

Community value for a company.(Johnston, 2008)(Online community, 2008)

1.3. Health of an online communityTo be healthy, several parts of the body have to be taken care of. Looking at theanatomy of a body there are all kinds of organs that need special attention tokeep the whole body healthy. An online community can be seen as the anatomyof a human being. Several parts need to be taken care of to keep the communityhealthy. When one part of the community is neglected the community can getunhealthy. To make the online community a success the well-being of thecommunity has to be considered constantly, similar to people who have to takecare of their own well-being so they wont get sick. (Lithium Technologies, 2009)(Community Health Index, n.d.)(Maki, 2007a)

An online community can be divided in the following parts: Members;

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Content;

Traffic;

Responsiveness;

Topic interaction;

Liveliness.

1.3.1. Members

Members are the most important part of an online community. To measure thehealth of your community, you have to look at the growth of the community andits registrations. Growth is essential for a healthy online community. People joina community because they are interested in the subjects and because theybenefit from it . A healthy community is constantly growing, this growth can beincreased by inviting people who would like the articles on the community andfrom whom participation in a conversation is likely. (Membership growth, n.d)(Maki, 2007a)(DeLong, 2009)(Lithium Technologies, 2009)

1.3.2. ContentContent is important for both the members and the company. Members of theonline community want to read content that interests them and is up to date.Members are on the community platform because they benefit from the content.Besides the content from the company itself there will be user generatedcontent. This content is interesting for other members, but even more importantto the company. User generated content gives a company the opportunity to findout what people are talking about, what their opinion is of the company and itsproducts and services. If companies are aware of this they can use it to improvewhere needed.The online communitys health can be measured by the number of posts and

page views. The posts can give an overview on the involvement of the members.(Lithium Technologies, 2009) (Content, 2002)(W., 2010)

1.3.3. Traffic

Traffic rates of a community can show how popular an online community platformis. For companies it can be important to know what people are looking for on theInternet because then specific tags can be added to generate more traffic to anonline community platform. It is important to locate potential users on theInternet. If people are found who are interested in an online community and itscontent, recommendations can generate traffic amongst potential members.(How to increase, n.d.)(Maki, 2007b)(Lithium Technologies, 2009)(Barone, 2010)

Figure 3. Traffic ofTwitter

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Source: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/twitter.com

1.3.4. Responsiveness

Reponses on posts are important, but for the health of an online community timeis even more important. When responses are made in a short amount of time theconversation keeps going, when conversations take too long members will loseinterest and will not comment anymore. For a company it is very important torespond in a short amount of time, this to keep the customers of a companyhappy and it creates a possibility to decrease negative postings. Responsivenesscan be measured by the number of minutes it takes for people to respond topostings.Unanswered questions and no response to postings make a communityunhealthy. (Lithium Technologies, 2009)(Fisher, 2010)(Seddon, 2009)

1.3.5. Interaction

The basic goal of any community is interaction between members. The amount ofpostings can be measured, but this does not stated the number of interactions

between members because postings can come from the same members.Interaction between community members will be created by postings socialtopics for them to get to know each other. With social topics the number ofpeople joining the conversations can be measured. (Lithium Technologies, 2009)(Millington, 2010c)

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The figure below shows interaction on a community. It is a community aboutAruba where members of the community create social bonds by talking aboutexperiences on the island. As stated before it is important to create relationshipsbetween members to gain more involvement in the community.

Figure 4. Example of interaction on a community platform.Source: http://www.aruba.com/forum/

1.3.6. Liveliness

A community should have liveliness, this attracts people and motivates them tocome back to the community. The atmosphere of a community is reallyimportant, not only to motivate people to come back, but also for theparticipation on the community. People like to have the feeling they can talkabout everything they would like without others judging them. Conversations can

get out of control this causes an unhealthy community which people do not wantto join.

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The liveliness of a community can be measured by looking at the number ofposts on content of the community website. (Jagadesh, 2010)(LithiumTechnologies, 2009)(Carey, 2010)(Seddon, 2009)

1.3.7. Community health index

The community health index helps investigating where special attention in anonline community is needed. All the different parts of the community help acommunity to reach community goals and goals of a company. The communityhealth index is displayed infigure 5. The figure is an easy way to show thehealthiness of the community, an explanation of the figure is given below.

Figure 5. Community health index.

Source: http://www.lithium.com/pdfs/whitepapers/Lithium-Community-Health-Index_v1AY2ULb.pdf

The figure shows the health of a community on several times. The colour showswhich part of the community is healthy and which parts need special attention.The community in figure 5(part A) is unhealthy because of less liveliness and lateresponses. A company can make this community healthier by giving someattention to those subjects.

These subjects were about the healthiness of the community, but next to thesesubjects there are other factors that can be measured to establish how successfula community is. The things that make an online community successful have to bekept in mind just as the parts to stay healthy. (DeLong, 2009)

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1.4. Valuable functions of social media platforms forprofessional communities

Kornaat (2010) created a model that combines the Groundswell model of Bernoffand Li with the model of Brake and Safko. The model describes types of Internetusers and what type of social media tools should be used by type of user.

Seven different types of users can be distinguished, as can be seen on the leftside of the model(see Figure 6. Type of users vs. tools).The right side displays different social media tools. That is the part of Brake andSafko.The new model of Kornaat (2010) shows that an inactive (the common Internetuser) uses basic social media tools such as photo search. A creator uses asubstantial amount of different and more advanced social media tools such asMicroblogging.

Figure 6. Type of users vs. tools.

Source: http://blog.basemedia.nl/

Crowdsourcing is very important for certain projects. A distinction has to be madewith regards to what social media platforms are useful for what cause. Platformslike Twitterand Facebookare very usable for crowdsourcing. Twitterprovides theopportunity for asking questions by using a hashtag. This reaches a considerableamount of people. Facebookgives the opportunity to ask the opinions of friends.This is a great way of crowdsourcing and provides high quality results.For some projects, where location is important, Google maps can be usedbecause it is easy to implicate and adjusts to a person, or companies, wishes.Another advantages ofGoogle maps is the fact that changes on maps can beadded worldwide and has three different views. The world can be seen on a map,by a satellite or by using street view. An often overlooked benefit ofGoogle mapsis its simplicity. The application is free and easy to apply to a website or otheronline platforms. Furthermore, the application does not bother its user withunnecessary bells and whistles. There are plenty of examples to be found on theInternet of the implication ofGoogle Maps in other sites, such as:

Misdaadkaart.nl ; the site gives updates of violations and crimes in theNetherlands.

Marktkijker.nl; Marktkijker helps to find auctions, advertisements and otherdeals which are on sites like Ebayand Marktplaats.

Ing.nl; on this banks site, ATMs can be found in the Netherlands on a map.

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X-moment.com; with xmoment, appointments can easily be arranged andcontrolled on a map.

Iens.nl / dinnersite.nl; Dutch restaurants can be found by using a map.

1.5. How can crowdsourcing be used for a successful

communityCrowdsourcing is seen as a trend. However, the principles of crowdsourcing arenot that new. As a matter of fact crowdsourcing has existed for centuries. Thebasic principles of crowdsourcing are taking place when a group of people aremotivated to perform an activity for a certain person or goal.What is new, is that the term crowdsourcing was invented in June 2006 by JeffHowe. Howe mentioned the term in Wired magazine. In Wired he stated that thegap between amateurs and professionals has decreased because of current(Internet) technologies. For companies this process provides opportunities forusing the talents of the public. Jeff Howe states that this is not outsourcing butcrowdsourcing. Since talents of the public can be used, the following question

arises: how does crowdsourcing work?Crowdsourcing can be described as follows; problems are broadcasted to anunknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. The crowd,who are mostly in communities, give solutions which can be categorised until thebest solution is found. These best solutions will be used by the person thatbroadcasted the problem in the first place (the crowdsourcer). (Scheid, 2010)(Wordsmithbob, n.d.)(Howe, 2006)

1.5.1. Crowdsourcing benefitsWhen using crowdsourcing the following benefits can be perceived:

Problems can be explored very quickly;

It is very cheap, participants can be rewarded but this is not necessary inevery case;

An organization can tap into a wider range of talent than might be presentin its own organization;

Organizations can gain first-hand insights on their costumers desires, bylistening to the crowd;

The participant will get affinity with the organizations they are helping.(Crowdsourcin, n.d.)

1.5.2. Five conditions

Five conditions can be distinguished for having a successful crowdsourcing

project:Firstly, a clearly formulated question or problem statement has to be presentedto the crowd. The question or problem statement should be as concise aspossible.Secondly, a network of people is needed. However, it is not necessary to have anenormous amount of people on one network. It is important that the right peopleare reached with regards to a problem. A company should research how therelevant people can be reached and how they can be contacted. A great way toaccomplishing that is by creating a community where a persons expertise isneeded.Thirdly, a way to thank the people involved in the crowdsourcing project shouldbe considered. Usually, community members seek attention and appreciation,

which should be given to them. An example of doing so is by posting the tenmost valuable ideas on a blog or website. These types of rewards are called

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Related factors can also influence someones behaviour. For example, someonewould like to be more active on a community but does not have a lot of time. Aswas described by Borst & Ende who wrote the paper Effects of motivation andrewards on participation and performance in voluntary activities in onlinecommunities (hereafter referred to as motivation study) it can be assumed thatpeople with high intrinsic motivation will be motivated by not having rewards.This is because completing the activity is fun for them. They like to do theactivity by themselves and because of that, they will not like external factors, likerewards, to push them into doing that activity. (Vansteenkiste, 2004)( Borst &Ende,2010)(Amabile, Hennessy & Tighe, 1994)

People with high extrinsic motivation will be motivated by rewards They willperform less when rewards are not there. Furthermore, for extrinsicallymotivated people their intrinsic motivation will be affected when there are norewards. For extrinsically motivated people not having rewards will mean theactivity is not important which will then lead to less intrinsic motivation. However,it does not work like that the other way around. Rewards will not stimulate them

to participate more because they feel that having rewards is normal.

When working with extrinsically motivated people it is important to find the typeof reward that motivates them to participate. When that type of reward isoffered, it will stimulate that person to participate because participation leads togetting the reward.

The following figure will further explain what was described above

Figure 7. Extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation

Source: http://www.nwo.nl/files.nsf/pages/NWOP_84SCLB/$file/Ende_Effects.pdfFullreport

For online communities two types of rewards are common, financial rewards andrecognition. Needless to say financial rewards are prizes (in money) for goodcontributions. This can also be in the form of gifts. A ratings system gives peersthe ability to rate an extrinsically motivated person. A rating system measuresthe number of contributions and their usefulness. A wall of fame can be createdfor the most active users which is a recognition reward that will increase

someones status. (Antoniadis & Le Grand, 2007)(Harper, 2007)

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1.6.4. EventsEvents can also influence someones participation levels on a community. Thereare two types of events; personal- and non-personal events. Personal events canbe birthdays or anniversaries. Non personal events can be for example the worldcup, before and during the event participation levels increase.

1.6.5. Summary

Four factors were described that affect online community motivation,participation and stimulation: content, usability, type of motivation and events.Content is supposed to draw people to a community. It should be a reason forpeople to go to a community. Usability is essential for a community. Low usabilitycan de-motivate users and high usability can work motivating and stimulating torevisit a community. How to motivate users depends on what type of motivationa person has. Two types where described, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.Intrinsically motivated persons will be stimulated to participate on the communitywhen there are no rewards. However, extrinsically motivated people arestimulated to participate on a community when either financial rewards or

recognition rewards are given. Lastly, events can influence participation on acommunity.

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1.7. RewardingFollowing the description of how members can be motivated and stimulated toparticipate on an online platform, a more elaborate explanation of rewardingactive members will be given. This paragraph will follow up on information givenin the previous paragraph.

Rewarding: act or give recompense in recognition of someone's behaviour oractions(Act or, n.d)

As stated before, motivation and participation are important for the health andsuccess of an online community (see chapter 1.6 Motivation, participation andstimulation) . Therefore members are required to join a community and toparticipate in creating high quality content for the community and its members.When attracting people to a community the 1/9/90 rule has to be kept in mind.The rule states that only one percent of the members is actually spending time incontributing to the platform, unlike the ninety percent of members which arelurkers. They are on the community to read and benefit from the content, but will

never make any contribution to the content on the online community platform.For the company behind the online community it is essential to know who thepeople are that are creating user generated content on the community platformso they can be motivated to maintain their contributions. (Suster, 2010)

1.7.1. What is rewardingRewarding, the act of giving people something in return for their effort tocomplete an action. When looking at online community participants are rewardedfor their contribution to an online community platform as a way of saying thankyou. A reward can be monetary, this is when the participation is paid for, as isdescribed in the chapter motivation, participation and motivation. Giving money

is not the only way to reward people, people can also be rewarded by receivingrecognition or a place to show themselves. As described before this can be doneby using a rating system. Rewarding people will result in great content andparticipation on the online community platform. (Antikainen and Vtj, 2010)(Brown, 2010)(How to reward, 2010)

1.7.2. Reasons to rewardPeople mainly contribute because they have fun doing so or because that personwants the give the world correct information and facts about certain subjects.This type of motivation was described before as intrinsic motivation. For examplescientists who wrote for Wikipedia, wanted to give correct facts on the Wikipediawebsite and wrote voluntary articles and facts for the world to read. (Antikainen

and Vtj, 2010)(Forte and Bruckman, 2005)

Besides the fun and information factor people enjoy getting recognition for theirwork and time they have spent on a community. This was described as extrinsicmotivation. Therefore, it could be important for a company to reward the mostimportant participants of the online community platform. This can motivate themto come back and make more contributions. By giving some type of reward acompany informs the community that participation is appreciated and of greatvalue for the community. This particularly works for extrinsically motivatedpeople. User generated content is seen just as important as the person behind it,by rewarding the person for his contribution the company is giving him thefeeling it cannot function without him. With open recognition on the communityplatform, more extrinsically motivated people are likely to increase their status

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and will therefore start to contribute. (Scrivens, 2007)(Brown, 2010)(How toreward, 2010)(Borst and Ende, 2010)

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1.7.3. How to rewardArticles on a website should be sincere and correct. Monetary rewards can leadto insincerity because people are writing to earn money. Participating leads tothe reward which, in this case, is money. Another disadvantage of monetaryrewards is the fact that people within a company placing content on the

community platform might not need to earn extra money. They could start seeingtheir participation as work which leads to lower levels of intrinsic motivation. Thatcould lead to lower participation levels which is the exact opposite of what acompany wants. It was stated that the best reward for participation is recognitionfor the author. It is essential for companies to be creative when rewarding activemembers. Especially extrinsically motivated people like to have special status onthe community platform. This can be granted in several ways for example bymentioning the authors name, placing backlinks or giving the author an openspecial status on the online community platform. A rating system measures thenumber of usefulness of the contributions. An example of rewarding communitymembers for their participation is a pointing system. Members can earn points byparticipating to the online community platform. By using this system status can

be earned within the community. Furthermore, point earners could hand in theirpoints for interesting offers. (Millington, 2008)(Foster, 2008)(Huisman, 2008)(Howto reward, 2010)(What are, n.d.)

1.8. Successful professional communityThe following paragraph gives an overview of tasks a community starter has tofollow, rules to obey and qualities needed. The paragraph describes why thepreviously named is essential for community success. In addition to that, acommunity life cycle model is shown explaining the five stages a communitygoes through. Lastly, an list is made of reasons why communities fail includingrecommendations on how to avoid these failures.

1.8.1. Success

When starting a community there are a couple of tasks that have to becompleted. The community has to have a clear purpose, therefore thecommunity goals have to be clearly formulated. Important is the fact that themembers of the community are central, they are what the community is about.The community members need to have some freedom within the community. Tomaintain the community a community manager is needed. The communitymanager has to show commitment and spend time to achieve a successfulcommunity. Besides managing the community, interesting topics should beplaced on the community to gain interest of the community members. Mostcommunities exist because of the contributions of the community members, thisis called User generated content. It is possible to select, redirect and moderatethis content. It is not necessary for a website to produce all relevant content, asubstantial amount can be imported from other websites. By selecting andcombining information from a variety of sources, value will be created.Furthermore, when starting a community the focus should be on social factors.(Gossieaux, 2008)(Netlash, 2009)Community development will be achieved by using a certain step by step plan.Certain factors need to be looked at and researched. First the community goalsshould be established, a strategy has to be distinguished and a vision for thecommunity has to be developed. The next step is creating a platform, where highusability is essential. When this step is completed the community has to grow.

This can be achieved by word of mouth or, for a company, by starting amarketing campaign. The last step focuses on keeping members, for example by

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maintaining the community. When maintaining a community rules are set andconnections are made. (Dotster, 2009)

1.8.2. Online Communities Life Cycle

Communities arise in different stage, each stage has its own characteristics and

needs. When developing a community the needs of potential members have tobe considered.This model is based on the Information systems life cycle (ISLC). This model iswidely known and used by developers of information systems. The modeldescribes the development and exploitation of a system. In general the modelstated that every system has to follow the same process without missing a stage.

The five stages of the model are: Inception, Creation, Growth, Maturity andDeath.

Figure 8. Five stages model

Source:http://isl.cgu.edu/publicationpdf/16_ACM_CSUR_2006%200042_Online_Communities_Iriberri_and_Leroy_temp_online.pdf

Inception

The first stage of the live cycle is inception. The inception stage is the stagewhere the idea for an online community is born to fulfil the needs of persons. Avision is created, the type of vision depends on the type of community. Tocomplement the vision, rules for behaviour and communication are set. Theserules help to maintain the vision.

CreationWhen a vision is created, technological components can be selected. Thecomponents should focus on the preferences of the creator and the first potentialmembers of the community. Setting up the community can start when thetechnological components are operative and the first group of members start towork together. The community should grow through the medium of word of

mouth provided by the first group.

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GrowthEventually, when enough members are participating on the community, a cultureand identity will be developed. Within the community roles emerge, somemembers will lead discussions, some will participate and some members arepassive. These characteristics are the signature for the growth stage.

MaturityWhen the community is getting bigger the desire for a formal organisation withrules, rewards for contributions, subgroups and specific discussion topics grows.In this stage the community has reached maturity and connections betweenmembers are made.

DeathDuring the lifecycle of the community new members will join and old memberswill go. New members will bring new ideas. This ensures that members will focus.When members start losing focus the community is dying. The community has to

deal with bad participation, lack of high quality content and unorganisedcontributions. (Iriberri & Leroy, 2008)

1.8.3. Fail

There are certain circumstances companies have to avoid when starting acommunity. Companies must avoid starting with the technology and will avoidmaking a marketing campaign out of the community. Furthermore, companieswill not mix their business motives with the consumer motives. A community willfail when no one facilitates the community. Besides that it will be unsuccessfulwhen businesses look at their company goals to determine the success of acommunity.

(Gossieaux, 2008)

In the process of creating a successful community there are a couple ofobstacles. The biggest obstacle can be found in Deloitte (2009) aboutTransforming companies with communities and social media. He describes thatthe biggest obstacles are getting people to join and member participation.Thinking that members will not come back or that there is enough time tomanage the community is also an obstacle. Barricades for companies whenstarting a community are that members are not keeping their profiles up to date,no finance for enhancing functionality, facilities and the lack of a communitymanagers with experience and expertise. (Deloitte, 2009)

Research conducted by Ed Moran (2008) about the changes of communities bycommunities and social networks shows four reasons why a community can fail.The biggest cause of community failure is the fact that companies put too muchtrust in the technology behind the community. When companies hear buzzwordslike website, forum, social networks, social media or web 2.0. They believeintegrating these tools will be enough for creating a successful community. Acompany will invest time and money in technologies and will miss the essentialpart of a community namely: the planning, the process and the people that makethe community. Afterwards most companies will realise they dont need thosetechnologies.(Helen, 2008)(Catone, 2008)

The second reason communities fail is the lack of good strategic planning andmanaging. Companies underestimate the fact that skills like community

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strategising, community management and facilitating a community need time todevelop. Furthermore, companies often measure the success of the communitywrongly. The company objectives for the community are viral, word of mouthadvertising and increasing brand loyalty therefore they should measure thenumber of unique visitors of a community. However, most companies focus onthe increase of members. Growth is not essential, important is maintainingmembers so a group of regular visitors is created. Furthermore, companiesshould not compete with social networks because they can and will not replacethem. Companies must create interaction, comfort and high quality content withtheir most loyal users to promote their product. (Helen, 2008)(Catone, 2008)

A community cannot be a success when the unequipped people are starting andmaintaining the community. Companies often force community management onthe web designer, administrator or marketing officer which is a big mistake.Thirty percent of online communities are managed by a part time employee andin most of the cases maintaining the community is done by a PR person. This is abig mistake because these persons are not experts when it comes to

communities and they dont have enough experience in managing communities.To start and lead a successful community the relevant persons should gettraining and education about leading a community. Another option is hiring acommunity manager who has experience in building and managing a community.

(Helen, 2008)(Catone, 2008)

The last reason why a community will fail is because people do not see the addedvalue of the community, especially when the community only portrays the brandof a company. Most visitors stay unique because they are already part of othercommunities. A community manager could be the solution because a communitymanager knows what the members of a community need and how first time

visitors become regulars. Another big problem occurs when members havetrouble finding information or when members get an overload of information.When a community is managed properly information overload will not occur.A community should not be the only social media a company is working on. Easyaccess to the community must be created by having for example Facebookpageand Myspace. (Catone, 2008)

1.9. Building an online communityAn online community is a group of people who are closely interacting with eachother mainly online. The whole group has a shared, unifying goal. To reach thisunifying goal it is essential to have a clearly formulated goal for the community.

The clearer the goal for the community is, the greater the chance of success. Ifthere are multiple purposes, it is best to list them all. The following suggestionsare reasons to start an online community:

Publish Information Generate discussions about issues or other interesting subjects Provide a place for colleagues to make and answer requests for help Develop best practice solutions Networking with other people

The only way for online knowledge sharing communities to succeed, is for them

to create a build-up of action over time. This applies to large scale communitieswhose members are widely spread geographically, which makes face-to-face

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meetings almost impossible for the majority of the members in the community.Creating an online community is like a construction project. Provide the bricksand mortar to build the environment and the members will start living there andbecome active participants. (Parrish, 2009)(USAID, n.d.)(Customer communities,2009)There is a good community manager behind every good community whoconstantly updates the community with new content and creates interactionwithin it. The community manager also filters the members of the community anddecides who can be given a more active role in the community.

Another job of the community manager is to avoid chaos and abusive talks in thecommunity. Therefore the community needs to have certain rules, these rulesdefine what is acceptable and what is not. A community manager should avoidcontrolling the crowd because the job involves guiding the crowd. This is apotential risk. Additionally, the community manager has to reward thecommunity members by for example giving a quick response to a question of acommunity member.

(Bertens, 2008) (Betancourt, 2010) (Customer communities, 2009) (Parrish,2009)

The most important aspect of a successful (active) community is creatinginteraction; if there is a steady flow of interaction, community managingbecomes significantly easier. Several aspects should be taken into account whencreating interaction because this establishes a robust community.(Andrews, 2002) (Enhancing online, n.d.)

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1.9.1. Community interactionThere are several types of community interaction. Each has implications from acommunity and platform development perspective. A community needs to offerclear benefits for members. The best communities force members to interact, toachieve the benefit offered by the community. Great communities make it

impossible not to interact. These force members to share an idea, opinion, ratingor criticism on the community.

Between community members;The core of community interaction involves community membersinteracting with each other. Members join a community because similarinterests are shared. This is a great base for forming relationships.Unsurprisingly, building relationships online requires assistance. Thisoccurs through face-to-face community meetings, community developedprojects, within online discussions, email threads and phone calls.

Between a community member and the site;Community interaction that occurs between the community member and

the site requires a lot of improvement. The platform has to seduce the(future) members in order for them to keep coming back and interactwithin the community. The online platform becomes the meeting place forall members.

(Enhancing online, n.d.)

1.9.2. Keep the community interactiveTo keep a community interactive, the interactions have to be organic (peopleinteracting) and started by the members. After a while it is no longer up to thecommunity manager to create all interactions, these should be created by themembers themselves. This will help make all members of a community become

authors who build content and grow conversations. However, a communitymanager is still needed to guide and help these member generatedconversations and interactions.

1.9.3. Keeping members activeKeeping members active is key to building a robust community. Smaller groups,with member numbers not exceeding 13, are ideal for members to feelcomfortable and to participate. A variety of these groups has to exist within acommunity. Larger discussion groups are also needed, however these groups canhold smaller groups to increase feelings of recognition.Keeping members happy is the key to keeping them active. Creating a rewardingsystem is a great way to keep members motivated to interact and participate. A

rewarding system does not have to cost money, it can be as simple as creating aranking system, where members who post the most in a week are placed on theplatforms main page. Motivations such as rewards are a great way to motivatevisitors to revisit a community and to build a sense of belonging to a community.(Enhancing online, n.d.)

To keep the crowd active on a community it is important for members to trust thecommunity. Therefore, it is important to be honest to the crowd. When membersare let down by the community their participation on the community often stops.In other words disappointed members become inactive members. (Betancourt,2010)

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2.0. Potential end-user

Seventy to eighty percent of failed product development does not fail because ofthe lack advanced technology but because of the lack of understanding userneeds. Therefore, it is essential to know the end user of a product. End-user

research has to be conducted for each project. End-user surveys have beenconducted by using companies and schools involved. (The National College of Artand Design, 2005)

Research has been conducted on online communities related to seafarers. Adistinction has been made between three different groups. The first groupconsists of communities on an online platform, the second group consists ofcommunities on Wikis and the last group consists of communities on socialplatforms such as Facebookand LinkedIn. These online communities aredescribed in paragraph 2.1 Online mariner communities.An online survey has been conducted amongst the Facebookgroup Seafarers.This is stated in section 2.2 Online survey; Facebook group Seafarers.

Finally, in the section 2.3 Future end-userthe results of the interview with thefuture end-users at the Abel Tasman school are described.By using the information an image was created of the end-users habits, needsand expectations.

2.1. Online mariner communitiesResearch has been conducted on online communities related to seafarers. Adistinction has been made in three different groups. The first group consists ofcommunities on an online platform, the second group consists of communities onWikis and the last group consists of communities on social platforms such asFacebookand LinkedIn.

2.1.1. Online platforms communities

This paragraph describes the most established seafarer communities which arelocated on an online platform. The following are analysed: ActiveCaptain,VisitMyHarbour, TeamSurvand Oceanuslive.

2.1.1.1. ActiveCaptain

PurposeAt the site ActiveCaptain knowledge can be shared and experience andknowledge can be gained that other captains have. Registered users cancommunicate corrections, update information and create reviews.

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Figure 9. ActiveCaptain homepage.

Source: http://www.activecaptain.com

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UsersThe site is mainly used by boaters (mostly from America). Mariners are also thetarget group of the platform. The users can provide information and share theirexperience. Other benefits for using this are the articles on it (about for example;mobile on board, dogs onboard and medical help) and the webshop.

CommunityActiveCaptain provides a framework that will allow fellow mariners to share theirknowledge and experience. Its Wiki-style database allows users to makeadditions, changes, and deletions to the information. ActiveCaptain is free for allregistered users. (MyBoatsGear, 2010a)(Active Captain, 2010)

2.1.1.2. VisitMyHarbour

PurposeThis platform is a guide to provide timely and detailed information about variousports, harbours, estuaries, rivers and inlets around the coast of the UK.

Figure 10. VisitMyHarbour homepage.

Source: http://www.visitmyharbour.com

UsersThe platform is tailored to mariners, most of them are settled in the UK. The usercan add comments about used harbours. VisitMyHarbourhas all kinds ofinformation about the harbour, the sailing directions and mooring options suchas; local facilities, pubs and dining.

CommunityPeople can share information on this platform, but most people are not motivatedto do so. This is notable because there is no data uploaded by other people. So itwants to be a community, but with this small number of people who are posting,it can hardly be called a community. (MyBoatsGear, 2010b)

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2.1.1.3. TeamSurv

PurposeTeamSurvwant to use crowdsourcing to enhance the quality of nautical charts.

(Euronav's seaPro, 2010)Figure 11. TeamSurv homepage.

Source: http://www.teamsurv.eu

UsersThe users ofTeamSurvare marines and partners ofTeamSurv. Users needcertain things on board their vessels, such as a GPS receiver and a depthsounder, before the users can participate on the community. This platform is anproject which helps to improve the quality of nautical charts of coastal waters.The user needs to have experience in using the advantaged equipment that thisproject requires. The platform also has a forum and you can track ships.

CommunityMembers of the TeamSurvcommunity can log data from instruments on theships, whilst doing the normal activities at sea. As TeamSurvcollects theinformation, changes will be corrected in the maps.(TeamSurv ,n.d)(Euronav's seaPro, 2010)(Admin, 2010)

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2.1.1.4. Oceanuslive

PurposeThe purpose ofOceanuslive is to collaborate within a single, secure environmentto enhance the safety and security of vessels at sea. This is especially intended

for vessels found in high threat or dangerous environments. An example of highthreat is piracy.

Source: http://www.oceanuslive.org

UsersOceanuslive has no users at the moment, because it is not live yet. The futureusers will be: Ship and yacht masters, CSOs, duty personnel ashore, and relevantmaritime safetyand security bodies. (OCEANUSLive.org , 2010)

CommunityThe community is not live at the moment. The users will have to register beforejoining the community. Therefore users have to give information about their rankand company they work for. In the community users can share information aboutthreats at sea, for instance crime. (Tweed, 2010)

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2.1.1.5. Overview

Here is an short overview of the seafarer communities which are located ononline platforms.

Table 1. Overview online platforms

ActiveCaptain VisitMyHarbour TeamSurv Oceanuslive

Logo

Creator Karen & JeffreySiegel

Black Culm,Mackenzie &

Bryant.

Teamsurv Glen Forbes &Ryan Wallace

Community

Manager

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Usability 8 7 5 7Motivating

9 5 8 Unknown

Open /Closed

Open Open Closed Closed

VisitorsAge

Most visitorsare between45-54 years .

Most visitors arebetween 45-54 andalso a lot between35-44

Unknown Unknown

Visitorseducatio

n

Mostly Someeducation

Mostly someeducation and also

a lot no education

Unknown Unknown

Visitorssex

Mostly males Mostly males Unknown Unknown

Visitorswithchildren

Mostly not Mostly not Unknown Unknown

Visitorsbrowseat

Mostly at work Mostly at work Unknown Unknown

Mobilewebsite

availableandusable

advisory report project wikipilot community building

Documents