“Second Life” and communities?
Do communities use tools like "Second Life" for their activities? Avatar-based web worlds (e.g., Second Life). Some communities have meeting areas on avatar-based sites. It allows them to have more of a sense of shared space even when they cannot be together in...
Media-sharing sites?
What use are media-sharing sites for communities? Some communities open accounts on media-sharing sites, such as Flickr for sharing photos, so that members can share photos, videos, and maps. This provides a simple way to document community events or to collect...
Social networking and communities?
Are Facebook, Linked-In, or Goggle+ tools for communities? Networking websites, such as Facebook, Linked-In, or Google+, offer quick, simple, and cheap ways for communities to open spaces for interaction. While the sites may not offer all the features that communities...
Tweeting and communities?
Should a community be "tweeting"? Micro-blogging, using a tool such as Twitter or Yammer, has become a very popular way for some communities to stay connected. It is used in a variety of different ways, including to: Stay connected. Micro-blogging...
Analytics for communities?
Why are analytics important for a community? Analytics, such as Google Analytics, enable community leaders to collect, analyze, and act on data they receive about how people are connecting to their website. Data is easily collected and represented in many different...
Tagging and communities?
How do communities use tagging? Communities can use a set of tags as communal keywords, thus creating shared set of pointers to resources relevant to members. A “tag cloud” (the set of tags that a community uses sized according to frequency of use) can be a way to...
Slide: Levels of participation
Click here for an updated version of the slide on this page. Communities of practice usually involve multiple levels of participation. Because involvement can produce learning in multiple ways and the domain has different levels of relevance to different...
Feeds for communities?
What use are feeds for a community? Feeds, such as RSS feeds, are used in two ways. They enable communities to: Distribute content beyond the people who visit their website. Members and non-members can subscribe to feeds through an aggregator so...
Blogs and communities?
How do communities use blogs? Communities use blogs, such as Blogger or Wordpress, in two ways: individual blogs and collective blogs. Individual blogs give people a personal voice as contributors to a community. Some communities offer individual...
Wikis for communities?
How do communities of practice use wikis? Wikis, such as MediaWiki used by Wikipedia and Wikispaces which is popular for Educators, are used by communities of practice to create and publish collective, co-authored documents, including web pages. They also use wikis as...