innovation in online communities

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Innovation in online communities - Towards community-centric design

1st International ICST Conference on User Centric Media - UCMedia 2009

Venice, 9-11 December 2009

Petter Bae Brandtzæg PhD candidate at SINTEF ICT & University of Oslo

pbb@sintef.no Twitter @PetterBB

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Co-authors

Asbjørn Følstad, SINTEF ICTMarianna Obrist, University of SalzburgDavid Geerts, University of LeuvenRüdiger Berg, NetColgone

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Lessons learned

(IST, FP6 www.ist-citizenmedia.org, 2006-2009)

Both projects explore how people interact and create user-generated content in online communities

Experiences from the user involvement of more than 10.000 people

Challenges and opportunities involving online communities – and a shift from user centric–design towards community-centric design

(www.recordproject.org , 2006-2010)

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“anything that changes the way groups get things done will affect society as a whole” (p. 23)

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A new form of “group action” driven by new tools and a new usage pattern

Socializing Creating/sharingSearchingBrowsingPassive information consumption on the web.Activity was related to write in addresses to find information made by professionals.Newspapers on the web is typical examples.

The web got a lot of information. The amount ofinformation made it difficult for the users to findand retrieve web info.New search engines was taking place. Google take off.

Blogging and diverse Web 2.0 services makes it easier for the non-professional user to create and share

digital content. YouTube and Blogging take off.

Social networking getspopular. User collaborateand co-create new virtual environments and content.They share, tag and educate each other. Social networking as Facebook is a

Web 1.0 Web 2.0

(Brandtzæg & Heim, 2008)

Single use, passive consumption Active and collaborative group action

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70% Online communities reach nearly 70 percent of the total global online audience, ranking as one of the most popular categories on the Web (Abraham,

ComScore, 2009).

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Blogs

Wikis

Mashups

Participation

Transparency

Sharing

Co-creation

InnovationInnovation

Transparency

ParticipationSharing

Co-creation

Transparency

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A new i economy based on voluntary group activity in communities

Increased transparency, sharing of knowledge, information, experiences, ideas, through co-creation in online communities

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Mass Collaboration Wisdom of Crowds

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Online communities are blurring the border between producer and users

PARTICIPATION & SHARING: Involve non-professional community users to contribute with ideas

TRANSPARANCY: Companies give away control (e.g. source code, professional content) to the community

CO-CREATION: Enable community users to improve their product and extend their services thorough co-creation (and in that way also bridge the digital divide)

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The key for the Future Internet is to bring together professional and non-professional media creators

(Daras and Alvarez, 2009)

Daras, P., Alvarez, F (2009). A future perspective on the 3D Media Internet. In: Tselentis, G.e.a. (ed.): Towards the Future Internet –A European Perspective. IOS Press. 303-312

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MyIdea4CA.com, an online community to harvest and evaluate ideas (16 000 per 7.12.09) for the State of California

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Dell IdeaStorm is a websitelaunched by Dell on February 16, 2007to allow Dell "to gauge which ideas are mostimportant and most relevant to" the public

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Facebook is even innovating for peace

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Content sharing,

co-creation Social capital

Challenges (e.g. social distrust, privacy, low usability, etc.)

Online community success

How to build successful online communities supporting innovation?

Brandtzæg et al., submitted

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New forms of digital divides emerge

Digital consumer divides; ability to consume media content.

Digital production divides; ability to produce media content.

(Brandtzæg, 2007)

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In large communities: 90-9-1 rule

(Nilsen, 2006)

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1% contribute

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Wikipedia written by single men in the age 18-30 years

Source: Wikimedia/J.Wales (2009): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/strategy/e/eb/State_of_the_Wiki.pdf

1 out 10 are women

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Participation and user generated content is not for the ”average user”

"The average user is too busy"

"They just want to get workdone"

BusinessWeek Online 200726.Sept. ”It’s a whole new web”

Jakob Nielsen, a Web design expert with consultant Nielsen Norman Group

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In small communities: 50-30-20 rule

50%Lurkers

30%

20%

(Brandtzæg & Heim, in press)

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So…how to involve ”all” community-users in the innovation process?

Foto: michelhrv (Flickr, creative commons)

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Challenges

How to filter and analyze all the contributions

How to identify the right kind of communities and participants?

Participation, yes! But what about commitment in long innovation processes?

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The Living Lab revival

http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/

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What are Living Labs?

Environments for innovation and development… where users are exposed to new solutions… in familiar contexts… as part of medium – or long term studies

New term within the field of ICTEmerging conceptLimited literature

Innovation supportContext researchDiscoveryCo-creationEvaluationTechnical testing

Commercially available product

Main target of ENoLL Living Labs

…even though Living Labs were not originally thought of as arenas for co-creation and

community action

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Beyond the user-centric approach - Towards community-centric design

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Conclusion

Still, community-centric methods are immature, and existing user-centric design methods need to be adapted in order to fit a new paradigm for innovation in online communities

New approaches such as Living Labs are promising, but further development of associated methods and processes is needed

A community-centric design approach is being recognized, as this will help companies to tap into the enormous potential co-creation with communities offer for creating new applications and services on the Future Media Internet

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Thank you ☺

This paper was supported by the Norwegian research council and EC, IST FP6

Presentation shared at: www.slideshare.net/PetterB

More information at: www.recordproject.orgwww.ist.citizenmedia.org

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References

Abraham, L. B/ComScore. (2009). Cracking the Code of Social Media Measurement: ComScore.Brandtzæg, P.B., & Heim, J. (Accepted September, 2009). Social Network Sites – A Typology of Users. International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC)Brandtzæg, P.B., Lüders, M. , Skjetne (submitted). Social practices and privacy in social networking sites. Journal of Human Computer Interaction Brandtzæg, P.B.(2007). The Innovators in the New Media landscape. The Cost 298 Conference - The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, Moscow, Russia.Daras, P., Alvarez, F (2009). A future perspective on the 3D Media Internet. In: Tselentis, G.e.a. (ed.): Towards the Future Internet - A European Perspective. IOS Press. 303-312 Shirky, C.(2009). Here comes everybody. The power of organizing without organizations. Penguin books, New York Wikimedia/J.Wales (2009): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/strategy/e/eb/State_of_the_Wiki.pdf