This chapter is all about belonging in online communities. The ways that belonging can be fostered in such communities are:
Initiation rituals- some examples of this would be fraternity/sorority hazing, or "hell week" seen in the Navy SEALS and in military schools like the Citadel. The initiation ritual helps to bond users together.
Stories of origin- to get across what the organization values it is helpful to discuss where they got their start, and what fueled their origin. Those same values or principles will hold true today as well, letting members know what kind of a group they are joining and what it holds to be important.
Leveling up rituals- once you have become a member of a group, you want to move up in hierarchy to the higher levels of membership. The book brings up the boy scouts merit badges as an example, as well as Six Sigma. Levels can make people strive to get better but could also alienate those who do not rise in the ranks.
Mythologies- using stories to illustrate values and inspire the desired behavior of the members of the group. These would be like the seven stories seen in Squirrel Inc: a story to ignite action, a story to share knowledge, a story to get people working together, a story to lead people into the future, a story to neutralize bad news, a story to communicate who you are, and a story to transmit values.
Techniques: create and distribute a story of origin-make sure your users know where you came from and how you got your start. Facebook's origin story is widely known, even if they don't distribute it themselves.
create an initiation ritual-make something that binds users together as a shared experience they all had to participate in to begin to belong to the group.
encourage your leaders to share mythologies-tell stories to serve as models
encourage members to share myths and stories about themselves
create leveling up ceremonies
establish routines and protocols-"fight club" rules, for instance. the 8 rules of fight club established the rules for all members and bound them together in the obedience to them.
establish symbols, colors, and visual identities
use a membership application as a initiation ritual
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
2/15/11
Neuro Web Design begins by discussing the amount of decision making that is unconscious. It refers to the brain as 3 different things: the old, the mid, and the new. Most of the processing of the old and new, which are based on survival and language thinking, and planning respectively, happen unconsciously. While this is kind of disturbing to think we aren't really in control of much of our behavior, the book presents a lot of science behind the idea.
The next chapter refers to the idea of self validation. The need to fit in is hardwired into our brains and our biology. When we are unsure of what to do, we look to others for a clue. This results in " bystander effect" as seen in the case of Kitty Genovese. The more bystanders there are, the more they will look to each other to help, instead of springing into action themselves.
Chapter 3 concerns the "network of obligation" between human beings. Cards sent out mean cards returned, out of a sense of obligation, even from strangers in one study. Chapter four is about the limited availability of a product increasing the demand. When something is deemed to be in limited supply, the demand skyrockets. This effect can be seen pretty much anytime Apple releases a new product: long lines form, prices skyrocket. The people go through all this and pay all that money because the product is rare and thus its perceived value is higher than it really is.
Design to thrive brings up twelve techniques to encourage site participation:
Make the text fun, add emoticons
Use a subscription application form
Mentors Teach
Seed the Discussion
Use Stars to show membership dedication levels
Rank the value of the members messages
remove the fear factor by providing examples of how to participate
create a safe environment by sending out "tickle messages"
create a regular event
don't automatically archive
discourage attempts to send conversations to other blogs, web sites, or discussion groups
ban redistribution servers and cross-postings
The next chapter refers to the idea of self validation. The need to fit in is hardwired into our brains and our biology. When we are unsure of what to do, we look to others for a clue. This results in " bystander effect" as seen in the case of Kitty Genovese. The more bystanders there are, the more they will look to each other to help, instead of springing into action themselves.
Chapter 3 concerns the "network of obligation" between human beings. Cards sent out mean cards returned, out of a sense of obligation, even from strangers in one study. Chapter four is about the limited availability of a product increasing the demand. When something is deemed to be in limited supply, the demand skyrockets. This effect can be seen pretty much anytime Apple releases a new product: long lines form, prices skyrocket. The people go through all this and pay all that money because the product is rare and thus its perceived value is higher than it really is.
Design to thrive brings up twelve techniques to encourage site participation:
Make the text fun, add emoticons
Use a subscription application form
Mentors Teach
Seed the Discussion
Use Stars to show membership dedication levels
Rank the value of the members messages
remove the fear factor by providing examples of how to participate
create a safe environment by sending out "tickle messages"
create a regular event
don't automatically archive
discourage attempts to send conversations to other blogs, web sites, or discussion groups
ban redistribution servers and cross-postings
Monday, February 7, 2011
2/7/11
Shirky focuses in this portion of reading about the way information is presented today, and who it is that is doing the presenting. He starts with a anecdote about his uncle who hated USA Today because of its flashy layout and color images. The lack of respect he showed for the new form of news is a lot like the lack of respect shown to new media such as bloggers who some people consider as reliable news sources in this new landscape.
The way that information is put out today differs because now everyone is a source of information. Whether it is more official such as a blogger, or just someone who puts links in their facebook statuses, everyone is capable of disseminating information to a large audience through the power of social media. Shirky talks about what it is to be a "professional" in a certain field. Thanks to this newfound power to share information the lines between amateur and professional are rapidly being blurred. A flickr account may make you a photographer but does it make you a professional? Things that used to be regarded as amateurish such as blogs are becoming more and more mainstream. More traditional news sources are now employing bloggers to put out information in a faster and more efficient manner. For instance, ESPN has bloggers assigned to all the teams in the major sports, often taking their writers from established news papers like the New York Post, and taking them from newspaper writer to professional blogger. Wikipedia and the ability to edit the posts furthers the concept of everyone as source of information. So many people rely on wikipedia that it works, too many people use it for the posts to be fraudulent. The information is needed, written, and edited all by the users, making it a self sustaining system.
Design to thrive brings up four areas that will be the social networking "battlefield" of the future: copyrights vs. intellectual property, disciplinary control vs individual creativity, visual technological and new media literacy, and decision making contexts for future markets. The first two I think relate the most to what shirky was saying. Copyright vs. intellectual property is a battle being waged in almost every media industry. Music, movies, television have all been revolutionized by the internet. While music was crippled by this new outlet, it is slowly learning how to use the internet. Television has embraced the internet as a way to find new viewers while also maintaining ad revenue by selling ad space on sites like Hulu. Disciplinary control vs individual creativity I think relates back to professionalism. The rigid borders of the old way of doing things are rapidly diminishing and disappearing, control is lessening more and more. Websites, at least in this country, aren't controlled by the government and individual creativity is more and more taking over in place of disciplinary control.
The way that information is put out today differs because now everyone is a source of information. Whether it is more official such as a blogger, or just someone who puts links in their facebook statuses, everyone is capable of disseminating information to a large audience through the power of social media. Shirky talks about what it is to be a "professional" in a certain field. Thanks to this newfound power to share information the lines between amateur and professional are rapidly being blurred. A flickr account may make you a photographer but does it make you a professional? Things that used to be regarded as amateurish such as blogs are becoming more and more mainstream. More traditional news sources are now employing bloggers to put out information in a faster and more efficient manner. For instance, ESPN has bloggers assigned to all the teams in the major sports, often taking their writers from established news papers like the New York Post, and taking them from newspaper writer to professional blogger. Wikipedia and the ability to edit the posts furthers the concept of everyone as source of information. So many people rely on wikipedia that it works, too many people use it for the posts to be fraudulent. The information is needed, written, and edited all by the users, making it a self sustaining system.
Design to thrive brings up four areas that will be the social networking "battlefield" of the future: copyrights vs. intellectual property, disciplinary control vs individual creativity, visual technological and new media literacy, and decision making contexts for future markets. The first two I think relate the most to what shirky was saying. Copyright vs. intellectual property is a battle being waged in almost every media industry. Music, movies, television have all been revolutionized by the internet. While music was crippled by this new outlet, it is slowly learning how to use the internet. Television has embraced the internet as a way to find new viewers while also maintaining ad revenue by selling ad space on sites like Hulu. Disciplinary control vs individual creativity I think relates back to professionalism. The rigid borders of the old way of doing things are rapidly diminishing and disappearing, control is lessening more and more. Websites, at least in this country, aren't controlled by the government and individual creativity is more and more taking over in place of disciplinary control.
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