Design for Community

by Derek M. Powazek and Derek Powazek

Shows how to structure a web site so that it finds its desired audience and seduces them into productive discussions. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735710759
• ISBN13: 9780735710757
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A great place to start planning

This book tells you what it takes to run a virtual community - any kind. It is written in plain English, and it had been extremely fun to read. I highly recommend it to non-technical readers such as Web project managers, Webmasters and Web designers. Everybody will be able to learn a great deal from this book, regardless of their backgrounds.You will find yourself feeling much more knowledgeable - if not confident - after reading this book.

Need-to-know information for community builders

I'm in the process of retooling an online community myself, and Design for Community has given me a lot to think about. It's extremely useful. No one should try to build an online community without reading this book first.While it is not difficult to find the software tools required to build an online community, experience and insight is harder to come by. Powazek draws examples from his own work and interviews some of the leading lights of online communities to show what has worked, what doesn't, and what you should look out for.This book invites its readers to ask themselves some questions about the online communities they want to build. Why do you want to build it? What are you trying to accomplish? What relationship do you want to have with your visitors? And how do you plan to keep order, maintain decorum, and enforce the community's rules? These are questions, I'm afraid, that many webmasters and site owners have simply never asked themselves, and boy does it ever show.Case in point: In my very, very small corner of the web, just about everybody with a small home-based business and a two-bit web site wants to set up a mailing list or discussion board to go along with it. They don't appear to have done much thinking about it, apart from a vague notion that a forum would be cool and would draw traffic to their site. In fact, the biggest site/portal in the subculture I inhabit sells itself by saying that its discussion forums draw traffic to the hobbyist/small-business home pages it hosts and the advertising it sells -- i.e., its forums are its content. Meanwhile, the quality and tone of discussion on those forums is a constant source of grief. These people need to read this book.

How to design a site where people will want to hang out

Amidst all the ruble concerning the Internet as a destroyer of lives and just another pointless addiction, there is one jewel concerning its' role in bringing people together. Amidst all the senseless conversations and other garbage of people whose lives seem to be pointless, groups are getting together to share experiences, both of sorrows and joy. Some of the most interesting sites that have appeared are those that are formed around a bond of shared experiences. They are commonly referred to as community sites, where people hang out to find support and solace and the most effective ways to start and maintain such sites is the topic of this book. Such sites are needed, but tend to burn out the moderators very quickly. The sites tend to provide a degree of anonymity that some people need if they are to expose their emotions to others. With so many challenges to overcome, it is clear that most people who create them do so out of a personal passion or commitment rather than a desire for glory. When reading this book, I found myself emotionally moved, a rare experience for one who reads computing books as a profession. The tales of woe and joy are simultaneously uplifting and depressing. All emotions aside, this is the book you must read if you are considering the creation of a site designed to allow people to hang out and talk. By reading the related experiences of others, you will learn the best ways to develop such sites. They certainly are needed, as the breakdown of physical communities has led many to search out an alternate in the cyber realm. People still need people, whether they be physically or virtually nearby.

Online Communities for Smart, Motivated Dummies

I've read most of the recent books in this field, several of them quite good. But this is the first one to really tell it like it is in an easy, informal style that gives you feel of being there. No theory. This is how it really is, folks. Organized, comprehensive, factual. Tells you WHAT to expect and WHY. Some HOW but no techy code. Just useful links to all the detail you probably don't want to know -- yet. The interviews with leaders on each topic is a unique feature bringng it all down to earth.