TheKnowledge

Book Chapter

A potted history

Online communities have existed in a number of forms since the 1970s, beginning with bulletin boards (BBSes). These were text-based and used slow modem connections across the telephone system. BBSes remained popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s as home computing became popular and inexpensive, allowing for wider access. (read more)

Featured article

Managing communities, managing openness

One of the ironies of open, digital communities is that from the perspective of intellectual development, they are sometimes seen to be too open to be of use for concentrated thought. Whether you are planning to work with existing communities or create a new community yourself, you are advised to consider exactly how openness is framed. For example, whilst open, discursive conversations will take place, there will inevitably be times when a more direct and/or private approach is needed. Communicating your email address should help to attract private responses to any requests you make. It is possible to advertise your email address on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or blogs, but you may wish to consider an email alias in order to prevent spam. (read more)

Categories: Social Media | Featured Article

Peer research

We have an ongoing research area, below are a list of recent active areas and announcements, feel free to join the Wiki and contribute.

• Main research area

• Making a non-corporate Social Media strategy - The objective of this project is to build a social media strategy that can be put into place by a small organisation and ensure they get the benefits of social media without contributing to the 'Graph' value production of corporates and ensuring privacy for participants.