In millions of online communities, people meet to debate baseball scores, compare child-birth experiences, get information about stocks, and ask for consumer advice. People create communities by their presence or absence, their behavior and personalities, and so do moderators and others with special roles. Developers can t control what people do, but they can influence them by defining purposes and policies. Designing software that is consistent, predictable, easy to learn, and supports how people want to interact has an impact too.
Many developers design software, thinking they are designing communities.
Meanwhile, keen-eyed, reflective sociologists describe the emergence of communities. But communities are neither designed nor do they just emerge. Like physical communities they evolve and change over time. In this talk I discuss how developers can create sociability and usability for different kinds of communities. Compelling examples from research on empathy, hostility, and lurking illustrate key points.