There has long been a working relationship between academics, usually social scientists, and those working in the online community industry. Those of us in the industry often give academics access to our communities or provide background information for their studies. Academics do research that informs those in the industry, giving us insight into user behaviour, user motivations and much more. There are even some areas where academics and online community professionals are one and the same. For example, online learning communities which are, more often then not, run by academics acting also as the managers of the community.
Even though there has been a long and, in many instances, cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between academics and those in the online community industry, I’m not aware of any research focusing specifically on the role of online community manager. What is it like being a moderator or discussion host? What motivates someone to become a community producer? Why do people such as Craig Newmark, who founded Craigslist, set up their communities? What are the goals, and frustrations of, someone working to set up a community for a commercial interest? What anxieties do online community professionals have about technology, return on investment, user behaviour, legal issues, etc?
The online community industry is a now an industry in it’s own right – the 500 people subscribed to e-mint, the Association of Online Community Professionals, is testiment to that. Isn’t it about time someone in the academic community takes some interest in us rather than just the members of the online communities we manage?
Robin – I’m interested! Join my new list and look out for research opportunities!
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I think there has been some research on the roles within the context of distance learning. That seems to have a fairly concentrated bunch of research. You might post a query on the Association of Internet Researchers list (AoIR). I bet someone would have a pointer. But it is interesting that there hasn’t been more published/publicized about the manager/facilitator role.
Hi Sue and Nancy. I’m sure that was the name of a band… ;-)
Yes, there have been some studies of the online facilitator role within educational communities. What I haven’t seen are any proper social scientific studies of the people who set up, manage, and run online communities. I have quite a strong personal interest in this because, not only do I find myself straddling the two communities, being a post-academic post-dotcomcrash online community professional who dabbles in academia, but because I did actually once propose a PhD research project on exactly this. It was to be a study of the online community industry and, as I don’t have the time nowadays, I’d be quite happy for someone else to pick this up and write the book! Or maybe this would make an interesting podcast or three if I ever figure out how to use garageband to record a skype interview (??) .
;-)
Robin:
I am a sociologist just beginning to study e-communities. I am very interested in the questions you raise, re: the motivations and the role of online community hosts. I’d really appreciate any further suggestions you have re: ways to conduct this research, and ways to strengthen productive relationships between e-community professionals and interested academics. Thanks!