Design Principles for Online Communities

When Internet Communities are created, the creators never consider ways of making the environment resemble real life more. They claim that it is not important, or it is something no one can do anything about. Kollock disagrees entirely with this statement, and he goes on to argue why he believes these factors should be considered.

Many systems try to give themselves "an impressive look", but they don't focus on "fostering social interaction". Kollock believes that WorldsAway is a great example of a community that has been able to cater to our social needs. He argues that this community has the elements to be successful. He defines these elements as:

" Identity persistence, a sophisticated set of rituals, an internal economy with a monetary system, property rights, a rich set of documents recording the history of the community, a coherent sense of space, casual interaction caused by the fact that one must "walk" most places, and a moderate level of risk. "

Kollock says that cooperation and social dilemmas are important in analyzing design principles. Social dilemmas are "situations where behavior that is reasonable an justifiable for the individual leads to a poorer outcome for all". He discusses two cases of social dillemmas.

First, he discusses the prisoner's dilemma, as a social problem, where people choose to behave selfishly over behaving cooperatively . He concludes that a way of avoiding this is by ensuring the presence of the following three conditions:
1. Individuals must be likely to meet in the future.
2. Individuals must be able to identify each other.
3. Individuals must have information about how the other person has behaved in the past.

A second set of possible solutions analyzed to general social dilemmas is discussed through Ostrom's study. She concludes that the following features are common in successful communities:
1. Group boundaries must be clearly defined. I.e. everyone must be aware of their limitations depending on what group they're in.
2. Collective resources are used - rules are dependent on the needs of the members participating in the community.

He uses these conditions to conclude that online communities should adopt these styles in order to be more succesful. likewise, he come up with additional elements that should be incorporated into a successful online community.

• -the need for scarcity and risk in the online world. Even though we don't appreciate these characteristics, they still make an "interesting and engaging world".
  
  
• be able to change and modify one's environment, as well as having the opportunity to participate in a market of some kind.

He concludes that in general, online communities should consider the conditions discussed above, in order to create a space where social dilemmas are reduced. People shouldn't take so much energy into developeing online systems that are "instant, seamless, and fully interconnected", and instead decelop a community with more social benefits.

QUESTIONS
Kollock claims that social computing deals with user interface design instead of "actual social interaction between two or more people". He claims that online communities don't concentrate on developing a platform for effective interaction amongst the participants.

1. Consider some of the online communities available today and evaluate whether or not you believe them to cater to our social interactive needs. Do they take into account any of the conditions set forth by Kollock? If so, explain how they are able to cater to our needs. If not, explain how they could take Kollock's advice and become more efficient online communities.