Web sites, online communities
Unheard of! A public post!
I'm involved with a project which aims to develop an web site and online community for sharing research results on gender and math/science education. The idea is that it will both be a go-to information source and also that it will potentially provide community building channels for different groups to interact and share information with each other, particularly researchers interacting with journalists, teachers and parents.
One of the early steps is looking around at the kinds of features, structures and ideas that people have used for building useful and inviting sites. Also, features people have used to build useless and forbidding ones, so as to learn from other people's mistakes. I'm doing some legwork on this of my own, but I thought I would also try to draw on your collective wisdom. What are the sites that you use on a regular basis? What are the things you like and don't like about them? I'm interested particularly in sites aimed at spreading "Authoritative" information. What makes them authoritative? What makes them useful and successful?
Do you know any online communities devoted to substantive issues (rather than socializing) which you think are highly successful? What are the social and technological features that you think make them great? What makes you look at an online community or message board and immediately run the other way?
Many thanks for all your thoughts, and I will be happy to share more information on the project as it progresses.
I'm involved with a project which aims to develop an web site and online community for sharing research results on gender and math/science education. The idea is that it will both be a go-to information source and also that it will potentially provide community building channels for different groups to interact and share information with each other, particularly researchers interacting with journalists, teachers and parents.
One of the early steps is looking around at the kinds of features, structures and ideas that people have used for building useful and inviting sites. Also, features people have used to build useless and forbidding ones, so as to learn from other people's mistakes. I'm doing some legwork on this of my own, but I thought I would also try to draw on your collective wisdom. What are the sites that you use on a regular basis? What are the things you like and don't like about them? I'm interested particularly in sites aimed at spreading "Authoritative" information. What makes them authoritative? What makes them useful and successful?
Do you know any online communities devoted to substantive issues (rather than socializing) which you think are highly successful? What are the social and technological features that you think make them great? What makes you look at an online community or message board and immediately run the other way?
Many thanks for all your thoughts, and I will be happy to share more information on the project as it progresses.