Announcements
Walt Kassoway, newly-elected NBMA President, gave congratulations to new NBMA Editor, Linda Jay
Brandt. Linda gave a brief statement to announce the revival of the
North Bay Beat section
of the Multimedia Reporter, and asked for volunteers to assist in Artist Layout. Linda thanked
Chris Beatrice who has been doing the art layout for every issue, and also called for volunteer
writers and tradeshow participants. If anyone would like to review a show or a book, conduct an
interview or anything for the NBMA, please send a request to Linda or Walt and they will respond if
the NBMA can purchase the book or ticket or whatever required, to help you volunteer!
Walt also thanked Sharon Callahan for food and transportation along with big thanks to Heidi,
Troy and Maggie. Volunteers interested in Hospitality should contact Walt by email.
Sir Maylock of Stansbury invited everyone to the next Art and Music SIG [Special Interest Group],
featuring Dimension Studios new generation of animation, seen in shows such as Vampyres using
low-polygon VRML [Virtual Reality Modeling Language]. Guest speakers will include Pam Dell of
Purple Moon, our own NBMA member Melinda Bell, Annie Fox and Deborah Todd who worked on
Anastasia for Disney.
Ann Smulka announced a preview of NBMA award-winning artist Michael Wanger's newest creation,
Southwest Symphony on Wednesday, May 13 at the Autodesk Briefing Center.
June 18th, NBMA will hold the second-annual Best of the North Bay not to be missed!
Joe Sinclair announced the beginning of a Professional Media Institute in need of help with
promotion and a Fine Art Institute which is a public service bringing performers and
artists into the digital world. Good Luck Joe!
Renee from 3D Design brought two certificates to raffle worth
$575 each, for full-day passes to the 3D Design Conference
at Moscone Center, May 19-22. Thanks Renee!
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Contents
Introduction
Amy Jo explained a little about how she started her Web Design company Naima and how there are
Nine [9] Basic
Principles to building successful online
communities, and she included five Case Studies in her new book. She began with how to start
building a web site. Amy Jo asked for a show of hands from the Peanut Gallery for everyone who
belongs to a mailing list, newsgroup or buddy-list [lots of hands flew up].
A good start, she qualified, but not necessarily a community. What is a Web Community?
To define whether you are part of a Web Community, she explained, just ask the people who are
gathered online for any purpose. If they feel they are, that is the
true criteria.
Clients have also defined a Web Community as a place where people gather for a shared purpose,
who get to know each other over time, and develop personal relationships.
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Contents
Case Studies
Some examples of thriving online communities include Ebay [an Online Auction House], The Motley Fool, the Computer Game
Developers Conference, Parent Soup, Ultima Online, ESPN, ThirdAge [demographics], and ethnic-interest groups such as
NetNoir for Africans or ChannelA for Asians, and extending to Intranets like Sun Microsystems' facilitate discussions and
groups, fostering a sense of community, as opposed to Ghost Towns in Cyberspace, which have a 3D space but without the
"Social Scaffolding" are destined to fold!
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Contents
Nine Basic Principles of Building Web Communities
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Define the Purpose of your community, know your audience. |
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Create Flexible Gathering Places, thrive by growing organically. Balance
between cramped space or feeling like you are in a barn. |
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Design systems to manage Identity and Reputation, build trust by creating
a persistent identity. Without trust, you have no community. |
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Promote Strong Leadership. This is a key issue for regulars. |
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Encourage Appropriate Etiquette. Accountability is balanced against the
freedom to discuss subjects openly. |
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Promote Cyclic Events. In the real world, communities are based on daily to
seasonal events. |
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Provide a Range of Roles. Treat Old-Timers different than Newcomers. People
want to play different roles. |
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Integrate Rituals of Daily Life. From Marriages to Birthdays. |
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Facilitate member-created Subgroups. Guilds, Clans, Web Rings are all
getting popular. Any community thriving, provides a structure for subgroups. |
Articulate your vision, she explained. Create a Mission Statement internally for your team. Extend the expression into a
Brand Personality of community.
Start small and grow. Be extensible. Encourage thematic
neighborhoods. A good example is Cyberpark [pictured here] which AOL cancelled because it cost too much.
