Toward a Community-Oriented Design of Internet Platforms

摘要

Building user communities can contribute significantly to the success of an on-line platform.The literature on establishing on-line communities and on extending existing platforms with functionalities that enable community building emphasizes the social and economic aspects of community building and neglects the technical aspects.On-line communities have two elements:community members and platform.The platform provides a virtual social meeting space and shapes communication with the service it provides.In order to determine what kind of services will enable,stimulate,and foster community building,this paper identifies community modules and proposes a typology of on-line communities and their community-supporting platforms.