ReachCustomersOnline.com

E-neighborhood: Online message boards help bridge communities

Posted by TimSlavin at January 19, 2004

"As professors and politicians mourn the nation's lost sense of community, where working parents are too busy to chat with neighbors across the fence, witness the online community message board. The Internet may be revolutionary for linking people from different time zones and cultures, but it can also introduce the guy across the street." From Boston.com, the Boston Globe's online home.

I did a little research and would add these links to this story: Keith Hampton is the MIT professor studying four Boston communities use of community software. While there appears to be no project page for his effort, he does have a weblog and list of publications on the topic of community building.

I also would note that what Hampton and others are doing is extremely easy and low cost for anyone to set up. You find a low cost webhosting service, set up at least a newsgroup, and maybe set up a weblog. The only cost is webhosting (which could be $10/month, or less) and the few hours or day required to install and configure the software. The real work involved is managing the online space, having one or more people willing to take the time, here and there, to nurse the online community to life and to keep people involved. That skill, too, is a known quantity.

Bottomline, this is a great example of how to use technologies this website covers and links to all the time.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.reachcustomersonline.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1013

Comments

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: