CILIP

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CILIP Online community development 27 October
2005
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• Introductions and experience review
• 30 mins

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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51,207 members signed up in six weeks
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636,854 contributions 10 per member
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Community channels

• Face-to-face (meetings, forums )
• Mailing lists
• News groups
• Chats/instant messenger
• Interactive blogs
• Web based discussion groups
• Hosted events, QAs, Web casts, Bulletin boards

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Communities of practice why, what and how 30
mins
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Why communities?

• Benefit members
• Increase professional standards
• Increase member opportunities
• Fun camaraderie
• Make life easier
• Generate advocates for the profession
• Agenda set
• Profile raise
• Commercial benefits
• Competitors likely to offer
• Increase value of Cilip membership

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Communities of different types

• Interest share a common interest or passion
  sport, gaming, gardening
• Purpose people going through same process or
  trying to achieve a similar objective
  travellers researching a trip
• Circumstance Driven by circumstance rather than
  profession tend to be personally focused and
  around life-changing experiences
• Practice Generally refers to professionals
  groups of people who share a concern or passion
  for something they do and learn how to do it
  better as they interact regularly

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Variations in member participation
Gaming Communities
Self-help communities
Shared interest communities
Commerce communities
Active members
Passive members
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Thresholds in our maturity model
T Pickles, Sift 2004
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• Need time to familiarise yourself with the
  community
• Dont want to be noticed too quickly or stand out
• Want to check the rules and procedures before
  committing yourself publicly
• Dont want to be made to do anything
• Must be gain some benefit to warrant returning to
  the community

• Would like to contribute or post
• Wary of making a mistake
• Afraid of being recognised
• Need to be able to make mistakes without
  criticism
• Wish it was easier to make that first posting or
  contribution
• Need to feel that its safe to contribute

• Regularly involved in a community
• Recommend a community to colleagues
• Support a community and its aims have a
  growing loyalty to a community
• Finding a real benefit from a community
• Need reassurance that you have made the right
  choice

• Voluntarily undertake specific responsibilities
  within a community
• Regularly contribute articles, opinion pieces,
  reviews, etc.
• Moderate or chair a community
• Co-ordinate (online or offline) events
• Like to contribute for fun, not obligation
• Motivated by profile activity generates

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Lurker
Learner
Lieutenant
Leader
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The community participation iceberg
Leaders

Lieutenants
Learners
Lurkers
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A few planning questions

• How will it fit within our organisational format?
• Is the community to increase website readership,
  share resources and knowledge, brainstorm,
  encourage casual conversation
• Where will we find potential members?
• What issues drive them?
• Do they live in the same time zone?
• How will we attract and keep them?
• How technically able are they?
• Are the issues they want to discuss of interest
  to the larger community or private or sensitive?
• Is there already a real community?
• Is the subject something they can be passionate
  about?
• Do members share information amongst one another
  already?
• Do members need information to do their work?
• Do the people who lead or influence the group
  support the idea of online collaboration?
• ?

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Content is King
Peer-to-Peer content (content generated by
members e.g. SIGs)
Pull content from members (content generated by
members e.g. Whos Who, contributed features)
Volume of site content
Push content to members (Generated by Community
Manager or external)
Maturity
Adolescence
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Final thoughts on the community landscape

• The value of communities is often underestimated
• Communities are about inspiration as much as
  participation
• Only a minority of members will become seriously
  active. Focus your energy on supporting and
  recognising the active members

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• Ideas for CILIP communities
• 40 mins

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Subjects for communities? (drawn from workshop)

• Freedom of Information
• Information literacy (inc. teaching skills)
• Information ethics
• Taxonomy
• Information ROI
• Information modeling
• Information overload
• New and current issues
• Knowledge economy
• Students
• Mentoring

• Cross-sector subjects
• Workplace issues
• Career development
• People management
• Job sharing
• Solo librarians
• Practical hints and tips
• Legal librarians
• Lobbying
• How to build a CoP
• Technical LIS
• Social inclusion

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Criteria for communities

• Benefit to existing members
• Attractiveness to non-members
• Potential total audience numbers
• Agenda setting capacity
• Commercial opportunities
• Sustainability

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A new community model
Blog (Do the right thing)
Blog (Sort it out)
Blog (Findability)
Open access Blogosphere
CILIP member only
Community (Information literacy)
Community (Taxonomy)
Community (Information ethics)
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Promoting CILIP communities
Blogosphere