Product Description

The purpose of the book is to set up a framework for discussions on social and technical issues of online communities. Designing usability and supporting sociability lays a solid foundation on which online communities can grow and thrive. Intended for both students and computer professionals, the book addresses the development of new online communities as well as the improvement of existing ones. It is divided into two parts - Getting Acquainted with Online Communities and Developing Online Communities - along with a preface and a concluding chapter which explores the future of online communities. For sample chapters and other resources, please check out the web site for the book at www.ifsm.umbc.edu/onlinecommunities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #515993 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.com Review
If the phrase "planned community" makes you think of terrible homogenous suburbs, take another look at the Internet. Although there are unplanned aspects and emergent behaviors, every detail for the most part has been designed by people who thought that they knew what they were doing. Might we do better? Human-computer interactions expert Jenny Preece takes apart our preconceptions and suggests new ways to improve our virtual realities in Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability. Part sociological review, part design manual, the book is dry enough to appeal to techies and academics, but humanistic enough to touch the organizers and activists who will put her ideas further into action. Beginning with basic concepts of community and online activities, Preece moves on to survey research on the use of virtual spaces, and then focuses on techniques to design and build optimal cybervillages for given needs and people. By using plenty of examples and case studies from actual Web sites and other electronic communities, she sheds light on tools that work to make them sustainable. Whether the current generation of e-planners will heed her words--and whether they can create something livable out of the weird suburb/wilderness hybrid that we have now--will be the key to determining how 21st-century humans live, work, and communicate. --Rob Lightner

Review
"provides a good balance between theory and practise"   (Software Focus, December 2001)

"I like the slightly zany drawings"  "People will say I wish I'd had this book before now"."   (Computer & Education, No. 36, 2001)

"…an excellent book…my best recommendations…" (Jnl of Computing and Information Technology, March 2003)

.....a great contribution.....The Internet is, after all, the center of virtual culture; everyone now needs to know about it.-- -- John M. Carroll, Virginia Tech

Anyone interested in growing virtual communities would benefit from this well-researched and well-thought-out exposition of the human interface and social issues underlying virtual community design. Jenny Preece provides an important perspective on social cyberspace that has not been available before the social infrastructure provided by thoughtful user interface design.-- -- Howard Rheingold, Author of The Virtual Community

Preece's book is especially important in three ways. First, it focuses on the important and pervasive growth of Internet communities. Second, it presents a comprehensive user-oriented approach for designing online communities. Third, it applies a variety of methods to test and analyze her ideas.-- -- Ronald E. Rice, Rutgers University

This is the first book that I am aware of that really focuses on the issues of usability and software design of online communities... an excellent organization and mix of topics to address this increasing important area of research and development.-- -- Jean Gasen, Capital One Services Inc.

Who should read this book? Clearly, developers of next-generation virtual community tools, services and applications should adopt this as their bible. The struggle for the soul of cyberspace has begun, and Preece goes a long way toward opening up this process.-- -- From the Foreword by Doug Schuler, Seattle Community Network

Review
Anyone interested in growing virtual communities would benefit from this well-researched and well-thought-out exposition of the human interface and social issues underlying virtual community design. Jenny Preece provides an important perspective on social cyberspace that has not been available before. The social infrastructure provided by thoughtful user interface design.—Howard Rheingold, Author of The Virtual Community

.....a great contribution.....The Internet is, after all, the center of virtual culture; everyone now needs to know about it.—John M. Carroll, Virginia Tech

Preece's book is especially important in three ways. First, it focuses on the important and pervasive growth of Internet communities. Second, it presents a comprehensive user-oriented approach for designing online communities. Third, it applies a variety of methods to test and analyze her ideas.—Ronald E. Rice, Rutgers University

This is the first book that I am aware of that really focuses on the issues of usability and software design of online communities... an excellent organization and mix of topics to address this increasing important area of research and development.—Jean Gasen, Capital One Services Inc.

Who should read this book? Clearly, developers of next-generation virtual community tools, services and applications should adopt this as their bible. The struggle for the soul of cyberspace has begun, and Preece goes a long way toward opening up this process.—From the Foreword by Doug Schuler, Seattle Community Network

Customer Reviews

A little outdated but alright
The internet has changed a lot since this was written but it is still a good book on the basic concepts of Online Communities. I'm not sure if there is a better resource out there yet. I would hope the author would write another version to keep it up-to-date.

One star is too much
Another reviewer has written `online communities for dummies'. This
is essentially correct. A student from medium-high school would
have nor problem to follow this book. This is, however, not the
disapointing part. O.K., I still can accept that Jenny Preece explain
and reexplains even to most simplest notions again and again.
But what is unacceptable is, that everything written in this book is
just descriptive. Nowhere in the whole book there is a new idea,
a new insight or anything else that would make it worth reading.

Sociology of the Internet
I thought this book was GREAT! Sure, it's dated, but every book about the Internet dates quickly. That's because the Internet is growing and changing faster than the book publishing business can publish a book.

The author takes us through many aspects of community building and group dynamics point-by-point. I had to take notes, I found it so useful. Ideas are taken from sociology and applied to the Internet. Dry in parts, yes, but very useful as far as clarifying one's ideas about online communities.

As the manager of a small women's community online, I found this book very useful. Much more practical than Amy Jo Kim's similar book, which mainly focuses on the monster-sized for-profit communities.

The ideas in this book can be applied to any size online community. It's clear thinking will help you understand participant/leader roles in order to delegate responsibility. There are also wonderful hints for keeping a community thriving and successful.