Inside Out

I try to sum up some of the main questions they tried to answer:

- What are community “killers”? They mentioned that the main mistake is assuming that people will participate without being prompted or inspired. Which brings us to the second question:

- What some things you do to drive participation? Stephanie wrote a great summary on the panel and also made a great list about what would help with community involvement:

• Create Q & A columns – this will bring in new content and address user concerns
• Send updates to the community – this will help them get used to recognizing new content and they will start to anticipate updates
• Recruit good moderators who are not afraid to go in and welcome community members and give them a sense of safety and comfort
• Create content that may not always be agreeable – this will help people discuss issues and voice their own views and opinions
• Use people and resources experienced in your particular site’s mission – this way you can change information per your culture/needs and you won’t have to go in and reinvent the wheel

- Moderated vs “free” communities

This question can’t be answered in general. It depends on your culture as a community. Your Filters might work good enough and your main goal is to provide freedom within the communit. But privacy and respect are the other side which has to be taken care of. So good moderators who truly understand the culture and your basic mission are very important to keep the balance between privacy and freedom so your users feel protected but not restricted.

Another great article I found during my recherches is written by Daniel Benner who was also one of the panelists. His article finds answers to the questions:

9 Accelerators for Vocation Network Startups and 5 Ways to Monetize Your Community where he quotes Lindsay Blanton, owner of Radioreference.com.

For those who want to listen to the whole panel it can be found on myfeedia.