CJN 721
Paper #3
Tools for Building the Virtual Community


For this assignment, you will please create a weblog of your own and join a Yahoo group on a topic of your interest:

As you create your own blog and your own group, please look around the possibilities of "communities" using both of these tools.  Other tools used for virtual community-building include chat, guest books, email lists (using Majordomo or ListServ), and the new "wickie" technology.

Looking at these tools, please discuss:
  1. What problems, if any, did you have in creating the tools for a virtual community?  Based on your own experience, how would you rate the technical ease of use of these tools?
  2. How popular are blogs? How widespread? Why do you believe the blog phenomenon is so popular?  What uses do you see in blogs?  What problems do you see about them?  How easy is it to find a blog?
  3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the discussion group/mailing list style of connecting ecommunities?  Explore both the technology available at Yahoo and what you believe works well or could be improved about the way it works.
  4. Which of the technologies do you believe would be the most useful for (a) a work group, (b) a social group that meets physically once a month, (c) a group which shares a common disease but no other common features, or (d) a group of senior citizens who are all avid lovers of horse racing?  Why would different technologies be useful for different groups, or would they?
Please keep your discussion limited to ~4-5 pages.

This paper is due 25 October 2007.