Using Bulletin Boards and Chat to Build Community

Today I want to introduce some ideas and questions about the use of bulletin boards and chat rooms to build virtual community.<:LINEBREAK:>
First of all, some definitions: in case you didn?t know, THIS IS a bulletin board! A bulletin board, also called threaded discussion or forum, is asynchronous. In other words, those who post are not doing so in simultaneous real-time. This is one of its key advantages, since anyone can participate at any time.
In general, someone posts a question or statement, and others post comments in subsequent threads. Depending on the software, the threads may be visible at a glance, or be listed under the original post, as they are here at tech soup.<:LINEBREAK:>
If you would like to see other styles of forums, check out discussions on Senior.net, About.com/Nonprofit Discussion, or at .com sites like WebMD,TalkCity, or /iVillage.
What makes a bulletin board work? Like most things, success starts with a need, a purpose, and clear goals. What do you or your organization hope to accomplish with a bulletin board? What do your target participants want to get out of it? How comfortable are you, and they, with managing and using forums? Do the people you want to involve all have access to the web?
<:LINEBREAK:>I suggest that you begin with a clearly focused, well-moderated discussion. Is there an upcoming event, or a current decision on which you would like feedback? Let?s say you are planning next year?s special event. You set up a forum and invite board, current volunteers and staff. You post a few key questions: Theme, Dates, Place. Perhaps you list one heading that says: ?the best thing about last year?s event was:? and ?the worst thing about last year?s even was:? Once everyone has posted, you create summaries of their comments. Next you post headings for each committee?and so on.
<:LINEBREAK:>Or, you might decide that a group of parents from your program need opportunities for dialogue over the summer. You set up a forum and invite them. Then you set up headings such as: ?tips for travel with disabled children? or ?preparing for kindergarten.? You seed the discussion with ideas, suggestions or key questions, and post summaries and new questions, so the content is fresh.
<:LINEBREAK:>Someone needs to take the responsibility for moderating the forum; to do that you will need to think about what that role entails. Depending on whether it is public or internal, you will need to think about norms and etiquette for posts, and make sure that new participants understand both the norms and expectations for the forum.<:LINEBREAK:>Typically, the moderator is responsible for posing questions, to which others post responses. Keeping the threads organized, so participants post answers under the respective question, will make it easier to maintain the integrity of the discussion. Check out this site for more on being a good moderator:<:LINEBREAK:>Moderators.com.<:LINEBREAK:>
Experiment with free services before you make a financial investment in a custom forum. Free services include EZBoard and<:LINEBREAK:> World Crossing . If you try these services and decide you would be happier without ads, you can pay to subscribe. Techsoup?s forum uses Centerwheel .<:LINEBREAK:>
When your target audience has the ability to log on at the same time, you might consider using chat to convene an online discussion. Chat, real-time synchronous communication, requires careful planning. Once again, begin by clarifying your goals and purpose, as well as your strategy for facilitation if the meeting includes more than a few staff members. Chat can be used to provide a chance for Q & A with an expert in your field or a guest speaker. If you?d like to experience this kind of chat, visit WebMD, WebMD.which convenes health-related discussions on a regular basis.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>
Yahoo!Groups has a chat option, and for smaller groups most of the instant messaging services will allow you to conference in multiple participants.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>
Have you used any of these strategies successfully? Share your experiences or questions.

Create a quick, one-topic group discussion with this free service: Quick Topic

Janet,<:LINEBREAK:>I was under the assumption that a bulletin board (like CraigsList) differed from a message board (like this community.) From your message above, it seems that this isn't correct?

Not to get too wrapped up in terminology, but the craigslist discussion forums are often referred to as "conversation discussions". The idea is that you are in the middle of a great big room and have the opportunity to hear and participate in all the discussions - craigslist discussions are basically one big thread, with all the conversations revealed. "Threaded Discussions" are often used more narrowly to describe dicussions where each discussion is divided into distinct topic threads and the full discussion is hidden behind the topic - as if the user is in a conference where they can choose which session to join based on the title outside the door.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>I see both "discussion forum" and "bulletin board" used to describe all types of asynchronous discussions.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>- Eric

I think that's been our problem with our discussion boards -- they languished with lack of posting till the person who'd put them up gave up and took them down. We didn't seem to really have a clear purpose for them. I think we could use them now but I'm still not sure what to do with them. We don't have past events or anything to comment on and most of our clients and potential clients have spotty or non-existant internet access. We could start a forum on the sustainability of open source in developing countries, but we already have a mailing list on that that hasn't gotten traffic in a few months either. (Of course, this is probably partly because a lot of people didn't even know of its existence; I just noticed the other day that there wasn't even subscription information on the website, that I could find, and added some.) Anyway, just some rambling.

My experience has been that you need both software that works well enough =and= active moderation+promotion. If the software makes it hard for users to participate (or, in many cases, simply doesn't make it easy), then they need to be really, really motivated to do so, and you slough off potential users quickly.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>On the other hand, as William Whyte, he of the streetcorner observations (but not William Foote Whyte, of Streetcorner Society), people like to go where there are lots of people. So without moderators to seed discussions, acknowledge new participants, provide technical support, mediate disputes, and promote the discussions elsewhere, entropy tends to be very visible.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>The goal is that the total website--resources, links, community--equal to something that people will want to visit daily, or at least often.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>Assuming you can meet the threshhold of software that feels comfortable to users (and that your users are web-enabled), and that you have a good moderator or few in place, discussions can be the easiest way to get people personally involved with your organization, and can also be an incredible resource for both searching and quick question/reply.

Good points, Khandro! I'm more of a conferencing junkie, myself. For years I rejected chat as something mindless teenagers looking for sex and dirty talk did. It slowly sank in that a lot of people simply like talking with people who are actually online at the same time. They =are= different ways of using online space, and I think that the audiences do tend to be different. Chat is much more immediate.

Don't forget to allow for different time zones if you're going to have people nationally or internationally at the planned chats.

Excellent reminder, artemis! In terms of international English-speaking participants, mornings US time will pick up chatters from India, Australia and New Zealand; mid-late afternoons US time are good for European chatters.