1. Invisible communities.
Chris Heathcote
LIFT 2011
Whilst everyone talks about Facebook as the largest community, I want to talk about some other communities that are
overlooked.
2. Usenet.
The history of the Internet is the history of communities.
Usenet sprang out of bulletin board systems - the first notion of Internet communities of strangers with shared interests,
dialling into a shared space
2001 - 500 million messages (google buys Dejanews)
still going, but not really used for talking any more
the best Usenet groups either met in real-life, or did something together - both things that kept the groups as real communities
- if you want to see the extent of this google for alt.fan.lemurs - not only one of the funniest groups, it raised a lot of money for
the Duke University Primate Center.
.
3. Mailing lists.
at the same time as Usenet grew in popularity, so did mailing lists - these were often private and sometimes invite-only.
1999 - egroups alone - 13 million users - 1.3 billion messages a month
4. Web forums.
Vbulletin, phpBB & discuz.
web-based message boards took over from Usenet and mailing lists
vbulletin is 1.4% of all websites on the Internet - bigger than blogger
phpBB is 0.4% - bigger than Typepad and Tumblr
Discuz is 0.4% (Japanese forum software)
(blogger is 0.7%, Typepad 0.1%, tumblr <0.1%)
Gaia Online, an mmorpg, has a forum system to talk about anything - not just the game - 23 million members, 1.9 billion
messages.
These communities are where an awful lot of knowledge is stored on the Internet.
5. On the web, but
sometimes invisible.
No central index, ofter content is limited to members- invisible to Google, and therefore invisible to the web.
Boards are often shared by word-of-mouth, and thereʼs no central identity system - you are a different identity on each.
6. Mobile games in Japan.
Gree & Mobage-town.
Japanese sites offering mobile phone games - have become large communities themselves - 22 million users each - these are
considered the biggest barriers to Facebook
7. Not the typical homepage of an online community.
The New York Times wrote “One trait those sites have in common is crucial to Japanʼs fiercely private Internet users. The
Japanese sites let members mask their identities, in distinct contrast to the real-name, oversharing hypothetical user on which
Facebookʼs business model is based.
Japanese Web users, even popular bloggers, typically hide behind pseudonyms or nicknames.”
9. Korean messaging apps.
Kakao Talk & WhatsApp.
some of the most popular apps in Korea - person to person and small group messaging - free - (and cheaper than SMS)
KakaoTalk - 4 million users in 9 months
on these, your phone number is your identity
10. pretty similar feature sets, but WhatsApp started charging 99c for the app - so the userbase is moving.
These 3rd party messaging apps spring up in every country and language - mainly because theyʼre cheaper (ad
supported) - these are not the universal ubiquitous messaging systems like the Internet or mobile phones.
11. Group image sharing.
Path & Instagram.
Path and Instagram create small group sharing for photos - with little presence on the web, other than when shared.
12. Instagram in particular feels more private than it actually is - they leak into other social networks, but feel private as theyʼre just
on your personal device
13. Of the Internet, but not
of the web.
these communities exist on the Internet, but not how weʼd traditionally view it - through a web browser
14. Unexpected communities.
Grindr.
communities can emerge in the strangest places
Grindr is a gay dating app for iPhone and BlackBerry
over 1 million users - 75,000 in London
15. (as an aside, itʼs oddly prudish - to conform with Appleʼs terms and conditions)
Itʼs location based - and thatʼs the extent of the UI
you turn it on, and it displays the closest 100 people
thereʼs no ʻnormalʼ login, your phone is your identity (contrast with gaydarʼs app)
thereʼs no way to change where you are and the people you see - itʼs using your actual location as the only input
The founder says that it should minimise the time to meeting in real life.
Its limitations in functionality are part of its success....
16. almost no profile
a picture, a few lines of text, a few stats - thatʼs all
and the actions are limited - favourite, block or chat
17. A community despite its
original intentions.
What struck me was that people stay on grindr all day, every day. People use it when theyʼre bored to chat as much its original
purpose - even though itʼs designed not to facilitate long-term communication.
It also gained enough momentum, at least in the UK, in a really odd way - Stephen Fry demoing it to Jeremy Clarkson on Top
Gear - over 30,000 downloads that night
My question is - whatʼs going on, what can we learn from it?
18. To try and get a sense of whatʼs going on, I did some data spelunking, taking a sample of data from London. Just because
things arenʼt on the web, doesnʼt mean theyʼre really private.
My first thought was to map it, in some way. A map is the hello world of data.
This is a map of London on a Saturday night (the tube stations), showing the average disclosed weight of users near each
point. Maybe not that interesting, but even here thereʼs some stories.
19. And this is taking all the words in the profiles... One odd word that sticks out is ping -
20. PingChat.
this refers to another iPhone community/chat app - itʼs easier to manage long-term chats in Ping than in grindr itself (and itʼs
cheaper than SMS).
People find a way round problems or limitations to let them talk, and keep talking.
21. Even dating becomes a
community.
so even dating, supposedly a solitary endeavour, can become a community
22. Gaydar.
Gaydar started as a dating site, now operates several communities, radio stations, bars... its website gets as much traffic as
Tesco, with 5.2 million registered users. The radio station has a listenership of 2.2 million - but struggles on mobile, both
because it has a legacy of standard logins, and it charges more for mobile use.
24. People will talk about
anything.
weʼre lucky - people like to talk, especially about their interests and experiences, hobbies and niches.
25. Go where the people are.
In fact, chances are, people are already talking about what you want to talk about. Does creating a new community make
sense? How can you use existing places better?
And on the flip side - if you have a place where a lot of people are doing something - does it make sense to create a
community around this?
26. People don’t want their
identities tied together.
the ease and showing-off of Facebook may be appropriate in some cases, but not all
everyone has some slightly uncool hobby or interest...
So separate usernames, profiles and avatars are key needs for many people - even using Google or Facebook Connect as
part of the sign-in process will keep people away
27. Let people communicate
in private.
As well as the conversations in public, people need to be able to split off and have side conversations - most web bulletin
boards allow private messaging as well as forum posting.
28. Moderate with
personality.
the forums that succeed are often run by someone whoʼs passionate about the subject and wants to know more. theyʼre a
known face, with a real name, and their management is considered in good faith.
Forums like metafilter can keep going because of the strong identity of moderators .
29. Watch what’s happening.
Most communities havenʼt got a Danah Boyd or a sociologist to tease out whatʼs really going on and look for interesting
stories. Itʼs also hard for those outside to gain a large enough view of the community. Pointing at interesting stories shows the
community that itʼs alive and kicking, and worthwhile continuing to contribute.
30. “Get them to like each
other.” - Rushko
This applies especially to commercial entities running communities:
Douglas Rushkoff in his book Program or be programmed says
“Where there are people, there will be conversations.... Instead of looking to monetize or otherwise intercede between existing
social connections, those promoting networks should be looking to foster connections between people who are as yet
unknown to each other yet potentially in need of each other. And then let them go about their business—or their socializing.”
This has to be the key idea when creating and managing a community - “The content is not the message, the contact is. The
ping itself.” - If people like each other, theyʼll keep on talking.
32. People like to talk.
Anything can and will be used to
communicate.
People don’t have one identity.
Public, semi-public and private
conversations.
Watch what’s happening.
Let people like each other.
