Design for Community

by Derek Powazek

The Barnes & Noble Review
Why do some web-based communities thrive, and so many fail? Sure, some topics just don't lend themselves to community -- try building a thriving circle of, say, tinfoil users. But all too often, community sites fail because they haven't learned the lessons taught in this book.

Derek Powazek -- who's worked on community features for sites ranging from Kvetch! and SF Stories to Nike and the super-hot Blogger -- covers every aspect of web-based community building. That includes design, policies, tools, chat, Webcams, the role of email in supporting community, and lots more.

Some of this is common sense: You need to jump-start your site with great content, and the tone of your content will drive the tone of the content you'll get from your site's visitors. But even when presenting the obvious, Powazek can usually offer a helpful twist. For example, he shows how to integrate your existing content and your community far more thoroughly, avoiding the tendency to treat content and community practically as separate sites.

Most of what's in here is the fruit of experience -- and some of it's counterintuitive. Powazek's learned that the more clicks between the entrance of your site and the "post" button, the more thoughtful your contributors are likely to be. (The thoughtful folk have run a gauntlet the flamers won't bother with.) The stuff Powazek hasn't done himself is covered through case studies and interviews -- Slashdot, Metafilter, Tivocommunity.com, and others. Whether you're creating a personal weblog or an enterprise-class product support site, you'll find this book invaluable.

(Bill Camarda)

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey–based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.

Genres: Design, Technology, Nonfiction, Business, Reference, Website Design

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 9, 2001

About the author

Derek Powazek has worked the web since 1995 at pioneering sites like HotWired, Blogger, and Technorati.

He is the author of “Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places” (New Riders, 2001).He is the cofounder of JPG, the photography magazine that’s made by its community.

Derek now works with his wife, Heather Champ, as Fertile Medium. He is Chief of Awesome for HP’s MagCloud, advises a handful of startup companies, and edits Fray, the quarterly book of true stories and original art.

Derek lives in San Francisco with his wife, two nutty Chihuahuas, a grumpy cat, and a house full of plants named Fred.

Reviews

[Rick]

The Fray web site was/is amazing. I don't know why I'm so slow to admit that it takes some skill and strategy to create a world that people want to enter. But I was happy to find this book by the Fray's creator. It's a book I dip into from time to time, and often find things that I wasn't ready to learn earlier.

[Jos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book still has a lot of relevant insight about humans and communities.