1. SyllabusThis is a featured page



Understanding, Creating and Managing Online Community

Professor:
Elizabeth Osder
Senior Director, Product Development
Yahoo Media Group, Yahoo News
http://www.osder.com (cyberspace)
Office: 310-907-2796
Osdere@yahoo-inc.com
(please put COMM 599 in subject line)

Office Hours: By appointment

Course:
Comm 599
Monday 6:45 – 9:30 pm
ASC 232

Credit: 4 units

Overview:


This course is designed for students interested in understanding and creating online communities. Students will gain an understanding of communities both on and offline through a survey relevant historical and theoretical literature.

With that foundation, we will explore types of online communities and the social and commercial motivations for the creation and participation in online community including trust, reward and reputation. We’ll also look at the technologies past and present that power online communities including listserves, tagging, social networks and more.

Students will also examine the phenomena in a variety of topic specific verticals including entertainment, news, sports, and youth as well as applications in a variety of communications disciplines including journalism, strategic communications and public relations.

Although this is not a production course, students will be required to plan and create an “online community” with simple, readily available software. Since online community takes time to develop and nurture, we will also emphasize professional planning, project management and critical thinking associated with launching and nurturing online communities. Case studies will be drawn from major media companies and also smaller, more entrepreneurial media ventures.

Course Goals:
  • Students should gain an understanding of web 2.0 concepts and the planning and building of online communities.

  • Students should understand the history, trends, technologies and key theories behind online community.

  • Students should be able to apply these concepts and practices to a professional setting, understanding how to apply them to practical business practice.

ASSIGNMENTS


There will be several short assignments and a final project. Each of these is described in later in the syllabus.

ATTENDANCE POLICY


Unexcused absences will not be tolerated. Students are expected to make up all work and assignments from each session.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AND READINGS


You will also be responsible for reading all materials listed as URL’s on the syllabus and for any additional handouts

CLASS PARTICIPATION

This is a seminar and will rely heavily on class participation. You are expected to come to each class prepared, having read the material and able to discuss its contents.

GRADING


In-class participation 20%
Online Community Profile 10%
Book Report/Theory 10%
Wiki’ing (Rants, etc) 10%
Final Project
· Online Communities Plan & Creation 40%
· Final Presentation 10%

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY


There are no exceptions to this policy.

Since its founding, the USC Annenberg School of Communications has maintained a commitment to the highest standards of ethical conduct and academic excellence.

Any student found guilty of plagiarism, fabrication, cheating on examinations or purchasing papers or other assignments will immediately receive a failing grade in the course and will be dismissed from the school.







DISABILITY SERVICES AND PROGRAMS
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a
disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301. Its phone number is 213-740-0776.

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS

August 21, 2006

Week One

Introduction & Course Overview

  • Introductions
  • Goals and Interests
  • Syllabus Review
  • What are communities? Social Networks? A sense of place?

August 28, 2006

Week Two

History & Segmentation of Online Communities
  • Hypertext, BBS, Well, Social Software
  • Topics, interests and taxonomy and folksonomies
  • Technologies (blogs, Wikis, Tags, etc)

PLEASE PREPARE:

What is community?
Social Capital, What makes community work?
How is content and community organized and self Organized?
  • Taxonomies to Tags: From Trees to Piles of Leaves (attached PDF) Weinberger (handout/PDF)

Discussion Questions:
Be prepared to talk about what community means to you?
· What communities have you been part of in your life?
· What has made them important to you?
· What have you gotten from them?
· What have you given to them?

What "computer mediated" communities do you participate in? Or if you don't, do you know about?
· How do these communities serve you in ways that the offline communities don't?
· Are the "needs" that they meet, similar or different than offline community?
· How do you find them? And others?

What products of online communities do you use?
· Open source?
· Blog networks?
· Wikis?

What is Social Capital?
· How is it an important building block of community

September 4, 2006

Week Three


NO CLASS – LABOR DAY

September 11, 2006

Week Four

What works, what doesn’t? Social Software, Communities and Technologies
Management Issue: Research and Online Community

Guest Lecture: Miriam Alexander, Head of Research, Yahoo Media Group

PLEASE PREPARE:

Readings:
Class Wiki:
  • Sign up for your Wetpaint account
  • Browse and play with the wiki and learn your way around
  • Add a page under "Community Members"
  • Enter a bio or other information about you on your page
  • Enter the book you will read (add to book list if it's not there)

Present & Write up Q and A on an Online Community
Book Report

September 18, 2006

Week Five

Identity and Trust & Theories of Participation
  • Motivation
  • Rewards
  • Incentives
  • Identity Management
  • Trust Networks
In Class: Online Community Product Planning

PLEASE PREPARE:
Exercise:
Do you have a myspace page? A Facebook page? If not it's time. You are to set one up for the next class. Find your classmates? Friends? Anyone want to set up a myspace for our class? Let me know...
Readings:
  • Judith S. Donath, Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community <http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
  • HYPERLINK "http://judith.www.media.mit.edu/"Utilizing Consumer-Generated Media in Market Research
    From Corporate Executive Board, August, 2006 (Handout)
Questions:
  • What tools are availabe to track "user generated media"
  • What unique issues are presented?
  • What are the types of "user interactions" that make up online community?
  • How effective are these techniques? Where are the gaps? Opportunities ?
Case Studies in the News
Lonely Girl 15 Watch more in the series, what do you think? Watch some of the video blog responses. Questions:
  • What is up with Lonely Girl?
  • How is trust related to identity?
  • What motivated people to respond and participate?
  • Credibility and trust, how are they related?
Facebook

September 25, 2006

Week Six

Topic: Peer Production Focus Communities: News Media and JournalismManagement Issue: Credibility and Authority

Guest Lecturer:
  • Jason Calicanis, Netscape.com and Weblogs Inc.

Literature Presentation:
  • We Media, Dan Gillmore, Erin Williams

Note: We have a quick change in plans, Jason Calicanis had to cancel for this week and we'll be rescheduling him in a couple of weeks.

Therefore we are going to put off our "media and journalism" class for after I get back. Jason will join us then and I will be full of exciting updates from The Online News Association Conference in Washington DC.

Please Prepare:
A. Peer Production:
What is it? Can you see it? What Communities or Content are best created in this manner?
Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons-based_peer_production
Browse: http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks_Chapter_3.pdf

B. Site Reports:
Be prepared to discuss in class. We must get through 1/2 of them this class. I think it will help your thinking about your group projects. So be prepared to "drive the computer" and show and tell about the site you choose. Think about the issues that we've been discussing, brand? Credibility? Identity? Trust? Etc.

C. Group Projects:
The ideas are up and evolving:
http://comm599.wetpaint.com/page/Group+Ideas

** If you have an idea you want to pitch, have it posted before class, you can have 10 minutes to present your ideas to the class. Let me know if you want to present before class starts.

D. Project Blue Print Outline:
As I said this would change and evolve as your ideas and teams develop, We can adjust the proposals based on your topic, for example:
  • more biz for commercial ideas
  • more tools and management for marketing and PR
  • more purpose and social dynamics for health and good works

Here's a link to the outline you should consider:

http://comm599.wetpaint.com/page/1.+Project+Blueprint

  • We will go over this again in class.


E. Book Reports:
They start next class, have them ready for presentation and posted to the Wiki. Remember 1-2 pages that cover
1. the author
2. the thesis of the book
3. How it relates to online communities and the class topic.
4. The best thing you learned
5. related links of other materials about the book.

October 2, 2006

Week Seven

Out of Town
Group Project Work and Planning

October 9, 2006

Week Eight

Focus Communities: Politics and Social OrganizationsManagement Issue: Organizing Online, Politics and Elections
Guest Lecturer: Cameron Marlow, Yahoo Research

Literature Presentations:
  • Better Together, Putname, Lewis H
  • Army of Davids, Kris, S
  • The Revolution will not be Televides, Trippi, Terry G.

October 16, 2006

Week Nine

Focus Communities: Games & Entertainment & SportsManagement Issue: Marketing to Online Communities

Guest Lecture:
Todd Steinman, M80

Literature Presentation:
Darknet, JD Lasica, Julie, S.
Fans, Bloggers and Gamers, Henry Jenkins, Allan B.
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat, J. Franklin

October 23, 2006

Week Ten

Focus: Commerce & Marketing Sites
Management Issue: The “new world” of Public Relations
· CEO Blogs
· Corporate Sites

Guest Lecturer: TBD

Literature Presentation:
Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki, Kelly R.
Naked Conversations, Scoble (?)

October 30, 2006

Week Eleven

Focus Communities: Youth & Music
Management Issue: Legal and Policy Issues
  • Copy write
  • Net Neutrality
  • Safety
  • Privacy

Guest Lecturer:
· Cory Doctrow, Fellow, USC Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy
· Danah Boyd, Annenberg Fellow

Literature Presentations:
Free Culture, Lessign Jesse C.
Netroots, Clint



November 6, 2006

Week Twelve

Focus Communities: Health & Faith Communities
Management Issue: Economics of Online Communities
  • Monetization Strategies (SEo, Targeting)
  • Marketing your community (Driving Traffic)

Guest Lecture: Arnie Gullov-Singh, Director of Monetization, MySpace, Fox Interactive Media.

November 13, 2006

Week Thirteen
Focus Communities: DIY (Do it yourself), Hobbies and Passions
Management Issue: Building your organization, Moderation, Tools and Staffing

Guest Lecturer: TBD

November 20, 2006

Week Fourteen

International/Mobile

Focus Communities: International/Global and Mobile
Management Issue: Language and Culture

Guest Lecturer: TBD

November 27, 2006

Week Fifteen

Last Class – Final Presentations






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