Welcome to Building and Managing Online Communities
Comm 599

Fall 2006
University of Southern California
Annenberg School for Communications

Professor:
Elizabeth A. Osder
http://www.osder.com

Monday
6:45-9:45 pm
ASC 323

Introduction:

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.