Educating Your Members
From Community Leadership Summit Wiki
Moderator: Andy Oram
newbies can burn out experts by repeating the same questions
Experts invest time writing about things that excite them, forget that people need basics
When valuable related information is available on other sites:
- a string of 600 links not enough - structure the information so as not to overwhelm reader
Ubuntu - users have motivation, but fewer skills
- come to site eager to help but don't know where to start engagement & retention
Mexican historical group, 99% of users just read, very few have expertise to verify information
- SME politics, culture, art difficulty getting translations
- Three languages, with very few people knowing the indigenous langauge. It has some characters that are not in international computer character sets
- content creation & mgmt problems. most contribution between
spanish/english,
- none in the third language other than a few indigenous university students
- general problem:
- verification of content
- what's the seasrch strategy
- andy: could be a taxonomy problem
efficiency of government educational sites
- some people show up because they want to, you have more of a chance of keeping them because they'll put some effort into understanding what to do
- others you drag in--have a split second to get their attention
- engage and welcome them, present a point of reference
- hard when you don't know who is coming in the front door
- in contrast, sites aimed at specific niches (e.g., embedded Linux developers) cater to people who already have some commitment
Besides technical education, understanding the community you've just joined in is also a part of education
wikianswers:
- people want to know something immediately
- some info is harder to find
- make info more accessible
- andy: possibly need a human greeter
- wikianswers has an outreach-type program, glad you're here etc., but
doesn't teach
- cory: perhaps offer a guided tutorial, like a docent tour every 2 hours
community is like a brand
- when educating community, keep things on topic
opensolaris user group
- has offered education on esoterica of solaris, not about generic usage
- in contrast, local linux groups have presentations on power-use for a gnome utility
- suggestion: send out a survey to find out what current members want, contact members who have dropped out to find out why
- is the user group it a sun thing or a community thing? would I continue if I left the company?
ubuntu & wikianswers attract people but don't know how to keep the ones who disappear quickly
difference between a published book by an expert vs. trolling google? those concepts are merging, experts learning from readers
- books turning into wikis, online & accepting comments
three aspects of successful education:
- availability (including translations where appropriate)
- findability (including taxonomy, overcoming fragmentation)
- quality
Suggestions from Andy:
To find out what members need the most, ask them to post questions to FAQ instead of a mailing list, and then people able to propose answers
http://www.praxagora.com/community_documentation
- API - enabling sites to exchange information
- mockup of tech docs site
- Sample ideas
- how to use faq & searches
- crowdsource - people suggesting links to docmentation to read before or after the current doc
Attendees:
Andy Oram
Cory Stousland
David Christian
Neal Bussett
Rich Reader
Nathan Haines
Jeff Osier-Mixon
Suzanne Benner
Alta Elsted
