You already have a good idea of how online communities develop via Email lists and even have accompanying Web sites to help convey that sense of community. In the following activity you and a team of partners will draw from exemplary communities to identify the features or aspects that you would like to have were you to create your own online community.

Gather into teams of four or eight (depending on time and computer availability). Each member of your team will choose to explore one of the Web sites listed in the Resource Section and determine:

1. What is the purpose of the list?
2. What are the features of the online community?
3. What tools has the community used to achieve their purpose?
4. How do the Web and the list relate to each other?

What makes this activity different from the first on Developing a Concept is that now your purpose is not to merely understand the concept, but to choose which aspects seem so valuable that you would want to include them in your own online community.

Each member (or pair) from your group will apply the four questions above to one of the following Web sites.

Come together as a team and share what you learned. Especially note any unique successes or noble failures exhibited at the Web sites so that as a group you can decide what you would want to include in a the Web site of fictional online community.

It's been said that when Webs have an online community as their core, the interaction of that community becomes the lifeblood of the Web and a chief source of data from which the Web is built. Did you see this in the Web sites your team explored? Would someone else see this in the fictitious community Web site you just hypothesised?

But in the best spirit of online communities, let's begin to develop one of our own by entering into a discussion. Your can begin by stating what aspects of a Web site your group wanted to include. Also consider what makes an online community effective or successful. You might want to compare your ideas on this to those of others.

If you're like many newcomers to online communities, you might feel as though you don't have much to say. If you prefer, you can read experts' opinions or further reading on the topic to gain further insight or find a quotation to get a discussion started. If you're really new to it all, try the activity, Developing a concept for online communities.