Open content communities management

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Introduction

The wiki for open technologies is a technological page that tries to create a reference, in the Internet, around open source. Thewiki4opentech final goal is to empower innovation in open technologies

For success, the most important aspect of the project is the community and it is this matter what we are going to describe in this white paper.

We intend that this article will be the base for a detailed report about communities management.

[edit] The community projects

90% of the projects managed by a community or targeted to them are unsuccessful. To launch a project it is necessary to know communities behavior and their main rules although this knowledge is not enough to have a successful enterprise.

At a first stage, it is mandatory to have a group of individuals (or companies) committed with the project. This small group will be the hearth of the community and without their collaboration the project is not feasible. In a second step the community will grow on solid foundations.

[edit] Community heart

The organizations and individuals that will make up the heart of the community are few and they are organizations that have a relationship with other project members so they know the project goals and have an interest in participating.

Efforts and resources at the first stage have to be targeted to get community heart members.

It is necessary to avoid discussions with other projects in the Internet. Trying to get contributors from other projects can be counterproductive because they may see us as competitors.

To make up and maintain the heart of the community it is mandatory:

• Clear goals. These are explained in the wiki main page
• A clear policy:
  • Licenses. Creative commons by share-alike is the chosen license for the content and GPL for the software.
  • Clear rules to appear as a contributor in the wiki Collaboration acknowledgment is the main reason for organizations to collaborate.
  • Rules to appear in the searching tool
• Project technical road map. Contributors will know when functionalities will be implemented in the wiki.
• Tools to manage the community: email lists, forge, chat and twitter.

A Project spreading road map will organize and optimize time and human resources to get collaboration.

Each part of the community has their own interest and we have to help companies to attain their own goals. Collaboration acknowledgement is the main reason for organizations and individuals to collaborate so that we have to manage the collaborators box, in the right way, to accomplish this requirement.

A common presentation will help founders to agree and share the same message with every one. Presentation in local communities by trusted people who belong to such communities will save resources and allow a relationship with these evangelists. Slideshare will help us to spread the technological wiki.

[edit] Contributors community

It is the community heart which will allow the project viability but in a second step, the project has to get contributors who will enable the project to grow, thus the technological wiki will become a reference in the Internet.

There are some rules to follow at this stage: Collaborators have to see the project alive. The main page has to show the community contributions and opinions so the wiki will show how an active project is, at a first sight. Make it easy. The collaboration has to be as easy as possible. For example, to register, a new user has to answer only a few questions. Contributors are confident on the project goals and policy.

Wiki management has to take into account contributor reasons and benefits. The project will help contributors to accomplish their own objectives