Following up on my previous entry questioning the Democratization of Participation, I came across a blog entry in my feed reader discussing an interesting report on Social Technographics that was compiled by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. The study surveyed 4,475 US adults in December 2006 and 4,556 youth in October 2006 to learn about their use of Social Computing technology adoption. From these results they were able to break users into a six-rung ladder based on level of participation. The higher up the ladder, the more engagement you have from the individual.

“Creators” (13%)

Publish Web pages, publish or maintain blogs, upload video to sites like YouTube.

“Critics” (19%)

Comment on blogs, posting ratings and reviews.

“Collectors” (15%)

Use RSS, tag Web pages.

“Joiners” (19%)

Use social networking sites (MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

“Spectators” (23%)

Read blogs, watch peer-generated video, listen to podcasts.

“Inactives” (52%)

Everyone else that does not participate.

It is also worth noting that these stats are not an all or nothing affair. A user could be a creator, collector and spectator. It just depends on how they engage with your website and others as well. I am attempting to get a copy of the full report as I think there is a ton of great information that could be gleaned from it.

On one of the projects that I am responsible for we are looking at very similar characteristics to determine how our members are engaging with our virtual communities e.g. (SIGs - Specific Interest Groups). We are trying to determine how our members are consuming and participating in these communities and whether our SIGs are delivering a consistent level of value. Where there is a gap between value and service we are trying to determine how best to bridge the gap. It is a year long project and we are only 5 months into it so there is much to learn.

This is an emerging area of study that could really help your association get in front of the social media wave and perhaps make some solid decisions regarding how you should best engage your membership. More analysis to follow.

Let’s face it, if you are someone that spends a considerable amount of time blogging you like to keep your sites look and feel looking as fresh and engaging as your content is. WordPress is definitely a user-friendly blogging platform both from the use and from the customization standpoint, but you still need to be familiar with some web basics (php, xhtml, css, etc.) to really get the most out of your blog. Unfortunately, the same low barrier of entry that makes blogging so appealing to so many can also be a large challenge for those who aren’t technically inclined.

Well, customizing your blog’s look and feel has just gotten a bit easier, even for the most design or technology-challenged, thanks to Yvo Schaap. A quick visit to his WordPress theme generator allows you adjust your new themes layout, settings, and colors all in real time and then export a widget-enabled theme in .zip format that is ready to be uploaded to your site. If nothing else, this generator is a great rapid design / development tool that can help you fast track the reboot of your site. Definitely worth checking out.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the heads-up.

One of the attributes that has been cited as a key differentiator between what the web was and what it is now is the fact that the new technologies have created an architecture of participation. One need look no further than services like MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia or any blog to realize that anyone with an idea, some time, a decent internet connection and some basic tools could become a content creator. But how many people are actually creating content? Have we reached a tipping point whereby as many content consumers are also producers? While the amount of hype surrounding the read-write web would lead many to believe so, some initial studies are suggesting otherwise.

A recent article by Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise - a leading provider of online competitive intelligence - was published in TIME Magazine (Who’s Really Participating in Web 2.0)seems to challenge that fundamental belief based on a thorough analysis of internet traffic and activity. The recent data appears to indicate that only a very small percentage of online activity is related to participation (the creation and publication of content). Furthermore, the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) which states that 80% of all consequences stem from 20% of the causes, does not appear to be applicable when it comes to user-generated content, as much less than 1% of visits to user-driven sites are participatory.
(more…)