From [[http://cpsquare.org CPsquare]], the community of practice on communities of practice.

Definition

This tool allows community leaders or members to monitor or visualize community participation on a platform. May include the ability to monitor down to the feature or location level. Active community leaders and facilitators can use statistics about activity to guide their work, especially when communities are large and activity is concentrated on one platform. But even for small communities, it can be useful to make comparisons over time. "Push" systems like email lists depend on responses to gauge participation, which can skew the perceptions of participation. Page reads or similar data can reveal peripheral participation (often described as 'lurking')

Uses in communities of practice

Issues addressed by the feature set include:

1. Participation (logging in, reading, downloading) and contribution (posting, uploading, etc.);
2. Access to objects; (don't know what this means)
3. Automated actions (don't know what this means)

this is all site based, but we should look carefully to make sure that other P2P type models are covered, etc. and look for web crossingisms everywhere.

Polarities

• Together/apart, Synch/Asynch:
• Interaction/publication:
• Individual/group:

Key features

• Who has not logged on yet or has recently been absent Identify individuals who have not logged in yet or have not logged in for a given period of time
  • People who may have technical or other difficulties may need extra help or encouragement. A moderator's attention to non-participation can shape participation in positive ways.
• How long do individuals visit How long do people stay logged on and how many pages they retrieve (or other resources they use)
  • Activity measures may be useful for resource planning or for thinking about attention spans.
• Who has/has not filled profile Find out who has a profile
  • Moderator may want to send a reminder. As described here, this goes in "member directory."
• How many posts by member. Find who is posting a lot or who is reading but not posting.
  • Useful when the space gets really complex and it is difficult to follow where a person is posting.
• Postings by member by type of posting Find what postings or documents a member is contributing, including starting new threads.
  • When there are many conversations and sub areas, it may be useful to see where and what a given member is contributing. People who are starting new threads are usually showing initiative in leading conversations.
• Who reads a post Find out how many members or who has read a given post (i.e., has a specific person seen it or not?)
  • This may be available to moderators, authors of post, or to everyone. Most relevant in closed communities.
• How many posts have been read by a member. Some systems display how many pages a member has downloaded, or in more sophisticated cases, exactly which pages or groups of pages a member has read.
  • People who do not post much may seem inactive even though they may be reading a lot. Caveat: it shows what pages they have opened, not necessarily what has been read.
• Who downloads a document Find out who has downloaded a document or how many times a document has been downloaded.
  • Same as above.
• Overall activity measures Measures activity in a given period by group or area.
  • Members may want to know where the most active areas are. Moderators may want to look at activity to help guide interventions.
• Warnings to moderator The system sends a message to moderators when a pre-defined measure passes a threshold.
  • Helps moderator keep on top of situation and react quickly.
• Post or discussion aging statistics Tracks when a thread is old/unused (and perhaps ready for achieving according to specific criteria).
  • Useful on large sites where old threats may linger and clog up the space.

Related material