Communities (Forums, Blogs, Idea Sharing)

Online "communities" provide a great mechanism for people from around the globe to meet, discuss and share information and opinions. Online communities can be constructed of numerous community tools such as Forums or Message Boards, Blogs, Idea Sharing or Social Networking. Each of these tools has a specific purpose and understanding this purpose is crucial to ensuring you select the right tools for your community.

Forums or Message Boards — perhaps one of the most versatile and widely used community tools, Forums have been around since the days of the BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) and just as they did then, Forums continue to provide the framework for people to share ideas, information and options in a structured, but open way. Forums are very conversational in nature; meaning that everyone can read and reply to anyone's messages. Most of the Forums that are around now are geared towards enthusiast of a specific topic. For example most professional sports teams have a Forum where all their die-hard fans can come and talk about the team (good and bad).

Blogs — Ever wished you were a beat writer for the local paper? Blogs provide a framework for anyone to write and publish their thoughts (on any topic) to the web. Unlike Forums, Blogs are not conversational; rather they are a take it or leave it way of posting opinions. For example, let's say that one of our developers here at Urban Lighthouse wanted to write a daily Blog about the work he/she was doing. Maybe this is something that interests you, maybe it's not. The point is that this developer CAN publish his/her daily Blog regardless of your interest level. It's up to you, the reader to decide if you want to come and read it. Blogs have become incredibly popular in the last couple years, in fact a more and more "traditional writers" that write for newspapers etc. are now starting to BLOG on a semi-regular basis. Why? Why not? Blogs provide a tool for anyone to write about anything they want, and have it exposed to an audience of millions. Companies will use Blogs as a tool for sharing ideas and insight from within their organization. It could be to provide informal updates on upcoming products or initiatives, or to attract employees by letting current employees share their perspective about the company and their job. Regardless of their use, Blogs provide a tool for individuals and companies to get a message out there to a potential audience of millions.

Idea Sharing — Allows people to post ideas and suggestions and then have those ideas and suggestions reviewed and voted on by a community of users. The idea being that the best ideas will rise to the top. Idea Sharing applications are very popular with organizations that have a close relationship with their customers or employees. Companies will use this tool to gather feedback on potential changes in policy or company initiatives prior to launching them. Additionally, Idea Sharing provides a tool for ideas to be introduced from outside the company.

Who has Urban Lighthouse done a community for?

• Damashek Consulting
• Farm Credit Canada