Community / collaboration links by Ron Lichty

I'm finding fascinating reading to share with our audience on the topic of social software, specifically message boards and forums, blogs, wikis and RSS:

Introductions
"RSS Described in Plain English" by Lee LeFever, Common Craft.

"What are the Differences between Message Boards and Weblogs?" by Lee LeFever, Common Craft.

Wikis, blogs, message boards and social networks... Review of companies using them, review of the companies writing the software. It opens with the story of Ingersoll-Rand being clueless for days while word passed through the blogosphere that its seemingly indestructible Kryptonite bicycle lock could be undone with a Bic pen. Not monitoring blog coverage of its products cost an estimated $10 million for a lock exchange program and untold damage to its brand. --C|Net News.com, first published in TheDeal.com

2004 Howard Dean campaign coverage portrayed the role of technology in drawing together Dean's youthful campaign volunteers. --Samantha M. Shapiro, The New York Times

"The Internet Gives People a Connection -- and a Voice -- in Campaigns" --Matea Gold, December 21, 2003, the Los Angeles Times



How does one measure the ROI of an online community?
"Measuring the success of an online community” by Joseph Cothrel, Strategy & Leadership


Message Boards
A customer and developer support solution that integrates message boards and blogs (for interacting with customers) with wikis (for archiving ideas of ongoing value) by Lee LeFever, Common Craft.


Blogs
"Blogs Will Change Your Business" --Business Week

The legal implications of corporate blogging… by Ephraim Schwartz, InfoWorld


Wikis
The most widely known general-purpose successful wiki implementation, Wikipedia, a project to create a complete and accurate free content encyclopedia, entirely created and updated by users.

Try out a wiki youself, at the wiki sandbox.

How to set up a small wiki for purposes of your own.

Choosing a wiki platform (software and/or services) when you want to set up a WikiWikiWeb on your own servers.