Citation
Webb, K. (1999), "Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge", Internet Research, Vol. 9 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr.1999.17209caf.007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge
Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge
Figallo, CliffJohn Wiley and Sons Inc.New York, NY1998448 pp.ISBN 0-471-28293-6pbk $29.99Available: John Wiley and Sons Inc., Professional Reference and Trade Group, 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012; http://www.wiley.com/compbooks
This is a curious book as I looked into it more, my assessment kept changing. From the main title it seems to be about the general issue of managing the regular visitors to your Web site, and that of course is of interest to all site operators. Then the subtitle implies that it's about commerce, with references to "customer" and "competitive edge". But when you start to read it you see that there's a lot of good information there for all sorts of Web sites, and although there are references to business throughout, it's not really until the end that funding issues are really addressed.
Cliff Figallo comes to the job well-qualified he was involved in running the Whole Earth Lectronic Link for six years in the 1980s, where despite the free-wheeling "community" aspect there was always a strong business orientation, and this is a subtle theme running all the way through this book.
He starts with a careful analysis of various aspects of communities interactivity, focus and cohesion and then discusses each of these in turn. For example under interactivity he categorizes sites as either shrines, theatres or cafes and examines the way each can be hosted and the content managed. This and the next chapter on building and maintaining relationships provide valuable background advice to any community manager; while there is more practical information in other chapters, relationships provide valuable background advice to any community manager. There is more practical information in other chapters on interface design and the types of tools that you might need for different modes of communication such as chat, e-mail and "pager" services like ICQ.
Towards the end of the book, there is more emphasis on achieving economic goals. He looks at the pros and cons of using Web worlds such as GeoCities and Tripod and then analyses various models for funding a site, such as advertising, subscriptions and special events.
If you are a current or prospective host of any sort of Web site, this is a useful book.
Kerry WebbProject co-ordinatorDistributed Media Information SystemsCSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences