Online Communities #1 Facebook

The next step in my research is finding what online communitie have succeded and why they did. For my first online community, Ill examine Facebook. The reason why I have choosen this is because alot of people use this program to network between friends.

Facebook concepts that can be intergrated into our system



• Profiles - I believe that one of the most important apsects facebok has to offer is its profile. Integrating some type of profile in our system will allow otner users to search for common interests and look up contact information regarding the indivual.


• Search - The next important feature is having the ability to search for individuals, by certain categories. If we created a system that allowed users to add profiles but didnt add a function to search through profiles we would lack the ability to connect people with common interests.


• Messages - Allowing users to post messages also draws users into the system. Having this allows them to keep current with other people. In terms of our system we will need a type of messenging system that will allow members working on the same projects, to tell other users what they have worked on and what needs to be done.


• Groups - Probably one of the most important features that our system will need is the ablility to start a group and allowing the administrator of the group to add members and remove them from the groups. This is closely related to general messages except that only group members will be able to access group items. For example some of the features that groups may be able access are updates on current projects, message boards relating to the project and files associated with the projects.