Project Wikipilot

“Community
building”

Authors:
Paul Goedhart Kerry Moone
Sandra Potgiesser Hendrik Veenstra
Tjebbe Zijlstra Shardee de Roos
Jana Sager Gerben Piter IJedema
Robert Klooster

Study course: Information Services (specialisation)

Course code: IFS
Date: 19 January 2011
 Project Wikipilot
“Community
building”

Authors:
Paul Goedhart Kerry Moone
Sandra Potgiesser Hendrik Veenstra
Tjebbe Zijlstra Shardee de Roos
Jana Sager Gerben Piter IJedema
Robert Klooster
Education: Media & Information management
Place, date: Groningen, 19 January 2011
Summary
Desk research
There are three different categorize of communities; Social-, Professional- and
Commercial communities. Each can be divided into two types. A social
community consists of relationship building and communities that focus on
entertainment. A professional community is business established and can be
divided into expert networking and learning types. The last category of
communities is the commercial community, which can be divided into Business to
Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) types .
The fundamental parts of a community can be described as follow: content,
community manager and budget. High quality content is a reason for members to
come back to a community.
Regular participation on the community is important, especially in the start-up
stage.
Communities have to be kept active and maintained, this can be done by the
community manager. Characteristics of a community manager are; intermediate,
facilitator, administrator and relationship manager. Being the representative of a
community requires certain qualities such as patience, dedication, determination,
passion, maturity, proactively or curiosity. The community manager is
responsible for interaction between members and the company. Community
manager responses are necessary to stimulate community growth and user
participation. Besides these tasks, four activities can be distinguished;
facilitation, content, evangelism and innovation.
Several costs need to be taken into consideration when building a community
and investments need to be made for managing the community. Increase of
revenue by the community is often immeasurable. Return Of Investments (ROI)
of an online community are not solemnly determined by financial benefits. To
measure other benefits (new customers/customer loyalty) goals need to be set
and critiques need to be used.
To make an online community a success, several parts of the community need to
be kept healthy. An online community can be divided into members, content,
traffic, responsiveness, topic interaction and liveliness. These topics can lead to
achieving community and company goals. A community health index can give an
overview of the subjects that need special attention.
Crowdsourcing can help a company solve problems by using the public (crowd).
Crowdsourcing is a quick and cheap way of solving problems which will give a
company insight in customer desires. A successful crowdsourcing project relies
on five conditions; problem statement, network of people, rewarding participants,
reactions and usage of obtained information.
Two types of motivation can be distinguished namely intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation. The difference between the two is the reason why people are
motivated to participate. Intrinsic motivation describes the satisfaction someone
gets from executing an activity. Extrinsic motivation describes what someone
needs (money or grades) to get satisfaction from executing an activity. Content
and usability of a community are important to attract and retain members and to
motivate them to contribute on the community.
Members have to be the centre of the community. Besides content placed by a
company or other companies, members are the creators of content. The
community life cycle describes the development of a system in stages.
Communities arise in different stages; inception, creation, growth, maturity and
death. Furthermore, there are several reasons why a community can fail:
members become inactive, not enough new members , no updated profiles, no
budget, incapable community managers, too much trust in technology, no
strategic planning and managing, incapable community starters and unclear
added value.

Potential end-users
Mariners use the Internet for two reasons; leisure and professional use. The most
commonly used online software services are; email, RSS, social media, news
services, online learning tools, weather services and websites regarding
professional information. The survey described what content mariners would like
to see and share on a platform; general information about the maritime industry,
maritime related information, information about sailing and information about
other ships.
Social media platforms are visited frequently by the mariners. By far the most
used social media networks are Facebook and Skype. Most mariners use the
Internet to keep in contact with their family and friends at home. Information
shared on the community platform needs strict monitoring and content on the
community platform should be exclusive . Anyone associated with professional
shipping should be able to join the community. To make the online community
platform a success it is important to create a strong network.

Experts
Four factors of an online community are information, members, activities and
market. These define the type of community and the environment it operates in.
An online platform can be created by using the so called three layered structure,
which consists of federation, communities and workgroups. The essence of the
three layered structure is knowledge exchange.
The decision of an open or closed community depends on the goals of the
community. An open community gives people a chance to participate and gain
information on activities. A closed community gives the community manager a
better opportunity to monitor the members on the platform.
When building a community five factors should be considered; management,
users, growth, content and platform. For the benefit of crowdsourcing three steps
need to be considered; listing, connecting and interacting. Exclusivity of an online
community is important to create added value for community members. This can
be done by linking communities or existing accounts.
When using social media it is important to know where customers are on the
Internet and how they can be reached. Fan page gives the customer the
opportunity to learn more about the company and create a two way
communication possibility between customers and the company.
Preface

The study, which has been conducted and completed within a outstanding time
of five months, is an excellent example of cooperative endeavour amongst a
number of institutions and organisations in the northern part of the Netherlands .
This study was established during the specialization Information Services which is
part of the Faculty of Communication & Media at the Hanze University of Applied
Sciences, Groningen.
The study is realized in an international context and involves professional third
parties. The end results of the conducted research will be presented in this
advisory report.
Advice will be given in this advisory report to the company X about community
building concerning the “Wikipilot” project. The Wikipilot project is a collaboration
of many different parties to realise an online platform for mariners to exchange
nautical data.

Special thanks to the following parties for helping with the realisation of this
advisory report:
• The director of the company X
• Frank Willems; project initiator
• Dirk Jan Hummel; innovation advisor
• Riet Grevelink; project coordinator
• Jan Baljé; information technology coordinator
• Josef Sennekool; information services coordinator
• Loes Damhof; English teacher
• Sander Polhuijs; project group coordinator
• IT-students of Hanze University; application developers

A special thanks to our five amazing field experts for their incredible insights:
• Greald Henstra; crowdsourcing expert
• Martine Blok; entrepreneur and social media expert
• Jan van Bon; community development expert
• Fleur Graper; communication and social media expert
• Richard Millington; community building expert

Also special thanks to the customers of company X,, Facebook group “Seafarers”
and the seafarers school at Delfzijl:
• Abel Tasman Seafarers school; future end users
• Facebook group “Seafarers”; current end users
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1
TERMINOLOGY ..............................................................................................4
1.0. DESK RESEARCH......................................................................................6
1.1. COMMUNITY TYPES............................................................................................................8
1.1.1. Social orientation..............................................................................................8
1.1.2. Professional orientation.....................................................................................8
1.1.3. Commercial orientation.....................................................................................9
1.2. FUNDAMENTAL PARTS OF A COMMUNITY.....................................................................................9
1.2.1. Content.............................................................................................................9
1.2.3. Budget............................................................................................................13
1.3. HEALTH OF AN ONLINE COMMUNITY.......................................................................................14
1.3.1. Members.........................................................................................................15
1.3.2. Content...........................................................................................................15
1.3.3. Traffic..............................................................................................................15
1.3.4. Responsiveness...............................................................................................16
1.3.5. Interaction.......................................................................................................16
1.3.6. Liveliness........................................................................................................17
1.3.7. Community health index.................................................................................18
1.4. VALUABLE FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITIES...............................19
1.5. HOW CAN CROWDSOURCING BE USED FOR A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY.................................................20
1.5.2. Five conditions................................................................................................20
1.6. MOTIVATION, PARTICIPATION AND STIMULATION..........................................................................21
1.6.5. Summary........................................................................................................23
1.8. SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY..................................................................................26
1.8.1. Success...........................................................................................................26
1.8.2. Online Communities Life Cycle........................................................................27
1.8.3. Fail..................................................................................................................28
2.1. ONLINE MARINER COMMUNITIES............................................................................................32
2.1.1. Online platforms communities........................................................................32
2.1.1.1. ActiveCaptain.........................................................................................................32
2.1.1.2. VisitMyHarbour.......................................................................................................34

.................................................................................................................................34
2.1.1.3. TeamSurv...............................................................................................................35
2.1.1.4. Oceanuslive............................................................................................................36
2.1.1.5. Overview................................................................................................................37
2.1.2. Online Wiki communities.................................................................................39
2.1.2.1. Yachtpilot...............................................................................................................39
2.1.2.2. Captainwiki.............................................................................................................40
2.1.2.3. Skipperguide..........................................................................................................41
2.1.2.4. Overview................................................................................................................42
2.1.3. Social platform communities...........................................................................43
2.1.3.1. Facebook communities...........................................................................................43
2.1.3.2. LinkedIn communities.............................................................................................44
2.2 COLIN JENKINS ‘SEAFARERS’ ..............................................................................................45
2.3 ONLINE SURVEY; FACEBOOK GROUP “SEAFARERS”......................................................................47
2.4 STUDENTS (ABEL TASMAN)................................................................................................49
3.0. EXPERTS...............................................................................................52
3.2. OPEN OR CLOSED...........................................................................................................56

4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................62

4.1. END CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................62

REFERENCES................................................................................................68
Introduction
Nautical information is of great value for mariners at sea. Information about
changes that take place at sea should therefore be exchanged as soon as
possible, so that each person at sea can be well-informed about the current
situation. Changes at sea, known as nautical data, currently get registered and
exchanged by a system called Navtex or the old fashioned way, sent by mail.
The Navtex system has one disadvantage, it's a static system. This system works
by using radio waves and is only usable within a certain region. Sending nautical
changes by mail also has a disadvantage, it takes weeks before any changes are
noticeable for the end users of the sea charts.
The Internet could be a good mean for exchanging nautical data at sea due to its
accessibility and usability. An important aspect of exchanging important
information through the Internet is having a well-structured online community
supporting this information exchange. Changes would immediately be made
visible for all members within the community of the shipping industry. The
changes will be made available by members of and for members of the
community.

The Wikipilot project was founded for the benefit of starting a professional online
community focused on the shipping industry for exchanging up-to-date nautical
data.. The Wikipilot idea originated from the fact that distribution of up-to-date
information is very time consuming at this moment. It should be possible to keep
each other well-informed with the latest changes by sharing this information
within an online community. By using this community everyone will be kept
informed with important aspects related to nautical safety. Furthermore, it gives
vessels (crewmembers) the opportunity to stay in contact with each other.

Company X started a collaboration with the Hanze University of Applied Sciences

for the first phase of the Wikipilot project. The project initiators Franks Willems
and Riet Grevelink used their network to determine which education's would be
essential to the Wikipilot project. As a result the specializations Agile Software
Development and Information Services were chosen to be involved in the
Wikipilot project. The Information Technology students from the specialization
Agile Software Development were asked to develop several web applications.
Besides the IT students, several students from the specialization “Information
Services” are involved in doing a study related to setting up a professional online
community and managing it. The cooperation between the different parties and
disciplines was guided by Sander Polhuijs, who is a student from the study course
Human Technology.

Our study is divided into two categories, desk research and field research. An
investigation will be conducted about community building and the end users of
the Wikipilot project (i.e. people within the shipping industry). These two topics
were the guidelines for the research questions. The conducted study which was
completed by the project group "Clearys" will be processed as a advisory report
towards company X. The advice consists of how to build and manage an online
community.

The project group ”Clearys” of the specialization Information Services has taken
responsibility concerning the first phase of the desk- and field research of the
Wikipilot project. A problem statement has been formed for the Wikipilot project
in combination with several research questions for guiding the study into

1
community building.

2
The problem statement is as follows:
How can an environment be created that an facilitate a professional community
of mariners which can be used for crowdsourcing with ambition of exchanging
nautical data among community members

The goal of this study is to give advice to company X on the 19th of January 2011
concerning the Wikipilot project on how to build and manage an online
community . This advice will be based on the conducted expert interviews, desk
research and field research.

The following model shows the methodology that will be used as a basis for the
conducted study.
Figure 1. Research methodology model

The model above is translated as follows:

(A) A study will be conducted with regards to community building, crowdsourcing

and mariners (end users). This will help us distinguish what type of community
will be suitable for company X, how company X can build and manage that
community, who the end-users are and how they can be motivated to actively
participate on the community. (B) To discover this information, users will be
interviewed where a distinction will be made between current users and future
users (marine school). Furthermore, several experts will be interviewed who have
different specialties to get a broad view of basic and specific community building,
crowdsourcing and user information (see chapter 5.2). Also, several books and
websites (see chapter 5.1) will be analysed to get a better understanding of
crowdsourcing and community building. (C) The study results will be analysed
which will result in an advisory report (D).

This advisory report consists of the following components:

• Terminology
• Desk research
• End user conclusion
• Expert interview conclusions
• End conclusion
• Recommendations

3
Terminology

Community health index: Helps to investigate where special attention in an

online community is needed.

Community manager: This is a relatively new function that is still undergoing

heavy developments. There is no standard definition of what a community
manager exactly is yet.

Community platform: The online community platform is a tool that allows

people to share knowledge and interpretations. The interaction between
community members is moderated with guidelines and protocols, but there is no
official compact with members.

Content: ‘Everything that is included in a collection and that is held or included

in something’ For media and publishing this means: ‘content is information and
experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specific
contexts’. (Content, 2010).

Creators: An initial workgroup of people within a community that place content

on a platform in order for the community to start functioning.

Crowdsourcing: Creating solutions for problems or creating ideas with a large

group of people. The best outcome is created by a diverse group of people with
different expertise’s.

Extrinsic motivation: This is motivation determined outside a person. Examples

of extrinsic motivation can be rewards, money, grades and threat of punishment.
Extrinsic motivation can be internalized if the task fits with someone’s morals and
beliefs and therefore helps to accomplish their basic psychological needs.

Inactive (lurker): Most common Internet user. Uses basic social media tools
such as photo search.

Intrinsic motivation: Describes that a task is performed because people get

satisfaction from the activity. It indicates that people undertake a task for their
need or satisfaction or for their own sake. Borst states that examples of intrinsic
motivations are fun or learning.

Online Communities Life Cycle: Describes the development and exploitation

of a system. In general the model stated that every system has to follow the
same process without missing a stage.

Online community: A community consists of people that share the same

interests and have the need to talk about the same discussion topics. Members of
a community have a social connection with each other. An online community is a
group of people that share those interests and discussions on the Internet within
an online community platform.

Return of investments: A performance measure used to evaluate the

efficiency of investment to compare the efficiency of a number of investments.

4
The calculate ROI the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of
the investment; the results is expressed as a percentage or ratio.

Professional community: A professionally oriented community is business

established.

Unique selling point: The feature that makes a product or brand stand out
from others.

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1.0. Desk research
The following chapter describes the results of the desk research. Two definitions
are given to get a better understanding of the subjects that are described in this
chapter.

Definition of an online community

A community consists of people that share the same interests and feel the need
to talk about the same discussion topics. Members of a community have a
(social) connection with each other. An online community is a group of people
that share interests and discussions on the Internet within an online community
platform. An online community platform is a tool that allows people to share
knowledge and interpretations. The interaction between community members is
moderated with guidelines and protocols, but there is no official agreement with
members.
An online community can be used for discussions, building relationships,
maintaining business goals and a stronger relationship between companies and
their customers. (Atkinson, n.d.)(Borst, 2010)(O’Mahony & Ferraro, 2007)(Porter,
2006)

Definition of crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is creating solutions for problems or creating ideas with a large
group of people. The best outcome is created by a diverse group of people with
different expertise’s. The crowd thinks about a certain subject and interact with
each other to reach the best answer or solution. Companies can use
crowdsourcing for advise, innovation and improvement of products. (Wat is, n.d.)
(Borst, 2010)(Kuipers, 2009)(Drewes, 2009)(Condron, 2010)

The first paragraph “1.1 Community types” describes the different types of
communities using a model created by Ursula Markus in 2002. This model was
chosen because it has a clear and concrete structure.

Furthermore, there are several parts that are fundamental for having a successful
community. The different elements are described in paragraph “1.2 Fundamental
parts of a community”. The parts are content, community manager and budget.

To keep a community healthy the following factors need to be considered:

• Members
• Content
• Traffic
• Responsiveness
• Topic interaction
• Liveliness
These factors are explain in the paragraph “1.3 Health of an online community”.

Different types of social media functions can be used in a professional

community. The types useful for a community are mentioned in the section “1.4
Valuable functions of social media platforms for professional communities”.

Not only social media are important to create a successful community, but also
crowdsourcing. How crowdsourcing can be used in a successful community is
explained in paragraph 1.5.

6
It is important to keep users motivated and stimulated to participate on a
community. This is stated in the section “1.6 Motivation, participation and
stimulation”.
Rewarding is a way to motivate and stimulate users to participate on a
community. This approach is explained in paragraph “1.7 Rewarding”.

Several factors determine how a community can be started successfully. These

are described by using the community life cycle model. However, there are some
factors that can cause a community to fail. These all are described in paragraph
“1.8 Successful professional community”.

In numerous previous paragraphs factors of a successful community are

described. In addition to the previously mentioned factors paragraph “1.9
Building an online community” will describe how a community can be built.

7
1.1. Community types
Different types of communities can be distinguished. This model was chosen
because it has a clear and concrete structure. Ursula Markus’s model (2002)
divides virtual communities in three orientations namely, social, professional and
commercial. Secondly, every orientation is divided into two types.

Figure 2. Ursula Markus model

Source: http://www.aitdspace.gr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/176/AhmadAlMadadhaThesisFinal.pdf?
sequence=1

1.1.1. Social orientation

The two types of the social orientation are: ‘theme communities’ that focus on
relationship building and ‘social communities’ that focus on entertainment.

Relationship building and Entertainment

The main goal of a relationship community is building relationships with other
community members. Usually a relationship community is built around a certain
theme, for example sports, illness, politics or environment. Because every
member is connected to another, members feel related to a group this enhances
member involvement. Examples are Studenten.net and Ajax network (Football).

The goal of an entertainment community is socializing, which is done by sharing

for example profiles, pictures and videos. Entertainment communities are most
popular and have the highest amount of members. The communities mainly
focus on communicating with friends, acquaintances and strangers about very
diverse topics. Examples are Facebook and Hyves. (Markus, 2002) (Soorten
communities, 2010)(Pieters, Van Brienen & Brinkman, 2008)(AlMadadha, 2008)

1.1.2. Professional orientation

A professionally oriented community is business established. The two types that
can be distinguished are, expert network and learning community.

Expert network and Learning

The aim of an “Expert Network” is primarily on a professional target group that
can be divided into two categories;
1. Experts that share information and knowledge who can work on a project
together.
2. As a social platform where member profiles serve as an online CV.
Examples are LinkedIn and Xing.

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Another type of “Expert Network” is an internal community that focuses on the
internal organization. The community is created to enhance information sharing
by employees of a company. The goal of the community is improving
communication between employees and optimizing accessibility of company
information. Examples are KLM: Costumer relation management and Café
Europe.

A learning community focuses on learning from the community. The target

groups of an learning community are students and people who want to share and
expand their knowledge. An online learning environment can be created where
people can listen to online lectures and share as well as gain information,
assignments, projects and research related to a certain study. An “Education
Community” can be described as a combination of an expert- and internal
community. Examples are INHOLLAND Blackboard (online learning environment)
and Fontys highschool portal. (Markus, 2002) (Soorten communities, 2010)
(Pieters, Van Brienen & Brinkman, 2008)(AlMadadha, 2008)

1.1.3. Commercial orientation

The two types that the commercial orientation has, are business community and
consumer community.

Business-to-Business (B2B)
Business to business communities can be divided into two parts. The first focuses
on people and businesses sharing information and knowledge on a business
level. The second is created to stimulate cooperation between companies for the
purpose of gaining revenue or locating business partners. Examples are KLM
Clubs (China, Africa) and Covisint Automotive (Collaboration portal).

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
Business-to-consumer communities are created and managed by businesses, the
community supports a product or brand. The purpose of a Business-to-Consumer
community is increasing sales and performing cost saving market analysis’. An
example is LEGO Club. (Markus, 2002)(Soorten communities, 2010)(Pieters, Van
Brienen & Brinkman, 2008)(AlMadadha, 2008)

1.2. Fundamental parts of a community

The following paragraph describes what content is fundamental for having a
successful community. The chapter explains how content can be used as a tool,
what content is in the start-up stage of the community and gives ideas for
content on a community. Several sources have been used to complete this
chapter which are listed below each paragraph.

1.2.1. Content
Content can be described as: ‘everything that is included in a collection and that
is held or included in something’. For media and publishing this means: ‘content
is information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience
in specific contexts’. In this chapter content is used to sum up information in the
form of posts, uploads, articles, responses or movies. High quality content can be
described as content that is useful for a variety of community members. It should
generate responses and new high quality content. (Content, 2010)

Content as a tool

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Content on a community can be seen as a tool, like ratings, reviews and
feedback. When content is posted on a community, people will go back to read
the content or read related content. This is more likely to happen on a
community, than on the open web. When people search by using a search
engine, websites chosen to gain information are chosen at random and will
therefore differ for each search. In other words, when searching with a search
engine, an overload of results is given which leads to someone not always
choosing the same link for each search. When content is posted on a community
platform, a solid place is created to store the content. Therefore people have the
opportunity to choose from selected content. (deGeyter, 2007)

Content in the beginning of a community

When starting a community it is important to have high quality content. This is
needed to convince potential members to join the community. In the start-up
stage there will only be a small group active on the community platform. It is
important that this group posts content on the community platform and remains
doing so on a daily basis, especially in the start-up stage of the community.
(Reed, 2007)

Another essential matter is that the content posted on the community platform
should demonstrate the communication objectives of the company. Therefore the
communication of a company on a community platform should have the same
purpose as the communication via others channels. Furthermore the
communication should have the same intention as the company objectives in
general. (Rhinesmith, 2010)

Ideas for content on a community

When owning a community it is important to invite experts to write
guestblogposts. This helps create high quality content on the community.
Another way is letting members of the community give their opinion. This could
be done by using a rotation scheme. (Millington, 2010a)

Member created content is very important but should not be the only content.
When a company has a community it is important for a company to post original
content like whitepapers or case studies.
(Need content, 2009)

1.2.2. Community manager

The role of a community manager can be described as: ‘A growing and
developing profession. People in this position are working to build, grow and
manage communities around a brand or cause’. (Online Community Manager,
2010)

Community manager characteristics

Nowadays nearly every company has an online community. These online
communities differ per company and have to be kept active by maintaining them.
Ideal for this task is a community manager. This is a relatively new function that
still undergoes development stages. There is no standard definition of what a
community manager exactly is but there are characteristics all community
managers have in common. (Reed, 2009)

The common characteristics are described below:

• A community manager is the intermediate and facilitator between the
business (brand) and an online community. Important aspects are

10
 exchanging information, stimulating interaction and executing business
objectives.
• A community manager is the administrator of the online community with
regards to managing the members, ensuring that the rules are followed,
sending newsletters and managing and monitoring discussions.
• The community manager stimulates and develops new relationships
amongst members and ensures that the community members feel
involved within the community. This is also known as the function
relationship manager.
• The community manager has to support and improve the cooperation
between involved parties, enforcing business strategies, developing
businesses and community objectives.

In short a community manager is responsible for all activities within the

community and is seen as the leader of the online community. (Morgan, 2009)
(Wagenaar, 2010)(Grimes-Viort, 2010)(Owyang, 2006)(Derksen, 2007)(Reed,
2009)(Fisher, 2010)

Important qualities of a community manager

The person occupying the function of community manager has to have certain
qualities. This is important because he or she is the representative of the online
community. Important qualities being a community manager are as follows:
• Patience;
A community cannot be an overnight success because relationships aren’t
built overnight.
• Dedication;
A community manager has to truly believe in the community because
sometimes member participation can be overwhelming and at other times
it can be disappointing.
• Determination;
There is a high risk that the community targeted is already being targeted
by existing communities. This should be seen as an opportunity, not a
threat.
• Passion;
Money is a good initial motivator but community managers who are
passionate about their job are far more likely to succeed than money
driven community managers.
• Maturity;
Always taking moral high ground is an essential quality of a community
manager. Community managers have to be mature and cool headed
because they are often caught in the middle of member disputes.
• Proactively;
The community manager has to be aware of the wants and needs of the
community, and react accordingly. It is important to react fast otherwise
competitors might steal community members.
• Curiosity;
A good community will repeatedly ask itself, community members and the
company they work for questions in order to set new objectives. The
answers to these questions are essential because they can help the
community improve on specific areas.

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 • Modesty;
The emphasis has to be on the community members and not on the
community manager.
• Empathy;
The community manager needs to be a part of the community and the
community members need to be able to relate themselves to the
community manager.
• Hard working;
A community manager has to have high availability. It is not a nine to five
job. (Reed, 2009)

The importance of a community manager

Several factors have to be considered when starting an online community.
Having a community manager that has the previously mentioned qualities is one
of these factors. The Internet is always available. Therefore it is necessary to
have someone who constantly monitors the community member discussions, as
well as postings about the company by external parties. The community manager
has to respond appropriately to all discussions. The community members and the
external parties portray the community manager as the representative and the
contact person of the online community.
Another important factor is content. The community manager has to post high
quality content on a daily basis for the community members to read. This keeps
the community members motivated to come back. (Kloos, 2008)(Haiko, 2010)
(Reed, 2010)
Furthermore, growth is an essential factor. An online community that doesn't
grow will slowly die.
It shows that passive online communities that do not have a community manager
have less member growth and participation than online communities that do
have a community manager.
(Humbarger, 2009)(Happe, 2010)(Askanase, 2010)(Silverton, 2010)

Community manager tasks

There are four community manager activities that can be distinguished from each
other. These are as follows:
• Facilitation;
A community manager is like a super user that stays in contact with the
community members, keeps track of active discussions and involves
additional community members in these discussions.
• Content;
A community manager is responsible for updating the community platform
with fresh and regular content. The community platform does not generate
this content itself, it is done by the community members and managers.
For example, a company can place content related to their products and
services on the community platform or a community member posts an
interesting video about a product of the company. Basically, the main
objective of content on an online community platform is to inform
community members, expand their participation and to start new
conversations.
• Evangelism;
Another main activity that a community manager has to fulfil, is tell other
persons (potential community members) on the Internet about the
company and the activities that happen on the online community platform.

12
 Not only customers should be enticed by the community manager to
participate in the online community but also partners and employees.
• Innovation;
Innovation is an additional ingredient to the community managers ‘task.
The virtual world is always on the move, just like society is changing on a
daily basis. This means new technologies are continuously being
developed and a different way of thinking by people are aspects that
constantly have to be adopted by the community member and integrated
in the community platform in order to keep it active and interesting.
(Owyang, 2007)(Foster, 2009) (Online community, 2010)(Foster, 2007)
(Grimes-Viort, 2010)

1.2.3. Budget
The following chapter will describe costs, budget and Return Of Investments
(ROI). A distinction will be made between hard and soft costs. Furthermore, an
overview will be given of possible costs. When looking at Return Of Investments
two types of benefits are discussed namely monetary benefits and ‘other’
benefits. Finally, a list of critiques regarding before named benefits will be given.

Costs
Budget is essential when building an online community. Several costs are
involved when building and managing an online community.
Two types of costs can be distinguished, hard and soft costs. Hard costs consists
of costs spent on hardware, software and other technical parts needed to start an
online community. When companies do not have the opportunity to build the
community, an agency has to be hired to do so. Soft costs consists of time
investments made for the community.
A substantial amount of the budget is needed for community management after
designing the community platform. This is needed to manage the community and
achieve community success. Time investments are made when people, besides
the community manager, have something to do with the community. An example
of this is people working for the marketing department of a company who are
involved in the marketing aspects of a community. (White, n.d.)(Cartigny, 2008)
(Millington, 2010b)

Cost overview
As described above the following costs have to be considered when building a
community:
• Design of the online community;
• Integration with other disciplines of the company;
• Training people in how to manage the online community;
• Project manager for the implementation of a community/social media;
• Community management;
• IT support (costs for the IT infrastructure and support);
• Marketing and promotion of the online community website;
• Planning goals and policies for the community;
• Software.
(Petouhoff, 2009)

Budget
Often companies do not provide the community with an extensive budget, this
because it is unclear how investments will increase revenue which is often

13
immeasurable. Return Of Investments can be expressed in money and other
benefits for the company.
Benefits for the company can be: recruiting new customers through the
community platform, gaining involvement in the community and the company.
Involvement describes the trust people have in a company and the loyalty
customers have to a brand.
Members and customers involved in a company talk about their experience with
others. This cannot be measured in money but will give valuable benefits for the
future. Benefits can be measured by comparing a company’s current income with
the past income (past income, in the absence of a community). (White, n.d.)
(Johnston, 2007)(Millington, 2010b)

Return Of Investments
Measuring the Return Of Investments of an online community is different of the
ROI for a company. For an online community more extensive measurements are
needed besides financial benefits.
Goals need to be set for an online community before it can be clear what should
be measured. Goals help define what makes an online community successful.
Several critiques can judge if the community provides increased value for a
company. The critiques differ per company.
When measuring the ROI qualitative and quantitative metrics can be used by a
company. An overall overview of gained revenues from the online community can
be created by using these metrics.
(Johnston, 2007)(Rhodes, 2008)(Online community, 2008)(Johnston, 2007)

Critiques that could be important for measurement:

• Traffic and statistics;
• Member engagement;
• Unique visitors;
• Member registrations;
• Member satisfaction and loyalty;
• Feedback and idea creation;
• User generated content;
• Transformation from inactive to active users;
• Company and brand mentions on the Internet;
• Number of comments on posts;
• Community value for a company.
(Johnston, 2008)(Online community, 2008)

1.3. Health of an online community

To be healthy, several parts of the body have to be taken care of. Looking at the
anatomy of a body there are all kinds of organs that need special attention to
keep the whole body healthy. An online community can be seen as the anatomy
of a human being. Several parts need to be taken care of to keep the community
healthy. When one part of the community is neglected the community can get
unhealthy. To make the online community a success the well-being of the
community has to be considered constantly, similar to people who have to take
care of their own well-being so they won’t get sick. (Lithium Technologies, 2009)
(Community Health Index, n.d.)(Maki, 2007a)

An online community can be divided in the following parts:

• Members;

14
 • Content;
• Traffic;
• Responsiveness;
• Topic interaction;
• Liveliness.

1.3.1. Members
Members are the most important part of an online community. To measure the
health of your community, you have to look at the growth of the community and
it’s registrations. Growth is essential for a healthy online community. People join
a community because they are interested in the subjects and because they
benefit from it . A healthy community is constantly growing, this growth can be
increased by inviting people who would like the articles on the community and
from whom participation in a conversation is likely. (Membership growth, n.d)
(Maki, 2007a)(DeLong, 2009)(Lithium Technologies, 2009)

1.3.2. Content
Content is important for both the members and the company. Members of the
online community want to read content that interests them and is up to date.
Members are on the community platform because they benefit from the content.
Besides the content from the company itself there will be user generated
content. This content is interesting for other members, but even more important
to the company. User generated content gives a company the opportunity to find
out what people are talking about, what their opinion is of the company and its
products and services. If companies are aware of this they can use it to improve
where needed.
The online community’s health can be measured by the number of posts and
page views. The posts can give an overview on the involvement of the members.
(Lithium Technologies, 2009) (Content, 2002)(W., 2010)

1.3.3. Traffic
Traffic rates of a community can show how popular an online community platform
is. For companies it can be important to know what people are looking for on the
Internet because then specific tags can be added to generate more traffic to an
online community platform. It is important to locate potential users on the
Internet. If people are found who are interested in an online community and its
content, recommendations can generate traffic amongst potential members.
(How to increase, n.d.)(Maki, 2007b)(Lithium Technologies, 2009)(Barone, 2010)

Figure 3. Traffic of Twitter

15
Source: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/twitter.com

1.3.4. Responsiveness
Reponses on posts are important, but for the health of an online community time
is even more important. When responses are made in a short amount of time the
conversation keeps going, when conversations take too long members will lose
interest and will not comment anymore. For a company it is very important to
respond in a short amount of time, this to keep the customers of a company
happy and it creates a possibility to decrease negative postings. Responsiveness
can be measured by the number of minutes it takes for people to respond to
postings.
Unanswered questions and no response to postings make a community
unhealthy. (Lithium Technologies, 2009)(Fisher, 2010)(Seddon, 2009)

1.3.5. Interaction
The basic goal of any community is interaction between members. The amount of
postings can be measured, but this does not stated the number of interactions
between members because postings can come from the same members.
Interaction between community members will be created by postings social
topics for them to get to know each other. With social topics the number of
people joining the conversations can be measured. (Lithium Technologies, 2009)
(Millington, 2010c)

16
The figure below shows interaction on a community. It is a community about
Aruba where members of the community create social bonds by talking about
experiences on the island. As stated before it is important to create relationships
between members to gain more involvement in the community.

Figure 4. Example of interaction on a community platform.

Source: http://www.aruba.com/forum/

1.3.6. Liveliness
A community should have liveliness, this attracts people and motivates them to
come back to the community. The atmosphere of a community is really
important, not only to motivate people to come back, but also for the
participation on the community. People like to have the feeling they can talk
about everything they would like without others judging them. Conversations can
get out of control this causes an unhealthy community which people do not want
to join.

17
The liveliness of a community can be measured by looking at the number of
posts on content of the community website. (Jagadesh, 2010)(Lithium
Technologies, 2009)(Carey, 2010)(Seddon, 2009)

1.3.7. Community health index

The community health index helps investigating where special attention in an
online community is needed. All the different parts of the community help a
community to reach community goals and goals of a company. The community
health index is displayed in figure 5. The figure is an easy way to show the
healthiness of the community, an explanation of the figure is given below.

Figure 5. Community health index.

Source: http://www.lithium.com/pdfs/whitepapers/Lithium-Community-Health-Index_v1AY2ULb.pdf

The figure shows the health of a community on several times. The colour shows
which part of the community is healthy and which parts need special attention.
The community in figure 5(part A) is unhealthy because of less liveliness and late
responses. A company can make this community healthier by giving some
attention to those subjects.

These subjects were about the healthiness of the community, but next to these
subjects there are other factors that can be measured to establish how successful
a community is. The things that make an online community successful have to be
kept in mind just as the parts to stay healthy. (DeLong, 2009)

18
1.4. Valuable functions of social media platforms for
professional communities
Kornaat (2010) created a model that combines the Groundswell model of Bernoff
and Li with the model of Brake and Safko. The model describes types of Internet
users and what type of social media tools should be used by type of user.
Seven different types of users can be distinguished, as can be seen on the left
side of the model
(see Figure 6. Type of users vs. tools).
The right side displays different social media tools. That is the part of Brake and
Safko.
The new model of Kornaat (2010) shows that an inactive (the common Internet
user) uses basic social media tools such as photo search. A creator uses a
substantial amount of different and more advanced social media tools such as
Microblogging.

Figure 6. Type of users vs. tools.

Source: http://blog.basemedia.nl/

Crowdsourcing is very important for certain projects. A distinction has to be made

with regards to what social media platforms are useful for what cause. Platforms
like Twitter and Facebook are very usable for crowdsourcing. Twitter provides the
opportunity for asking questions by using a hashtag. This reaches a considerable
amount of people. Facebook gives the opportunity to ask the opinions of friends.
This is a great way of crowdsourcing and provides high quality results.
For some projects, where location is important, Google maps can be used
because it is easy to implicate and adjusts to a person, or companies, wishes.
Another advantages of Google maps is the fact that changes on maps can be
added worldwide and has three different views. The world can be seen on a map,
by a satellite or by using street view. An often overlooked benefit of Google maps
is its simplicity. The application is free and easy to apply to a website or other
online platforms. Furthermore, the application does not bother its user with
unnecessary bells and whistles. There are plenty of examples to be found on the
Internet of the implication of Google Maps in other sites, such as:
• Misdaadkaart.nl ; the site gives updates of violations and crimes in the
Netherlands.
• Marktkijker.nl; Marktkijker helps to find auctions, advertisements and other
deals which are on sites like Ebay and Marktplaats.
• Ing.nl; on this banks site, ATM’s can be found in the Netherlands on a map.

19
 • X-moment.com; with xmoment, appointments can easily be arranged and
controlled on a map.
• Iens.nl / dinnersite.nl; Dutch restaurants can be found by using a map.

1.5. How can crowdsourcing be used for a successful

community
Crowdsourcing is seen as a trend. However, the principles of crowdsourcing are
not that new. As a matter of fact crowdsourcing has existed for centuries. The
basic principles of crowdsourcing are taking place when a group of people are
motivated to perform an activity for a certain person or goal.
What is new, is that the term crowdsourcing was invented in June 2006 by Jeff
Howe. Howe mentioned the term in Wired magazine. In Wired he stated that the
gap between amateurs and professionals has decreased because of current
(Internet) technologies. For companies this process provides opportunities for
using the talents of the public. Jeff Howe states that this is not outsourcing but
crowdsourcing. Since talents of the public can be used, the following question
arises: ‘how does crowdsourcing work?’
Crowdsourcing can be described as follows; problems are broadcasted to an
unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. The crowd,
who are mostly in communities, give solutions which can be categorised until the
best solution is found. These ‘best solutions’ will be used by the person that
broadcasted the problem in the first place (the crowdsourcer). (Scheid, 2010)
(Wordsmithbob, n.d.)(Howe, 2006)

1.5.1. Crowdsourcing benefits

When using crowdsourcing the following benefits can be perceived:
• Problems can be explored very quickly;
• It is very cheap, participants can be rewarded but this is not necessary in
every case;
• An organization can tap into a wider range of talent than might be present
in its own organization;
• Organizations can gain first-hand insights on their costumers desires, by
listening to the crowd;
• The participant will get affinity with the organizations they are helping.
(Crowdsourcin, n.d.)

1.5.2. Five conditions

Five conditions can be distinguished for having a successful crowdsourcing
project:
Firstly, a clearly formulated question or problem statement has to be presented
to the crowd. The question or problem statement should be as concise as
possible.
Secondly, a network of people is needed. However, it is not necessary to have an
enormous amount of people on one network. It is important that the right people
are reached with regards to a problem. A company should research how the
relevant people can be reached and how they can be contacted. A great way to
accomplishing that is by creating a community where a person’s expertise is
needed.
Thirdly, a way to thank the people involved in the crowdsourcing project should
be considered. Usually, community members seek attention and appreciation,
which should be given to them. An example of doing so is by posting the ten
most valuable ideas on a blog or website. These types of rewards are called

20
‘recognition rewards’ (see chapter 1.7). Monetary rewards can be given, for
example free goods or a share in a company.
‘Reaction’ is the fourth condition for a successful project. Ideas that are not
useful for the crowdsourcer can be very inspirational for other members of the
community. Therefore, all the ideas should be clearly visible and findable for the
crowd somewhere on the Internet. This will not only strengthen the community
bond, but will also give an indication of the direction the process is going in. It will
give insights in how far the process of realising the idea is.
The last condition for a project is ‘taking action’. When participants have given
enough responses, it is crucial to actually use the obtained information. It is not
uncommon obtained information through social media is not used. Therefore, a
community manager is essential. (Romkens, 2010)

1.6. Motivation, participation and stimulation

The following paragraph will describe the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation on rewarding. Below a short explanation will again be given of the
terms frequently used in this chapter to gain a better understanding.
• Intrinsic motivation: describes that a task is performed because people
get satisfaction from the activity. It indicates that people undertake a task
for their need or satisfaction or for their own sake. Borst states that
examples of intrinsic motivations are fun or learning.
• Extrinsic motivation: This is motivation determined outside a person.
Examples of extrinsic motivation can be rewards, money, grades and
threat of punishment. Extrinsic motivation can be internalized if the task
fits with someone’s morals and beliefs and therefore helps to accomplish
their basic psychological needs.
(Gagné& Deci, 2005)(Calder, 1975)( Borst & Ende,2010)(Frey& Oberholzer-Gee,
1997) (Deci, 1971)

1.6.1. Content
Social media are not great for building long term, lasting and sustainable
commitments. However, they are great for reaching out to people. Content is
very important for getting people to join a community. Even a very clear purpose
for a group like a common goal, with lots of motivated members, will not be
successful if there is nothing to get users together and to get people to
contribute. It is not easy to get a large amount of members because people have
to be convinced to join a website and to comment and contribute on other work.
In his article he stated that good content can achieve this. (Rhodes, 2009)
(Haughy, 2001)

1.6.2. Usability
Very important for getting and keeping members is usability. A platform that is
difficult to use and understand will de-motivate users to come back. Simple and
easy to use websites will improve the user experience because users achieved
what they wanted to without feeling confused or annoyed (David Kinsella, n.d.).

1.6.3. Motivation
When looking at ways to keep members of a community active and motivated to
participate on a community (platform) the following has to be considered: do
people act out of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation and how does this influence
their feelings towards rewards? In other words, are rewards good for everybody
on a community or can it have negative effects?

21
Related factors can also influence someone’s behaviour. For example, someone
would like to be more active on a community but does not have a lot of time. As
was described by Borst & Ende who wrote the paper ‘Effects of motivation and
rewards on participation and performance in voluntary activities in online
communities’ (hereafter referred to as ‘motivation study’) it can be assumed that
people with high intrinsic motivation will be motivated by not having rewards.
This is because completing the activity is ‘fun’ for them. They like to do the
activity by themselves and because of that, they will not like external factors, like
rewards, to push them into doing that activity. (Vansteenkiste, 2004)( Borst &
Ende,2010)(Amabile, Hennessy & Tighe, 1994)

People with high extrinsic motivation will be motivated by rewards They will
perform less when rewards are not there. Furthermore, for extrinsically
motivated people their intrinsic motivation will be affected when there are no
rewards. For extrinsically motivated people not having rewards will mean the
activity is not important which will then lead to less intrinsic motivation. However,
it does not work like that the other way around. Rewards will not stimulate them
to participate more because they feel that having rewards is normal.

When working with extrinsically motivated people it is important to find the type
of reward that motivates them to participate. When that type of reward is
offered, it will stimulate that person to participate because participation leads to
getting the reward.

The following figure will further explain what was described above

Figure 7. Extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation

Source: http://www.nwo.nl/files.nsf/pages/NWOP_84SCLB/$file/Ende_Effects.pdfFullreport

For online communities two types of rewards are common, financial rewards and
recognition. Needless to say financial rewards are prizes (in money) for good
contributions. This can also be in the form of gifts. A ratings system gives peers
the ability to rate an extrinsically motivated person. A rating system measures
the number of contributions and their usefulness. A wall of fame can be created
for the most active users which is a recognition reward that will increase
someone’s status. (Antoniadis & Le Grand, 2007)(Harper, 2007)

22
1.6.4. Events
Events can also influence someone’s participation levels on a community. There
are two types of events; personal- and non-personal events. Personal events can
be birthdays or anniversaries. Non personal events can be for example the world
cup, before and during the event participation levels increase.

1.6.5. Summary
Four factors were described that affect online community motivation,
participation and stimulation: content, usability, type of motivation and events.
Content is supposed to draw people to a community. It should be a reason for
people to go to a community. Usability is essential for a community. Low usability
can de-motivate users and high usability can work motivating and stimulating to
revisit a community. How to motivate users depends on what type of motivation
a person has. Two types where described, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsically motivated persons will be stimulated to participate on the community
when there are no rewards. However, extrinsically motivated people are
stimulated to participate on a community when either financial rewards or
recognition rewards are given. Lastly, events can influence participation on a
community.

23
1.7. Rewarding
Following the description of how members can be motivated and stimulated to
participate on an online platform, a more elaborate explanation of rewarding
active members will be given. This paragraph will follow up on information given
in the previous paragraph.

Rewarding: ‘act or give recompense in recognition of someone's behaviour or

actions’ (Act or, n.d)

As stated before, motivation and participation are important for the health and
success of an online community (see chapter 1.6 Motivation, participation and
stimulation) . Therefore members are required to join a community and to
participate in creating high quality content for the community and its members.
When attracting people to a community the 1/9/90 rule has to be kept in mind.
The rule states that only one percent of the members is actually spending time in
contributing to the platform, unlike the ninety percent of members which are
lurkers. They are on the community to read and benefit from the content, but will
never make any contribution to the content on the online community platform.
For the company behind the online community it is essential to know who the
people are that are creating user generated content on the community platform
so they can be motivated to maintain their contributions. (Suster, 2010)

1.7.1. What is rewarding

Rewarding, the act of giving people something in return for their effort to
complete an action. When looking at online community participants are rewarded
for their contribution to an online community platform as a way of saying ‘thank
you’. A reward can be monetary, this is when the participation is paid for, as is
described in the chapter motivation, participation and motivation. Giving money
is not the only way to reward people, people can also be rewarded by receiving
recognition or a place to show themselves. As described before this can be done
by using a rating system. Rewarding people will result in great content and
participation on the online community platform. (Antikainen and Väätäjä, 2010)
(Brown, 2010)(How to reward, 2010)

1.7.2. Reasons to reward

People mainly contribute because they have fun doing so or because that person
wants the give the world correct information and facts about certain subjects.
This type of motivation was described before as intrinsic motivation. For example
scientists who wrote for Wikipedia, wanted to give correct facts on the Wikipedia
website and wrote voluntary articles and facts for the world to read. (Antikainen
and Väätäjä, 2010)(Forte and Bruckman, 2005)

Besides the fun and information factor people enjoy getting recognition for their
work and time they have spent on a community. This was described as extrinsic
motivation. Therefore, it could be important for a company to reward the most
important participants of the online community platform. This can motivate them
to come back and make more contributions. By giving some type of reward a
company informs the community that participation is appreciated and of great
value for the community. This particularly works for extrinsically motivated
people. User generated content is seen just as important as the person behind it,
by rewarding the person for his contribution the company is giving him the
feeling it cannot function without him. With open recognition on the community
platform, more extrinsically motivated people are likely to increase their status

24
and will therefore start to contribute. (Scrivens, 2007)(Brown, 2010)(How to
reward, 2010)(Borst and Ende, 2010)

25
1.7.3. How to reward
Articles on a website should be sincere and correct. Monetary rewards can lead
to insincerity because people are writing to earn money. Participating leads to
the reward which, in this case, is money. Another disadvantage of monetary
rewards is the fact that people within a company placing content on the
community platform might not need to earn extra money. They could start seeing
their participation as work which leads to lower levels of intrinsic motivation. That
could lead to lower participation levels which is the exact opposite of what a
company wants. It was stated that the best reward for participation is recognition
for the author. It is essential for companies to be creative when rewarding active
members. Especially extrinsically motivated people like to have special status on
the community platform. This can be granted in several ways for example by
mentioning the authors name, placing backlinks or giving the author an open
special status on the online community platform. A rating system measures the
number of usefulness of the contributions. An example of rewarding community
members for their participation is a pointing system. Members can earn points by
participating to the online community platform. By using this system status can
be earned within the community. Furthermore, point earners could hand in their
points for interesting offers. (Millington, 2008)(Foster, 2008)(Huisman, 2008)(How
to reward, 2010)(What are, n.d.)

1.8. Successful professional community

The following paragraph gives an overview of tasks a community starter has to
follow, rules to obey and qualities needed. The paragraph describes why the
previously named is essential for community success. In addition to that, a
community life cycle model is shown explaining the five stages a community
goes through. Lastly, an list is made of reasons why communities fail including
recommendations on how to avoid these failures.

1.8.1. Success
When starting a community there are a couple of tasks that have to be
completed. The community has to have a clear purpose, therefore the
community goals have to be clearly formulated. Important is the fact that the
members of the community are central, they are what the community is about.
The community members need to have some freedom within the community. To
maintain the community a community manager is needed. The community
manager has to show commitment and spend time to achieve a successful
community. Besides managing the community, interesting topics should be
placed on the community to gain interest of the community members. Most
communities exist because of the contributions of the community members, this
is called ‘User generated content’. It is possible to select, redirect and moderate
this content. It is not necessary for a website to produce all relevant content, a
substantial amount can be imported from other websites. By selecting and
combining information from a variety of sources, value will be created.
Furthermore, when starting a community the focus should be on social factors.
(Gossieaux, 2008)(Netlash, 2009)
Community development will be achieved by using a certain step by step plan.
Certain factors need to be looked at and researched. First the community goals
should be established, a strategy has to be distinguished and a vision for the
community has to be developed. The next step is creating a platform, where high
usability is essential. When this step is completed the community has to grow.
This can be achieved by word of mouth or, for a company, by starting a
marketing campaign. The last step focuses on keeping members, for example by

26
maintaining the community. When maintaining a community rules are set and
connections are made. (Dotster, 2009)

1.8.2. Online Communities Life Cycle

Communities arise in different stage, each stage has its own characteristics and
needs. When developing a community the needs of potential members have to
be considered.
This model is based on the Information systems life cycle (ISLC). This model is
widely known and used by developers of information systems. The model
describes the development and exploitation of a system. In general the model
stated that every system has to follow the same process without missing a stage.

The five stages of the model are: Inception, Creation, Growth, Maturity and
Death.

Figure 8. Five stages model

Source:
http://isl.cgu.edu/publicationpdf/16_ACM_CSUR_2006%200042_Online_Communities_Iriberri_and_Leroy_temp_on
line.pdf

Inception
The first stage of the live cycle is inception. The inception stage is the stage
where the idea for an online community is born to fulfil the needs of persons. A
vision is created, the type of vision depends on the type of community. To
complement the vision, rules for behaviour and communication are set. These
rules help to maintain the vision.

Creation
When a vision is created, technological components can be selected. The
components should focus on the preferences of the creator and the first potential
members of the community. Setting up the community can start when the
technological components are operative and the first group of members start to
work together. The community should grow through the medium of word of
mouth provided by the first group.

27
Growth
Eventually, when enough members are participating on the community, a culture
and identity will be developed. Within the community roles emerge, some
members will lead discussions, some will participate and some members are
passive. These characteristics are the signature for the growth stage.

Maturity
When the community is getting bigger the desire for a formal organisation with
rules, rewards for contributions, subgroups and specific discussion topics grows.
In this stage the community has reached maturity and connections between
members are made.

Death
During the lifecycle of the community new members will join and old members
will go. New members will bring new ideas. This ensures that members will focus.
When members start losing focus the community is dying. The community has to
deal with bad participation, lack of high quality content and unorganised
contributions. (Iriberri & Leroy, 2008)

1.8.3. Fail
There are certain circumstances companies have to avoid when starting a
community. Companies must avoid starting with the technology and will avoid
making a marketing campaign out of the community. Furthermore, companies
will not mix their business motives with the consumer motives. A community will
fail when no one facilitates the community. Besides that it will be unsuccessful
when businesses look at their company goals to determine the success of a
community.
(Gossieaux, 2008)

In the process of creating a successful community there are a couple of

obstacles. The biggest obstacle can be found in Deloitte (2009) about
‘Transforming companies with communities and social media’. He describes that
the biggest obstacles are getting people to join and member participation.
Thinking that members will not come back or that there is enough time to
manage the community is also an obstacle. Barricades for companies when
starting a community are that members are not keeping their profiles up to date,
no finance for enhancing functionality, facilities and the lack of a community
managers with experience and expertise. (Deloitte, 2009)

Research conducted by Ed Moran (2008) about the changes of communities by

communities and social networks shows four reasons why a community can fail.
The biggest cause of community failure is the fact that companies put too much
trust in the technology behind the community. When companies hear ‘buzzwords’
like website, forum, social networks, social media or web 2.0. They believe
integrating these tools will be enough for creating a successful community. A
company will invest time and money in technologies and will miss the essential
part of a community namely: the planning, the process and the people that make
the community. Afterwards most companies will realise they don’t need those
technologies.
(Helen, 2008)(Catone, 2008)

The second reason communities fail is the lack of good strategic planning and
managing. Companies underestimate the fact that skills like community

28
strategising, community management and facilitating a community need time to
develop. Furthermore, companies often measure the success of the community
wrongly. The company objectives for the community are viral, word of mouth
advertising and increasing brand loyalty therefore they should measure the
number of unique visitors of a community. However, most companies focus on
the increase of members. Growth is not essential, important is maintaining
members so a group of regular visitors is created. Furthermore, companies
should not compete with social networks because they can and will not replace
them. Companies must create interaction, comfort and high quality content with
their most loyal users to promote their product. (Helen, 2008)(Catone, 2008)

A community cannot be a success when the unequipped people are starting and
maintaining the community. Companies often force community management on
the web designer, administrator or marketing officer which is a big mistake.
Thirty percent of online communities are managed by a part time employee and
in most of the cases maintaining the community is done by a PR person. This is a
big mistake because these persons are not experts when it comes to
communities and they don’t have enough experience in managing communities.
To start and lead a successful community the relevant persons should get
training and education about leading a community. Another option is hiring a
community manager who has experience in building and managing a community.

(Helen, 2008)(Catone, 2008)

The last reason why a community will fail is because people do not see the added
value of the community, especially when the community only portrays the brand
of a company. Most visitors stay unique because they are already part of other
communities. A community manager could be the solution because a community
manager knows what the members of a community need and how first time
visitors become regulars. Another big problem occurs when members have
trouble finding information or when members get an overload of information.
When a community is managed properly ‘information overload’ will not occur.
A community should not be the only social media a company is working on. Easy
access to the community must be created by having for example Facebook page
and Myspace. (Catone, 2008)

1.9. Building an online community

An online community is a group of people who are closely interacting with each
other mainly online. The whole group has a shared, unifying goal. To reach this
unifying goal it is essential to have a clearly formulated goal for the community.
The clearer the goal for the community is, the greater the chance of success. If
there are multiple purposes, it is best to list them all. The following suggestions
are reasons to start an online community:

• Publish Information
• Generate discussions about issues or other interesting subjects
• Provide a place for colleagues to make and answer requests for help
• Develop ‘’best practice’’ solutions
• Networking with other people

The only way for online knowledge sharing communities to succeed, is for them
to create a build-up of action over time. This applies to large scale communities
whose members are widely spread geographically, which makes face-to-face

29
meetings almost impossible for the majority of the members in the community.
Creating an online community is like a construction project. Provide the bricks
and mortar to build the environment and the members will start living there and
become active participants. (Parrish, 2009)(USAID, n.d.)(Customer communities,
2009)
There is a good community manager behind every good community who
constantly updates the community with new content and creates interaction
within it. The community manager also filters the members of the community and
decides who can be given a more active role in the community.

Another job of the community manager is to avoid chaos and abusive talks in the
community. Therefore the community needs to have certain rules, these rules
define what is acceptable and what is not. A community manager should avoid
controlling the crowd because the job involves guiding the crowd. This is a
potential risk. Additionally, the community manager has to reward the
community members by for example giving a quick response to a question of a
community member.
(Bertens, 2008) (Betancourt, 2010) (Customer communities, 2009) (Parrish,
2009)

The most important aspect of a successful (active) community is creating

interaction; if there is a steady flow of interaction, community managing
becomes significantly easier. Several aspects should be taken into account when
creating interaction because this establishes a robust community.
(Andrews, 2002) (Enhancing online, n.d.)

30
1.9.1. Community interaction
There are several types of community interaction. Each has implications from a
community and platform development perspective. A community needs to offer
clear benefits for members. The best communities force members to interact, to
achieve the benefit offered by the community. Great communities make it
impossible not to interact. These force members to share an idea, opinion, rating
or criticism on the community.

• Between community members;

The core of community interaction involves community members
interacting with each other. Members join a community because similar
interests are shared. This is a great base for forming relationships.
Unsurprisingly, building relationships online requires assistance. This
occurs through face-to-face community meetings, community developed
projects, within online discussions, email threads and phone calls.
• Between a community member and the site;
Community interaction that occurs between the community member and
the site requires a lot of improvement. The platform has to seduce the
(future) members in order for them to keep coming back and interact
within the community. The online platform becomes the meeting place for
all members.
(Enhancing online, n.d.)

1.9.2. Keep the community interactive

To keep a community interactive, the interactions have to be organic (people
interacting) and started by the members. After a while it is no longer up to the
community manager to create all interactions, these should be created by the
members themselves. This will help make all members of a community become
authors who build content and grow conversations. However, a community
manager is still needed to guide and help these member generated
conversations and interactions.

1.9.3. Keeping members active

Keeping members active is key to building a robust community. Smaller groups,
with member numbers not exceeding 13, are ideal for members to feel
comfortable and to participate. A variety of these groups has to exist within a
community. Larger discussion groups are also needed, however these groups can
hold smaller groups to increase feelings of recognition.
Keeping members happy is the key to keeping them active. Creating a rewarding
system is a great way to keep members motivated to interact and participate. A
rewarding system does not have to cost money, it can be as simple as creating a
ranking system, where members who post the most in a week are placed on the
platforms main page. Motivations such as rewards are a great way to motivate
visitors to revisit a community and to build a sense of belonging to a community.
(Enhancing online, n.d.)

To keep the crowd active on a community it is important for members to trust the
community. Therefore, it is important to be honest to the crowd. When members
are let down by the community their participation on the community often stops.
In other words disappointed members become inactive members. (Betancourt,
2010)

31
2.0. Potential end-user
Seventy to eighty percent of failed product development does not fail because of
the lack advanced technology but because of the lack of understanding user
needs. Therefore, it is essential to know the end user of a product. End-user
research has to be conducted for each project. End-user surveys have been
conducted by using companies and schools involved. (The National College of Art
and Design, 2005)

Research has been conducted on online communities related to seafarers. A

distinction has been made between three different groups. The first group
consists of communities on an online platform, the second group consists of
communities on Wiki’s and the last group consists of communities on social
platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. These online communities are
described in paragraph “2.1 Online mariner communities”.
An online survey has been conducted amongst the Facebook group “Seafarers”.
This is stated in section “2.2 Online survey; Facebook group “Seafarers”.
Finally, in the section “2.3 Future end-user” the results of the interview with the
future end-users at the Abel Tasman school are described.
By using the information an image was created of the end-users’ habits, needs
and expectations.

2.1. Online mariner communities

Research has been conducted on online communities related to seafarers. A
distinction has been made in three different groups. The first group consists of
communities on an online platform, the second group consists of communities on
Wiki’s and the last group consists of communities on social platforms such as
Facebook and LinkedIn.

2.1.1. Online platforms communities

This paragraph describes the most established seafarer communities which are
located on an online platform. The following are analysed: ActiveCaptain,
VisitMyHarbour, TeamSurv and Oceanuslive.

2.1.1.1. ActiveCaptain
Purpose
At the site ActiveCaptain knowledge can be shared and experience and
knowledge can be gained that other captains have. Registered users can
communicate corrections, update information and create reviews.

32
Figure 9. ActiveCaptain homepage.

Source: http://www.activecaptain.com

33
Users
The site is mainly used by boaters (mostly from America). Mariners are also the
target group of the platform. The users can provide information and share their
experience. Other benefits for using this are the articles on it (about for example;
mobile on board, dogs onboard and medical help) and the webshop.

Community
ActiveCaptain provides a framework that will allow fellow mariners to share their
knowledge and experience. It’s Wiki-style database allows users to make
additions, changes, and deletions to the information. ActiveCaptain is free for all
registered users. (MyBoatsGear, 2010a)(Active Captain, 2010)

2.1.1.2. VisitMyHarbour
Purpose
This platform is a guide to provide timely and detailed information about various
ports, harbours, estuaries, rivers and inlets around the coast of the UK.

Figure 10. VisitMyHarbour homepage.

Source: http://www.visitmyharbour.com
Users
The platform is tailored to mariners, most of them are settled in the UK. The user
can add comments about used harbours. VisitMyHarbour has all kinds of
information about the harbour, the sailing directions and mooring options such
as; local facilities, pubs and dining.

Community
People can share information on this platform, but most people are not motivated
to do so. This is notable because there is no data uploaded by other people. So it
wants to be a community, but with this small number of people who are posting,
it can hardly be called a community. (MyBoatsGear, 2010b)

34
2.1.1.3. TeamSurv

Purpose
TeamSurv want to use crowdsourcing to enhance the quality of nautical charts.
(Euronav's seaPro, 2010)
Figure 11. TeamSurv homepage.

Source: http://www.teamsurv.eu
Users
The users of TeamSurv are marines and partners of TeamSurv. Users need
certain things on board their vessels, such as a GPS receiver and a depth
sounder, before the users can participate on the community. This platform is an
project which helps to improve the quality of nautical charts of coastal waters.
The user needs to have experience in using the advantaged equipment that this
project requires. The platform also has a forum and you can track ships.

Community
Members of the TeamSurv community can log data from instruments on the
ships, whilst doing the normal activities at sea. As TeamSurv collects the
information, changes will be corrected in the maps.
(TeamSurv ,n.d)(Euronav's seaPro, 2010)(Admin, 2010)

35
2.1.1.4. Oceanuslive
Purpose
The purpose of Oceanuslive is to collaborate within a single, secure environment
to enhance the safety and security of vessels at sea. This is especially intended
for vessels found in high threat or dangerous environments. An example of high
threat is piracy.

Source: http://www.oceanuslive.org
Users
Oceanuslive has no users at the moment, because it is not live yet. The future
users will be: Ship and yacht masters, CSOs, duty personnel ashore, and relevant
maritime safety
and security bodies. (OCEANUSLive.org , 2010)

Community
The community is not live at the moment. The users will have to register before
joining the community. Therefore users have to give information about their rank
and company they work for. In the community users can share information about
threats at sea, for instance crime. (Tweed, 2010)

36
2.1.1.5. Overview
Here is an short overview of the seafarer communities which are located on
online platforms.

Table 1. Overview online platforms

ActiveCaptain VisitMyHarbour TeamSurv Oceanuslive

Logo

Creator Karen & Jeffrey Black Culm, Teamsurv Glen Forbes &
Siegel Mackenzie & Ryan Wallace
Bryant.
Communi Yes Yes Yes Yes
ty
Manager
Usability 8 7 5 7
Motivati 9 5 8 Unknown
ng
Open / Open Open Closed Closed
Closed
Visitors Most visitors Most visitors are Unknown Unknown
Age are between between 45-54 and
45-54 years . also a lot between
35-44
Visitors Mostly Some Mostly some Unknown Unknown
educatio education education and also
n a lot no education
Visitors Mostly males Mostly males Unknown Unknown
sex
Visitors Mostly not Mostly not Unknown Unknown
with
children
Visitors Mostly at work Mostly at work Unknown Unknown
browse
at
Mobile Yes Unknown Unknown Unknown
website
available
and
usable
Usable In the near Most likely Unknown Most Likely
on iPad future
Alexa 1,414,629 310,836 9,870,010 12,753,055
Traffic
Rank
People 42% 13% 33% Unknown
who only
look at
one page
of the
site

37
Country’ United States UK 95% Unknown Unknown
s 58%
Canada 30.7%
Last 17-1-2011 17-1-2011 17-1-2011 17-1-2011
Update

38
2.1.2. Online Wiki communities
This paragraph describes the most established seafarer communities which are
based upon a Wiki structure. The following are analysed: Yachtpilot, Captainwiki
and Skipperguide.

2.1.2.1. Yachtpilot
Purpose
Yachtpilot is a free cruising guide that provides practical information about
entering and leaving ports safely. Up to the minute tidal and weather information
and also where to berth in the ports. Furthermore the guide gives information
about accommodations and local maps to find way around in the towns you’re
visiting. The website has unvarnished opinions from the author.

Figure 13. Yachtpilot homepage.

Source: http://www.yachpilot.com
Users
The target group of the website are sailors based in the UK and motor cruiser
owners. The users are unable to share their own experience on the website, only
the author can place information on it.

Content
Port section: this section has general information about how to enter ports and
the city (accommodations and how to get around) where the port is located. The
weather forecasts related to the port are located at the bottom of the page.
Extra section: the Yottypedia contains important facts about sailing at sea. There
is a quiz section where you can test your knowledge. The quiz is about
information that is on the platform. Useful information from other websites can
be found in the ‘links’ section.
Info section: The ‘how’ section gives hints on how to use the website. The ‘about’
section has information about what Yachtpilot is.

39
2.1.2.2. Captainwiki
Purpose
The purpose of Captainwiki is to share and edit all kinds of helpful nautical
related information. From island exploring, bay navigation, and passage stories to
checklists, tips and anything concerning the cruising lifestyle. Basically, it is a
Wikipedia where everyone can share information about the possibilities of
harbours all around the world.

Figure 14. Captainwiki homepage.

Source: http://www.captainwiki.com

Users & community

Captainwiki is an open wiki focused on sailors, boaters, sailing crew, coast guard,
and other businesses from all around the world. Users can share and read
information about secret anchorages, boats, marinas and services on the wiki.

Content
Navigation section: The opportunity is given to ask questions and talk about
everything in the ‘Cruisers’ Pub’ section. Recent changes can be followed at the
‘recent changes’ section.
Cruising guides section: this section is categorized by region, by clicking on a
region an overview of the countries within that region is given. information can
be found about the major ports, marinas, weather & climate, passages &
navigation, tides & currents, radio & communications, safety & security, maritime
claims, associations & clubs, publications and blogs.
Articles section: there is a section where a profile page can be made about your
boat such as captain, boat type and cruising time. Blogs about travel experiences
can be made at the ‘Cruising blog’ section. The Sailing Forums section has links
to other forums related to boats and other important nautical information. The
‘Boat Manufacturers’ section contains information about all kinds of boat types
where users are able to discuss and add information about their boat type. There
is a ‘Sea Sickness Remedies’ section that has information about preventing sea
sickness and how to cure sea sickness.
Travel blogs section: at the ‘My Blogs’ section blogs can be made, but login in
needed first. There is the possibility to read other users their personal travel
blogs at the All Blogs section. (Online Cruising, 2009)

40
2.1.2.3. Skipperguide
Purpose
The purpose of the platform is to edit information about different areas on the
sea such as: Mediterranean, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic and Caribbean. Users
can find information about the area where they can sail and where they find a
restaurant.
With this platform they want to help the normal sailor to plan his trip and help
him during the trip with information about manoeuvre, navigation, ropes and
knots, weather, Cruise execution, health and first aid and of course the different
areas on sea.
The platform is like a normal wiki, every user can edit and change information.
The platform Skipperguide is a partner of openseamap.com which is a platform
that offers free sea maps.

Figure 15. Skipperguide homepage.

Source: http://www.skipperguide.com

Users
The Wiki is an open platform, the user does not have to register on the platform.
The user can register on the platform and has the following advantages:
• They create an identity and a name to give the other user the chance to
see what you done and which information you edit.
• You can generate a watch list to see which articles are changed.
• The user will be reached by email without the address being displayed
publicly.

Content
The information about the different areas at sea is divided in Mediterranean,
Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic and Caribbean. The different areas can be found
by users by clicking on them. The user can find information about the culture,
where they can sail, etc. The information is not the same overall but dependent
on what the user wants to write about the country/area. Furthermore, users have
the ability to gain information about manoeuvre, navigation, ropes and knots,
weather, cruise execution, health and first aid.

41
2.1.2.4. Overview
Here is an short overview of the seafarer communities which are based upon an
Wiki structure.

Table 2. Overview Wiki communities

Yachtpilot Captainwiki Skipperguide
Logo

Creator Rodney Lord Ben Walsh Peter Schrey

Community Unknown Yes (Ben Unknown
Manager Walsh)
Usability 6.5 6 6,5
Motivating 7 7.5 6,5
Open/closed Open Open (login) Open
Visitors age Unknown Females Males around 45-54 with
without children, work related
children, work
related
Visitors Unknown Unknown Mostly graduate school
education
Visitors sex Unknown Mostly males Almost only males
Visitors Unknown Most visitors Most visitors have children
with have children
children
Visitors Unknown Most visitors Most visitors browse at
browse at browse at work work
Mobile Yes No Yes
website
available
and usable
Usable on Yes Unknown Yes
iPad
Alexa 7,666,841 3,098,822 790,999
Traffic Rank
People who Unknown Unknown Unknown
only look at
one page of
the site
Countries Unknown 77.2% United 91% Germany
States
Last update 17-1-2011 17-1-2011 17-1-2011

42
2.1.3. Social platform communities
This paragraph describes the most established seafarer communities which are
located on a social media platform. A distinction has been made between
seafarer communities who are either on Facebook or on LinkedIn.

2.1.3.1. Facebook communities

Several Facebook communities related to seafarers have been analysed. The
following table demonstrates an overview of the analysed communities.
Table 3. Overview Facebook communities
Marine Seafarers Maritime Shipping
Union of
Australian
Logo

Members 688 2268 1535 2301

Owner (s) Erol Taş Jw Pretorius Warren Smith Tamer
(Turkey) (South Africa) (Australia), Mick Moussa
& Colin Doleman (Egypt)
Jenkins (Australia) and
(Ireland) others
Website x seasoulfood.bl mua.org.au X
ogspot.com
Founded 8-04-2009 26-08-2009 14-10-2008 07-08-2009
Posts last 2 1 5 11 1
weeks
Advertisemen Yes Yes Yes Yes
ts
Chat Yes Yes Yes Yes
Updates by No Yes Yes No
email
Have there No Yes No No
been posts
on the forum
the last two
weeks?
Are the posts Broader Mostly work Work related Mostly work
only work- related, related,
related or sometimes sometimes
broader broader broader
Purpose Unknown Keep in Everyone Keep in
contact. For involved with contact. For
seafarers, the Maritime everybody
their friends, Union of who knows
families and Australia what shipping
port chaplains is.
Last update 17-1-2011 17-1-2011 17-1-2011 17-1-2011

43
2.1.3.2. LinkedIn communities
Several LinkedIn communities related to seafarers have been analysed. The
following table demonstrates an overview of the analysed communities.
Table 4. Overview LinkedIn communities

Marine Professionals Merchant Mariners

Logo

Members 1677 638

Owner(s) James McRae (UK) & John A Konrad
Hannah Flint (UK) (California, USA) & Rob
Almeida (Texas, USA)
Website Imarest.org Gcaptain.com
Founded 12-02-2009 17-10-2008
Post last 2 weeks 63 79
Advertisements No No
Chat No No
Update by email Yes No
Have there been No, there is no forum No, there is no forum
posts on the
forum the last two
weeks?
Are the posts only Work related Mostly work related,
work-related or sometimes broader
broader
Purpose For people who seek For people who worked
professional commercially on sea.
recognition, studying, Maritime Academy
starting their career, or Alumni, cadets and
people who are professors are also
interested. welcome
Last update 11-1-2011 17-1-2011

44
2.2 Colin Jenkins ‘Seafarers’
A mariner and owner of the Facebook community “Seafarers” was mailed
concerning the Wikipilot project. Colin Jenkins his reaction was that he is very
interested in the Wikipilot project and supplied us with additional information
about the world of seafarers. The most important information related to Internet
use, community use, mobile Internet and Internet risks of his response is listed
below.

Internet use
The Internet use onboard a vessel differs. Filipinos, Indians and Chinese mariners
are onboard
for about nine to twelve months, in comparison to western mariners who usually
stay onboard a vessel
for three to four months. When Asian mariners stay onboard longer, they use the
Internet to stay in touch with their family and friends.

Community use
Facebook is used frequently amongst mariners, next to Facebook there are other
social network platforms especially for certain groups of people. Ukrainians have
a social network named Contact. Chinese and Koreans are at this moment less
interested in social networks, this could change when Internet becomes more
accessible onboard.

Mobile Internet
Now a day’s mariners have their laptops with them while onboard a vessel. They
use their laptops to avail of the Internet WI-FI onboard or free Internet available
in the harbour. WI-FI facilities onboard via satellite are useful, but will not be
sufficient for people who would like to use Skype or Youtube, as the speed is too
slow. A solution for mobile Internet is a Huawei WIFI device which runs five
laptops without reducing broadband speed. This device is popular amongst
mariners according to Collin Jenkins.
In most harbours there is free Internet available. Another possibility is an
unlocked dongle, they work world wide and only need a local Internet SIM card.
Because of the fact that mariners have shorter periods of time in harbours these
days, it is not always possible to use Internet facilities. Therefore Internet
onboard a vessel can be important to stay in contact with family and friends.
Months away from home without Internet or a possibility to contact home can
become very lonely.

Risks of Internet use onboard

Activities where all crewmembers of a vessel are involved are important for the
group’s atmosphere. Activities onboard are relaxing, mariners tell stories or
playing sports and games together. Internet use onboard a vessel made changes
in the way crewmembers spent their time at sea. With the introduction of
Internet, the risk arises that crewmembers spend more time in their cabin to stay
in touch with friends and family instead of spending time with each other.
Contact with home is important, but it needs to be balanced with the “family”
onboard.

Another risk of Internet use onboard a vessel is radiation from mobile phones and
wireless Internet devices as described by www.mercola.com. Many mariners talk
for hours on their mobile phones and use WI-FI devices regularly. The risk of

45
radiation is bigger for mariners compared to people who can use Internet with
LAN connection and landlines for telephones.

46
2.3 Online survey; Facebook group “Seafarers”
In completing field research regarding starting an online community for mariners
an online survey was sent to communities on Facebook. With the help of the
Facebook community ‘Seafarers’ a survey was completed regarding mariners’:
Internet experience/behaviour, social media usage, mobile devices, knowledge
sharing when on sea and motivations to participate on a platform. The online
survey showed that the mariners gather information from the Internet through
various online software for their daily activities. The most commonly used online
software services are;
• Email services;
For receiving chart corrections and navigational updates.
• RSS-readers;
Subscriptions to several RSS-feeds related to the maritime field.
• Social media;
A common social media platform that is used for gathering information is
Facebook.
• News services;
News services related to the maritime field, but also general (internal)
news.
• Online learning programs/tools;
For learning new important things.
• Weather services;
For information about the upcoming weather such as ‘buienradar’.
• Websites;
Information regarding harbour facilities and ship supplies.

When asked what kind of content the mariners would like to see and share on a
platform for mariners, the following topics were mentioned;
• General information about the maritime industry;
News about related companies, mariners life and experience, new
technologies.
• Maritime related information;
Tips and how-to’s about for example food, hygiene, engineering, studies
and fix problems that come up.
• Information about sailing;
Weather forecasts, tide predictions, accident report and information about
safety, stability control and celestial navigation.
• Information about other ships;
Name, location, type.

Several applications are used on mobile devices by seamen. A few examples are;
• Social media;
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Myspace.
• News;
Finance, Sports.
• Communication;
Skype, Whatsapp, Viber, Email, MSN messenger.
• Google and Yahoo;
For searching information.

47
The survey showed that most mariners are experienced in using the Internet.
Many software services are used as well as applications on mobile devices. The
survey showed that mariners are enthusiastic about and have a clear opinion of
what should be on the platform.

48
2.4 Students (Abel Tasman)
To get an image of the potential end users for the Wikipilot project a brainstorm
session was held with six students and one teacher of the nautical education
school Abel Tasman at Delfzijl.
These students will be future mariners and might be the end users of the
Wikipilot community platform. The students have completed an internship of six
months at sea and gained their practical experience during this period. At this
moment they are at the final stage of their study and will attempt their final
internship in February. While at sea, Internet is not available on every ship. The
questioned students experienced being onboard of a ship with and without
Internet.
Internet is not available on every ship at sea, the students experienced being
onboard of a ship with and without Internet.

The general Internet use

The students explained they use Internet on a regular basis, one of the students
is online almost 24/7 when at home. The potential end users of the Wikipilot
community platform use the Internet to visit a variety of websites such as
Tweakers.net and Nu.nl. Next to leisure information the Internet is used to gain
information about the shipping industry. From the responses of the students it
can be concluded that the Internet is important in daily life, when at sea Internet
is not being missed in most cases.

The online community use

All students who were interviewed are a member of an online community. The
communities they use are Hyves and Facebook, the frequency varies among the
students. The community platforms are used to stay in contact with friends,
family and crewmembers that they have met during their internships. The
students noticed that especially Philippine crewmembers are Facebook users.
The students stated that they use communities mostly for staying in contact.
Photos and comments are rarely shared. One student mentioned that he sees no
point in sharing private information with other members of an online community.

Internet onboard of a vessel

The brainstorm session showed that Internet is being paid for on most vessels.
The crewmembers buy credit in minutes for the use of Internet onboard the
vessel. For this reason the crew makes use of Internet mostly in harbors where
there is a possibility for free Internet. The students stated that the internet use
onboard of a vessel is far less than in daily life. The crew of a vessel at sea are a
team where personal contact is important. To gain information they consult each
other more than consulting the Internet.

The students mentioned that the Internet onboard a vessel is used for several
reasons. The most important reason given was reading and sending email, this
type of online communication is used frequently while at sea. Social media is
another important aspect, popular amongst mariners are Facebook and Skype.
One of the students stated that many vessels have a bandwidth limit, which
causes failure in the use of Skype and MSN. Therefore Skype and MSN are mostly
used ashore.
The Internet is also consulted to gain information about the weather, local news
and news from the shipping industry. Mariners can subscribe to an email service
where local news is offered from various digital newspapers. Mariners can decide
which newspaper they want to receive in their mail, like the Dutch newspaper

49
Metro or an English newspaper. One student mentioned that news from the
shipping industry is collected by Piet Sinke from Maasmond Maritime. He bundles
the news from the shipping industry and offers these news clippings as an email
service. The news clippings can also be read on the website
maasmondmaritime.com.

Mobile devices and paper versus hardcopy

All questioned students have a Smartphone with access to the Internet.
Documents and information onboard a vessel are in most cases on paper. Even
when information is available digitally, the information is signed and archived in
hardcopy. According to the students digital data is lost easily and consulting
digital information needs power. The students think this is a big disadvantage of
digitalization. The students do recognize that sea charts changed over the years
by introducing digital charts. Old vessels only use paper charts at the moment,
new vessels are required to have digital charts onboard. This means new vessels
need to have two digital charts. If there is only one digital chart onboard it is
required to have a paper chart as well. The students think that the introduction of
the Ipad onboard of a vessel has no added value compared to the present
computer. The students stated that company X has to add real value to the use
of the Ipad and their application. Furthermore, the application needs to be
professional and easy to use.

Content for the Wikipilot community platform

In the beginning of the brainstorm session the Wikipilot project was explained
and the fact that the community is about nautical safety information and
interaction with other mariners. Leisure information on the community platform is
needed to attract potential members and make the community interesting to
use.
Students’ opinions were asked regarding to content on the Wikipilot community
platform. The students stated that at this moment leisure information is mostly
shared among crewmembers, port staff and the shipping agent. The students
emphasized that the shipping agent grew up in the neighborhood of the harbor
and knows about the good places to go.
Bars that are visited by most crewmembers and there is a sailors centre in every
harbor. The students stated that information from other mariners on an
community platform add value to the information that they have at this moment.
The students mentioned that shared information and content should be about
different kind of subjects. For example bars, café’s, excursions, but also erotic
information. When erotic information is offered there should be a form of
restriction where not every community member is confronted with information
they do not want to gain. Therefore it is possible to make the community
platform personalized like for example iGoogle.

The students and their teacher talked about nautical safety information and the
procedure they have to follow at the moment. The nautical safety information is
mostly updated in the harbors with the use of WI-FI Internet, USB or CD-rom data
provided by companies like company X. Paper charts are updated by hand when
arriving at the harbor.
One of the students mentioned that there are many mistakes in charts, especially
in Asia. Changes can be made in their own digital system, but cannot be shared
with other vessels. When there are official changes or warnings at sea this can be
passed by using the radio. The students stated that nautical information should
be reliable and verified, the information that is going to be shared on the

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community platform needs to have strict monitoring. They stated that unverified
information will not be used.
At this moment changes in the navigation book provided by company X are sent
by mail, important content on the Wikipilot community platform will therefore be
the navigation book in file type PDF according to the students. The information
will be digitally available and changes can be sent by email or via the community
platform. The teacher of Abel Tasman stated that nautical information on Navtex
devices can only be seen with the Navtex system. If company X could replace the
Navtex system by posting the content on the community platform this could be
of great value for the shipping industry. Furthermore celestial navigation and tide
information would attract members from the shipping industry according to the
teacher. The final statement of the students and their teacher about the content
on the community platform is that the information on the Wikipilot community
platform should be exclusive and not shown anywhere else on the Internet. This
makes it useful for the shipping industry.

People who should join the Wikipilot community

The students stated that the most important people on the Wikipilot community
platform are the crewmembers of vessels. The crewmembers are people who
would be interested in the content on the community platform and would share
the most important information with other community members.
The students mentioned that for leisure information the shipping agents from
various harbors should be included as a member of the community. They have a
lot of information about the harbor area, they are in. Next to the shipping agent,
the shipping companies who are settled in the harbor could be of great value.
The students stated that members have to be from the professional shipping
industry, because they share the same interest and information needs.
Recreational boats and inland shipping have other interests and priorities. The
teacher thinks that pilotage will form an important group of members within the
community. Pilotage is an advisor on navigation and could be a strong partner
within the community. Furthermore it can provide important information and
content.
Vision on the Wikipilot project
The students and their teacher shared their vision on the Wikipilot project. They
mentioned that if company X wants to make the online community platform a
success it is important to create a strong network of existing customers. A small
group of people can build a strong network and a good working system. Within
the shipping industry there is a lot of talking according to the students. When the
community platform turns out to be a success, advertisement in the form of word
of mouth will take place. Mariners are suspicious about information that is not
official, so company X needs to build trust between the community and the
shipping industry.

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3.0. Experts
The following chapter consists of conducted expert interviews on the following
topics: crowdsourcing and community building. Experts interviewed are
specialized in different fields of interest. A summary has been made of the afore
named interviews. Secondly, the interviews were analyzed and compared to
information retrieved by desk research. Furthermore, the views of similar experts
were compared to distinguish similarities in their opinions.
Described is how a community can be analyzed with the help of the figure
“Environment of online communities” and the model “Three layer structure“. Also
there is stated in the paragraph “3.1 Analysing online communities” how budget
and a rewarding system can be considered when building a community.
The paragraph “3.2 Open or Closed“ describes the opinions of the experts about
an open or closed community. There are also several factors that should be
considered before building a community. But a community manager is an
important part in a community as well as the member quantity and
crowdsourcing. Moreover the exclusivity is important for a professional
community. Finally it is essential that existing accounts and communities are
linked with each other. All these factors are described in paragraph “3.3
community”.
It is essential to use social media in an online community without creating an
dependency on them. This is stated in section “3.4 Social media”.

3.1. Analysing online communities

The four factors that build a community are defined as (see figure 16):

Figure 16. Environment of online communities (the network)

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Information; the information that gets shared within a community defines the
type of community. For a community it is essential to create new content, you
can do this by updating the agenda, news-items, links and products but it has to
stay within the predefined scope related to the information.
Members; members within a community are people that have connections with
each other.
Activities; activities such as meeting each other at conferences, seminars and
product exhibitions results in a stronger coherence of a community.
Market; the market is the environment in which a community operates. This
environment consists of educational teams, jobs and companies that have a lot of
products.

Managing an online community can be done by scoping the previously mentioned

factors.
Basically, it is essential to keep creating new information (content) and exchange
it with the community members. Participating in offline and online activities is
also important to stimulate the coherence of the community. The activities,
community members and information are all scoped by the market they operate
in.

Figure 17. The three layer structure

3.1.1. Layer one: Federation

A federation layer is the governing body that covers either existing online
communities from the same field that share similar knowledge or gives birth to
new online communities consisting of different disciplines. This governing body
can be a project issued by a company or any group of professionals that want to
invest time and money.
The federation layer is the front-page. It connects members of different
communities with each other for the benefit of knowledge exchange and
stimulates community members to participate.

3.1.2. Layer two: Communities

The communities are a group of people that have similar interests, needs,
concerns, desires, related experience and knowledge. Communities can be based
on the peoples demographics, languages, themes or organizations. Each has
their own development targets, sub-groups (workgroups), content, members,
organization and identity.

3.1.3. Layer three: Workgroups

Within the communities, people can be part of a workgroup. Workgroups can be

53
defined as a group of people who work together on a project, ideas or discuss
topics. It revolves around producing new knowledge. For example they might
request additional products/services to be manufactured or suggests
improvements on existing products/services.
The workgroup disbands when the goal has been reached but the created
information stays thus creating a long lasting connectivity at a higher level.

54
Figure 18. Example Federation model

3.1.4. The connection between the three layers

The essence of this model is knowledge exchange. The federation level enables
public information sharing among all the communities. A community allows
information sharing at a more local level. And the workgroups of communities are
the authors of the content. This empowers the members of the communities to
develop their knowledge.

The content that is created by the workgroups can either be placed on the
federation level or it can stay within the community. Should multiple
communities be interested in the same content-type than it should be brought to
a federation level. A good overview of existing content within all the communities
is essential. Tagging enables the opportunity to categorize the content which
makes it more accessible. Communities may have as much content as they want
which can then be categorized in as many categories as they want.

When applying the model to the Hanze University of Applied Sciences then the
Hanze would be the federation. The faculties are the communities of the
federation and the courses of the faculties are the workgroups. When multiple
faculties (communities) work together on a similar project then information about
this project should be posted on the front-page of the Hanze (federation level).
The project in question is done by multiple courses (workgroups) of different
faculties.

55
3.1.5. Budget and rewarding
The following two aspects have to be considered when building a community: the
budget and a rewarding system. A detailed explanation about these two aspects
is listed below.

Budget
It is imperative to know that building and managing a online community will cost
money. About 80% of the costs will go into moderation (updating, creating and
modifying content) of the community the rest is spent on the infrastructure.
Covering some of the costs by letting people pay for membership fees is out of
the question. Associated advertising is allowed and can cover up to 50% of the
costs.

Rewarding
Any kind of effort that a member puts in an online community should be
stimulated by rewarding him or her. This can either be done in the form of giving
a comment on the input of the user or a ranking system that enables the
possibility to create a top 10 overview of the active users.
Active user participation can be stimulated within the community by appreciating
the contributions of each member. Basically, make each community member feel
special.

3.2. Open or closed

An online community that wants to be active on a worldwide scale, and wants to
create user participation and support in a certain sector, should have
transparency as their main priority. It is widely known that online communities
are all about knowledge sharing in social or business related areas. In order to
distinguish yourself as an new and upcoming online community it's essential that
there is an emphasis on which resources the online community is using and how
they have embedded these resources on the online platform. These resources
are highlighting the community activities. This allows potential members and
partners to get an insight in the activities and used resources of the online
community.
An online community should be open to new ideas and knowledge from other
parties such as competitors and existing related online communities. The
previously mentioned level of transparency is not only about the online
community sharing their knowledge but also take in new ideas and knowledge
within the online community. This can be done by acquiring new partnerships
with competitors and build up relationships with other online communities.
It is essential for online communities to have a set of predefined access rules.
Most communities allow people to be a spectator which means that they cannot
participate unless they register to the online platform. This ensures that people
that could possibly harm the online community with unwanted content will stay
out. The people who are motivated and interested in the online community will
register to the online platform and contribute to the online community. It is
imperative that these access rules are strictly enforced by the moderators to
guarantee the quality of the content and the credibility of the online community.
The moderators should look at the background of the registrants to see if they
are linked with existing related online communities and assess if the registrants
would be of value to the online community or not. Every participant should be a
part of the core business of an online community which is knowledge sharing and
should contribute with innovative ideas and knowledge.
Basically, one part of the online platform is open to allow spectators and the
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other part is closed to guarantee the quality and credibility.

57
3.3. Community
A community has several factors that should be considered before building one.
These factors are listed below.
• Management; someone has to be given the responsibility to manage the
community and to enforce the developed business strategy. The strategy
should be clear about who is responsible for what, how much time the
activities are expected to take and what the costs are.
• Users; it is essential to create a clear overview about the users their
demographics, habits and attitude which should be included in a user-
profile. This overview gives an insight in how users can be reached and
how to trigger them to use the community platform. Additionally, a policy
should be formulated when users are considered to be regulars.
• Growth; groups within the community and user stimulation are important
for users to bond with each other in order for the community to grow.
• Content; a content calendar has to be made which describes the type and
the quantity of content but also when the content should be posted on the
community platform. Keep in mind that the emphasis shouldn't be on
content but on making connections otherwise you risk getting low user
participation.
• Platform; a decision has to be taken about what type of platform should
be used for example: open or closed source, custom made or an all-in-one
package. Community platforms should have several key functions which
should be supported by the software package such as a community
history, a who’s who of members, a list of upcoming events, plans for the
future, FAQ and contact details.

The before mentioned factors should always regard the fact that the emphasis
should be on the users and not on the benefits of the company.

3.3.1. Community manager

The community manager as previously is mentioned in chapter 1.2.2 is
responsible for the community. An aspect that gets forgotten most of the time is
the psychological aspect. As a community manager it is important to have
knowledge about potential social influences and group dynamics that could affect
the community in either a positive or a negative way. This means that the
community manager has to keep in mind that every action has a reaction.

3.3.2. Member quantity

An online community its success cannot be measured by the quantity of
members. The size of an online community does not matter. What matters is to
set a predefined member target. The idea behind a predefined member target is
to ensure the most optimal participation of each community member. To
determine the ideal amount of participants in the online community. There is a
calculation that helps with setting a member target. The calculation is as follows:
estimate the required amount of time to keep each user active and divide this
number by the community managers time. For example: if a community manager
has 24 hours each week to manage the community members and each member
requires five minutes to manage in order to keep him or her active, then the
member limit that is controllable by a community manager is around 288
community members.

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3.3.3. Community management styles
There are two levels which influence the management style concerning online
communities. These levels are defined as follow:

• Micro level; this level puts an emphasis on recognizing each individual

community member their contributions.
• Macro level; this level puts an emphasis on recognizing each community
user group their contributions.

Choosing either of these management styles depends on the size and purpose of
the community. A community manager has only a limited amount of time to
control the community members. When the amount of time required to manage
each community member is more than the time the community manager has
then there are two available options, either hire an additional community
manager or start managing on a macro level. Going from managing an online
community on a micro level to a macro level results in restructuring the physical
and social ladder. With this new structure user groups should be formed when a
new popular hot topic is on the front page. These user groups have to be in the
spotlight (achievable by using a ranking system) to reflect the activity of the
community on federation level and in order to draw new group members.

3.3.4. Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing can be used for online communities. There are three steps that
have to be carefully thought out before using any community for the benefit of
crowdsourcing. These three steps are as follows:

• Listening; create a clear overview (categorize) of the community its

community members
• Connecting; new user groups will be formed when linking community
members with each other to solve existing problems or to create new
innovative ideas
• Interacting; community members within these existing user groups get
involved with new projects thus new user groups will be formed

3.3.5. Exclusivity
An important aspect to consider when building an online community is
exclusivity. There has to be value for the members of the community. This value
strengthens the bond between the community members, thus creating a strong
community feeling. The value can either be a social offline meeting or attending
an international conference together with community members.

3.3.6. Linking existing accounts and communities

Another important aspect these days besides exclusivity is linking. There are two
types of linking that can be distinguished from each other and both serve
different purposes. These are as follows:

• Linking existing accounts; using an external account to login on a other

online platform or synchronizing account information from an existing
account in order to create a new account on a different online platform.
For example; Google enables the account owner to login into other online
platforms such as YouTube or Blogger.
• Linking communities; asking existing communities to participate in a
new project in order to establish a broader support.

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A downside of many community platforms is signing-up and having to fill in all
the same tedious information that has been done several times before. This issue
can be solved by linking existing accounts which enables new members to sign-
up faster and easier.
A strong foundation is needed for communities that target a worldwide audience.
This foundation is created by linking existing communities together. The user
groups of the existing communities are able to form new groups and build-up
new connections. The whole purpose of linking existing communities is to
emphasize creating new connections instead of building up a brand new
community from scratch.

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3.4. Social media
The essence of social media is interaction with a large crowd. It is a two-way
communication that takes place on an online platform. Creating a plan to reach
customers by using a social media platform is very important. This plan should go
into on which social media platforms are the customers and for which purpose
will the platform be used. The purpose can vary from informing customers,
starting new discussions, monitoring user responses (feedback) or promoting a
brand, product or service. It is all about sharing and receiving relevant
information.
The most well-known social media platform at this moment which supports the
previously mentioned purposes is Facebook. This social media platform offers any
company the possibility to create an online fan page. On this fan page a company
can place content such as plain text, photos and videos. This enables the visitor
of the fan page to learn more about the brand, products and services of the
company. The unique selling point of social media is as previously mentioned, the
two-way communication. Visitors of the fan page have the opportunity to place
comments or show their interests by clicking on the world famous Like button.
Additionally, the company is able to monitor and respond to the visitors their
reactions. Monitoring is used to improve their products and services which
enhances the overall image of the brand and responding is used to support and
to develop a relationship with their visitors.
All in all social media allows a company to make their business processes more
transparent to the general public.
It is imperative to know that social media shouldn't be integrated as a main
function on a community platform. Integration creates a dependency on the
social media platform which can cause huge problems should the owner decide
to change strategy such as paid access.

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4. Conclusion and recommendations
In this chapter are the end conclusion and recommendations described.

4.1. End conclusion

After answering the sub-questions in the previous chapters, we will attempt to
answer the central research question.

"How can an online environment be created that can facilitate a professional

community of mariners which can be used for crowdsourcing with an ambition of
exchanging nautical data amongst community members?"

This central research question is not easily answered, because creating an

environment is intertwined with several issues.

Research indicated that the success of Wikipilot is dependent on the following

three factors: content, members and a network. Additionally, there are several
other factors that should be considered, these are selecting a community
manager, crowdsourcing, social media, budget and existing online seafarers
communities.

Current situation
After conducting research it was found that several mariner communities already
operate on the Internet, examples are ActiveCaptain and TeamSurv. They have
similar goals to Wikipilot but are lacking the partnerships to enhance their quality
of content . Additionally, numerous communities exist on other social media
platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
Communities on Facebook have completed a survey to distinguish their Internet
behaviour and experience when on board. The research indicated mariners
consider themselves fairly experienced in using the Internet. Research also
showed that Internet usage has changed majorly in the past few years and that
Facebook is the primarily used method of social interactions online. Most
respondents do not currently share knowledge online but are willing to do so on
one online platform.

Environment
It can be concluded that an environment can be created by combining the
previously mentioned factors; content, users and a network. These factors can be
combined by implementing a three layered structure. The three layered structure
consists of a top layer called the Federation, a middle layer consisting of multiple
communities and a bottom layer consisting of workgroups within the
communities.

When applying the three layered structure to Wikipilot, the Federation is the front
page. As described before, the federation level provides the opportunity for each
community on the community level to upload unique and high quality information
that would be of interest to other communities . Content can stay within a
community but content relevant to all communities should be posted on
federation level.

Communities on the community level are all linked together by the Federation.
The purpose of these communities is knowledge exchange. Communities can be
created when members have similarities like nationality, function or hobbies.

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Within Wikipilot communities can be, for example a group of deckhands or a
group of captains. These communities share and exchange information and have
a common purpose or goal.

Workgroups can exchange knowledge by either placing content on the

Community level or on the Federation level. Content is placed on the Community
level when the topic is just interesting for one specific community and on the
Federation level when the topic is interesting for more than one community. It is
about linking workgroups and communities, an example now. When workgroup A
posts something on Federation level that is interesting for workgroup B and
workgroup B replies to workgroup A that they liked the information and would
like more information, a connection is made between workgroup A and
workgroup B. In theory, Workgroup A and workgroup B could form a new
community, community AB.

Professional community of mariners

Motivating users to participate in information exchange is essential. Furthermore,
a clear distinction has to be made between the social and professional aspects of
a community. Communities either focus on the social aspect, professional aspect
or seek out a balance between both. The expert interviews indicated social
aspects (content) are essential for drawing people to a community, professional
communities are no exception. A professional community (network) should
primarily focus on exchanging information for the purpose of a project, the social
aspect as mentioned before is also involved in this. Examples are member
profiles that function as an online CV.

The expert interviews indicated that a balance between the level of professional
and social content on Wikipilot is needed. This is especially important in
Wikipilot's case because most survey respondents were very interested in the
social part of the platform. However, sharing professional content (such as
nautical data) can be seen as a Unique Selling Point (USP). Social activities have
to draw people to the community as well as professional content. When on the
community, members can be motivated to participate in the exchange of nautical
data, this can be described as professional content.
Social content can for example be personal profiles, pictures, forums or blogs.
Professional content is content like maps, nautical charts or Google Maps
changes. Several experts and survey respondents indicated that especially
professional content has to be unique and very reliable. Unique content can be
described as content that cannot be gained from other websites or content
offered on Wikipilot that is better than on other websites.

Community manager
Rules and boundaries within the community have to guarantee professionalism in
the community. Research suggests that a community manager is the best person
for this task. The community manager is someone who is closely involved with
the organization he represents and is the online contact for the organization.
When occupying this position the community manager works to build, grow and
manage the community around a certain cause or brand. When doing so the
community manager leads the community but does not influence members of the
community or the content placed on the community. It can be concluded that a
community manager has several important tasks such as facilitation of
community members, ensuring the quality of the content, evangelism when there
are conflicts between community members and implementing technological
innovations. Another essential but often overlooked task is monitoring activities

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on the Internet as well as the Wikipilot activities. This should be done regularly in
order to respond quickly and to reduce the amount of negative content.

Content and members

The expert interviews indicated that, especially in the start-up stage, a
community manager is needed to post content. This content has to be unique
and should motivate the first users to participate on the community and create
content that has additional value. The uniqueness of the community has to be
maintained as was stated by several interviewees and experts. It is essential that
the content demonstrates the organization’s objectives and gives a clear purpose
for participating on the community. Then content can be created by the first
participants on the community.

Networking
As mentioned before the Workgroups within the Community are people that
place content on the platform. An online community needs an initial workgroup in
order to start functioning. The initial workgroup can be described as 'creators'.
'Creators' are essential to the community. The question arises 'where can
creators be found'? Networking and brainstorming provide the opportunity to find
the creators that are particularly interested in a professional online community.
Social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn also have creators. The creators
that are in existing communities can be linked in order to start a new online
community. Creators are the people willing to put an effort on the platform. In
the start-up stage a variety of creators is needed to produce unique content and
to invite possible new members.

Crowdsourcing
The interviews and literature studies indicated that the chance of success for
crowdsourcing is greatest when there is community interaction, a professional
network of people, a rewarding system and a clearly formulated question or
problem statement. When these four conditions are met, crowdsourcing can take
place. Community members have to be willing to spend time on the community
which can be stimulated by using a rewarding system. Recognition rewards such
as ranking top members motivate members to participate on the community.
Community interaction can be described as reacting to posts and showing
community members that their posts are valuable. This is a form of recognition
for community members. It can be concluded that crowdsourcing is not just
asking questions to the public but also monitoring reactions on social media
platforms such as Facebook.

Budget
The costs of building and managing a community will be substantial. Generally
this aspect of community building is underestimated. Return Of Investments are
often unclear but can be expressed in money and other benefits. Goals have to
be set in order to make Return Of Investments measurable.

Existing online seafarers communities

Several existing online seafarers communities have been analysed as described
before in this paper. The analysis showed that many of the before named online
community platforms are not very efficient nor very useful. The social media
communities have a strong dependency on their platform. All these online
communities have a different purpose than Wikipilot and can be seen as possible
business partners. This would result in Wikipilot taking the lead in their respective
market.

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Social media
The essence of social media is interaction with an online audience. Interaction in
terms of using social media for development purposes is sharing and receiving
information. Creating and stimulating this level of interaction in order to attract
new participants for the Wikipilot project requires three steps. First step, get a
clear insight in where and who these participants are, and where their
discussions are about. Step two, share information that is transparent about the
Wikipilot activities. The last step, monitor the results of step one and two and use
these as feedback to further develop the Wikipilot community.
It’s crucial to not use social media as a main function on a professional online
community but instead use existing online social media platforms as a way to
promote the online community. These existing online social media platforms also
can be used to further improve the online community by monitoring responses. A
sub function could be using share buttons to increase promotion of the online
community and to receive more user feedback.

Answering the central research question

"How can an online environment be created that can facilitate a professional
community of mariners which can be used for crowdsourcing with an ambition of
exchanging nautical data amongst community members?"

To give a specific and clear answer to this research question it can be concluded
that when starting an online professional community it is not immediately
possible to emphasize sharing nautical data. To realize the goal of Wikipilot
(sharing nautical data) a strong community is needed with support from the
nautical industry. Research showed that social aspects like building and
maintaining networks and relations are essential factors, with complements to
professionalism. If these factors are met, to a certain extent, the professionalism
of the community can be maintained.

4.2. Recommendations
Based on the end-conclusion the following is recommended for the Wikipilot
project. The goal of our research was investigating: How an environment can be
created that can facilitate a professional community of mariners which can be
used for crowdsourcing with ambition of exchanging nautical data amongst
community members. Since there is no online active Wikipilot community yet
which can be used for crowdsourcing, it is recommended to use existing
communities active on social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn. With the help of
these existing communities, Wikipilot can create brand recognition, build
relationships and use crowdsourcing (innovation) for building and developing the
online community.
We recommend Wikipilot to create accounts or so called fan pages on various
social networks. These accounts should foster the ability to share information and
current activities with third parties, with regards to building Wikipilot. By sharing
this information Wikipilot allows third parties to participate and cooperate in
building the online community. If there are questions that need answering,
Wikipilot can contact the owners of existing communities and request the
possibility to ask the community members questions. By doing so Wikipilot starts
building a relationship with community members as well as the community
owner. If the community owners allow the question on his community,
community members can respond. The answers of the community members can

65
then be used (Crowdsourcing) to innovate the Wikipilot project and to tailor it to
mariner’s needs. To summarize by increasing the attention for existing online
communities on social networks, Wikipilot will have a bigger chance of success.
Aspects like transparency, crowdsourcing, brand recognition, relations and
partnerships have to be covered. Building relationships and partnerships cannot
solemnly happen online. Since, company X wants to have their own customers
participate in the online community, we recommend letting Van Dam shipping
and Wagenborg participate on brainstorm sessions. During the brainstorm
sessions the needs of potential users can be distinguished and new ideas can
arise or be developed. Furthermore, we recommend including students of
nautical schools in the project since they are the workers of the future and
therefore the Wikipilot users of the future.

Community manager
It is of great importance to invest in a community manager in the startup stage
and for further development of the Wikipilot community. The community
manager is the eyes and ears of Wikipilot, online as well as offline. He is the
essential link between the interests of the end-users and the interests of the
stakeholders of the Wikipilot project. We recommend hiring an independent
community manager, who has affinity with the nautical industry as well as
expertise in online and offline communities. This should be someone who does
not currently work at company X because often these persons are biased or
influenced by things such as company culture, rules or colleagues.

The web interface

Figure 19. Webinterface

66
Research indicated that the preferences goes to building an online platform by
using a three layer structure. A visual presentation of the web interface (see
figure has been made of the structure and important elements that came forth
during our research.

• Federation menu. The buttons on this menu give access to information

that is located on the highest level within the entire online community,
also known as the federation level.
• Community menu. The buttons on this menu give the end user access to
a diverse amount of communities and workgroups where he or she is a
part of.
• (After logging in) Widgets create a clear overview of the categorized
information. These widgets allow the end user to change them to his or her
liking. This way the end users decides which information is visible where
and when.

In short: the emphasis of the web interface is on visibility, usability and

personalization.

Final recommendation
In our opinion, for the progression of the Wikipilot project, the next question has
to be researched:

“How can shape be created and content specified for the online platform?”

In order to answer this question the following issues have to be studied:

• Who are the potential end-users and partners, where are they active
(online and offline) and what are their needs?
• Which potential end-users and partners ensure reliability and
professionalism on the Wikipilot platform. Furthermore, the question; ‘how
are reliable and professional end-users identified’ needs to be answered.
• How can Wikipilot acquire and maintain exclusivity? Wikipilot’s unique
selling point has to be distinguished.

67
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