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Case Study - Community Development
15/06/07
In 2001, The Escape Committee were asked to recommend a long-term online strategy for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
We recommended launching a network of message boards, which have gone on to become a cornerstone of the organisation’s communications output.
Research & Preparation
Preliminary research project was commissioned to evaluate the likely success of such an online community, and found that many of ABRSM’s core audience would welcome the opportunity to exchange views with each other. It was noted that in the Board’s 120-year history, it had never been possible for large sections of the target audience to interact with each other.
The research also found evidence that an online community would be well received from talking to a sample of the audience groups:
- an eagerness to contribute to debate
- comfortable using web interfaces – some had used message boards before (e.g. BBC)
- global audience, but most comfortable reading & writing in English
Priori to launching the online community, two significant issues were addressed:
1. Resourcing moderation of the message boards
Members of staff were invited to become moderators, and given training & documentation in not just the technology, but also the culture and mentality of message board users. A policy document was created to help moderators decide on acceptable use.
2. Child protection issues & general privacy policies
Protecting users online, and ensuring the community was kept safe was a key concern of the project leaders. The NSPCC were asked to provide advice, and a privacy policy and set of forum rules were implemented. Additionally, the board technology was configured to require registration and confirmation.
'One of the most important sources of debate on music education on the web’
Since launch, the ABRSM Forums have become a key part of the organisation’s overall web output. The community has grown to over 10,000 registered users, with an average of 35 new topics started every day, across 14 message boards.
In addition to the popularity and weight of the contribution of the community, the launch of the boards have had notable achievements:
- a topic started by a child who was nervous about her forthcoming exam received a public reply from the chief examiner, encouraging and reassuring herthe
- community were asked to vote for their favourite design for the new syllabus, and the winning design was subsequently used and distributed to over 120,000 candidates globallyforum
- users have increasingly become capable of policing the boards, notifying moderators of infringements of forum rules and ignoring users who break these rulesthe
- online community has begun to develop offline activities: in November 2005, candidates who had met in online discussions held concerts in 3 locations across the WorldTips
Tips for launching & maintaining a successful online community
l . Start small. At launch , keep the number of separate message boards as low as possible to avoid fragmenting the fledgling community
2. Provide adequate numbers of moderators: appoint more moderators than you think you’ll need, and train them thoroughly. Once launched, moderators should report regularly on their activities and user behaviour
3. Exercise restraint: sometimes users will say things you – or other users – would rather they hadn’t. Where these are in breach of the stated forum rules, they can of course be moderated. However more often they will simply be expressing a genuinely held alternative opinion. Moderating in this instance may discourage them from contributing to the discussion any further, or even publicly protesting.
4. Restrict the user options: message board technology can give users some powerful features, but not all of them are helpful and some can make the moderators’ job all the harder. Avatars and private messaging tools in particular should be implemented with care.