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Software developers design software, thinking that they are designing communities. Meanwhile, keen-eyed, reflective sociologists describe the emergence of communities. But communities are neither designed nor do they just emerge. The design of the software affects community development. But the way that people interact in a community strongly contributes to its long-term evolution. People's behavior cannot be controlled but it can be influenced. The community's purpose, people's roles in the community, and policies set-up to guide behavior, all help to influence how people behave. The web can support multiple forms of communication, each with its own criteria, each with its own form of "community." Communities with good sociability have social policies that support the community's purpose and are understandable, socially acceptable and practicable. Successful online communities also need software with good usability that is intuitive to learn, consistent and predictable. This workshop will address these two related themes - sociability and usability.

The kinds of topics that we expect to discuss in this workshop include:

Sociability:
Moderation
Different roles in the community: participants, lurkers, experts, novices, provocateurs
Policies, rules, laws
Trust, Empathy, co-operation, hostility
Communication styles
Avatars, emoticons, gendered communication
Anonymity
Persistence of messages
Etc.

Usability:
Screen design
Design of online questionnaires, forms, registration screen etc.
Navigation support
Representation of individuals, groups, whole communities and their activities
Scaling from 10 -100 - 1000 - million person interface
Searching archives
Message presentation and feedback (e.g. threading)
Design of avatars, virtual environments
Support tools
Etc.

Form of the Workshop:
The workshop will consist of short presentations. Each will take no more than 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions and discussion. Papers will be grouped according to the topics that they address. The final hour in the afternoon will be used to draw together common themes and conclusions. There will also be a lunch and breaks during the morning and afternoon when participants can discuss ideas. The general format of the workshop will be informal but productive.

Participation:
Anyone wishing to participate should submit an abstract of 200-600 words describing their work. Please state if your work falls more strongly under one theme or the other or if it addresses both equally. We expect that most participants will have a chance to present their work. If there are a large number of people who register for the workshop, we might need to select only a portion of the abstracts to be presented. However, all abstracts will be available on the web. Please send your abstract to Jonathan Lazar (jlazar@towson.edu) by May 10, 2000. After receiving confirmation from Dr. Lazar, you must then fill out a registration form with the HCIL. Workshop Registration includes lunch, handout, and reception. The cost of workshop registration is $70 if you are not registering for Friday's Symposium and $50 if you are registering for Friday's Symposium.

Biographies of the Organizers

Jean Gasen is the Dean of Applied Technology in the IT University at Capital One Financial Services in Richmond, VA. She is on a leave of absence from the Department of Information Systems in the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jonathan Lazar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Towson University, and an Affiliate Professor of the Center for Applied Information Technology at Towson University. Dr. Lazar's publications in Human-Computer Interaction relate to online communities, requirements gathering, electronic surveys, and user error. Dr. Lazar has also done consulting work for a number of non-profit organizations and governmental agencies.

Jennifer J. Preece is Chair and Professor of Information Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Preece has published extensively in the field of human-computer interaction. Her most recent book, Online Communities: Supporting Sociability, Designing Usability is scheduled for publication in June 2000 by John Wiley & Sons.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Lazar:
Phone: 410-830-2255
Fax: 410-830-3868
E-mail: jlazar@towson.edu

Last updated on April 17th, 2000