Chris Crawford's On Game Design (New Riders: Indianapolis, 2004) explores the fascinating world of online game design. There are many paradigms to be explored here that will eventually be transferred to online library catalog and library website building. The 'foraging' or search for 'information' whether articles, books or 'information' will take place in a 3D space not unlike the one currently being used in the paradigmatic structure of current online games and online communities will be virtual worlds. Crawford's book is worth thinking about as much as it opens future online library possibilities as to giving shape to the thought patterns and 'search' strategies of our current generation of 'video' gaming undergraduates.
Interactivity
Crawford argues that the key to building better applications is 'interactivity' and the 'interactive' element. "The low end of the scale is already heavily populated with design; the middle and upper reaches of the scale are empty.
How do we measure interactivity?: "What, precisely do we mean when we talk about high interactivity and low interactivity? What makes a conversation more or less interactive? Certainly it's not the speed with which the interlocutors speak. To achieve high conversational interactivity, each person must perform high quality listening, high quality thinking and high quality speaking. For an intense conversation, you must really listen to the other person, really hear what they're saying. You must think carefully about what they said, gauging their true meaning. And finally, you must choose your words carefully to state your thoughts with perfect clarity. When all these goals are met smoothly, the conversation is intense. Thus, a highly interactive game would listen very well to its player, think well about the player's inputs, and produce clear, expressive outputs.
Network Maps
In this very important section Crawford talks about where creativity comes from by drawing two network maps (with nodes and links creating patterns). He writes "our minds are associative; new ideas are generated by combining old ideas in novel ways. This combinatorial process is not a simple additive one; you don't jam two ideas together any old way to create a new idea. Instead, they go together in a pattern fashion. Now, any substantial idea is really a collection of closely related concepts (nodes creating a pattern). The trick is to notice analogous ideas. (98) With regards to visualized online academic library catalogs and the possibilities for beginning to map patterns of knowledge so that 'academics can make connections, Crawford's book and ideas presented within demand close attention for a next stage of academic online system building to begin.
It seems in the last couple years, Internet web design has evolved from design to development to putting separate pieces together in a larger integrated whole through online community building. At Richter and UM libraries, it wouldn't be a bad time to begin our own online library community building capitalizing on our student/faculty populace and academe's voracious appetite for books. There are a whole new category of online community building applications, tools and models to be taken from other areas. This entry looks at online community building through the optic of Derek Powazek's recent book, Design for Community looking at wider parameters and considerations.
Essentially, an online community consists of various members individual weblogs, a general news section, chatrooms, various topic forums, ways for members to contact each other (i.e. e-mail, instant messaging, AIM) and daily forums, either threads or news or 'events'. With regards to an academic library this could be a great feature enhancing and strengthening the academic community tenfold and creating as yet unheard of connections in a wider university community.
The main places online community building exists currently is with regard to online networking services. There are a variety of models here which may be abstracted. Other paradigms are beginning to arise: (i.e. Friendster, Tribe).
Derek Powazek's book "Design For Community: the Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places"(New Riders: Indianapolis, 2002) is also an excellent resource with regards to thinking about online community building possibilities. An early internet renegade, Powazek's book has many interesting ideas with regards to online community building. What I loved about this book is that there is little 'subterfuge'. Powazek tells it like it is and generates interesting possibilities. A few excerpts:
Web Design as Music: "In web design, the best thing a designer can do is move beyond considering each page a piece of art. Instead, the designer should consider the user's entire experience as a work of art. When you do, you'll begin to see the same patterns you see in music."
The navigation of your site is the beat - that anchors the design into a solid predictable rhythm. It's crucial to establish that beat and be consistent with it. Just as you wouldn't change tempo in the middle of a song without a good reason, neither would you change your visual navigation in the middle of a website.
The big idea is that communities online have moved beyond message boards and the post-a-response-published-article format. . .the community does just about everything. They submit stories - in the form of links and short commentary. . .they discuss, they create contributions from users, separating signal from noise. so the community is authoring the content, commenting on it and filtering/editing the content. It's a great system - the community really feels like the site belongs to them because it does.
Models: (Amazon.com, book lists, friend recommendations, etc.)
On Building Community through Personal Topics
1. How was your week? If I could have only one topic in a community, it would be this one. It is the single most powerful tool for community growing that I've come up with.
2. Separate Chat room for Flame wars
3. Random Babble area.
Advice: Grow, don't 'build' a community.
E-Bays Community Values
We believe people are basically good
We believe everyone has something to contribute
An honest open evironment can bring out the best in people
We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Chat Room Etiquette: Have a boot button (Everyone member in the room has one boot vote, if more than half the participants in the room vote for you to be booted, you get shown the door with a special message)
Communities of Support
The line between real-life community and digital community is becoming blurry. I see this as one of the futures of online communities: We will simply have communities with physical and digital elements.
Webcams: Focus on community first, consider the cams as merely one aspect of a members profile, one element of a complex person, a person who wants to communicate with other people in their community.
Virtual Community Building: Reward loyal members with privileges. Give the members as much control as possible while still maintaining a voice. Don't launch 10 services at once, start small and grow services. Focus more on bringing the best elements of your community to the surface rather than keeping bad elements down.
Any internet technology that does not allow for its users to communicate directly with each other is doomed to failure (298)
Sites: Powazek.com, Plastic.com, Powazek.com, designforcommunity.com