Editing Building Successful Online Communities (Fall 2016)

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<div style="float:right;" class="toclimit-2">__TOC__</div>
:'''Building Successful Online Communities'''
:'''Building Successful Online Communities'''


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== Overview and Learning Objectives ==
== Overview and Learning Objectives ==
<div style="float:right;" class="toclimit-2">__TOC__</div>


Before Wikipedia was created, there were seven very similar attempts to build online collaborative encyclopedias. Before Facebook, there were dozens of very similar social networks. Why did Wikipedia and Facebook take off when so many similar sites struggled? Why do some attempts to build communities online lead to large thriving communities while most struggle to attract even a small group of users?
Before Wikipedia was created, there were seven very similar attempts to build online collaborative encyclopedias. Before Facebook, there were dozens of very similar social networks. Why did Wikipedia and Facebook take off when so many similar sites struggled? Why do some attempts to build communities online lead to large thriving communities while most struggle to attract even a small group of users?
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* Write and speak with a fluency about the rules and norms of the Wikipedia community and demonstrate this fluency through successful contributions to Wikipedia.
* Write and speak with a fluency about the rules and norms of the Wikipedia community and demonstrate this fluency through successful contributions to Wikipedia.
* Engage with the course material and compellingly present your own ideas and reflections in writing and orally.
* Engage with the course material and compellingly present your own ideas and reflections in writing and orally.
* Demonstrate an ability to critically apply the theories by critiquing and/or helping design a ''real'' online community of your choice in a consultant/client-based model.
* Demonstrate an ability to critically apply the theories by critiqueing and/or helping design a ''real'' online community of your choice in a consultant/client-based model.


== Notes About This Syllabus ==
== Notes About This Syllabus ==
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=== Component 2: Examples and Challenges ===
=== Component 2: Examples and Challenges ===


In the second half of the course, we will focus less on theory and more on examples of online communities and on applications, examples, and challenges, associated with online communities.
In the second half of the course, we will focus less on theory and more on examples of online communities and on applications, examples, and challenges, associated with interpersonal media and computer-mediated communication.


Our reading during the second part of the quarter will be focused on cases studies. We will also focus on in-class discussions and exercises that prompt critical consideration of how online communities take place in different domains as well as the challenges associated with using online communities. Our goal here is to build up the ability to critically understand these communities in terms of the theory we covered earlier.
Our reading during the second part of the quarter will be focused on cases studies. We will also focus on in-class discussions and exercises that prompt critical consideration of how online communities take place in different domains as well as the challenges associated with using online communities. Our goal here is to build up the ability to critically understand these communities in terms of the theory we covered earlier.
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* To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to me and at least one classmate on Wikipedia. My username is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill Benjamin Mako Hill]. You can find a list of all of your classmates on the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students WikiEdu students page].
* To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to me and at least one classmate on Wikipedia. My username is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill Benjamin Mako Hill]. You can find a list of all of your classmates on the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students WikiEdu students page].
* Decide on an article you would like to create or a stub article you would like to significantly expand and improve (see below).
* Decide on an article you would like to create or a stub article you would like to significantly expand and improve (see below).
* Tell me what article you want by leaving a message on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Benjamin_Mako_Hill my user talk page].
* Tell me what article you want by leaving a message on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Benjamin_Mako_Hill my user talk page]. Also, record your article selection on the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/overview WikiEdu dashboard].


If there is a topic you know are interested in writing about that doesn't have an article, go ahead and suggest it. If you are having trouble coming up with a specific topic on your own, there are a few resources you might find helpful:
If there is a topic you know are interested in writing about that doesn't have an article, go ahead and suggest it. If you are having trouble coming up with a specific topic on your own, there are a few resources you might find helpful:
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;Task: Compile research and write draft
;Task: Compile research and write draft
;Due Date: Friday October 14
;Due Date: Sunday October 14
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia


* Compile a bibliography of relevant research.
* Compile a bibliography of relevant research.
* Write a 2-3 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox.
* Write a 2-3 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox.
* Add the URL For your sandboxed article to yourself on [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/articles the course WikiEdu page] by clicking the assign article button next to your name and assigning the URL for your sandbox to yourself.
* Add the URL For your sandboxed article to yourself on [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Interpersonal_Media_()/s the course WikiEdu page] by clicking the assign article button next to your name and assigning the URL for your sandbox to yourself.


==== Wikipedia Task #4 ====
==== Wikipedia Task #4 ====
;Task: Make article "live" and choose articles to review
;Task: Make article "live" and choose articles to review
;Due Date: Friday October 21
;Due Date: Monday October 21
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia
;Deliverables: Make contributions in Wikipedia


* Begin polishing your article.
* Begin polishing your article.
* Move sandbox articles into the "(Article)" name space by using the "Move" tab, by setting the namespace to "(Article)" and by setting the page title to be whatever you want the article to be named.
* Move sandbox articles into the "(Article)" name space by using the "Move" tab, by setting the namespace to "(Article)" and by setting the page title to be whatever you want the article to be named.
** Once you have moved the article, visit the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students list of students in the WikiEdu dashboard] and (a) assign the new URL to yourself and (b) remove the old one by clicking the "'''+'''" button to open the menu and using the "'''-'''" button next to the old "sandbox" copy of your article. You need to press "Save" at the top of the page once you are done.
** Once you have moved the article, visit the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Interpersonal_Media_%28%29/students list of students in the WikiEdu dashboard] and (a) assign the new URL to yourself and (b) remove the old one by clicking the "'''+'''" button to open the menu and using the "'''-'''" button next to the old "sandbox" copy of your article. You need to press "Save" at the top of the page once you are done.
* Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copy-edit. (You don't need to start reviewing yet.) To sign up, you can mark this in the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Building_Successful_Online_Communities_%28Fall_2016%29/students the dashboard] by using the ''Assign a review''' button. Try to pick articles that other students are not yet reviewing. If there are already two students assigned to an article, pick something else.
* Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copy-edit. (You don't need to start reviewing yet.) To sign up, you can mark this in the [https://dashboard.wikiedu.org/courses/University_of_Washington/Interpersonal_Media_%28%29/students the dashboard] by using the ''Assign a review''' button. Try to pick articles that other students are not yet reviewing.


==== Wikipedia Task #5 ====
==== Wikipedia Task #5 ====
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* Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages for how to improve them.
* Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages for how to improve them.
* Improve and copy-edit the two reviewed articles to help fix issues, improve sourcing, create a more [[:wikipedia:WP:NPOV|neutral]] or [[:wikipedia:WP:TONE|encyclopedic]] tone, etc.
* Improve and copy-edit the two reviewed articles to help fix issues, improve sourcing, create a more [[:wiki:WP:NPOV|neutral]] or [[:wiki:WP:TONE|encyclopedic]] tone, etc.


==== Wikipedia Task #6 ====
==== Wikipedia Task #6 ====
;Task: Finalize article and turn in your report to Wikipedia
;Task: Finalize article and turn in reflection essay
;Due Date: Monday November 7
;Due Date: Sunday November 4
;Deliverables: Finish article in Wikipedia and turn in link to article in Canvas. Turn in report as subpage of your Wikipedia userpage and turn in link in Canvas.
;Deliverables: Finish article in Wikipedia and turn in link to article in Canvas. Turn in reflection essay as subpage of your Wikipedia userpage and turn in link in Canvas.
:Post your report as a subpage of your userpage. For example, I would create mine with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill/Report as the URL. Of course, you should replace "Benjamin_Mako_Hill" with your Wikipedia username. You can also just go to your userpage by clicking on your username on Wikipedia and then adding "/Report" at the end of the the URL.
:''Post your reflection as a subpage of your userpage. For example, I would create mine with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill/Reflections as the URL. You should replace "Benjamin_Mako_Hill" with your Wikipedia username. You can also just go to your userpage by clicking on your username on Wikipedia and then adding "/Reflections" at the end of the the URL.''
:When you go that page, it will say '''Wikipedia does not have a user page with this exact name.'''
:''When you go that page, it will say '''Wikipedia does not have a user page with this exact name.'''''
:You can create the new page by just clicking the "Create" tab on that page. When you're done, you can paste the URL into Canvas.
:''You can create the new page by just clicking the "Create" tab on that page. When you're done, you can paste the URL into Canvas.''
;Maximum length for report: 1000 words (~4 pages double spaced)
;Maximum length for reflection essay: 750 words (~3 pages double spaced)


Your Wikipedia article will be evaluated based on your demonstrated understanding of Wikipedia rules and policies. Is it a good article by Wikipedia's standards?
Your Wikipedia article will be evaluated based on your demonstrated understanding of Wikipedia rules and policies. Is it a good article by Wikipedia's standards?


In addition to finishing up your Wikipedia article, everybody should turn in a report reflecting on your experience contributing to Wikipedia in light of your experience and the course material and, most importantly, offering advice to the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikipedia Community on how to improve their community. I want you all to treat this as a dress rehearsal for your final projects.
In addition to finishing up your Wikipedia article, everybody should turn in an essay reflecting on your experience contributing to Wikipedia in light of your experience and the course material.


Your report will be evaluated, first and foremost, on the degree to which it provides useful, informed, and actionable advice to the Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation. It will also be evaluated on the degree to which you engage with the course material. See [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html the writing rubric] for details on my expectations in terms of the content of the papers. A successful essay will do the following three things:
Your essay will be evaluated on the degree to which you engage with the course material. See [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html the writing rubric] for details on my expectations in terms of the content of the papers. A successful essay will do the following three things:


# Provide detailed, concrete, and actionable advice to the Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation. What should Wikipedia think about doing? What should they think about changing?
# Comment directly on your experience in Wikipedia. What did you do and what did you learn?
# Comment directly on your experience in Wikipedia. What did you do and what did you learn?
# Connect your experience in Wikipedia explicitly to the concepts in the course material we have covered. Justify your recommendations in terms of the theories and principles we've covered. Why should your recommendations be taken more seriously than just random advice from one new user?
# Connect your experience in Wikipedia explicitly to the concepts in the course material we have covered. Which topics or issues were relevant or important? Why?
# If possible, reflect on what parts of the theories or concepts we covered applied or didn't. You don't have to take everything taught in the course for granted. What would you change or add based on your experience? What is unique or different about Wikipedia?
# Reflect on what parts of the theories or concepts we covered applied or didn't? What would you change or add based on your experience?
 
I will give everybody in the course feedback on their assignment. The basic structure is shorter, but extremely similar, to what you will be doing in the final project. As a result, you can treat this as a "mid-term" and make adjustments based on feedback.
 
=== Project 2: Report on building/improving an online community ===
 
For the final assignment, I want you to take what you've learned in the class and apply it to a real online community in a consultant/client model. I'm going to ask everybody to work with a real organization in one of the two situations:
 
# Designing a new online community.
# Improving or expanding an existing community.
 
My strong preference will be for every student to work on these projects alone. That said, if there's a very compelling reason for 2 or more students to work in a group, I'm willing to discuss it.
 
==== Community Identification and Signed MOU====
;Maximum Length: 750 words (~3 pages double spaced)
;Deliverables:
:* Signed copy of MOU (Turn in to me in class)
:* Community identification essay (Turn in to Canvas)
;Due Dates:
:* Monday November 7
 
In this assignment, you should identify and the community you will be working with for your final project. In the essay part of this assignment, I am asking you to write several paragraphs explaining which community you will be working with and why you think it will be an appropriate site for applying the course material. If relevant or possible, it might be useful to also provide a link to any existing community or to the organization.
 
I am hoping that each of you will pick a community that you are intellectually interested and invested in. If you want to the community something you are involved in your personal and professional life, that's ideal.  Although I'm encouraging you to connect to your work lives, you should also keep in mind that you will be presenting this publicly to the class. If you don't know of such a community, Molly Schachter should be able to help connect you to businesses that are interested in advice on growing, improving, or starting an online community.
 
Second, I want to make sure that the organizations you are going to be working with are on board. As a result, I'm asking you all to bring a signed copy of the [[:File:MOU-online communities-2016-fall.pdf|course memorandum of understanding]] in. You should read that document as soon as possible to get a sense of what you'll be asking organizations to agree to.
 
You will be successful in this assignment if you identify a community and clearly explain why you think it would be a useful community to study using the concepts we have covered in the class. I will give you feedback on these write-ups and will let you each know if I think you have identified a project that might be too ambitious, too trivial, too broad, too narrow, etc.
 
==== Final Projects: Report and Presentation ====
;Presentation Date: December 12 at 3:30pm
;Paper Due Date: December 17 at 11:59pm
;Maximum paper length: 4500 words (~18 pages)
;Deliverables: Turn in in Canvas
 
For your final project, I expect students to build on the community identification assignment and to complete a report. I expect every student to produce a written report that will be shared with the client organization. I also expect each student to prepare a formal presentation that they give during the final class session:
 
* A short presentation to the class (length TBD)
* A final report that is not more than 4,500 words
 
I will invite representative of client organizations that are interested to visit the final class to hear presentations. If clients cannot attend, I expect that students will give their presentation at another time after the final presentation that is convenient to the client organization.
 
Each report should include the description of the community you have identified (you are welcome to borrow from your Community Identification assignment), and a description of how you would use the course concepts to change and improve the community.
 
Once again, your report will be evaluated on the degree to which it provides useful, informed, and actionable advice to the client organization and on the degree to which you engage with the course material. Please make sure you do the following things:
 
# Provide detailed, concrete, and actionable advice to the client organization. For example, what are they doing right? What should they change?
# Justify your recommendations in terms of the theories and principles we've covered and include references for your readers who won't have your background. Why should your recommendations be taken seriously?
# Remember that you don't have to take everything taught in the course for granted. What is unique or different about the client organization that causes you to have to think and read beyond the course material we've covered? What are the big open questions and risks they will be facing?
 
You will be evaluated on the degree to which you have demonstrated that you understand and have engaged with the course material and not on specifics of your community or the content of your advice.
 
A successful project will provide good advice that a client would be happy to have paid 1a consultant for, tell a compelling story, be clearly written, and will engage with, and improve upon, the course material to teach an audience that includes not only the client but me, your classmates, and students taking this class in future years on how to take advantage of online communities more effectively. The very best papers will give us all a new understanding of some aspect of course material and change the way I teach some portion of this course in the future.
 
=== Grading ===
 
I have put together [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html a very detailed page that describes the grading rubric we will be using in this course]. Please read it carefully I will assign grades for each of following items on the UW 4.0 grade scale according to the weights below:
 
* Participation: 20%
* Wikipedia assignments: 15%
* Wikipedia report: 10%
* Community identification: 5%
* Final Presentation: 10%
* Final Paper: 40%
 
== Schedule ==
=== October 3: Introduction & the Origins of Online Communities ===
 
<!-- '''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33451334/download?download_frd=1 Week 1 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33600355/download?download_frd=1 Lecture Slides] (Requires UW Access)
 
-->
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* BSOC, Chapter 1 (pg. 1-17)
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system Bulletin board system article on Wikipedia].
* [Case] Hafner, K. (1997). [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.05/ff_well_pr.html The epic saga of the WELL].
* [Case] Turner, F. (2005). [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v046/46.3turner.html Where the counterculture met the new economy: The WELL and the origins of virtual community].
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
* Hauben, Michael, Ronda Hauben, and Thomas Truscott. (1997) Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet. Los Alamitos, Calif: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Press. [[http://pear.accc.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/608/529 Chapter 2] and [http://pear.accc.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/609/530 Chapter 3]]
 
'''Optional Video:'''
 
* Stanford 2011 symposium: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5kQYWLtW3Y From Counterculture to Cyberculture: the Legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJgRHYw9-fU BBS Documentary] - This 8-part documentary is a fantastic look at the people, technology, and culture of the earliest online communities. It's long, but it's worth a watch.
 
=== October 10: Motivation ===
 
'''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38169846/download?download_frd=1 Week 2 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38288483/download?download_frd=1 Lecture Slides Part I], [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38288486/download?download_frd=1 Lecture Slides Part II] (Requires UW Access)
 
'''Required Reading:'''
 
* BSOC, Chapter 2, pg 21-70
* Frey, Bruno S. and Reto Jegen. 2001. “[https://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/359_01.pdf Motivation Crowding Theory].” Journal of Economic Surveys 15(5):589–611.
 
Our first case will just be about Wikipedia. We'll compare three different approaches to socialization in Wikipedia and talk about motivation and incentives.
 
* [Case] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQR0gx0QBZ4 TED Talk by Jimmy Wales on "How a ragtag band created Wikipedia"] — This may be useful for context.
* [Case] [[:wikipedia:Template:Welcome|Template:Welcome]] — Normally, these are left on user pages. Read just down to where "Template documentation" starts.
* [Case] [[:wikipedia:Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Adventure|The Wikipedia Adventure]] (read the whole page and play the game for half an hour or so)
:The game is a few years old and may have [[:wikipedia:software rot|bit rot]]. If you run into problems, try to ignore or work around them. The point here is to just to get a feel for how the game works and what the designers were thinking.
 
Our second case will be about Gratipay:
 
* [Case] The Gratipay website's [https://gratipay.com/about/ About Page], [https://gratipay.com/about/features/ Features], [https://gratipay.com/about/features/payments Payments], [https://gratipay.com/about/features/payroll Payroll] The Gratipay system has changed a little bit over time. Try to understand what you can and we'll work the details out in class. Please click through things to read more pages and get a sense of what's going on. Come ready to discuss details of the system and the thinking of its designers.
* [Case] David Heinemeier Hansson's article on [http://david.heinemeierhansson.com/2013/the-perils-of-mixing-open-source-and-money.html "The perils of mixing open source and money"]
* [Case] Chad Whitacre's article on [https://medium.com/inside-gratipay/resentment-2c621dbd7541 "Resentment"]
 
'''Optional:'''
 
* Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan. 1985. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Plenum Press.
* Enjolras, Bernard. (2002) [https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8292.00197 Does the Commercialization of Voluntary Organizations ‘Crowd out’ Voluntary Work?] ''Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics'' 73 (3): 375–98.
* Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini. (2000) [http://rady.ucsd.edu/faculty/directory/gneezy/pub/docs/fine.pdf A Fine Is a Price]. ''The Journal of Legal Studies'' 29 (1): 1–17.
* [Case] Mike Linksvayer's article on [http://gondwanaland.com/mlog/2007/01/02/wikipedia-advertising/ "I support advertising on Wikipedia"]
 
=== October 17: Commitment ===
 
'''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38306727/download?download_frd=1 Week 3 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38427757/download?download_frd=1 Lecture Slides] (Requires UW Access)
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* BSOC, Chapter 3, pg 77-115
 
In some of these cases, there is an enormous amount of material on this page and its subpages. Poke around for 10 minutes or so on each one until you get a strong sense for who is participating and how and why people build commitment to the site and are comfortable talking about this in class:
 
* [Case] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Military_history WikiProject Military History] ([https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/wikimania2014/c/c1/WikiProject_Military_history_Leaflet_front_copy.png Flyer])
* [Case] [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative WikiWomen's Collaborative] ([https://www.facebook.com/WikiWomensCollaborative Facebook Page], [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/wikimania2014/c/ce/Wikiwomen%27s_Collaborative_Leaflet_front_copy.png Flyer])
* [Case] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_South_Africa WikiProject South Africa] ([https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/wikimania2014/2/25/Wikiproject_South_Africa_front_copy.png Flyer])
* [Case] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Guild_of_Copy_Editors Guild of Copyeditors] ([https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/wikimania2014/e/e8/WikiProject_Guild_of_Copy_Editors_Leaflet_front_copy.png Flyer])
* [Case] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Department_of_Fun Wikipedia Department of Fun]
 
Several pieces about Facebook and lock-in:
 
* [Case] Brittany Darwell, 2012, [http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/08/09/facebook-platform-policy-now-cleary-bans-exporting-user-data-to-competing-social-networks/ Facebook policy now clearly bans exporting user data to competing social networks]
* [Case] Ryan Singel, 2011, [http://www.wired.com/2011/06/google-facebook-export/ Taking on Facebook, Google’s social network allows data exporting business], Wired
* [Case] Benjamin Mako Hill, 2012, [http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/why-facebooks-network-effects-are-overrated Why Facebook’s Network Effects are Overrated]
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
* Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites]. ''Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication'', 12(4), 1143–1168.
 
=== October 24: Rules and Governance ===
 
'''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38448386/download?download_frd=1 Week 4 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* Lecture Slides [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38575618/download?download_frd=1 Part I] and [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38575625/download?download_frd=1 Part II] (Requires UW Access)
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* BSOC, Chapter 4, pg 125-170
 
Our first case will involve a comparison of Codes of Conduct:
 
* [Case] [http://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu/conduct Ubuntu Code of Conduct]
* [Case] [https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Foundation/CodeOfConduct GNOME Code of Conduct]
* [Case] [http://geekfeminism.org/about/code-of-conduct/ Geek Feminism Code of Conduct]
* [Case] Valerie Aurora's essay on [https://adainitiative.org/2014/02/howto-design-a-code-of-conduct-for-your-community/ HOWTO design a code of conduct for your community], Ada Initiative (For context, you should know that Aurora is one of the authors of the the Geek Feminism code.)
 
Our second case will talk about Slashdot:
 
* [Case] [http://slashdot.org/ Slashdot]: Spend 5-10 minutes to visit the homepage, look at a story you think is interesting, and read several of the comments, paying specific attention to the rating system.
* [Case] [https://slashdot.org/faq/mod-metamod.shtml Slashdot Moderation FAQ], 2014
* [Case] Lampe, Cliff, and Paul Resnick. (2004) Slash(Dot) and Burn: Distributed Moderation in a Large Online Conversation Space. In ''Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems'', 543–50. CHI ’04. New York, NY, USA: ACM Press. [[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=985761 Official Link (available through UW libraries)]] [[http://presnick.people.si.umich.edu/papers/chi04/LampeResnick.pdf Author Website (available for free)]]
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
* Reagle, J. (2016). [https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814545840 the obligation to know: From FAQ to Feminism 101]. ''New Media & Society'', 18(5), 691–707. [Available through UW libraries]
 
=== October 31: Newcomers ===
 
'''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/38637636/download?download_frd=1 Week 5 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
<!-- * [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33263514/download?download_frd=1 Lecture Slides Part I] and [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33263536/download?download_frd=1 Part 2] (Requires UW Access)
-->
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* BSOC, Chapter 5, pg 179-223
 
Our first case will be about the paths that folks take to join communities and will focus on the Freenet Community:
 
* [Case] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet Freenet article on Wikipedia]
* [Case] von Krogh, Georg, Sebastian Spaeth, and Karim R. Lakhani. “Community, Joining, and Specialization in Open Source Software Innovation: A Case Study.” Research Policy 32, no. 7 (July 2003): 1217–41. doi:10.1016/S0048-7333(03)00050-7. [[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733303000507 Official Link (Available through UW libraries)]] [[http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~vassilis/courses/socialweb10F/reading_material/3/krogh03-CommunityJoiningSpecializaitonInOpenSource.pdf Preprint Link (Free Online)]]
 
In our second case, we're going to look at the citizen science community [[:wikipedia:Zooniverse|Zooniverse]] and the project "Planet Hunters" in particular. We're going to talk about how the community might deal with (not so hypothetical!) major influx of new users:
 
* [Case] Visit [https://www.zooniverse.org/ Zooniverse] and create an account. Then visit the [http://www.planethunters.org/ Planet Hunters website] and log in with your account. Spent 10-15 minutes on the site figure out how it work and doing a few tasks.
* [Case] Mugar, G., Østerlund, C., Hassman, K. D., Crowston, K., & Jackson, C. B. (2014). [https://doi.org/10.1145/2531602.2531721 Planet Hunters and Seafloor Explorers: Legitimate Peripheral Participation Through Practice Proxies in Online Citizen Science.] In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 109–119). New York, NY, USA: ACM. ''[Available through UW libraries]''
* [Case] Kiene, C., Monroy-Hernández, A., & Hill, B. M. (2016). [https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858356 Surviving an “Eternal September”: How an Online Community Managed a Surge of Newcomers]. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1152–1156). New York, NY, USA: ACM. ''[Available through UW libraries]''
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
* Huang, Shih-Wen, Minhyang (Mia) Suh, Benjamin Mako Hill, Gary Hsieh. (2015) “How Activists are Both Born and Made: An Analysis of Users on Change.org.” In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI 2015). ACM Press. [[https://mako.cc/academic/huang_suh_hill_hsieh-changeorg_born_made-CHI2015-preprint.pdf Preprint Link (Free Online)]] [[https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2702559 Official Link (Available through UW libraries)]]
* Shaw, Aaron, and Benjamin Mako Hill. (2014) “Laboratories of Oligarchy? How the Iron Law Extends to Peer Production: Laboratories of Oligarchy.” Journal of Communication 64, no. 2 (April 2014): 215–38. doi:10.1111/jcom.12082. [[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12082/full Official Link (Available through UW Libraries)] [[https://mako.cc/academic/shaw_hill-laboratories_of_oligarchy-DRAFT.pdf Preprint Link (Free Online)]]
* Preece, J., & Shneiderman, B. (2009). [http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=thci The Reader-to-Leader Framework: Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation]. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 1(1), 13–32.
* Morgan et al., "Tea and sympathy: crafting positive new user experiences on Wikipedia" Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW '13), Pages 839-848, ACM New York, NY, USA, 2013. [[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2441871 Official Link (Available through UW libraries)]] [[http://jtmorgan.net/jtmorgan/files/morgan_cscw2013_final.pdf Author's Website (Free Online)]]
 
=== November 7: Creating New Communities ===
 
<!-- '''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33342687/download?download_frd=1 Week 6 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33429780/download?download_frd=1 Lecture Slides] (Requires UW Access)
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'''Required Readings:'''
 
* BSOC, Chapter 6, pg 231-276
* Hill, Benjamin Mako. [http://mako.cc/academic/hill-almost_wikipedia-DRAFT.pdf Almost Wikipedia], 2013.
 
Our first case will about a website called Area 51 on a platform called Stack Exchange:
 
* [Case] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_Exchange Stack Exchange article on Wikipedia] and [https://stackexchange.com/sites list of sites]
* [Case] [https://area51.stackexchange.com/ Area 51] (Click through and explore 5-6 proposals at different stages)
* [Case] [https://area51.stackexchange.com/faq Area 51 FAQ]
 
Our second case will be about a system called Snowdrift:
 
* [Case] Snowdrift.coop: Read at least the [https://snowdrift.coop/ top page], as well as the [https://snowdrift.coop/about the about page] and the high-level links at the top (i.e., the Illustrated intro, longer explanation, press page, who we are, and FAQ) and poke around on the rest of the site (e.g., the blog, feeds, email lists, etc).
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
* Bilton, Nick. “[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/magazine/all-is-fair-in-love-and-twitter.html?pagewanted=all All Is Fair in Love and Twitter].” The New York Times, October 9, 2013, sec. Magazine.
 
=== November 14: ''NO CLASS'' ===
=== November 21: Innovation Communities ===
 
<!--'''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33600343/download?download_frd=1 Week 8 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987817/files/33724703/download?wrap=1 Lecture Slides] (Requires UW Access)
-->
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* von Hippel, E. (2005). [http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm Democratizing innovation]. Read Chapters 1, 2 & 5.
* [Video Case] Lakhani, Karim R., and Zahra Kanji. Threadless: The Business of Community. Harvard Business School Press, 2008. ''[See link in [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1039304/discussion_topics/3329004 Week 7 Announcement (Part 2] in Canvas.]''
 
=== November 28: Hackers and Tensions Between Communities and Companies ===
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* Rosenbaum. (1971). [http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_spectator/2011/10/the_article_that_inspired_steve_jobs_secrets_of_the_little_blue_.single.html Secrets of the Little Blue Box] (This article was reprinted in Slate in 2011. There's also [http://www.historyofphonephreaking.org/docs/rosenbaum1971.pdf a very large PDF scan] of the original Esquire Magazine article which includes the original NSFW and offensive magazine cover image.)
* [Case] Wayner, Peter. “Tweaking a Camera to Suit a Hobby.” The New York Times, May 26, 2010, sec. Technology / Personal Tech. [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/personaltech/27basics.html Free Online]
* [Case] Viard, V. Brian, and Pamela Yatsko. [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/39181472/download?download_frd=1 Blizzard v. bnetd.org: Managing Intellectual Property (A)]. Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2006.
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
* Larkin. (2004). [http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/projects/globalization/secure/articles/16.2larkin.pdf Degraded images, distorted sounds: Nigerian video and the infrastructure of piracy].
* Mollick, Ethan. “Tapping into the Underground.” MIT Sloan Management Review 46, no. 4 (2005): 21. [[http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/tapping-into-the-underground/ Available through UW Libraries]]
* Mollick, Ethan. “The Engine of the Underground: The Elite-Kiddie Divide.” SIGGROUP Bull. 25, no. 2 (2005): 23–27. [[http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1067721.1067726 Available through UW Libraries]]
* Scacchi, Walt. “Computer Game Mods, Modders, Modding, and the Mod Scene.” First Monday 15, no. 5 (2010). [[http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2965 Free Online]]
 
=== December 5: Crowdsourcing ===
 
<!-- '''Resources:'''
 
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/files/33600343/download?download_frd=1 Week 8 Reading Note] (Requires UW Access)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/987817/files/33628104/download?wrap=1 Lecture Slides] (Requires UW Access)
-->
 
Our guest lecturer will be [http://www.andresmh.com/ Andrés Monroy-Hernández].
 
'''Required Readings:'''
 
* Howe, J. (2006). [https://www.wired.com/2006/06/crowds/ The rise of crowdsourcing]. Wired Magazine, 14(6), 1–4.
* [Case] [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSMechTurk/latest/RequesterUI/Introduction.html Amazon Mechanical Turk Requester UI Guide] ''[Skim, but make sure you're ready to submit tasks.]''
* [Case] [https://mturkpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/MTURK_BP.pdf Amazon Mechanical Turk Best Practices Guide]. ''[Skim, but make sure you're ready to submit tasks.]''
 
'''Optional Readings:'''
 
Our guest speaker will be talking about these three papers. It might be good to look these over before class:
 
* Cranshaw, J., Monroy-Hernández, A., & Needham, S. A. (2016). [https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858573 Journeys & Notes: Designing Social Computing for Non-Places]. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 4722–4733). New York, NY, USA: ACM. [Available through UW libraries]
* Agapie, E., & Monroy-Hernández, A. (2015). [http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.01300 Eventful: Crowdsourcing Local News Reporting]. arXiv:1507.01300 [Cs].
* Kim, J., & Monroy-Hernandez, A. (2016). [https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2820072 Storia: Summarizing Social Media Content Based on Narrative Theory Using Crowdsourcing]. In ''Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing'' (pp. 1018–1027). New York, NY, USA: ACM. [Available through UW libraries]
 
'''Assignment ''before'' class:'''
 
* [https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome mTurk] - Find and complete at least 2 "hits" as a worker on [http://mturk.com Amazon Mechnical Turk]. Note that to do this you will need to create a ''worker'' account on Mturk.
** Record (write down) details and notes about your tasks: What did you do? Who was the requester? What could you was the purpose of the task (as best you could tell)? What was the experience like? What research applications can you (not) imagine for this kind of system?
** If you're not a US citizen, creating an requester account is much more complicated because it involves getting paid and ensuring that you have authorization to work. ''Please just skip this part.''
* [https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome mTurk] Create a "requester" account. Doing so may require up top 48 hours to be approved so please do that ''immediately'' so you have it ready to go in class.
* [https://www.zooniverse.org/ Zooniverse] - Complete at least 1-2 tasks in two different projects of your choice on Zooniverse. Come to class ready to talk about it.
 
'''In class exercise:'''
 
* Design and deploy a small-scale research task on Mturk. Note that to do this, you will need to create a ''requester'' account on Mturk. Be sure to allow some time to get the task design the way you want it! Some ideas for study designs you might do:
** A small survey.
** Classification of texts or images (e.g., label tweets, pictures, or comments from a discussion thread).
** A small experiment (e.g., you can do a survey where you insert ''different'' images and ask the same set of questions. Check out the [https://requester.mturk.com/help/getting_started.html Mturk requester getting started guide]
* Prepare to share details of your small-scale research task in class, including results (they will come fast).
 
''Note:'' In terms of running your task, it will cost real money and you have to put money on your Amazon account yourself. Each group will have a $3 budget. Please use your credit card to put $3 on your account right away. You should be able to do this in class. I will pay each of you $3 in cash next week to reimburse you for the cost of running the experiment.
 
=== December 12: Final Presentations ===
 
'''No readings.'''
 
The final classes will be devoted entirely to presentations.
 
'''Resources:'''
 
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Benjamin_Mako_Hill/COM597A_2016Q4_Final_Presentation_Order Presentation Sign-up/Schedule] — Just edit the Wikipedia page to add your name (or just add your signature with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>)
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1063995/assignments/3362875 Presentation Slides Dropbox in Canvas] — Slides are optional but recommended and are due by '''3:30pm before class'''. If you turn in your slides after 3:30pm, I will not have time to put them into the line-up for class.
 
== Practices and Policies ==
 
Most of the rest of the material in the syllabus will be familiar to students who have taken other Communication Leadership classes. That said, most of this material is important enough that it warrants looking again.
 
=== Attendance ===
 
As detailed in [https://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html my page on assessment], attendance in class is expected of all participants. If you need to miss class for any reason, please contact a member of the teaching team ahead of time (email is best). Multiple unexplained absences will likely result in a lower grade or (in extreme circumstances) a failing grade. In the event of an absence, you are responsible for obtaining class notes, handouts, assignments, etc.
 
=== Office Hours ===
 
Normally, I do not hold regular office hours. In general, I will be available to meet before and after class and at other times that are convenient for you. Please contact me on email to arrange a meeting then or at another time.
 
=== Disability Accommodations Statement ===
 
To request academic accommodations due to a disability please contact Disability Resources for Students, 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924/V, 206-5430-8925/TTY. If you have a letter from Disability Resources for Students indicating that you have a disability that requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations that you might need for the class. I am happy to work with you to maximize your learning experience.
 
=== Comm Lead Electronic Mail Standards of Conduct ===
Email communications (and all communications generally) among Comm Lead community members should seek to respect the rights and privileges of all members of the academic community. This includes not interfering with university functions or endangering the health, welfare, or safety of other persons. With this in mind, in addition to the University of Washington's Student Conduct Code, Comm Lead establishes the following standards of conduct in respect to electronic communications among students and faculty:
* If, as a student, you have a question about course content or procedures, please use the online discussion board designed for this purpose. If you have specific questions about your performance, contact me directly.
* I strive to respond to Email communications within 48 hours. If you do not hear from me, please come to my office hours, call me, or send me a reminder Email.
* Email communications should be limited to occasional messages necessary to the specific educational experience at hand.
* Email communications should not include any CC-ing of anyone not directly involved in the specific educational experience at hand.
* Email communications should not include any blind-CC-ing to third parties, regardless of the third party’s relevance to the matter at hand.
 
=== Grading ===
 
'''Grades in this class are based on a rating scale:''' Rating-scale grades are based on the faculty member's assessment of each assignment as opposed to a calculation from earned and possible points. The broad criteria for the ratings are given below. The ratings for some assignments may be multiplied by a constant (e.g. 2 or 3) so as to count more toward the final grade. The final grade is calculated as the average of all ratings.
;4.0 - 3.9: Excellent and exceptional work for a graduate student. Work at this level is extraordinarily thorough, well reasoned, methodologically sophisticated, and well written. Work is of good professional quality, shows an incisive understanding of digital media-related issues and demonstrates clear recognition of appropriate analytical approaches to digital media challenges and opportunities. ''Clients who received a deliverable of this quality would likely develop loyalty toward the vendor to the exclusion of other vendors.''
;3.8 - 3.7: Strong work for a graduate student. Work at this level shows some signs of creativity, is thorough and well-reasoned, indicates strong understanding of appropriate methodological or analytical approaches, and demonstrates clear recognition and good understanding of salient digital media-related challenges and opportunities. ''Clients who received a deliverable of this quality would likely recommend this vendor to others and consider a longer-term engagement.''
;3.6 - 3.5: Competent and sound work for a graduate student; well reasoned and thorough, methodologically sound, but not especially creative or insightful or technically sophisticated; shows adequate understanding of digital media-related challenges and opportunities, although that understanding may be somewhat incomplete. This is the graduate student grade that indicates neither unusual strength nor exceptional weakness. ''Clients who received a deliverable of this quality would likely agree to repeat business with this vendor.''
;3.3 - 3.4: Adequate work for a graduate student even though some weaknesses are evident. Moderately thorough and well reasoned, but some indication that understanding of the important issues is less than complete and perhaps inadequate in other respects as well. Methodological or analytical approaches used are generally adequate but have one or more weaknesses or limitations. ''Clients who received a deliverable of this quality would likely entertain competitor vendors.''
;3.0 - 3.2: Fair work for a graduate student; meets the minimal expectations for a graduate student in the course; understanding of salient issues is incomplete, methodological or analytical work performed in the course is minimally adequate. Overall performance, if consistent in graduate courses, would be in jeopardy of sustaining graduate status in "good standing." ''Clients who received a deliverable of this quality would likely pay the vendor in full but not seek further engagement.''
;2.7 - 2.9: Borderline work for a graduate student; barely meets the minimal expectations for a graduate student in the course. Work is inadequately developed, important issues are misunderstood, and in many cases assignments are late or incomplete. This is the minimum grade needed to pass the course. ''Clients who received a deliverable of this quality would likely delay payment until one or more criteria were met.''
 
=== Academic Misconduct ===
Comm Lead is committed to upholding the academic standards of the University of Washington’s Student Conduct Code. If I suspect a student violation of that code, I will first  engage in a conversation with that student about my concerns.
If we cannot successfully resolve a suspected case of academic misconduct through our conversations, I will refer the situation to the Anita Verna Crofts, Comm Lead Associate Director of Academic Affairs. The Comm Lead Associate Director of Academic Affairs, in consultation with the Comm Lead Director, can then work with the COM Chair to seek further input and if necessary, move the case up to the Dean.
While evidence of academic misconduct may result in a lower grade, Comm Lead faculty (indeed, all UW faculty) may not unilaterally lower a grade without taking the necessary steps outlined above.
 
=== Overview ===
 
In closing, Comm Lead  students are expected to:


* Write coherently and clearly.
I will give everybody in the course feedback on their assignment. The basic structure is similar to what you will be doing in the final project. As a result, you can treat this as a "mid-term" and make adjustments based on feedback.
* Complete assignments on time and as directed.
* Not miss more than two classes a quarter, unless due to extreme circumstances.
* Engage as much as possible with colleagues and the instructor.
* Stay current with the latest developments in the field of communications and digital media.
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