I look at it as another line of communication with the community.  If questions are not addressed, I know that member support will increase and that usually means more time and money is involved.

As a community producer, often the FAQ and Contact Us pages are my responsibility. A general rule that I follow is that the FAQ page should be treated more like a knowledge base and ‘website handbook’ rather than a page with a list of questions, which is the more traditional idea. There needs to be a relationship between these two pages. The submission of questions via a Contact Us page should be a last resort for your members.

Right now I am in love with the idea of using a wiki for an FAQ. Here are my ten reasons why (in no particular order):

1. Categorization- A wiki is categorized by nature in a platform that is familiar to your visitors. It’s already organized!

2. Tutorials and the use of images- the key here is flexibility that you may not have with a static webpage. On Whirled.com, it looks like content can be created by members via APIs- and as such, they use their wiki to help guide developers through the process. As more and more sites allow platform development by third-parties, wikis are great for showcasing and archiving this information.

3. Alphabetization - When you need to scan and process a lot of text on a webpage, this is so important.

4. List of recent changes - A link to recent updates is a great thing for growing documentation.

5. Search - Your members should have a reliable search, especially when they need to find information quickly and are having issues NOW.

6. RSS- Frequent product or content releases can be followed by members via RSS readers.

7. Your community knows your site better than you do - trust me, they do. They will be the first to point out solutions to new members OR bugs and problems to everyone. If you allow your member-base to contribute, not only will they pick out the finer points but they will do it in a tone and manner that other members can relate to.  

8. Moderation- this is a must-have if you work on websites for kids.

9. Printable versions - sometimes there are steps involved and old-school members like to print out those steps. Personally, I like saving trees. But I like options too.

10. Keep the discussion about problems with the answers on how to solve them. - There is a discussion page within a wiki so why not have questions there instead of on a separate forum? When members are having trouble they sometimes become upset and don’t have an investment in the community enough to care about where and what they are posting. 

However some site-owners do not like having criticism displayed openly on a forum- especially in Beta. I’m all for allowing criticism through on forums as long as it’s constructive, but there needs to be consistent moderation to accompany this. By using a wiki you can keep site questions and issues, tutorials and a knowledge base all in one place. It then becomes a ‘community project’ and gives members ownership, strengthening your community and providing a central help database for new members.

Okay, maybe one more…

11. Share the work- we’re all busy with different priorities. If you have internal stakeholders that require you to update your FAQ on a regular basis, why not hand it off to them so that they can assure that their content is accurate and timely? Then they too will become active participants in your community!

Happy FAQing!

So far so good, though. No big surprises- and maybe that’s a good thing! There are common issues we  face as interactive developers including: revenue models on communities, the costs of producing content, advertising issues, broadband costs, digital rights and so on.

I’m looking forward to day two tomorrow – especially the “For the Kids” panel. Xenophile is doing some interesting things these days and I’m curious on their take on ARGs for kids.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/204

It’s also a great day to thank my mentors and colleagues- a lot of them women- who have provided me great support and encouragement.

Have a great day!

Until he decided to publish his work in a book.

“Rowling said she was especially irked that the site’s owner and the lexicon’s would-be publisher, RDR Books, continued to insist that her acceptance of free, fan-based Web sites justified the efforts.”

RDR Books defends the publication as a legitimate literary activity. I don’t know much about the world of publishing, but a quick search for ‘unauthorized reference guide’ on Amazon turns up all kinds of goodies on Charmed, Ally McBeal and The Da Vinci Code for starters.

But this exerpt from Reuters was of interest to me- the fan who is a “a librarian, had spoken at Harry Potter academic conferences in Britain, Canada and the United States and that a timeline he created was used by Warner Bros. in DVD releases of the Harry Potter films.”

Is it justifiable for Rowling and Warner Brothers to use his content but he cannot use hers? This fan has probably done a lot to promote her work and it’s not likely she gave him any of her billions (yes, billions) of dollars for his time and effort. Maybe Rowling got too close to the fan site? Maybe she shouldn’t have acknowledged it at all. Or mabye she should have acquired the site? In any case, this is what I would do at this stage: I would authorize it, cut a deal for a percentage and give my proceeds to charity. But maybe that’s not how it works in the publishing world- I’m not sure.

In a related note, a few weeks ago I was working on something and I needed to grab a clip of a game for our archives. It was just for internal reference (nothing we’d post back to the site or make money on). I ended up on Youtube because I know that fans can put the best trailers and tributes together because they’re so passionate. And there it was, a complete video on how to play- complete with voice over and edits.

Your fans are your business.  They can be your PR department and in some cases- your content creators. Suing your fans or content creators is not good business.

“Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Last year, he led the public protest to proposed Canadian copyright law changes that would have devastated consumers’ technology rights.”

Confused by the idea of copyright reform in Canada? His blog is a great place to get educated.

I email my parents a lot these days. It’s become my primary source of communication. (So much so, that my penmanship has morphed into a series of scratches and scribbles.) Thankfully, my step-mother is the computer pro and is subsequently the family hub. She has made the leap into technology seamlessly. On the otherhand, my father- a retired teacher, prefers not to touch the computer- I imagine it’s like his attitude towards reading: ‘I’ve read for the last 40 years of my life.’ He is wonderfully stuborn (a trait I’m sure I’ve picked up from him).

My father is skilled in the art of woodworking. I have several items he’s made including a coffee table he built and I know that on the underside there’s a burned-in stamp that says that it was handcrafted by him.

My biological mom died before computers made their way into homes, before laptops, Facebook, email and msn, before wireless and cellphones and before digital video cameras could capture her movements or the sound of her voice. But in my closet I have two watercolours that she had painted and a guitar that she once owned.

To me, these are my parent’s value legacies. What will our generation leave for the next?

A puzzle is hard to discern from just one piece, so don’t be surprised if team members deprived of information reach the wrong conclusion.- Jerry Madden, Goddard Space Flight Center (retired)

That would be fortune cookie lesson number 36 from: 100 Lessons Learned for Project Managers. Maybe Madden’s ideas were not new, but at least the lessons are in one place. If you work with a team of any kind, I suggest you have a read through them before your next major project.

I am totally addicted to this site. That is how nerdy I am. The NASA ASK (Academy Sharing Knowledge) Magazine website has some great outter-worldly examples that can help you avoid classic project management errors so that you too can develop a space shuttle website within scope, on budget and on time.

*Photo: Ross Mayfield

I remember joking with a colleague once about the possibility of taking a passively multiplayer game like msn or email and tallying up our progress in the workplace each day. It would go something like this: 300 emails read, 175 emails replied, 25 chats etc.  

I think my future computer interface might look something like this :

Ok, so I’m not a designer…but you get the idea.

Also, it stressed me out doing this.

As defined by Wikipedia: An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.

Reznor’s game saw USB drives of unreleased music planted in washrooms, concert tees with ‘misprints’ that held clues and eventually ended with a surprise concert and a fake SWAT team bust. (They couldn’t blow up the building they wanted to) It gets me jumpy just thinking about how much fun it would have been to see the reaction of their fans as they cracked the clues and unravelled the story.

I would love to be involved in the creation of an ARG- especially one for kids. One that doesn’t blow up buildings, direct market to kids or result in lawsuits, of course. Think…scavenger hunt. Kids can do amazing things when they are exposed to and contribute to a narrative. I know everyone always talks about what kind of trouble kids can get into online. But credit where credit is due: it amazes me how much suspension of disbelief they hold, how hungry they are for more back-story in gaming and how much collaboration and respect they can exhibit in an online community.

I like what Reznor did because it was less about marketing a product and more about selling an experience. You know, entertainment. If you have the time, read the full Wired transcript for more details on how he started the ARG and his amusing tangents into what’s wrong with the music business.