[epf-dev] Participation Inequality in User Communities

[Jim Ruehlin <jruehlin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

There’s an interesting article at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html that provides empirical evidence for the lack of participation in user communities. This includes communities like EPF, or communities that may be contributing to a published process via a wiki for instance. Both types of communities are (or will be) important to the success of EPF processes.

 

The article describes the phenomenon of “participation inequality” and provides a few measures to address it. It’s a quick read.

 

Article Summary:
In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

 

- Jim

____________________

Jim Ruehlin, IBM Rational

RUP Content Developer

Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) Committer

email:   jruehlin@xxxxxxxxxx

phone:  760.505.3232

fax:      949.369.0720