VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

BY  KIDENDEI SEGERETI
Virtual communities include everything from discussion boards to massive multiplayer online role-playing games and virtual realities such as Second Life. The business world has assumed that virtual communities can be leveraged to provide access to consumers and consumer data. The benefits of this assumption have not always been realized.

The purpose of this article is to understand why some business ventures into virtual communities fail and others succeed. Why do virtual communities support certain types of business activities and not others? Which firm activities are the best candidates to benefit from being positioned in virtual communities? The theories of social contracts and trust explain how firms can successfully participate in virtual communities.

The theories have implications in the context of transaction-oriented, interest-oriented, relationship-oriented, and fantasy-oriented communities. The value chain provides an instructive background to understand which firm activities are candidates for being included in virtual communities. Success in virtual communities depends on an attitude of contribution, dedication of resources, building a critical mass, and matching community and business needs.

Consumers’ Needs For Community

Electronic communities meet four types of consumer needs.

Communities of transaction primarily facilitate the buying and selling of products and services and deliver information related to those transactions. They are not communities in the traditional social sense. Participants are encouraged to interact with one another in order to engage in a specific transaction that can be informed by the input of other members of the community. Visitors to communities of transaction may want to buy a used car or a vintage wine, and they may want to consult with other community members before doing so.

Virtual Vineyards, a Web based service that sells wines, is a community of transaction. The Virtual Vineyards site offers visitors information on wines and lists special deals on attractively priced offerings. Most of the wines that are listed are from small vineyards and are usually difficult to obtain. Visitors can purchase the wines directly from Virtual Vineyards, using an on-line form, or they can call the on-line service. Although visitors can post E-mail to the organizer of the site (and wine neophytes can post questions to the Cork Dork), they cannot yet trade information with one another. Adding that capability might add value for the site’s visitors, making it a true community.

The organizer of a community of transaction does not need to be a vendor. Community organizers may simply bring together a critical mass of buyers and sellers to facilitate certain types of transactions. For example, a community organizer might offer electronic classified ads or provide a “market space” where everything from used construction machinery to financial investment products and services could be bought and sold.

Therefore virtual community is very importance in doing business in this digital era because you can exchange various ideas by different people in the world but also it gives you network and channels of doing business.

How the Digital Age Has Shaped Communication Management

The digital age is rapidly changing communications management in astronomical ways. Everything is digitized now. All businesses are online, and each of them uses social media for all kinds of communication. Come to think of it, the latest statistics show 87% increase in the use of social media platforms. It is believed that this number will increase in the next 5 years.

I was awed with another number. The huge figure representing that many adults went online. Furthermore, 52% of companies use social media to connect and communicate with customers. This only means one thing the way business communicates with the customer has changed forever. When a company needs to engage its market, it sends tweets, or creates eye catching statuses on face book. If it needs to expound on matters i.e. updates, important developments, or new product launches, and social media limits the execution, then they can blog about them on their sites.

How well are you keeping up with the changes in the digital communication landscape? It's one of the unique challenges presented to businesses today understanding and incorporating the various developments and changes in digital communication. Blogs, Social Media, and Micro Blogs it can be extremely overwhelming. According to the info graph below, 87% of businesses are using social media, but only 58% have adopted blogging, which suggests that many business owners still haven't come to grips with the nature of digital marketing today.

What's more telling is that only 58% of businesses are using social media to provide ways for customers to interact with a company. Yet a growing number of customers expect to be able to hop on a Face book Page or send a Tweet and get an answer. Businesses who aren't paying attention to customers on social networks (social listening) are missing key conversations and opportunities.

Take a look at how the digital landscape is changing and being used, throughout the world, and think about how your own business fits in. Effective communication lies at the heart of a successful business. Without being able to communicate, a team will have more difficulty accomplishing goals and interacting with customers. For this and many other reasons, communication management is an important area of study and mastery.

The digital age has brought real-time, 24-hour communication between businesses, employees and customers to the forefront. What is the result of this digital shift? Maintaining positive relationships with both employees and customer’s means keeping up with an ever evolving digital world.

Each year, the world becomes increasingly digitized, and anyone in the business of communications which is to say, most everyone who touches social media must stay aware of the landscape.

BY KYEJU DIANA BAPRM 42589

websites to use Web 2.0 widely and effectively

BY PROTAS LEVINA    BAPRM 42657
This paper addresses six key legal and policy issues that the Obama administration will have to address for WhiteHouse.gov and federal agency websites to use Web 2.0 widely and effectively.

1. Privacy: Perhaps the most important privacy concern is current guidance that limits the use of persistent cookies on federal websites, even though such cookies are a standard feature of many Web 2.0 applications. The new administration will need to decide whether to alter that guidance, and it will face the related question of what privacy protections should apply when the federal government uses applications that send users to private-sector websites.

2. Access for those with disabilities: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act provides guidelines for making federal websites accessible to people with disabilities, including the visually and hearing impaired. All federal websites must be Section 508 compliant, but many Web 2.0 applications are not.

3. Commercial endorsement and advertising: Current regulations prohibit government websites from commercially endorsing any product or service, and also ban advertising. Use of any one Web 2.0 service over another could be considered an endorsement, particularly if it involves including a company’s logo on a government website. And there could be reasons not to link to sites that include inappropriate advertising content.

4. Terms of service agreements: Federal employees and agencies are not allowed to accept any indemnification agreements, and most website terms of service use state, rather than federal, law to resolve legal disputes. No part of the federal government can therefore enter into a terms of service agreement unless it is modified to meet federal regulations.

5. The Paperwork Reduction Act and public records requirements: The PRA requires agencies to submit formal requests to the Office of Management and Budget before collecting information from the public. This does not appear to apply to user comments as long as federal websites do not require users to submit any information beyond personal identification, but will be an issue if the executive branch wants to collect any more specific information or conduct surveys. Federal agencies also need to comply with public records requirements, including the Presidential Records Act.

6. Security concerns and agency restrictions on staff Internet use: Many federal agencies block their employees from accessing social media websites and chat services, especially out of concern for computer security. These policies could essentially prohibit employees from working on Web 2.0 applications.

Many of the key issues posed by Web 2.0 technologies are legally similar. The federal government has obligations for what is done on its own websites. Those obligations do not apply when a user leaves the federal website and begins using a third-party service. Federal websites must be Section 508 compliant, for example, but as long as the federal website makes it clear to users when they are leaving for an outside website, that outside site does not have to be Section 508 compliant. The same applies for advertising and privacy issues.

Yet some significant federal policies are at stake when users leave a federal website. The federal government should not encourage the use of non-accessible web technologies, invasions of privacy, loss of security, or unreasonable commercial endorsements or advertising—even if legal restrictions do not technically apply. And a set of more specifically legal issues does arise with respect to free third-party software, such as with terms of service agreements and logos.

The Obama administration should encourage the use of Web 2.0 technologies, and lead the way on WhiteHouse.gov, but it must do so in a way that is compliant with federal law, and also in the spirit of the law. In other words, the White House New Media team should continue to work with the General Services Administration to negotiate agreements that encourage Web 2.0 companies to ensure greater protection and accessibility for users, even if it is not legally necessary.

Each of the six hurdles to implementation have their own intricacies, and the following report analyzes each and provides recommendations for how the Obama administration can move forward both quickly and legally.

The digital age is rapidly changing communications management in astronomical ways. Everything is digitized now. All businesses are online, and each of them uses social media for all kinds of communication. Come to think of it, the latest statistics show 87% increase in the use of social media platforms. It is believed that this number will increase in the next 5 years.

I was awed with another number. The huge figure representing that many adults went online. Furthermore, 52% of companies use social media to connect and communicate with customers. This only means one thing the way business communicates with the customer has changed forever. When a company needs to engage its market, it sends tweets, or creates eye catching statuses on face book. If it needs to expound on matters i.e. updates, important developments, or new product launches, and social media limits the execution, then they can blog about them on their sites.

How well are you keeping up with the changes in the digital communication landscape? It's one of the unique challenges presented to businesses today understanding and incorporating the various developments and changes in digital communication. Blogs, Social Media, and Micro Blogs it can be extremely overwhelming. According to the info graph below, 87% of businesses are using social media, but only 58% have adopted blogging, which suggests that many business owners still haven't come to grips with the nature of digital marketing today.

What's more telling is that only 58% of businesses are using social media to provide ways for customers to interact with a company. Yet a growing number of customers expect to be able to hop on a Face book Page or send a Tweet  and get an answer. Businesses who aren't paying attention to customers on social networks (social listening) are missing key conversations and opportunities.

Take a look at how the digital landscape is changing and being used, throughout the world, and think about how your own business fits in. Effective communication lies at the heart of a successful business. Without being able to communicate, a team will have more difficulty accomplishing goals and interacting with customers. For this and many other reasons, communication management is an important area of study and mastery.

The digital age has brought real-time, 24-hour communication between businesses, employees and customers to the forefront. What is the result of this digital shift? Maintaining positive relationships with both employees and customer’s means keeping up with an ever evolving digital world.

Each year, the world becomes increasingly digitized, and anyone in the business of communications which is to say, most everyone who touches social media must stay aware of the landscape.

corporate communication

BY PROTAS LEVINA BAPRM 42657

Methods and tactics[edit]

Three principal clusters of task-planning and communication form the backbone of business and the activity of business organizations. These include management communication, marketing communication, and organizational communication.

• Management communication takes place between management and its internal and external audiences. To support management communication, organizations rely heavily on specialists in marketing communication and organizational communication.^{[citation needed]}
• Marketing communication gets the bulk of the budgets in most organizations, and consists of product advertising, direct mail, personal selling, and sponsorship activities.
• Organizational communication consist of specialists in public relations, public affairs, investor relations, environmental communications, corporate advertising, and employee communication.

The responsibilities of corporate communication are:

• to promote the profile of the "company behind the brand" (corporate branding)
• to minimize discrepancies between the company's desired identity and brand features
• to delegate tasks in communication
• to formulate and execute effective procedures to make decisions on communication matters
• to mobilize internal and external support for corporate objectives
• to coordinate with international business firms

A Conference Board Study of hundreds of the US’s largest firms showed that close to 80 percent have corporate communication functions that include media relations, speech writing, employee communication, corporate advertising, and community relations.^[2] The public is often represented by self-appointed activist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who identify themselves with a particular issue.

Most companies have specialized groups of professionals for communicating with different audiences, such as internal communication, marketing communication, investor relations, government relations and public relations.^[1]

Components[edit]

Corporate branding[edit]

Main article: Corporate branding

A corporate brand is the perception of a company that unites a group of products or services for the public under a single name, a shared visual identity, and a common set of symbols. The process of corporate branding consists creating favourable associations and positive reputation with both internal and external stakeholders. The purpose of a corporate branding initiative is to generate a positive halo over the products and businesses of the company, imparting more favourable impressions of those products and businesses.

In more general terms, research suggests that corporate branding is an appropriate strategy for companies to implement when:

• there is significant "information asymmetry" between a company and its clients;^[3] That is to say customers are much less informed about a company's products than the company itself is;
• customers perceive a high degree of risk in purchasing the products or services of the company;^[4]
• features of the company behind the brand would be relevant to the product or service a customer is considering purchasing.^[5]

Corporate and organizational identity[edit]

There are two approaches for identity:

• Corporate identity is the reality and uniqueness of an organization, which is integrally related to its external and internal image and reputation through corporate communication^[6]
• Organizational identity comprises those characteristics of an organization that its members believe are central, distinctive and enduring. That is, organizational identity consists of those attributes that members feel are fundamental to (central) and uniquely descriptive of (distinctive) the organization and that persist within the organization over time (enduring)".^[7]

Four types of identity can be distinguished:^[8][9]

• Perceived identity: The collection of attributes that are seen as typical for the ‘continuity, centrality and uniqueness’ of the organization in the eyes of its members.
• Projected identity: The self presentations of the organization’s attributes manifested in the implicit and explicit signals which the organization broadcasts to internal and external target audiences through communication and symbols.
• Desired identity (also called ‘ideal’ identity): The idealized picture that top managers hold of what the organization could evolve into under their leadership.
• Applied identity: The signals that an organization broadcasts both consciously and unconsciously through behaviors and initiatives at all levels within the organization.

Corporate responsibility[edit]

Main article: Corporate social responsibility

Corporate responsibility (often referred to as corporate social responsibility), corporate citizenship, sustainability, and even conscious capitalism are some of the terms bandied about the news media and corporate marketing efforts as companies jockey to win the trust and loyalty of constituents. Corporate responsibility (CR) constitutes an organization’s respect for society’s interests, demonstrated by taking ownership of the effects its activities have on key constituencies including customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and the environment, in all parts of their operations. In short, CR prompts a corporation to look beyond its traditional bottom line, to the social implications of its business.^[10]

characteristics of creative industries

BY PROTAS LEVINA BAPRM 42657

According to Caves (2000), creative industries are characterized by seven economic properties:
1. Nobody knows principle: Demand uncertainty exists because the consumers' reaction to a product are neither known beforehand, nor easily understood afterward.
2. Art for art’s sake: Workers care about originality, technical professional skill, harmony, etc. of creative goods and are willing to settle for lower wages than offered by 'humdrum' jobs.
3. Motley crew principle: For relatively complex creative products (e.g., films), the production requires diversely skilled inputs. Each skilled input must be present and perform at some minimum level to produce a valuable outcome.
4. Infinite variety: Products are differentiated by quality and uniqueness; each product is a distinct combination of inputs leading to infinite variety options (e.g., works of creative writing, whether poetry, novel, screenplays or otherwise).
5. A list/B list : Skills are vertically differentiated. Artists are ranked on their skills, originality, and proficiency in creative processes and/or products. Small differences in skills and talent may yield huge differences in (financial) success.
6. Time flies : When coordinating complex projects with diversely skilled inputs, time is of the essence.
7. Ars longa : Some creative products have durability aspects that invoke
copyright protection, allowing a creator or performer to collect rents.
The properties described by Caves have been criticized for being too rigid (Towse, 2000). Not all creative workers are purely driven by 'art for art's sake'. The 'ars longa' property also holds for certain noncreative products (i.e., licensed products). The 'time flies' property also holds for large construction projects. Creative industries are therefore not unique, but they score generally higher on these properties relative to non-creative industries.
Difference from the 'cultural industries'
There is often a question about the boundaries between creative industries and the similar term of
cultural industries. Cultural industries are best described as an adjunct-sector of the creative industries. Cultural industries include industries that focus on cultural tourism and
heritage , museums and libraries ,
sports and outdoor activities , and a variety of 'way of life' activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. Thus cultural industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value—including cultural wealth and social wealth—rather than primarily providing monetary value. (See also cultural institutions studies .)

KIDENDEI SEGERETI

All intranet efforts start out with the best intentions. Organizations envision an information hub for their community made up of easy to find websites that are simple to create and maintain. A one-stop shop for all their information needs, if you will. Many of these efforts fail, causing the end users to shudder at the mere mention of such an attempt again. And for government organizations, there are additional challenges when creating an intranet as part of a Digital Government Strategy. This got me thinking about the top three challenges public sector agencies are facing with intranet efforts:

1. Technology enables content proliferation without organization

The most commonly available technology in this space makes it very easy to spin up content that, in turn, creates pretty links to -- you guessed it -- yet more content. As if that weren’t bad enough, the search utilities which accompany most intranets (and indeed most communities generally) are woefully inadequate to assist users in finding the content they seek.
The next thing you know you have an unwieldy beast that lacks a consistent user interface and contains next to impossible to find content. This rapid proliferation of content with no consistent guidelines, design standards or a structured database underneath it can defeat the purpose of such an effort, killing productivity -- and most likely the entire project.

2. Security, Security, Security

It is only natural that a system meant to share information in a world where information has to be protected is a very real concern. The intranet has to be locked down tight to the outside world where necessary and users must be managed according to their appropriate level of access; people must only be able to see, contribute, and share things they are authorized to. It gets even more complicated when intra-agency communication is desired, so not quite to the outside world, but not just to those particular agencies. When creating and maintaining an intranet is already challenging at times, adding security can be completely overwhelming and maybe even paralyzing. Unfortunately, many times the necessary permission structure isn’t thought through until late in the launch process which can create a security and permission management nightmare.

3. Keeping up with the constant evolution of intranet technology

Forums, message boards, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, microblogs, Tumblr, user groups, communities of practices… So many ways to communicate and share. How do you keep up? To stay ahead of the proliferation isn’t just taming the lack of organization we spoke about earlier, it’s also about not making the evolution of your intranet beyond painful. Once that happens, you will risk your users going elsewhere, and when they start going to public places like Facebook or LinkedIn, security is completely out of your control.

Drupal, an open-source Content Management System, is often chosen to help power public sector websites, because it helps keep the information and content vital to the website organized, well structured, and easy to use and reuse. It also allows for the consistent creation of websites through theming. In a sector that is naturally rich with content and structured in such a way that the flow of information is already determined, it makes sense that so many use Drupal to help them corral and distribute it. So why not take it one step further than a website, and do what many in the technology sector themselves have already done, and build a community with Drupal. In addition, Drupal is very secure, used by many public sector organizations as well as many in commercial enterprise.