A Taxonomy of Research Communities

[Ray Poynter]

Because the field of online research communities is developing so rapidly it is important to create a structure to help understand the options that confront researchers proposing to use online research communities to gain insight.

The key issues that determine the nature of a community are:

1. Short term versus continuous
A short term community typically from 3 days to three months, the alternative is to set the community as an ongoing project.

2. Closed versus open
Most online research communities are created as private communities, often referred to as walled gardens or gated communities. The members of a closed community are recruited by invitation only, which reduces the risk of unfriendly eyes being part of the project. A closed community is also hidden from view, it is not normally possible for people to see it by simply typing in a URL.
An open community, by contrast, has members who will have joined from a variety of sources. They may have responded to advertising, they may be as a result of initiatives such as ‘member find member’, or they may have responded to links on a brand’s website. Even an open community can have restrictions, for example it may screen potential members on whether that are customers or users of some product or service, it may screen by age, by location, or by some other characteristic.

3. Incentivised versus no incentives
One issue for a community is whether to offer incentives, and if incentives are to be offered, what sort of incentives should they be, for example gifts or cash, per person or prize draw.

4. Agency or client moderated
Who will run the community, will it be managed by a third-party, such as an agency, or will it be run in-house by the brand.

5. Highly directed versus community driven
Communities vary in the extent to which community members can determine the agenda.

6. Pure Research or Hybrid
Is the community going to be purely for market research purposed, or might the community also be used for other purposes, such as Word of Mouth advocacy.

7. How many members?
Online research communities can have as few as 30 members or as many as tens of thousands. The implications of the number of members is quite profound, as it affects the degree to which a community functions as a community.

[Jenni Beattie]

Excellent post.

My experience of online research communities has seen a mix of pure research/hybrid coupled with paid/incentivised, combination of agency and client moderation, closed communities.
What have other researchers experienced?

Cheers