Users will have trouble knowing what needs to be done in a community, if the community never tells them. This is why platforms often adopt systems to show their contributors what is needed. It increases  the chance the community will provide them (DC1 CH2)

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

What a community does to engage its members and generate content 

Content, tasks and activities

Online communities can request specific contributions from their community members

Requesting contributions from community members

Kraut, Robert E., and Paul Resnick. Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design. MIT Press, 2012.

Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design (Kraut and Resnick)

- Do users communicate about themselves (e.g. user profiles)

- Is content imported from outside, user generated or generated by its members? (or a combination)

- Are their welcoming activities and safe spaces to engage newcomers in?

- Are tasks independent or interdependent?

- Are the activities immersive and/or social?

Example of content, tasks and activities decisions in OCs

Providing users with a list of what needs to be done

Easy to use tools that helps users find and track work that needs to be done increases the amount that gets done. (DC 2 CH2)

Providing tools for finding and tracking work

- Social desirability of requester

- Simplicity of request

- Status of requester

- Does the member like the requester (favorability)

- Social proofing

- Member interests

Factors that affect contribution requests

Kimberly Ling, Gerard Beenen, Pamela Ludford, Xiaoqing Wang, Klarissa Chang, Xin Li, Dan Cosley, Dan Frankowski, Loren Terveen, Al Mamunur Rashid, Paul Resnick, Robert Kraut

This reference discusses the role of social psychology in combatting under contribution in online communities. Four different experiments were conducted to understand what would motivate a user to contribute to the online community. 

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