Table of Contents

Foreword.

Preface.

GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH ONLINE COMMUNITIES.

Introduction.

Community Tours.

Sociability: Purpose, People, and Policies.

Usability: Tasks, Users, and Software.

Research Speaks to Practice: Interpersonal Communication.

Research Speaks to Practice: Groups.

DEVELOPING ONLINE COMMUNITIES.

Community-Centered Development.

Selecting Software.

Guidelines: Sociability and Usability.

Assessing Needs and Evaluating Communities.

Development Case Studies.

Looking to the Future.

References.

Index.

About the Author

Jenny Preece is Professor and Chair of Information Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she teaches online communities and human-computer interaction. Prior to coming to the USA she chaired the first distance education course at the Open University in the UK. She has authored a leading text on Human-Computer Interaction and numerous other publications.

Reviews

"provides a good balance between theory and practise"   (Software Focus, December 2001) "I like the slightly zany drawings"  "People will say I wish I'd had this book before now"."   (Computer & Education, No. 36, 2001) "…an excellent book…my best recommendations…" (Jnl of Computing and Information Technology, March 2003)