Many people talk about building online community, but I haven’t seen many examples that have the qualities of community you might expect–leaders and followers; members who are supportive of each other and communicate in pairs and in groups; members who follow the spoken and unspoken rules and who hold each other accountable when they don’t.
I found a curious example a few weeks ago after reading a story in The Washington Postabout a group of friends who created an online community to help bring information and insights into one of D.C.’s most curious–and least covered– crimes: the Robert Wone murder . Young, married lawyer Robert Wone works late, spends the night of August 2, 2006 with three friends at their million-dollar Dupont Circle home. Within two hours of his late night arrival, he is stabbed to death. The roommates allege it must have been an “intruder” who committed the murder and that they were not involved.
The pieces that follow don’t add up: there is a lack of blood at the crime scene and the knife laying next to Mr. Wone is not the same knife used in the crime. There’s no sign of an intruder and nothing is missing from the home. The list of oddities goes on. There has been no arrest in the murder, however the residents of the Dupont Circle home, Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward, are now on trial for obstruction of justice as a result of allegedly tampering with the crime scene.
About a year and a half ago, four friends from the Dupont Circle neighborhood (none with any connection to the case) designed the website Who Murdered Robert Wone. http://www.whomurderedrobertwone.com/ They were curious about the case, thought others would be too and were frustrated by the lack of mainstream media coverage of the story.
The website is filled with background information, news coverage and legal documents and each day of the trial, there are posts from the courtroom and daily summaries. When I logged on I was surprised at the level of community that’s been created. The site has had more than one million page views.
I interviewed Craig Brownstein, one of the men behind the site to ask about the process he and his colleagues used for building an online community. I uncovered four core strategies that worked for them and may be applicable to you.
Seed the community with expert voices: Wiith no legal or forensics background of their own, the men wanted to ensure credible commentary for the site. They sought out people from around the country who were already discussing the Robert Wone murder online and invited them to join the community. Brownstein says his team made a point of peronsally meeting with early community members as their travels brought them through D.C. Those early community members are now the community leaders. An early member, Bea, is considered the “den mother,” says Brownstein. And it’s obvious. If she fails to post for a few days, members will ask: “Bea, where are you? Please weigh in.”
Don’t over moderate: I have seen communities where the corporate voice weighs in heavily and the result is a failed attempt to “gain control.” The editors of this website have deliberately stepped back and let the members speak. They mostly limit their comments to their daily posts. When there are inflammatory or hateful comments, themembers self-police . “We really do not have to step in too much. The members let others know what is acceptable or not,” says Brownstein.
Use personal outreach and response: Besides personally reaching out to prospective members and then meeting with community members in person, the editors also respond personally to every e-mail sent to the them. No canned language or auto reponse. Many people have asked for and received confidential conversations–about the site or about the case. That’s how I ended up being able to interview Brownstein.
Keep it real: The website asks for people’s real names and e-mail addresses and encourages them to use their real names as screen names. The editors use their real names, too. “When you have anonymous posting it gets out of control,” says Brownstein. “When people can’t hide behind their communications, the conversation is much more respectful.”
Brownstein and his colleagues David Greer, Michael Kremin and Doug Johnson should be congratulated for creating such a well-built community. For the sake of Robert Wone and his grieving widow, family and friends, I hope the Who Murdered Robert Wone community helps bring an answer to this very sad mystery.
