Building information communities with a SCOUG workshop

by Doris Small Helfer Chair, Technical Services and Science Librarian California State University Northridge "Building Information Communities: SCOUG Looks at the Tools and Strategies Librarians Are Using to Develop Information Infrastructures for the Organizations They Serve": This was the theme of the Southern California Online Users Group (SCOUG) Spring Workshop held May 4, 2001, at the Burbank Airport Hilton. This year's annual workshop featured a wide range of speakers working in the broad spectrum of environments that librarians now face as leaders and designers of information communities. Scott Kurnit, founder ofthe Mining Company and president of its current incarnation, About. com, Inc., was the morning keynote speaker. About.com [http://www.about.com] has 700 different communities on its Web site and Kurnit claims it's the fifth largest Web site in the world. Fully 50 percent of his audience accesses his Web site from outside of the U.S. He views his company as being in both the newsletter and Web site business. Information is sent to those communities using a variety of methods, including e-mail, bulletin boards, and chats for communitymembers. Two ofAbout.com's biggest Web site communities are rodeos (no, I don't think he was joking, he said it's been the biggest from the moment it started. Go figure! I guess I'm just too much a city girl.) and pregnancy (OK, that one I get, I have two kids. I remember being obsessed and worried about everything connected with acquiring the kids, so I'm sure he's right in saying that "for 40 weeks at least, you've got them''). Kurnit believes strongly that you have to offer easy-to-use tools to your potential users or they won't use your service. You have to understand that it is not about the technology, it's about the people. About. com's communities are open environments where anyone who wants to get active can and anyone can become a leader in any community. These communities use chat rooms and bulletin boards. Many people will visit the community, but won't want to join. About. com's biggest source of revenue comes from advertisers. They recruit guides for their communities from the Internet, seeking out people passionate about the Internet and about the topic of their community. Guides help to locate and evaluate the best resources out there on the Net for their community. Guides get paid depending on how much revenue they bring in (i.e., how many and frequently their sites are accessed). About pays guides 30 percent of their net revenues. The over 700 guides support each other with shared marketing and other aid. The company provides extensive training for those selected as guides. If a community loses interest and a site starts to die, About tries to revive it. About recently merged with Primedia Inc., the publishers of over 230 traditional print general and trade press magazines (including Modern Bride).