Community & Design

[André de Avillez]

Hi all,

Please forgive me if this is posted to the wrong mailing list, but 
“community web projects” seemed the best choice for this question. 
Though this post might be off-topic, I am hoping to draw from the 
experience in community design and management of the Ubuntu project. If 
this is better posted elsewhere, please do let me know.

My question, in a nutshell, is this: could you point me to any texts or 
resources on the relationship between design and community, perhaps to a 
reflection on the part of the Ubuntu community managers on how design 
decisions affect community building efforts?  I've read Jono Bacon's 
“The Art of Community,” and found it very helpful, but am wondering what 
else is worth looking into.  If there's something that tackles this from 
a theoretical perspective, that would be interesting as well...

The background of my question is this:

I'm a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University 
(and Ubuntu user since Oneiric), and am currently working at the Public 
Philosophy Journal; an online, open access, open peer review journal 
designed to encourage collaboration in scholarly research.  It is 
envisioned as a community driven project, and we are currently trying to 
find ways to foster a community before our journal goes live (in a year 
or so). In addition, we are thinking ways in which design decisions for 
our collaborative platform will help or hinder community growth, and are 
looking at the Ubuntu project for inspiration. We've drafted a document 
analogous to the Ubuntu CoC, and are looking to establish clear on-ramps 
for new community members, as per Jono Bacon's suggestions in his book. 
  Yet we're sure that we're overlooking something, and would greatly 
appreciate any feedback from you folks.

If you care to read a bit about our project, please see our website at 
www.publicphilosophyjournal.org

Thanks in advance for your time and help!

All the best,
-- 
André Rosenbaum de Avillez
Graduate Assistant at the Public Philosophy Journal
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Philosophy
Pennsylvania State University
@AndreAvillez | www.avillez.org