Many thanks to all the on -line groups who contributed to our study.
The project was motivated by a need to understand whether the excitement technologists and academics feel in the use and development of ICT bore any relationship to how it was experienced in the real world.
With the wider (and better) teaching of ICT in schools, and the development of more usable, useful and accessible applications, especially in the sphere of social computing, we believe that there are many affordable technologies to support all manner of groups - and these are being used in new and innovative ways.
This is a very quickly changing area, developments started in universities are now moving quickly to market where they are being adopted and adapted by end users in new ways, leading to greater sharing and community adhesion. This is a very exciting time, where powerful on-line communities of strangers can work together to achieve national and international goals.
However, in the rush to try something new, many sites/groups become abandoned, leading to legacy and unowned sites. Wading through these sites was time consuming and disheartening as one considers the cost of their creation and the motivations people had in starting their groups. Our advice is, therefore to go slowly, think about the membership of your group, what they can and will contribute, take advice, but select technologies that are manageable and understandable and will be used to suit your purposes. We have found instances of groups wasting valuable resources in the purchase of technology which was inappropriate. Choose the technology which is best suited to your needs and members, and above all which is fun and easy to use and maintain.
Andree Woodcock, 2012