Rating: 
Summary: One star is too much
Review: Another reviewer has written `online communities for dummies'. This
is essentially correct. A student from medium-high school would
have nor problem to follow this book. This is, however, not the
disapointing part. O.K., I still can accept that Jenny Preece explain
and reexplains even to most simplest notions again and again.
But what is unacceptable is, that everything written in this book is
just descriptive. Nowhere in the whole book there is a new idea,
a new insight or anything else that would make it worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Shows a lack of due dilligence
Review: As a graduate student in HCI, I found this book to be a travesty. The author did not do her homework when preparing this text, many of her statements were either dated or just incorrect. Professor Preece also has a tendancy for making broad sweeping statements that are for the most part unsupported and questionable.This does not mean the text is completely without use. As a framework for a text on online communities the design of the book is good. Several of the further readings are also worthy of examination. The text is recommended for graduate use. It is much more appropriate for the advanced high school or an introduction to online communites at the undergraduate level. I believe there can and will be a book on online communities with substance and meaning. This book is not it.
Rating: 
Summary: How to make communities
Review: Hi to everybody, I've recently read this book (in the italian version) for an university exam and I've found it very interesting. It speaks about virtual communities from the poin of view of the designer of this kind on web sites You can read about the two most importat features of VC: socialbility and usability. I've always read about these two elements in an indipendent way. Preece's Book tries to take sociability and usability in a single perspective. And it gives some useful advices to the question of community design.
Rating: 
Summary: The "making it real" book
Review: I found this book a great combination of concepts and practical ideas that I know will have a great impact on my work as an online teacher and researcher. I especially appreciate the absolute focus on the interaction between people and how to achieve it (as opposed to person:computer). To me, it puts as all at the heart of what the Internet IS and what it will be. There's something for everyone from commercial to not-for-profit contexts of all kinds. Gilly Salmon.
Rating:
Summary: One star is too much
Review: I thought this book was GREAT! Sure, it's dated, but every book about the Internet dates quickly. That's because the Internet is growing and changing faster than the book publishing business can publish a book. The author takes us through many aspects of community building and group dynamics point-by-point. I had to take notes, I found it so useful. Ideas are taken from sociology and applied to the Internet. Dry in parts, yes, but very useful as far as clarifying one's ideas about online communities. As the manager of a small women's community online, I found this book very useful. Much more practical than Amy Jo Kim's similar book, which mainly focuses on the monster-sized for-profit communities. The ideas in this book can be applied to any size online community. It's clear thinking will help you understand participant/leader roles in order to delegate responsibility. There are also wonderful hints for keeping a community thriving and successful.
Rating:
Summary: Sociology of the Internet
Review: I thought this book was GREAT! Sure, it's dated, but every book about the Internet dates quickly. That's because the Internet is growing and changing faster than the book publishing business can publish a book. The author takes us through many aspects of community building and group dynamics point-by-point. I had to take notes, I found it so useful. Ideas are taken from sociology and applied to the Internet. Dry in parts, yes, but very useful as far as clarifying one's ideas about online communities. As the manager of a small women's community online, I found this book very useful. Much more practical than Amy Jo Kim's similar book, which mainly focuses on the monster-sized for-profit communities. The ideas in this book can be applied to any size online community. It's clear thinking will help you understand participant/leader roles in order to delegate responsibility. There are also wonderful hints for keeping a community thriving and successful.
Rating:
Summary: little practical or academic value
Review: I turned to this book looking for (a) ideas to improve my own online community (photo.net), and (b) ideas to teach to my students at MIT. I was disappointed on both counts. Preece has a long section on online education but misses a main advantage: new opportunities for people to teach (the offline world already has a lot of opportunities for learning at any time of day or night). Preece talks about what she calls "technology". The mention of VRML in a book published in 2000 will please nostalgia buffs. But there is no discussion of the role of the relational database management system. Preece uncritically quotes various scholars of the female experience online, dwelling on the alleged fact that revealing oneself to be a woman is a passport to ill treatment (in fact, our experience on photo.net is that women who ask questions are answered more promptly and treated more gently if they violate community norms such as "search before you post"). You'll learn a lot more from surfing the Web site of Amitai Etzioni, the world's leading offline communitarian sociologist, than from reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: little practical or academic value
Review: I turned to this book looking for (a) ideas to improve my own online community (photo.net), and (b) ideas to teach to my students at MIT. I was disappointed on both counts. Preece has a long section on online education but misses a main advantage: new opportunities for people to teach (the offline world already has a lot of opportunities for learning at any time of day or night). Preece talks about what she calls "technology". The mention of VRML in a book published in 2000 will please nostalgia buffs. But there is no discussion of the role of the relational database management system. Preece uncritically quotes various scholars of the female experience online, dwelling on the alleged fact that revealing oneself to be a woman is a passport to ill treatment (in fact, our experience on photo.net is that women who ask questions are answered more promptly and treated more gently if they violate community norms such as "search before you post"). You'll learn a lot more from surfing the Web site of Amitai Etzioni, the world's leading offline communitarian sociologist, than from reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Just what we need to support the design of online communitie
Review: In Online Communities, Jenny Preece offers an excellent framework for considering how to design, work in, play in or just muse about the new world of communities "out there" on the internet. There are many people teaching and learning in this area now - the book is most timely and offers ideas for designers and researchers and a valuable approach to teaching and learning. Her section on community-centred development is a key part of the book along with her emphasis on usability and sociability. These concepts, especially that of sociability, offer her continuing research results to beginners and longer-term researchers and developers. The book is comprehensive in the way it covers many important topics. It is valuable for designers and developers and also offers considerable resource material though its web site. Use it! I already use Jenny Preece's book (written with others) on Human-Computer Interaction for teaching that subject. Her new book extends her support for the design and academic community in a significant way. My students have been using this book since it arrived at our bookshop at the University of Canberra (September 2000)- I can tell you they really appreciate it, of course because they are designing online communities.
Rating:
Summary: Great reference source
Review: Jenny has done a great job outlining a book that would be helpful to both the novice and the experienced user. Particular attention is paid to the not just the mechanics but the psychology of the concept of community. In a world where many organizations think "build it and they will come" is the call of the day, Ms. Preece has scripted out good suggestions that would aid any organizations in their attempt at creating a community of on-line usage.
| 
