civic media engagement and participation

Is REALNEO safe for lurkers?

Identity is a crucial part of social software systems, but it can (and should) take time for an identity to reveal itself. Certainly, you can be invited to join an existing community by a friend—and that’s something we specifically designed for—but, even then, when you start to reach out from your “safety blanket,” your own identity comes to the fore. What do you do when you first hear of a new site to visit? I don’t know about you, but generally I’ll head on over and perhaps even sign up. As I poke around, I’m essentially anonymous. I have no ties to anyone or anything, and am free to move about without any recognition. This anonymity is important. It allows a new visitor to look around and get a feel for the place, and choose when and how to get started.

-- George Oates, Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow [1] (A List Apart [2])

How are we encouraging the lurkers to ditch their safety blanket and begin to participate?

In many cases, though, only 1 percent of people are willing to do the hard work involved with investigating a story, while 10 percent will be sufficiently involved to participate in crowdsourcing, while others will simply serve as readers. Rosen speculates that the key to crowdsourced citizen media is to identify that precious 1% and turn them loose...and to figure out how to break up reporting tasks to leverage that 10 percent, but not spend too much time worrying about the 89 percent who will just read.

-- Ethan Zuckerman, Future Civic Media at MIT. Shiny! [3] (WorldChanging [4])

How can we identify and draw in that 1%?

What about turning the 10% (crowdsourcers) into the diligent 1%?