Creating a successful professional virtual community : A sustainable digital ecosystem for idea sharing

Increasingly, organizations develop professional communities for knowledge transfer, usually so as to draw on a vast pool of expertise, or to enable participants to help each other when problems arise. Such communities can be perceived as digital ecosystems, where individuals with different levels of interest and resources participate and provide resources in a give-and-take that creates benefits for all. Sustaining such a community is not easy, and is not simply a technology issue. Sustainability seems to arise from a multiplicity of factors, spanning technology and community management. The article explores key success factors for a sustainable, professional community. To do so, it analyzes Slashdot, a highly popular online community site. Our analysis considered three elements. First, we identified key criteria for self-sustaining websites based on the literature. Then we examined Slashdot to confirm its self-sustaining nature. Finally we surveyed Slashdot users concerning the site's adherence to the criteria. ©2009 IEEE.