Membership, Collaboration and the Interwebs
Dave Cormier,
Mar 25, 2007
With software like Drupal, anyone can create a community if they have half an hour and a hundred dollars (or so it seems, anyways). With this "assault of membership," writes Cormier, we need to look at ways people can be members - but less than full members - of a community. Drupal supports different 'roles' with varying access permissions, and this may have framed the discussion. Anyhow, Cormier defines a set of six types of member, varying from "core membership" to "passive visitor", outlining the properties and needs of each. Would have been more interesting would have been a description of what such members can do. Do they need to undertake an act to mark their rise in status? Do they have enhanced privileges on the site, and if so, what? And what justification, if any, would support that. For example, on some sites, passive visitors can read, but not post; in order to post, they must register, which gives them the right to comment (but not create new posts). This measure is taken in order to limit comment spam.
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