Moderatorns roll i virtual communities

Abstract

Virtual communities are about to become our most important communication channel, through which we reach our markets, our employees, and our equals. In the creation of this an investment is required, as for every other large technical system. Consequently this is an implementation problem, and an important contextual issue is what kind of human interaction is required for the venture to succeed. This master thesis discusses which critical success factors are important in virtual communities, focusing on the role of the moderator. The purpose is to study and describe the role of the moderator to map out its appearance, and to make a comparison of the moderator role in different virtual communities. In order to explore the issue an ethnographic study with a qualitative effort has been performed. The results show that the role of the moderator is a complex issue that has to be considered carefully, by those who initiate the virtual community and also by the actual moderator. The three roles that has been differentiated in the study is the traffic police who directs the traffic and makes the discussions flow; the catalyser who starts up discussions and takes an active part in their survival; and the despot who arbitrarly reigns 'his own' virtual community.