A Community Effort - Building Your Content and User Base

One of the challenges of building a community is providing enough value to the members.  That requires a community effort from almost the start.  We continue our interview with Jeff Dillon, discussing the obstacles they face at Ed Tech connect. Chicken And Egg Addressed Through Community Effort It all comes down to a "which is first" problem, also known as chicken and egg.  Your community needs content and involvement to be valuable.  However, you need the members to provide some of that content and participation.  This obstacle exists for almost every site you like to frequent.  The solution is often offered through investing time and money into the content initially.  Sometimes, this is augmented by providing members other incentives early on. For example, some sites pay members in the early days or offer freebies down the road.  In any case, there has to be a way to draw in members. Gamification The lowest cost approach to the above problem has often been to use gamification. For example, gifts cards and monetary awards can be provided.  However, it is not uncommon for users to be happy with unique badges, titles, or labels to distinguish their membership.  Jeff found this to be a good starting point for their needs and has incorporated it into the solution.  Reviews and feedback lead to rewards.  Thus, the members are slowly building the needed original content. A Little Background Jeff has 21 years in higher education technology leadership at two public Universities. He was on the cutting edge of web development during that time and a leader in mobile evolution. He has founded three successful companies, with the latest being EdTech Connect, a platform created to democratize the Higher Education conversation. Over the past year, EdTech Connect has kept him on the leading edge of the future of Higher Education technology. That ranges from the latest mobile apps and chatbots to how institutions will soon be using Artificial Intelligence to enhance the student experience.  We will see how he can speak to many perspectives of Higher Ed Technology. Check out his site: https://edtechconnect.com https://er.educause.edu/articles/sponsored/2021/9/democratizing-the-higher-ed-technology-conversation

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