Successful initiating of online communities : an analysis of reports, projects and expert interviews

There are several reports, analysis and comments on online communities but just a few meta analyses about successful initiating of online communities. This study focuses on concrete, practical hints and suggestions for practitioners building on literature, analysis of existing online communities and additional expert interviews. Besides a general process description, it gives a more elaborated orientation and decision support for six different application fields. -- Virtual community ; online community ; open innovation ; self-help group ; learning community ; community processes ; community lifecycle