Creating on-line community in your organisation

The Internet is abuzz with on-line communities like Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn. How can you create an on-line community within your organisation? You might already have an organisational intranet, but how do you turn that into a community?

Tim Shaw provides some answers in his article The "in" club - thinking about members-only sections. Shaw offers these four broad guidelines:

1. Provide members-only content
2. Provide access to experts
3. Provide enhanced networking opportunities
4. Provide enhanced access to events.

By themselves, these might seem obvious and even simplistic. But taken together, they can create an on-line community that combines added value and stronger relationships.