On‐line communities: helping them form and grow

The rise of e‐mail and other computer‐based communication technologies has enabled members of global organizations to collaborate and exchange information to an uprecedented degree. The term “on‐line community” (OLC), coined in the early days of computer networking, is now being applied to groups of employees with common professional goals and interests who seek to add value by extending themselves virtually. However, the performance of these corporate OLCs has not always kept pace with their lofty aspiration. To find out why, Arthur Andersen’s Next Generation Research Group, in cooperation with Anheuser‐Busch, The Mutual Group, and Shell US, studied 15 very different OLCs. Among the questions we sought to answer were: how successful are OLCs in achieving their state purpose? What distinguishes a truly successful OLC? What are some pitfalls that everyone is encountering? This article presents findings and lessons learned from our in‐depth interviews with the organizers of these virtual groups.