Online Hosts With the Most:
One month after selling Electric Minds (https://www.minds.com), the innovative community-building Web site, online guru Howard Rheingold is preparing to launch a Host University in partnership with Durand Communications, E-Minds’ new owner.
By training people to be online hosts, the cyberschool aims to help fill the growing demand for people who can facilitate online conversations and make them compelling enough to keep Netizens coming back.
Building cybersocieties has long been the goal of both Rheingold, the creator of Wired magazine’s HotWired site, and Durand Communications, the Santa Barbara Internet software firm that hosts public and private communities on its CommunityWare site (https://www.communityware.com) for a monthly fee. But for online communities to thrive, users must have the technology and hosts who can facilitate meaningful conversations, said Andre Durand, the company’s president and chief executive.
Rheingold, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has already begun work on a Host University curriculum based on his extensive online experience and that of veterans from America Online, CompuServe, the Well and Internet newsgroups.
“How do you deal with conflicts? How do you welcome people? These are problems for us to solve together,” Rheingold said. “Good community doesn’t just happen. You need to have people who have experience, enthusiasm and talent for the art and skill of online hosting.”
In addition to training hosts, Host University will pay some graduates to moderate communities related to topics such as education, government and business, which are considered vital to CommunityWare’s financial success. Durand estimated the cost of the project at between $200,000 and $250,000.
When Host University opens in mid-September, it will be available to all of CommunityWare’s 95,000 citizens (about 80,000 of whom came over from Electric Minds).
