Rating: 
Summary: Secondhand understandings are worth little.
Review: Hagel et al would have better served their audience by getting out into the online world and seeing how it actually operates. It's one thing to read newspaper and magazine clippings and deduce a trend; it's another to experience the trend firsthand. Hagel et al definitely do NOT get online communities. Hiding behind a big consultancy's shingle does not confer understanding, empathy, or effective strategies for action -- that much is clear.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book
Review: I found this book very insightful and I would recommend it to you
Rating: 
Summary: want to know about virtual communities? This is a must read!
Review: If you want to know how to create a virtual community this book cannot lack in your shelf. This is the first book that deals with the matter in a way it really ripens. The authors defend the thesis that you need to do three things: To generate the traffic, to concentrate the traffic and later to maintain the traffic of visits to your community. This book is for who is really working with a digital business or wants to set up one. Besides discussing each one of these steps, it finishes with a list of what to do for the management of a project. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: An easy to read and practical vision
Review: A book which has been at the basis of our company. The book gives a clear vision on the futur of the Internet, especially on the commercial part of it. How to create a place on the Internet which your target group visits, where they talk about your products and services and where you can give them (and thereby your own company) added value. In other words: a Virtual Community.
The book also explains how to manege such a community. By builing it up little by little and by letting go at the same time, so that members will over time derive great value from member-generated content.
And best of all: the lay-out of the book ensures easy reading and fast skimming throught the book.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic and specific, within the usual limits
Review: The thing I really like about this book is the specifics. You find much more substance--including dollar amounts--in this book than you do in many e-biz books, even with the usual dollop of rah-rah. Several chapters are very helpful in making the business case for online communities, and in uncovering success/failure factors for this approach. I can't say that Hagel and Armstrong have it *all* right, but this is book will be one you refer back to on a regular basis. The management agenda in the appendix is a nice touch, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Marketing comes to place, but marketing is a challenge
Review: Many networked industry managers probably still do not know what they are doing, and this book points them to a clear direction¡XVirtual Communities. Contrary to the concept that the internet industry belongs to the high-tech sector, this book tells us the opposite. In other words, doing business in the vast ocean of the cyberspace cannot count on technology alone, because what is really important here is not how good your R&D ability is but how good your marketing ability is. This, in my opinion, tells almost everything. When the Internet was still in its infancy, technical research and development should be done to improve its function, but when it comes to commercialization, things become much more different, and complex. What we must deal with now is not only some computer languages or a set of codes, but also people without clear identities from places we cannot know all. From this point of view, nobody can claim a share only because they are technically competent. Marketing becomes crucial, however, marketing is a great challenge itself. From this perspective, this book is helpful in that it explains why managing virtual communities is crucial to any internet companies, gives good ideas as to how to come close to the desired targets and achieve market shares step by step, and backs up the writer¡¦s argument with economical theories and examples taken from experienced companies.
Rating:
Summary: I cannot recommend this book enough
Review: If your objective is to gain a solid understanding of why and how the Internet has become what it is today then this is the text for you. In clear terms it explains the key components of a successful Web venture (commercial or otherwise) through the identification of browsers aggregating towards communities. That growth on the Net is not subject to marketing gurus or advertising execs but rather through an organic evolution. Sounds a bit esoteric? Not at all, the real benefit of this book is that it breaks down each statement and supposition into clear, defined terms that can be verified through real-life examples, examples which the reader can investigate on the Net for themselves (hey, you learn by doing!). There is a very useful section on the lifecycle of a Web community and how to create one. It stresses quick entry onto the Web and gives clear advice on what the entrant should aim for at each stage of the creation of their 'community'. Best of all, through what the authours call 'Fractal Breadth' it lays out how a 'community' can expand and branch out. The Final sections of the book are especially useful in that they outline how a traditional company's infrastructure should change to accommadate a Web presence. Clear, conscise, non-insulting to the intellect and focused. Great value for money.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive and Stale
Review: Book could be effectively summarized in 10 pages with examples. I expect more content and better editing from HBS.
Rating:
Summary: Already outdated !
Review: The information technology is moving too fast for the authors and this book is already outdated. A good example: the authors argue quite convincingly, that Nets, Inc is a good example of a successful web community. Unfortunately, the company is dead. The 200 people it employed are out of work. We don't know if Nets, Inc's founder was in contact with the authors, but I would recommend other readings for would be e-business entrepreneurs.
Rating:
Summary: Typical of McKinsey consultants
Review: Anyone that has ever worked with the famed McKinsey group will recognize the pattern instantly. (1) Start the conversation at the highest level necessary to divide, confuse, and conquer, (2) achieve a sense of confusion, (3) draw insight from the clients or historical case studies, and (4) present YOUR ideas back to you as something terribly insightful and/or brilliant. Basically - what you get here is probably something you've already implemented or at least considered, but only packaged in a totally undeciferable and unrealistic utopia.
|
