E-Media Tidbits

I'm sitting in my first session at the 2006 BlogHer conference in San Jose, Ca. -- an excellent forum for female bloggers. The title of this session is So You Have this Crazy Idea, and it's about community blogs and blog-based communities.

Lauren Gelman, cyberlaw.stanford.edu Lauren Gelman of Stanford Law School.

Lauren Gelman, Associate Director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society (CIS), just talked about a new community blog she's helping to create for female law students, who have been recently sharing concerns about being treated inappropriately by their male colleagues and faculty. That site is still in development, so I can't link to it yet, but I found something about their development process interesting.

Lauren noted that they had a meeting in which prospective contributors to this community's blog sat down with blog experts and the site's development team to make sure both the front end and back end of the community worked well for the contributors. The reasoning is that the contributors would be more likely to contribute consistently if the site's setup reflects their needs and preferences.

Gelman said they also have a development blog and forum through which that collaborative process is continuing.

In short, their strategy is: If they (the contributors) build it, they'll be more likely to keep coming (contributing).

I know many news and community sites have been adding blogs, forums, wikis, and other features which would allow community member to participate directly and contribute content. So I'm wondering -- has anyone else tried this strategy? Has anyone brought in prospective contributors or community leaders to help with the development process?

If so, how did that work out? Please comment below.