Community Builder: A Conversation with Glenn Davis

by Heather Champ

Founded in late 1995 and launched in early 1996, in response to the need to bring development information down to the level of novice programmers, Project Cool was the joint creation of Glenn Davis, creator of the original Cool Site of the Day and an early Web developer, and Teresa Martin, an interactive technology specialist from Knight-Ridder.

Its goal is to explain and demonstrate that anyone can make great Web sites, regardless of his or her level of experience.

Heather Champ: Project Cool was developed as a Web site for designers and developers offering the latest tips & tricks and how-to's. You've recently added "Peoplesphere," community-oriented message boards and chat. How did you begin?

Glenn Davis: The beginning was really just realizing the need. You see, the one thing that people don't seem to think about is how much they learn from other people. The people who are building the Web oftentimes work with each other over great distances, yet there was no common gathering spot for them. We're attempting to fill that void by giving a place for the people who are building for the Web to draw on their best resource, each other.

HC: You've divided Peoplesphere into three sections: forums, chats, and announcements, essentially, threaded message boards, chat, and a mailing list to let people know what's going on. The Peoplesphere forums are presented in a frameset that will allow users to adjust the size of the window according to their preference. What software are you using to create the Forums?

GD: Deciding on software was fairly easy. There's not much commercially available that I could find for the task, and the freeware selections weren't up to what I was looking for. We settled on ichat's Message Boards software for several reasons. First, its framed interface is very similar to Netscape's newsreader that people are already familiar with, and it also offers a nonframed option.

Just as importantly though is its customizability, although ichat supplies very minimal documentation for customizing. I'm still discovering the software's possibilities and adding features so it will continue to evolve over time.

HC: While it's unlikely that you'll have users who will come in and abuse the forums or chats, it's always a possibility. I would assume that you'll maintain a strong presence in the forums, but have you established guidelines or monitoring to ensure a "positive" user experience? It's unfortunate that it can only take one "bad apple."

GD: When I created one of the Web's first chat sites in 1995, it was a self-policing environment in which people took on roles in the community. I think that's a model that exists wherever people gather, so I don't think it's much of a problem. We do, however, monitor the message boards and try to maintain an active presence in the conversations. We try to answer questions that come up and help keep it a dynamic environment. We don't want to assume the role of thought police, however, and instead encourage active discussion.

HC: I guess I was being rather melodramatic. It's easy to slip into the "worst case scenario" mode. Have you seen the New York Times lately? There must have been a few slow news days as they've revved up the "Net bashing" again.

The chat area is rather sophisticated with a variety of options for the user. This area launched more recently. What have you experienced so far?

GD: The most gratifying thing was the fact that within moments of its announcement on our mailing list, there were people in it. It's only a few days old at this point, and I expect it to grow. It was great to have people who build Web pages together talking online. We're going to be planing many online events with guest speakers in both moderated and unmoderated environments.

HC: It's also an ichat product isn't it? How many different software products did you look at before you selected theirs?

GD: Yes, it is the ichat Rooms server. We looked at several, but ichat seemed to be ahead of the competition. For one thing, it will work in several different modes. Not only can use you the ichat plugin, but it will do a Java connection, or if you are behind a firewall, HTML-only chatting is possible. In addition, it supports both Telnet and IRC clients for chat. Nothing else out there was as versatile.

HC: Thanks for chatting with me! I look forward to following future developments within Peoplesphere and the Developers Zone.