Online communities: Limitations and approaches for public health


Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

3083.1: Monday, December 12, 2005 - 11:10 AM

Abstract #120704

Online communities: Limitations and approaches for public health

John Robinette, MS, Center for Health Information Technology, Constella Health Sciences, 8401 Colesville Road, Suite 200, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301.562.2255, jrobinette@constellagroup.com

The web is a powerful medium for connecting geographically disparate individuals working on difficult problems, research and general information and knowledge sharing.

Creating online communities of practice or communities of interest in public health domains is problematic with some succeeding while others fail. While there is no ?silver bullet? there are some common themes for success. These include the defined role of a moderator or subject matter expert, defining the goals and scope of the community and providing simple to use online tools to access well defined information resources.

This session will explore the intersection and interaction of human involvement and decision making with web-based technologies for the purposes of creating and maintaining online communities

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

Assess possible communities or opportunities for collaboration that can occur online.
Apply the concepts learned to increase the likelihood of success in creating an online community.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation

Communicating Through the Web: Accessibility, Interaction, and Community

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA