Resources: Web Links

See our publications page for resources produced by DJ Associates.

Online group working techniques

Forum One - an information resource from a consulting and strategy firm, including a search engine for web-based online forums. Also provides advice on building and maintaining communities online, and produces a monthly newsletter on developments in web forums.

Introduction to Mailing Lists - a beginner's guide to the most common technology for online group communications, produced by Goldsmiths College.

Communicating on the Web - another basic learning resource on email, mailing lists and chat,, provided as part of the Prometheus Project.

The WELL Hosts Manual - the guidelines used by the people who run conferences for probably the world's most famous online community. Some elments of this are specific to the WELL's technology, but the organising priniciples apply well to any managed online community.

The Moderator's Home Page - resources for moderators and facilitators of online discussion, from Berge Collins Associations - with a focus mainly on educational contexts. Includes a very comprehesive set of further links.

Communities Online - basic information and advice about using online communications to support community participation and democracy.

Seven Steps to Building Electronic Communities - a slightly more commercial view by Philippa Gamse and Terry Grunwald.

Virtual Teams - OK, this site wants you buy a book, but even after you've bought it, you'll find plenty of extra interesting stuff here.

Partnerships Online - Partnerships Online aims to help people use the Internet to change organisations, build partnerships and benefit communities. This is their WWW site which is a great resource for people who are interested in virtual communities and how to develop them.

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Online group working technologies

Conferencing on the World Wide Web - David Woolley's most-comprehensive-list-in-the-world of Web software for synchronous and asynchronous group discussions. Recently updated to include some video conferencing tools, as well as a good bibliography and several authoritative articles by David.

First Class Intranet Server - the software DJ Associates has used for hosting dedicated group working environments - offering strong security and (or!) integration with the web. You can download the client software for free from this site.

Lotus Notes & Domino - a competitor of First Class.

Basic Support for Co-operative Work - a Shared Workspace System, using the Web as communications infrastructure from GMD Germany.

Video Conferencing Information Sheet - a valuable overview of different technological options and other issues from the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.

ICQ - the first major instant messaging program.  Automatically tells you when other ICQ users are online, also includes features such as messaging and paging. 

Spectel - Provider of integrated voice, data and web conferencing solutions.

Active Worlds - explore the rich community of 'pioneers' who are using tools such as Ring Of Fire's Active Worlds browser to build three-dimensional virtual communities on the web. Download the software and drop in for a chat with avatars from across the globe.

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Human-Computer Interaction and web design

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - an exceptional combination of informed and opinionated comment on issues in web design and usability.

WWW Design Links - from the usability and HCI perspective - provided by the INUSE project.

HCI Web Resources - from the British Human-Computer Interaction Group

Database of HCI Standards - including links to the text of some standards on usability and guidance on applying standards - provided by System Concepts Ltd

DevHead - an online magazine for WWW developers that has articles on design and technology and numerous other resources for the jobbing Web author.

WebMonkey - another online magazine, this time from the people behind Wired magazine.

W3C - The consortium behind Hypertext Markup Language, this site contains all sorts of articles on standards for HTML authors. It's validation service, which allows you to check the quality of any HTML code you have written is very useful.

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Computer Mediated Communication

The Journal of Computer Mediated Communication - Academically focused but very useful if you are interested in learning more about the process of online communication. A favourite outlet for some of the principle researchers in CMC.

The Journal of Communication - Less narrowly focused than the JCMC but this OUP publication often contains useful papers on the communicative aspects of the Internet.

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