Introduction  In this week’s reading from Baym as well as the article by Butler

Introduction 
In this week’s reading from Baym as well as the article by Butler, Bateman, and Gray, you read about how communities come together and sustain themselves online. The authors believe that communities work best when they are closely focused on a specific topic and have a large enough membership to sustain themselves during periods when members leave and are replaced. Butler et al. also believe that the technologies used to create a community impact how successful that community will be. In this discussion I’d like you to think about how communities are formed by looking at an example of how companies have tried to create artificial online communities for their employees.
As we saw in the module notes, communities can be very powerful. Companies like Yammer have tried to create social networks for businesses and other organizations to harness that power. Li’s article in this week’s readings notes that many corporations have tried to create social networks for their employees in order to boost collaboration and productivity but have run into difficulties when relatively few employees use these networks.
Discussion Questions
After reviewing Baym and Butler et al., answer the following questions. This activity aligns with module outcome 1.
•    Using evidence from Baym and Butler et al., identify a corporate social network either from your own experience or from research and explain why it is or is not a community. How is it similar to or different from an organically developed community such as Above Top Secret?
•    How do the challenges that Li identified reflect the role of technology in community formation identified by Butler et al.?
•    Given the challenges that Li identified, how can companies encourage more collaboration and community-building among employees in virtual spaces? Is there more to it than simply having leaders participate more as Li suggests? Explain your response.