Creating and Nurturing a Participatory Culture

The tools of Web 2.0 are built upon the idea of a "participatory culture." According to Henry Jenkins, an expert in participatory culture:

"A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also

one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created)."

In other words, a participatory culture is one where members are free to create and share information with one another. In fact, the culture actively supports the development of such a community by making it easy for members to create and share content and rewarding them for doing so.

Not everyone will participate though. The rule of thumb in most participatory communities is that

• 90% of users will "lurk" (that is, they will simply read and use the information without contributing)

• 9% will contribute a little--maybe a comment or two or adding a resource to a wiki.

• 1% will contribute almost all of the information.

So the key to engaging your community in creating content is finding that 1% of people who are passionate about your cause and willing to contribute.

Readings in Participatory Culture

To learn more about developing and nurturing a participatory culture try these resources:

• The Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century by Henry Jenkins

• Henry Jenkins' Blog

• Dana Boyd's Blog