1% Rule in Collaborative Environments

Tony Karrer, the author of eLearning Technology notes in a post that there is a 1% rule in collaborative environments.  The rule is that for every 100 people that sign up:

• 90 will lurk (read with no active participation)
• 9 will participate in a limited fashion (maybe rate or comment periodically)
• 1 will regularly post content

This has been my experience too and usually I am the one that is the most enthusiastic contributor!  I have tried many things to overcome this which Tony discusses in the post:

• Incentives or requirements (students must blog - it's graded)
• Community cohesion
• Focus (short time frame, limited topic)
• Integrated as natural activity

It is very hard work to make online communities work.