At the 2007 Virtual Worlds Conference in San Jose, a panel called Community Management in 2D and 3D Spaces brought together directors and managers of community relations and development from major online spaces. Makena Technologies' Jodi Turton, Cartoon Network's Rich Weil and Linden Lab's Jeska Dzwigalski discussed experiences and tactics for managing large communities in this session, moderated by Outspark marketing coordinator Ryan Olson.

"We have meetings inside our virtual world, so we have face time," Turton said, talking about community management in There.com, where she stresses leading by example, promotion of programs, brands and sponsors, and bonding with community. "When [staff] gets involved with the community they have fun, and it lets the members know they are important to us.” Turton requests and encourages community feedback, and then discusses it in a weekly advisory meeting. The bottom line? "Happy community members come back,” she says.

Olson asked the panel about the difference in community management in virtual worlds versus online games. "Having done community relations in the virtual world and gaming spaces... gaming is easier," Weil offered. "In gaming your audience is directed, it’s a very shared experience... it’s like the experience is on a track. It’s easier to know your audience. But in a virtual world, the experiences tend to be so diffuse, you deal with a lot of unique experiences." Weil recalls that his first time in the beta test of Kaneva, someone ran up to his avatar and asked, "How do I get into the beta?" "Uh... you are in the beta," he replied. "What struck me is that this audience didn’t know things that are standard for the MMO audience."

"One thing I like to say is that Second Life is not a game," added Dzwigalski. "But we do use a lot of the same language." She continued, "We like to let people make themselves happy... giving them the tools to do so. I don’t go to concerts in World of Warcraft, I do it in Second Life. It’s a different activity.”

"Communication is always going to be the bottom line," said Turton, saying it's important to make sure users have the tools, and have fun using them.

Forums are a very big part of some sites. Olson called them "as user-gen as it gets." On that topic, Dzwigalski recalled her first task was to moderate the forum. "That was fun," she said, with heavy sarcasm. At the time, she knew everyone online, but as the community grew, that level of personal communication became impossible to maintain. So she moved on to a mass-media format for information distribution, like blogs and bug trackers. Now, they use press briefings, evolving from one-on-one. "You can’t have a one on one conversation with thousands of people," she says.

"We do get some good feedback from the forum,” adds Turton. Her team looks at fansites a lot, and they incorporate blogs and in-world events for feedback, looking at the community as viral marketers.

"We started from the ground floor, and over the course of time that I was [with Kaneva] it grew quite a bit," Weil remembers. It started with the forums, and then moved into blog posting. "At Cartoon Network we labor under a lot different restrictions,” he says; the products are for kids, meaning he always needs to be attentive to how they communicate.

Asked about the evolution of audience from alpha to beta to mass market, Turton said, "Along all lines, community management is always going to be the biggest focus regardless of stages."

"Their motivations are going to change," noted Dzwigalski. "People’s motivation, from alpha to beta, will change a lot.” And that change, she said, continues into mass release. "You need to be aware of what their motivations are."

"Hardcore alpha testers are probably going to be done by the end of beta," added Weil. "I don’t think there’s a need to break it down further than four stages: pre-alpha, what I call 'arguing with the developers' stage, then alpha, beta and live."

What about volunteer programs? Weil is "100 percent absolutely against the idea," citing the class action lawsuits by volunteers of AOL and Ultima Online. He recalls when volunteers were used to do work that other people were being paid to do. He called the settlement of those suits "the worst thing that could happen," because there was no court ruling on the actual legality of volunteer programs.

"Second Life gave tools for volunteers who helped with UI issues," recalls Dzwigalski, remembering giving out T-shirts. "And they reacted like it was Christmas”. Some of the legality restrictions are the inability to set schedule or deadlines -- the same laws as any volunteer program. Still, Dzwigalski finds the programs useful: "They’ll be able to see a lot of the things you won’t be able to see, so it is really valuable," she says.

"Bottom line, you have to remember that there is a person behind that avatar. They are not a number they are a community member," Adds Turton.

[Chris Woodard contributed to this report.]