The Organization and Business Model of a Software Virtual Community in China

With the increasing pervasiveness of communication among networked computers, scholars and practitioners alike recognize the value added of Internet based technical forums for enabling work in distributed communities (Hildreth and Kimble, 2000) and networks of practice (Brown and Duguid, 2001). China in particular is an interesting environment to explore the significance and role of specialised technical forums for software development beyond the firm boundary. Internet service providers’ set up privately owned technical forums and software engineers join voluntarily such virtual communities for sharing information and knowledge. The organization and business model of such forums however has attracted very little research interest so far. Using a case study approach we present in this paper, the organization and business model of China Software Developer Net, one of the most successful Internet engineering communities in China with more than eight hundred thousands members in 2004. We also discuss how the system design and business model of CSDN service provider has helped to build up a sustainable distributed community and network of practice and creating a dynamic culture for extending information and knowledge sharing much beyond organisational boundaries.