Social Circles and Intersections: Creating a Peer-based Supportive Community Online Russell Beale School of Computer Science University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT UK R.Beale@cs.bham.ac.uk ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a design study that describes how we used a web-based bulletin board system to support children who suffer from cystic fibrosis. Their illness tends to make them feel socially isolated, and face-to-face group meetings are not possible, and hence we looked to the internet to provide a suitable infrastructure for us to build a supportive community dedicated to this patient group, which could provide support, information and a social meeting place of which they could feel an important part. We discuss the design issues that faced us in trying to create such a community for this group of users. KEYWORDS Social circles, community, cystic fibrosis, design study INTRODUCTION Children with cystic fibrosis (often referred to in this paper as CF) have a multitude of problems to deal with, one of which is social isolation. They become quite knowledgeable about their condition, but are often not in a position to discuss this with other children or adults, either because they are embarrassed or because the other party does not know much or cannot empathize with them. One of the conventional ways to address this problem has been to provide group meeting sessions for the patients, allowing them to get together with other patients on a regular basis to discuss things. However, more recent medical research has shown that there is a significant risk of cross-infection between patients and so such meetings are not now possible (Govan et al 1993, Leeds 2001). In an attempt to reduce their feelings of isolation, we have designed a system for them in which we try to provide an online community on the web. This paper discusses the design principles behind the web community, identifying the key points that have to be addressed in order to provide an effective, workable environment, and evaluates how well the system achieves its goals. GROUP MEETING REVIEW The previously run group sessions in which the patients got together were reviewed by the design team and the medics and counsellors involved. Because these meetings no longer happen it was impossible to observe them, but they were discussed openly. We also involved some of the older patients who were better able to reflect back on the dynamics and content of those meetings. In review, the sessions were successful because the boundaries for them were very clear. The people involved were all either fellow cystic fibrosis sufferers, or were specialists able to offer advice and counselling. The confidentiality of the meeting was implicit yet clear, and the participants appreciated the opportunity to interact with others in their position, and both offer and receive support. Issues directly relating to treatments, illness and so on were discussed, but so were much more conventional things such as current television and celebrity news, and so on. These topics can be seen to build and maintain conventional friendships, and are significant since they mean that the people involved in the sessions are there with a shared purpose and common ground that is more than just their illness. In designing a web-based community, we wanted to ensure that it was focused much more on the community and social aspects than on the medical ones (Preece 2000). We wanted it to address the social issues; their medical ones were already being treated in a comprehensive manner. This focus provides one disambiguating factor over the multitude of chatroom or web-based bulletin board systems that focus on medical issues, including cystic fibrosis (e.g. Cystic 2004). However,