Method for monitoring and encouraging community activity in a networked environment

This invention relates generally to networked environments in which communities of interest engage and interact, and more particularly to a method of monitoring and encouraging continued engagement and interaction. The method of the invention overcomes the problems in a community when the amount of interaction drops off through the use of "community crickets." A community cricket monitors the amount of community activity, establishes criteria for deciding when a community is sleeping and uses that criteria for initiating a recovery mechanism for "re-awakening" the community. A community is "sleeping" if the level of activity falls below some predetermined level or criteria. By monitoring the community's activity, the community cricket can prevent sleeping communities from dying. Various methods to detect and to re-awaken sleeping communities are defined.