The Social Structure of Online Communities

The Social Structure of Online Communities PDF Author: William Sims Bainbridge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108499132
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
With great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.

The Social Structure of Online Communities

The Social Structure of Online Communities PDF Author: William Sims Bainbridge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108499132
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book Here

Book Description
With great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.

The Social Structure of Online Communities

The Social Structure of Online Communities PDF Author: William Sims Bainbridge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108585795
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
With great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.

Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities and Technologies

Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities and Technologies PDF Author: Dasgupta, Subhasish
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1591407974
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
"This encyclopedia of virtual communities and technologies provides a much needed integrated overview of all the critical concepts, technologies and issues in the area of virtual communities"--Provided by publisher.

Community Building on the Web

Community Building on the Web PDF Author: Amy Jo Kim
Publisher: Peachpit Press
ISBN: 013270515X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
What's the point of creating a great Web site if no one goes there-or worse, if people come but never return? How do some sites, such as America Online, EBay, and GeoCities, develop into Internet communities with loyal followings and regular repeat traffic? How can Web page designers and developers create sites that are vibrant and rewarding? Amy Jo Kim, author of Community Building on the Web and consultant to some of the most successful Internet communities, is an expert at teaching how to design sites that succeed by making new visitors feel welcome, rewarding member participation, and building a sense of their own history. She discusses important design strategies, interviews influential Web community-builders, and provides the reader with templates and questionnaires to use in building their own communities.

Social Network Structures and the Internet

Social Network Structures and the Internet PDF Author: Dongyoung Sohn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
The Internet creates a very unique environment where numerous individuals and widely distributed organizations can communicate and even collaborate for common interests. Virtual communities, shared information databases, and online forums are visible examples of the self-organizing social collectivities, which emerge from the many-to-many interactions among voluntary participants. Online social communities exemplified by blogs and social networking sites are getting more and more attention nowadays from the business sector, and companies are eager to find ways to use them for business opportunities. Despite the mushrooming hype regarding the unlimited potentials of virtual community, little is known about its complex nature-how virtual communities are born, sustained, and under what circumstances they collapse. A virtual community is an aggregate of voluntary participants, in which individual behaviors are in conjunction with the behaviors of others. People decide to contribute or free-ride in response to the contributing or free-riding behaviors of others. If many people already are contributing to the community, for example, one may be strongly tempted to free-ride, while this may not be the case if there are very few contributors. Understanding this social interdependence is the key to grasping the collective dynamics underlying virtual communities. This book aims at illuminating the implications of the collective social dynamics in a computer-mediated environment on advertising, business, and communication in general. Along with conceptual discussions, this book shows some experimental findings related to the psychological and social-structural factors affecting individuals' communicative motivations. "This pioneering book should be valuable to read since it is one of the first academic attempts to shed light on how network structures influence the behaviors of individuals on the Internet." - John D. Leckenby, Professor and Everett D. Collier Centennial Chair in Communication, The University of Texas at Austin

Building Successful Online Communities

Building Successful Online Communities PDF Author: Robert E. Kraut
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262528916
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
How insights from the social sciences, including social psychology and economics, can improve the design of online communities. Online communities are among the most popular destinations on the Internet, but not all online communities are equally successful. For every flourishing Facebook, there is a moribund Friendster—not to mention the scores of smaller social networking sites that never attracted enough members to be viable. This book offers lessons from theory and empirical research in the social sciences that can help improve the design of online communities. The authors draw on the literature in psychology, economics, and other social sciences, as well as their own research, translating general findings into useful design claims. They explain, for example, how to encourage information contributions based on the theory of public goods, and how to build members' commitment based on theories of interpersonal bond formation. For each design claim, they offer supporting evidence from theory, experiments, or observational studies.

Communication and Technology

Communication and Technology PDF Author: Lorenzo Cantoni
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110271354
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 588

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Book Description
The primary goal of the Communication and Technology volume (5th within the series "Handbooks of Communication Science") is to provide the reader with a comprehensive compilation of key scholarly literature, identifying theoretical issues, emerging concepts, current research, specialized methods, and directions for future investigations. The internet and web have become the backbone of many new communication technologies, often transforming older communication media, through digitization, to make them compatible with the net. Accordingly, this volume focuses on internet/web technologies. The essays cover various infrastructure technologies, ranging from different kinds of hard-wired elements to a range of wireless technologies such as WiFi, mobile telephony, and satellite technologies. Audio/visual communication is discussed with reference to large-format motion pictures, medium-sized television and video formats, and the small-screen mobile smartphone. There is also coverage of audio-only media, such as radio, music, and voice telephony; text media, in such venues as online newspapers, blogs, discussion forums and mobile texting; and multi-media technologies, such as games and virtual reality.

Research Methods and Global Online Communities

Research Methods and Global Online Communities PDF Author: Alexia Maddox
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317065654
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This book brings into focus the technologically augmented nature of global online communities, advancing research methods that reveal the imprint of emergent social forms and characterise digital frontiers of social engagement. Drawing on insights from across the social sciences, it presents a case study of people with passions for reptiles and amphibians to illustrate for next generation researchers how to conduct community research in the real world. Richly illustrated with ethnographic research, together with extensive survey and interview material drawn from around the world, Research Methods and Global Online Communities explores the changing nature of communities that form around common interests and are embedded in a digital architecture rather than place. In doing so, this book transcends the digital dualism of online/offline models of community and engages with debates on the social impacts of the internet and the adaptive nature of community. As such, it will appeal to social scientists interested in innovative approaches to characterising digital communities through mixed-methods research practice.

Online Social Networks

Online Social Networks PDF Author: Valerio Arnaboldi
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128030429
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
Online Social Networks: Human Cognitive Constraints in Facebook and Twitter provides new insights into the structural properties of personal online social networks and the mechanisms underpinning human online social behavior. As the availability of digital communication data generated by social media is revolutionizing the field of social networks analysis, the text discusses the use of large- scale datasets to study the structural properties of online ego networks, to compare them with the properties of general human social networks, and to highlight additional properties. Users will find the data collected and conclusions drawn useful during design or research service initiatives that involve online and mobile social network environments. Provides an analysis of the structural properties of ego networks in online social networks Presents quantitative evidence of the Dunbar’s number in online environments Discusses original structural and dynamic properties of human social network through OSN analysis

Virtual Communities, Social Networks and Collaboration

Virtual Communities, Social Networks and Collaboration PDF Author: Athina A. Lazakidou
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461436346
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Online communities are among the most obvious manifestations of social networks based on new media technology. Facilitating ad-hoc communication and leveraging collective intelligence by matching similar or related users have become important success factors in almost every successful business plan. Researchers are just beginning to understand virtual communities and collaborations among participants currently proliferating across the world. Virtual Communities, Social Networks and Collaboration covers cutting edge research topics of utmost real-world importance in the specific domain of social networks. This volume focuses on exploring issues relating to the design, development, and outcomes from electronic groups and online communities, including: - The implications of social networking, - Understanding of how and why knowledge is shared among participants, - What leads to participation, effective collaboration, co-creation and innovation, - How organizations can better utilize the potential benefits of communities in both internal operations, marketing, and new product development.