Ridings, Catherine and David Gefen (2004). Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen.html
The first article really covers the topic for session 3 comprehensively. However, the study was only limited to bulletin boards, though it did cover a wide range of topics and interests. It is a good starting point to understanding people's motivation in spending time in online communities (OCs). However, additional readings are required to learn about other means of online interaction, i.e. social media (Twitter, Facebook, Blog feeds, etc).
Ling, K., G. Beenen, P. Ludford, X. Wang, K. Chang, X. Li, D. Cosley, D. Frankowski, L. Terveen, A.M. Rashid, P. Resnick and R. Kraut (2005). Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(4), article 10. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/ling.html
Using the first article as my starting point, this article by Ling et al took the issue of participation in OCs deeper and introduced the element of incentive and different incentive methods can (dis/en)courage participation. This concept along with objectives and goals introduced in websites (i.e. progress bar when completing a new profile for a social networking site) is a currently developing area where various methods are being tested out to see their effectiveness.
Tedjamulia, Steven J.J., David R. Olsen, Douglas L. Dean, Conan C. Albrecht (2005). Motivating Content Contributions to Online Communities: Toward a More Comprehensive Theory. Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
This article provides a model of participation that includes external/environmental and internal/personal factors in online participation, measurement of contribution, reinforcers/incentives that feeds back to personal factors, and provides a closed loop model. I like the breakdown of the proposed model as it covers most of the factors and processes in participation (aside from those I might have forgotten or overlooked).
Schrock, Andrew (2009). Examining Social Media Usage: Technology Clusters and Social Network Site Membership. First Monday 14(1). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2242/2066
This article uses MySpace as its sample to examine social media usage. While most of the research results are still relevant until now, MySpace is no longer what comes to mind when discussing social network site or OC - that would be Facebook and Twitter for the most part.
The last article from the reading list analyzed Twitter in its early days. The main user intentions of microblogging are still relevant, so are the user categories of the most popular microblogging site (Twitter). However, the structure, development, and user composition of Twitter has changed a lot. For one thing, Japan & Indonesia shot up to #2 & 3 in total number of users (July 2010). Many other changes have happened since the early days of Twitter's potential to now, where Twitter is synonymous to microblogging.
two examples from your own online experience: one that supports a claim in one of the readings, and another that challenges or extends a claim in another.
ex. 1 - claim supported: from Tedjamulia et al
Prop 5, increase interesting content and ease of use = higher participation and contribution.
as the moderator and head of class for my high school, i noticed that when an interesting or relevant content that spans more than just one or two friends, many others will also participate by replying, following up, and posing new questions.
as wired connection is still unstable and unequally spread back home, many participants don't have much time to interact and participate in the board. However, with the proliferation of BlackBerry, its messaging capability (BBM), and wi-fi internet access, I noticed an uptick of participation. Level of interaction has never been higher before, although, some of the responses are rather short and cryptic due to using handheld smartphone rather than a full range computer.
ex. 2 - claim challenged: from Schrock
I think that introverts can find SNS a good place to express themselves. Some SNS have provides limited access to personal information (private profile, limit who can see what) and this is a place for more introverted people to express their interests, feelings, creations, etc. Yes, perhaps they still use pictures of cats or panoramic view as their avatar but per my observation of friends I consider more introverted, they are quite open and expressive.
2) Observe an online community that's new to you, and gather data from at least 50 posts in the community to answer the following questions:
--What modes of participation are there?
http://www.hulu.com/saturday-night-live - discussions tab. Features:
- search
- create new topic
- sort by topics, last post, #posts, views
- subscribe to a topic
- expand on a topic without opening a new page
- naviagate with opening a new page
- reply
- browse user's profile
- get permalink
- flag for spoiler, spam, or offensive
- add user as friend
ease of use helps encourage participation. there is no other explicit incentive. there is motivation to contribute based on liking or hating a show or specific episode of a show. when people feel strong enough, hate/like, they are motivated to comment. in addition, users are motivated to contribute when they see others interacting added with an interesting/controversial topic, i.e. last SNL's episode featured Chris Brown as musical guest and as we know his story of domestic violence, this topic was hotly discussed in the discussions tab. Another example: when a performance is really good or bad, people tend to comment more. From the same episode's Weekend Update, Stefon the NYC (Bill Hader) was funny according to many of the commentators (and me) and the users discussed about different aspects of this performance along with some detractors in it.
-- most common forms of content observed in the sample:1. controversial issue: Chris Brown's appearance and controversy (50+ posts)
2. show quality, good or bad: worst performance ever (50 posts), Digital Short - flags of the world (35 posts), Bill Hader as Stefon (25 posts), Taran as Eminem (6 posts), debating best episode this season (7 posts)
3. resurfacing topic: Arcade Fire just won the Grammy. They performed a few month back in episode 6 (now is ep.15). (12 posts)
4. discuss previous show/skit: Time for a sequel for S31E12 - Dont Buy Stuff (12 posts), Bill Murray (2 posts)
5. (& 2 could be combined) comments on cast members: Kirsten Wiig (100 posts), no Asian cast (66), Andy Samberg (48), Kenan Thompson (34 posts)
6. comparing eras of SNL's best: 86-93 (5 posts), Stopped being funny 15 years ago (34 posts)
First screen shot (above) shows discussion thread based on the number of posts per topic.
Second screen shot (below) shows it based on the last topic posting.
Findings and analysis
Reading the discussions at Hulu's page for SNL is similar to reading the comments section of newspaper websites. Many of the postings are short 1-2 sentences or even less with rare sprinkles of long write up that sometimes are coherent while other times are just off topic. Users are expressing (or venting) their feelings and passing judgments in the discussions without much of deliberation. There is nothing much to learn intellectually, from following these postings. There is no formal incentive to participate. The incentive or motivation to participate are rather intrinsic as discussed above. Anonymity level is high thus no one knows each other well. There is no leader board for top contribution or other metrics for contribution. Reflecting back, perhaps I could've chosen another OC to be discussed for this entry. However, this goes to show that not all OCs are equal or even similar. some tenets are probably true across the board, i.e. a small number of users contribute the majority of content. While in MySpace/Facebook, female dominates, in more tech heavy or gaming communities, male would probably dominate. Assuming that many or some heavy gamers are more introverts, and they still are active in OCs, this would challenge Shrock's idea of OCs as only the place of extroverts to express themselves.
I can't remember which one of the readings talked about OC participators contributing because they think they have some kind of expertise, but do you think that notion comes to play here, in the SNL community? I would guess that consumers of comedy have a pretty low threshold to attain expert status.
ReplyDeleteAlso I think ease of use does play a role in commenting/participation behavior.
Mernie, that's one interesting about OC participant. This kind of participant, who feel that they are a veteran more likely motivated to post more than other participants. From the reading, some author argued that this is because the veteran participant have high self efficacy on helping another participant on solving their problem. Besides that, this participant feel his/her contribution will expand their network and given a uniqueness to the OC. I can try to understand this by looking at the motivation of people keep on watching on and updating the Wikipedia pages. The Wikipedia contributors are voluntary OC participants who frequently sit down in front of computer, edit, and make sure that the content on the page they contributed are not being a subject of online vandalism and will be accurate for the people who want to use their contribution pages.
ReplyDeleteHi Mernie, I think in the context of SNL community (in Hulu) 'expertise' comes from watching multiple seasons of the show. As a result, the 'experts' have more references to compare and contrast with current offerings. However, the consumer these days, esp. those who logs into Hulu to watch SNL are relatively younger generation who might not have exposure to SNL from back in the days. If they think the episode is funny, then its good, if not, they dont have any 'loyalty' to the show. they just want a good fun enjoyable show.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, threshold is low in this type of community, with low entry and exit barrier. Replacements and substitute shows can be found easily.
Erenst, I agree with your point that "ease of use" in an virtual environment encouraged participation, and I think smart phones do play an important role in online members' participation as well. So if we consider things like smart phones an incentive hardware, do you think software also can work as a incentive factor if they are easily used, or drag members back if there are hard to use?
ReplyDelete> I think that introverts can find SNS a good place to express themselves. Some SNS have provides limited access to personal information (private profile, limit who can see what) and this is a place for more introverted people to express their interests, feelings, creations, etc. Yes, perhaps they still use pictures of cats or panoramic view as their avatar but per my observation of friends I consider more introverted, they are quite open and expressive.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and I think this is a reason that online communication sells. Although the personal information is still exposed to the server, the fact that people could participate anonymously significantly encouraged people to express themselves. It is not news these days that someone would rather tell a stranger online about things than people close to them. Whether this is good or bad is a different issue, but SNSs sure are good places for introverts to express themselves.
Very good post. Though I agree an SNL board might not be a community in the strictest sense, its barriers to entry are low, and gives people who might otherwise yell at their televisions a more tangible way to express their feelings. Even simple liked it/hated it expressions are being mined and analyzed in a lot of online forums ("sentiment analysis" is the vogue term).
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with the idea that "increase interesting content and ease of use = higher participation and contribution". For me, sites like Twitter and Facebook have mobile websites that allow you to use these sites without the need for a full-sized computer. I make Twitter updates and Facebook status updates from my phone while I'm out and about which is much easier than waiting until I'm home. It is very likely that I may forget the thought and the only reason I do participate is because it is easy to do so.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the opinion that increasing interesting content and ease of use leads to higher participation and more contributions. Using smart phones increased the participation of introverts on Facebook and Twitter as the ease of use and the control of privacy made them feel more comfortable expressing themselves. I also think web designers should create unique content to attract more users to participate in the online community. For example, if there are two similar online communities, I prefer the place with the more interesting content.
ReplyDeleteInteresting analysis of comments to a blog with sensitive content:
ReplyDeletehttp://gizmodo.com/#!5767243/39/a-graphical-analysis-of-woman+hating-online-trolls
this would be a good follow up to this blog post.