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Online Community (online + community)
Selected AbstractsBOOSTING STRATEGY WITH AN ONLINE COMMUNITYBUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, Issue 1 2010Lynda Gratton A programme that merged online communities with strategic development and implementation at Nokia has provided valuable lessons about the new ways employees are able to engage and interact. Lynda Gratton and Joel Casse tell how "deep involvement" evolved into the "Booster Programme". [source] Big Questions for a Significant Public AdministrationPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2001John J. Kirlin During the 1999 "Building Bridges Tour" (see Stivers 2000), PAR readers encouraged the editors to focus more attention on the so-called "Big Questions/Big Issues" of the field of public administration. In response to this suggestion, we created a new forum for scholarly discourse simply called "Big Questions/Big Issues." This inaugural forum begins with a context setting essay by John Kirlin,a leading proponent of the Big Questions/Big Issues perspective. Kirlin' essay is immediately followed by Laurence E. Lynn Jr.'s thought provoking piece, "The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For." Lynn' essay is important for it takes to task those who carelessly attack "traditional public administration." We asked J. Patrick Dobel (University of Washington), David Rosenbloom (American University), Norma Riccucci (State University of New York at Albany), and James Svara (North Carolina State) to respond to Lynn' essay. We invite PAR readers to join the conversation using PAR' message board online at ASPA's Online Community (http://www.memberconnections.com/aspa/) or by writing directly to theauthors and/or editors.,LDT [source] Conflict and identity shape shifting in an online financial communityINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009John Campbell Abstract., This paper challenges traditional explorations of online communities that have relied upon assumptions of trust and social cohesion. In the analysis presented here, conflict becomes more than just dysfunctional communication and provides an alternative set of unifying principles and rationales for understanding social interaction and identity shape shifting within an online community. A model is advanced that describes the systematic techniques of hostility and aggression in technologically enabled communities that take the form of contemporary tribalism. It is argued that this tribe-like conflict embodies important rituals essential for maintaining and defining the contradictory social roles sometimes found in online environments. This research offers a critical interpretive perspective that focuses on the link between identity shape shifting behaviours and the power relations within an online financial community. The analysis reveals how conflict between positions of power can help to align the values and ideals of an online community. With this study we seek to motivate a re-examination of the design and governance of online communities. [source] Collaborative recommendation of e-learning resources: an experimental investigationJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 4 2010N. Manouselis Abstract Repositories with educational resources can support the formation of online learning communities by providing a platform for collaboration. Users (e.g. teachers, tutors and learners) access repositories, search for interesting resources to access and use, and in many cases, also exchange experiences and opinions. A particular class of online services that take advantage of the collected knowledge and experience of users are collaborative filtering ones. The successful operation of such services in the context of real-life applications requires careful testing and parameterization before their actual deployment. In this paper, the case of developing a learning resources' collaborative filtering service for an online community of teachers in Europe was examined. More specifically, a data set of evaluations of learning resources was collected from the teachers that use the European Schoolnet's learning resource portal. These evaluations were then used to support the experimental investigation of design choices for an online collaborative filtering service for the portal's learning resources. A candidate multi-attribute utility collaborative filtering algorithm was appropriately parameterized and tested for this purpose. Results indicated that the development of such systems should be taking place considering the particularities of the actual communities that are to be served. [source] Foundations of communities of practice: enablers and barriers to participationJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 6 2009K. Guldberg Abstract This research draws upon community of practice theory to explore the factors that enabled or hindered participation in an online ,Foundations of Communities of Practice' workshop , a course that is designed to align with Wenger's communities of practice perspective. The research used a mixed methods approach, drawing upon log-on and posting data, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore participant experiences. The findings show that five dimensions either enabled or constrained participation. These were emotion, technology, connectivity, understanding norms and learning tensions. As enablers these dimensions led to successful participation within an online community of practice, but as constraints, they led to peripheral participation. The findings highlight implications for tutors of such courses. These include the need to (1) assess the technical expertise of participants, particularly when a number of different technological tools are used; (2) find ways to identify and evaluate emotional responses so learners can be supported in managing these; (3) ensure that participants understand the norms of a community; and (4) develop clear induction materials and processes. [source] Predicting Continued Participation in NewsgroupsJOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 3 2006Elisabeth Joyce Turnover in online communities is very high, with most people who initially post a message to an online community never contributing again. In this paper, we test whether the responses that newcomers receive to their first posts influence the extent to which they continue to participate. The data come from initial posts made by 2,777 newcomers to six public newsgroups. We coded the content and valence of the initial post and its first response, if it received one, to see if these factors influenced newcomers' likelihood of posting again. Approximately 61% of newcomers received a reply to their initial post, and those who got a reply were 12% more likely to post to the community again; their probability of posting again increased from 44% to 56%. They were more likely to receive a response if they asked a question or wrote a longer post. Surprisingly, the quality of the response they received,its emotional tone and whether it answered a newcomer's question,did not influence the likelihood of the newcomer's posting again. [source] Pathological gambling amongst Parkinson's disease and ALS patients in an online community (PatientsLikeMe.com),MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 7 2009Paul Wicks PhD Abstract Pathological gambling (PG) has been identified in Parkinson's disease (PD), but such gambling behaviors may also occur in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We sought to estimate the prevalence of PG amongst members of a web-based community, PatientsLikeMe.com. A survey was constructed, consisting of demographic information, the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the K-6 measure of distress, and items related to motivation for gambling. Data were obtained from 236 ALS patients and 208 PD patients. Of the PD patients, 13% were classified as problem gamblers compared with 3% of ALS patients (,2 = 14.005, P , 0.001). PD patients reported thoughts about gambling to be more distressing, harder to resist and more outside their control than ALS patients. Thus, the higher prevalence of compulsive behavior in PD may relate to damaged reward pathways or medication rather than to the effects of living with a chronic progressive neurological disorder per se. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society [source] The invisible reality of arthritis: A qualitative analysis of an online message boardMUSCULOSKELETAL CARE, Issue 3 2008Aimee Hadert MSc Abstract Background and aim:,Living with a chronic illness, such as arthritis, creates many psychosocial stressors, which can be difficult to cope with. Exploring the interactions which take place on an online message board for people with arthritis may provide insight into both the social support offered, as well as highlighting the groups' needs that perhaps are not being met in a more formal ,offline' setting. The aim of this study was to investigate how and why an arthritis online message board was used. Methods:,A retrospective three-month period of discussions posted on an online message board for people who have arthritis was downloaded into a word document. Collecting data in this manner ensured that completed discussions were captured. Eighty-seven initial messages and 981 replies were analysed. The discussions were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Results:,Four master themes were identified. Firstly, the invisible reality of the condition; secondly, information exchange, whereby users of the message board were shown to be both seeking and providing information; thirdly, while users praised the support they received from family and friends, the support offered and received online was considered to provide additional benefits. Finally, the message board allowed users to share (primarily negative) emotions which they felt unable to express in their offline worlds. Conclusion and implications:,Patients do not always understand the information being offered by health care professionals, and they do not have the confidence to ask for clarification. Health care professionals need to ensure that they find a way of checking levels of patient understanding. Failure to do so means that patients may turn to alternative sources, which may not provide accurate information. The study also showed that people with arthritic conditions find it difficult to express how they are feeling in their offline world; furthermore, they find it difficult to ask for support from their significant others, preferring instead to ,suffer in silence' and seek support from the online community, potentially further isolating them from the support of those in their offline world. There is scope for such patients to be both empowered and educated, so that they are better able to ask for the help they need, which in turn will help to counteract the danger of isolation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] An investigation of knowledge-building activities in an online community of practice at Subaru of AmericaPERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2009Susan M. Land Current approaches to workplace learning emphasize designing communities of practice that are intended to support both formal and informal knowledge acquisition. This article presents the design and research of a knowledge-based community of practice for Subaru, based on principles outlined by Scardamalia (2002) and Zhang, Scardamalia, Lamon, Messina, and Reeve (2007). The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which participants' interactions in the online community showed evidence of individual and collective knowledge building. We found evidence of knowledge building within online discussions in these areas: interactions around improvement of ideas, connection to workplace knowledge and practices, and building on or adopting the ideas of others. We also found significant gains in scores on an assessment of workplace customer service after participation in the online community of practice. [source] Flow experiences and image making: An online chat-room ethnographyPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 10 2004Aviv Shoham Chat rooms are a relatively new phenomenon. They provide a unique experiential locale, much like a community. They have become a popular replacement for oft-diminishing communities of yore. Qualitatively building on three overarching themes, chat rooms are put at the nexus of three diverse theoretical themes: community, flow experiences, and image management,the latter two being explored in this article. Chat rooms provide flow-like experiences to participants and allow chatters to manage and enhance their images. Given that chatters are highly involved and frequent visitors to their online community (specific chat rooms), they provide a unique opportunity to study this relatively new phenomenon, which has far-reaching, multidisciplinary implications. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Causal relationship between Internet use and social capital in JapanASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Kakuko Miyata Based on longitudinal data collected from a random sample panel survey, the present study found that different types of Internet usage are differentially related to social networks. The more social ties people have, the more likely they are to use personal computer (PC) email, and the use of PC email increases social ties. The results also show that the more supportive ties people have, the more they tend to use mobile phone email; however, it does not prove the use of mobile phone email increases supportive ties. However, participation in an online community is not related social networks. These findings suggest that PC email may increase the size of personal social networks, whereas mobile phone email is useful in maintaining existing strong ties which provide social support. [source] | |||||||||||||