In this article we explore the semantic space spanned by self-reported statements of Republican voters. Our semantic structure analysis uses multidimensional scaling and social network analysis to extract, explore, and visualize word patterns and word associations in response to the stimulus statement "I'm a Republican, because ..." which were collected from the official website of the Republican Party. With psychological value theory as our backdrop, we examine the association of specific keywords within and across the statements, compute clusters of statements based on these associations, and explore common word sequences Republican voters use to characterize their political association with the Party. (authors' abstract)

The hashtag #phdchat is used by doctoral students all over the world to engage with their peers, share information, and commiserate over their experiences in academia. Anyone can join the conversation simply by typing the tag and publishing a tweet, but many regularly contribute to what has become a vibrant emergent social network community. Using an analysis of the discourse that was labeled with the hashtag over about a one-month period, this paper draws conclusions about who belongs to this community and what the network achieves for the users and as an entity of its own. The researcher makes conclusions about this network by drawing on the attributes of communities of practice and knowledge building communities in order to ground it as its own permutation of a learning community. / text

Auch Wissenschaftler können von Community-Unterstützungssystemen profitieren. Existierende Lösungen dieser Anwendungsdomäne sind beispielsweise spezielle Soziale Netzwerke wie ResearchGate oder erweiterte Publikationsdatenbanken wie Mendeley. Ein Kernproblem dieser Lösungen – wie allgemein von desktop-basierten Sozialen Netzwerken – besteht aber darin, dass auf die Plattformen i.d.R. nur über explizite Suche und primär in der normalen Arbeitsumgebung. d.h. im klassischen Single- User-Schreibtisch-Setting, zugegriffen werden kann. Selbst für den Fall, dass spezifische mobile Lösungen zum ubiquitären Zugriff verfügbar sind, zielen diese ausschließlich auf die asynchrone und dislozierte sowie meist pull-basierte Informationsversorgung von Einzelbenutzern ab und bieten keine explizite Unterstützung synchron-kolozierter Einsatzszenarien, bei denen mehrere Wissenschaftler an einem physischen Ort zusammenkommen (z.B. Konferenzen).

With each new innovation in technology since at least the Industrial Revolution, and probably before, optimists and pessimists have squared off in a cyclic debate over the impact of the day's newest technology. Self-proclaimed futurists for centuries have attempted to foretell the impact of technology on society with varied success. The goal of this research project is to study the effect of computer network technology on the social interactions of the local community organizations in Blacksburg, VA. Online surveys filled out by the leaders and members of these organizations measure different aspects of each organization and the use and usage of Internet technology within that organization. Correlations between the two may help us identify ways technology has affected the way we communicate with one another. Are community organizations communicating more or less? If so, how? Has face-to-face interaction been forsaken in lieu of technology such as email? The effects found in the survey results should give way to meaningful discourse on how technology can best be used to aid social interaction in local organizations. / Master of Science

[pt] Esta investigação aborda a paróquia católica na mudança de época, a partir das teorias de Manuel Castells. O início do milênio testemunha, de um lado, inédito interesse pastoral pela paróquia. De outro lado, temos muitos estudos multidisciplinares sobre mudança de época. Esta dissertação articula estas duas realidades. Ela analisa a paróquia a partir do seu nascimento no séc. IV. Acompanha sua evolução histórica até o Concílio de Trento, passando pelas novas configurações paroquiais do Vaticano II e do magistério Latino-Americano. Para abordar a mudança de época, esta pesquisa utiliza a teoria sociológica de Manuel Castells. A era da informação é a era das redes. A paróquia poderá aclimatar-se na medida em que compreender os novos significados desta nova estação histórica, tais como a nova territorialidade, dinâmica das redes e interatividade. / [en] This research approaches the Catholic Parish in the changing era according to the theory of Manuel Castells. The beginning of the millennium witnesses, from one side, an unprecedented pastoral interest to the parish. On the other hand, there are many multidisciplinary studies about changing era. This paper articulates these two realities. It analyzes the parish from its birth, in the 4th Century and it follows its historical development until the Council of Trent, passing through the new parish settings of Vatican II and the Latin American teaching. By approaching the changing era, this research uses the sociological theory of Manuel Castells. The information age is the age of networks. The parish can adapt itself to this new historical reality by understanding its new meanings, such as the new territoriality, dynamic networks and interactivity.