The notion of social capital (SC) is increasingly used as a framework for describing social issues in terrestrial communities. For more than a decade, researchers use the term to mean the set of trust, institutions, social norms, social networks, and organizations that shape the interactions of actors within a society and that are considered to be useful and assets for communities to prosper both economically and socially. Despite growing popularity of social capital especially, among researchers in the social sciences and the humanities, the concept remains ill-defined and its operation and benefits limited to terrestrial communities. In addition, proponents of social capital often use different approaches to analyze it and each approach has its own limitations. <p>This thesis examines social capital within the context of technology-mediated communities (also known as virtual communities) communities. It presents a computational model of social capital, which serves as a first step in the direction of understanding, formalizing, computing and discussing social capital in virtual communities. The thesis employs an eclectic set of approaches and procedures to explore, analyze, understand and model social capital in two types of virtual communities: virtual learning communities (VLCs) and distributed communities of practice (DCoP). <p>There is an intentional flow to the analysis and the combination of methods described in the thesis. The analysis includes understanding what constitutes social capital in the literature, identifying and isolating variables that are relevant to the context of virtual communities, conducting a series of studies to further empirically examine various components of social capital identified in three kinds of virtual communities and building a computational model. <p>A sensitivity analysis aimed at examining the statistical variability of the individual variables in the model and their effects on the overall level of social capital are conducted and a series of evidence-based scenarios are developed to test and update the model. The result of the model predictions are then used as input to construct a final empirical study aimed at verifying the model.<p>Key findings from the various studies in the thesis indicated that SC is a multi-layered, multivariate, multidimensional, imprecise and ill-defined construct that has emerged from a rather murky swamp of terminology but it is still useful for exploring and understanding social networking issues that can possibly influence our understanding of collaboration and learning in virtual communities. Further, the model predictions and sensitivity analysis suggested that variables such as trust, different forms of awareness, social protocols and the type of the virtual community are all important in discussion of SC in virtual communities but each variable has different level of sensitivity to social capital. <p>The major contributions of the thesis are the detailed exploration of social capital in virtual communities and the use of an integrated set of approaches in studying and modelling it. Further, the Bayesian Belief Network approach applied in the thesis can be extended to model other similar complex online social systems.

The Internet represents a unique opportunity for people to interact with each other across time and space, and online communities have existed long before the Internet's solidification in everyday living. There are two inherent challenges that online communities continue to contend with: motivating participation and organizing information. An online community's success or failure rests on the content generated by its users. Specifically, users need to continually participate by contributing new content and organizing existing content for others to be attracted and retained. I propose both participation and organization can be enhanced if users have an explicit awareness of the implicit social network which results from their online interactions. My approach makes this normally ``hidden" social network visible and shows users that these intangible relations have an impact on satisfying their information needs and vice versa. That is, users can more readily situate their information needs within social processes, understanding that the value of information they receive and give is influenced and has influence on the mostly incidental relations they have formed with others. First, I describe how to model a social network within an online discussion forum and visualize the subsequent relationships in a way that motivates participation. Second, I show that social networks can also be modeled to generate recommendations of information items and that, through an interactive visualization, users can make direct adjustments to the model in order to improve their personal recommendations. I conclude that these modeling and visualization techniques are beneficial to online communities as their social capital is enhanced by "weaving" users more tightly together.

Many individuals with autism manifest problems in transitioning to adulthood due to social impairments, communication difficulties, and rigid behaviors. One of those challenges is developing a robust and sufficiently large network of people who can provide advice about a variety of everyday situations. In this dissertation, I investigate ways of supporting adolescents with high functioning autism in navigating their everyday life through specializing social networking services (SNSs). A series of studies were conducted to identify opportunities for the design and use of a specialized SNS to foster the independence. The results demonstrates SNS can support some adolescents and adults with autism in increasing the independence by 1) facilitating the asking of a variety of online networks beyond a primary caregiver; and 2) allowing acquisition of rapid, direct, and informational advice with crowdsourcing. Drawing on several formative studies and investigations, I synthesized design guidelines for inquir.us, a specialized hybrid social question-and-answer (Q&A) platform with features for scaffolding question creation and crowdsourcing answers. Through the initial evaluation of inquir.us, I examined the Q&A behavior of individuals with autism on this platform and identified both opportunities and barriers to adoption in the context of supporting transition skills for the independence. The contributions of this thesis are: (1) a rich description of challenges and opportunities related to attaining independent life using SNSs; (2) empirical studies of individuals with autism’s online Q&A behavior; (3) design implications for designing a specialized SNS facilitating the Q&A interactions; and (4) the design and exploratory study of a social Q&A platform in the real world.

Many sources of rules govern our interactions with technology and our behavior online—law, ethical guidelines, community norms, website policies—and they do not always agree. This is particularly true in the context of content production because copyright law represents a collection of complex policies that often do not always account for the ways that people use and re-use digital media. Within legal gray areas, people make decisions every day about what is allowed, often negotiating multiple sources of rules. How do content creators make decisions about what they can and cannot do when faced with unclear rules, and how does the law (and perceptions of the law) impact technology use, creativity, and online interaction? Combining in-depth interviews, large-scale content analysis, and surveys, my work examines the complex relationship between law, site policy, norms, and technology. This dissertation provides a better understanding of how content creators engage with copyright and how norms organically form within communities of creators. It concludes with a set of design and policy recommendations for online community designers to help better support current practices among content creators.

In concept, online communities allow people to access the wide range of knowledge and abilities of a heterogeneous group of users. In reality, current implementations of various online communities suffer from a lack of participation by the most qualified users. The participation of qualified users, or experts, is crucial to the social welfare and widespread adoption of such systems. This research proposes techniques for identifying the most valuable contributors to several classes of online communities, including question and answer (QA) forums and other content-oriented social networks. Once these target users are identified, content recommendation and novel quantitative incentives can be used to encourage their participation. This research represents an in-depth investigation into QA systems, while the major findings are widely applicable to online communities in general. An algorithm for recommending content in a QA forum is introduced which can route questions to the most appropriate responders. This increases the efficiency of the system and reduces the time investment of an expert responder by eliminating the need to search for potential questions to answer. This recommender is analyzed using real data captured from Yahoo! Answers. Additionally, an incentive mechanism for QA systems based on a novel class of incentives is developed. This mechanism relies on systemic rewards, or rewards that have tangible value within the framework of the online community. This research shows that human users have a strong preference for reciprocal systemic rewards over traditional rewards, and a simulation of a QA system based on an incentive that utilizes these reciprocal rewards outperforms a leading incentive mechanism according to expert participation. An architecture is developed for a QA system built upon content recommendation and this novel incentive mechanism. This research shows that it is possible to identify the most valuable contributors to an online community and motivate their participation through a novel incentive mechanism based on meaningful rewards. / text

Purpose: Currently little research exists regarding the attitudes of managers towards using social media for innovation processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence managerial attitudes and their willingness to use social media as a tool for generating innovations. Design/methodology/approach: Based on existing literature within the technology acceptance field, a research model has been created. A deductive and quantitative research approach has been employed in order to test the hypotheses on 137 managers from international companies who use social media within their innovation processes. Findings: The results of the linear regression show that three out of six hypotheses could be accepted. Perceived usefulness and subjective norms have an impact on the managers' attitude towards social media in innovation processes. Moreover, the findings reveal that the attitude towards using social media in innovation processes influences the managerial behavior intention. Research limitations/theoretical implications: The research model of this study contributes to the already existing literature. It aims at explaining the managerial attitude towards social media integration into innovation processes, being based on the extended technology acceptance model (TAM2). Research limitations concern the model's application in different contexts for other technologies, the lack of balance of female and male respondents and the concentration on specific industries in which user-driven innovation is highly important. Future research is encouraged to take these factors into consideration. Practical implications: Companies should support their employees’ and managers’ confidence in using social media for innovation processes by reinforcing the managerial perception of social media's usefulness. Managers and employees should be encouraged by external parties to use social media for example by attending workshops and advanced training courses or visiting conferences in order to appreciate its acceptability. Originality/value: The study presents a new research model that investigates managerial attitudes towards social media integration into innovation processes based on the extended Technology Acceptance Model. The association of managerial attitudes, social media, innovation and TAM2 is novel within this field of research.

Purpose – The aim of this thesis is to explain the factors that influence consumers’ willingness to contribute to crowdsourcing organizations, by applying the reciprocity theory. Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative research which used a cross sectional research design with an explanatory approach. The data was collected with a questionnaire survey that was distributed using face-to-face and online methods. Findings – The findings of this research revealed that social proof is positively influencing willingness to contribute, either direct or indirect, through reciprocity. In addition, trust, commitment and identification were not directly influencing willingness to contribute, however they have an indirect positive impact on willingness to contribute through reciprocity. Research limitations/implications – This study has created a research model by the use of relevant literature in regards to reciprocity and willingness to contribute. Moreover, the limitations of this study are related to the chosen sample, since the generalization of the results is done based on three countries. Practical implications – The study provides some valuable insights for crowdsourcing organizations managers who aim to increase the amount of contributions through their online communities by the use of the reciprocity theory. Detailed explanation goes in the managerial implications section. Originality/value – This research is unique in that it presents a new model that shows reciprocity as a mediating factor for improving online communities’ users attitudes towards contributing to crowdsourcing organizations.

Teachers are required to constantly change their pedagogy throughout their career, either in response to new theoretical approaches or new technological innovations. It is a profession that is characterised by dynamism and constantly strives to advance its practices to improve outcomes in student learning. However, current professional development programs are seen to be failing to meet the needs of the teachers, students and education policy. Research has shown (Huberman, 1995; Richardson, 1990), there has been little discernible change in teaching practice from current professional development programs, thus an alternative solution is needed. The premise underlying this study is that the use of online communities of practice may present a solution to the failure of current professional development programs in effecting change to teaching practice. Thus it is the intention of this thesis to investigate if online communities of practice can realise this potential. The research was conducted within the paradigm of qualitative analysis. The study was conducted as a multiple explanatory case study also known as a collective case study (Yin, 2003) and this approach reflects the current shift in trends of research in education. As Richardson (1994) stated, it has shifted &quotfrom a focus on effective behaviours toward the hermeneutic purpose of understanding how teachers make sense of teaching and learning" (p. 5). The approach used in this thesis provided insights into the value of online communities as authentic contexts for supporting professional development particularly in relation to relationships, communication and collaboration between teachers around professional inquiry, problem solving and emotional aspects of teaching. The results of the study show that online communities of practice are a valuable source of continuous professional development for teachers. They have the ability to provide support as teachers accommodate the constant changes and the need to acquire new skills and knowledge. The strength of this method of PD lies in its ability to be self-sustaining and generative. Teachers have access to authentic, relevant and flexible learning that is not constrained by time and can be accessed according to members needs.

Erasmus Student Network (ESN) plays an important role in the integration process of international students who spend their study abroad period in a new country. ESN community in Kalmar in Sweden has Facebook groups for every semester which spread the hospitality through the local ESN members, also called as ‘hosts’, for the new members who can be called either ‘guests’, ‘tourists’, ‘exchange students’ or ‘freemovers’. The previous literature in tourism regarding social life online has emphasised the user-generated content on travel-related online communities on social media and ‘mobility turn’ that is an emerged topic in social sciences and has put social into travel and has thus forced researches to come up with new mobile methods to study online communities. Despite the fact that the word ‘social’ seems to be everywhere, social sustainability has been somewhat overlooked research area particularly in terms of online communities. This thesis project aims to fill this gap in the tourism literature and seeks to find out what social sustainability means in a context of online communities. Social sustainability forms the conceptual framework of the thesis and discusses the hosts and guests paradigm connecting it to online environments. The empirical material was collected by using qualitative methods including online survey distributed on ESN Kalmar Facebook groups and netnography concerning the ESN Kalmar online communities on Facebook. In addition to a theoretical contribution, the thesis project makes a methodological addition since netnography is still underutilised method among tourism scholars. These methods provided comprehensive data both from subjective and objective perspectives. The data was analysed by thematic analysis under the themes of social support, well-being and friendships, which were found to be connected to socially sustainable communities in the literature. The results found that online communities benefit from offline meetings that make the relationships between the community members stronger and thus create trust among the members. The role of the hosts and their local knowledge in the online community was proven vital in making guests to feel welcome, cared and supported during their study abroad period. However, the socially sustainable online community requires interaction and hospitality from both parties. Social sustainability of an online community can be disrupted if the community members are not cooperating and being open enough. Besides the local importance of the study in developing ESN Kalmar’s online community dynamics by emphasising the role of social sustainability, the results can be applied to discussions of internet behaviour in general. Also, the study provides help for communities where the roles between the hosts and guests are constantly “on move”.

I introduce the concept of Territory Building – a social media application approach that intends to guide and support sufferers of rare diseases in the process of “making sense” of online information. Similar to approaches that emphasize the sharing of web resources – such as social bookmarking sites - user interaction in regards to web resources is at the centre of this concept. The idea of Territory Building is built on a geographical metaphor, guiding a community in assembling a “virtual territory”, consisting of existing web resources related to the community’s domain of interest, along with user-generated information pertaining to these resources. As users build up this Territory, claiming new resources for it, charting out the place of this information in the context of the existing Territory, finally colonizing these resources by interacting, discussing, rating the information, they participte in a process that should help both the invidual and the community as a whole in “making sense” of this information. The “added value” generated through the contributions and engagement of the userbase as a whole becomes more accessible to the individual, and individuals in turn have a more immediate means of contributing to the existing knowledge. Paying close attention to the needs of the intended target group, I designed and implemented a prototype web-application based on the Territory Building approach, and deployed it for use by persons suffering from the rare disease Trigeminal Neuralgia. I observed how this audience made use of the approach, and how implementation details were received. 80 users registered in the prototype system, 31 web resources were contributed by users. The findings suggest that the Territory Building concept can address a genuine need in regards to assembling and engaging with available online information, and that patients are interested in making use of this approach for the purpose of disseminating information resources to their peers. Lessons learned also indicate that the approach can potentially support those affected by rare diseases in “making sense” of the information available to them, and that means of accessing and creating user-generated knowledge in the context of existing web-resources can increase the potential of users to benefit from the collaborative knowledge-generating processes of their peers.