Submitted by FABIANA SOUZA (souza.m.fabiana@gmail.com) on 2017-03-20T13:17:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_final version_20.03.2017 pdf with ficha catalográfica.pdf: 1522104 bytes, checksum: ae5f88ba601637a307b8ea2ea7ec9c03 (MD5) / Rejected by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br), reason: Bom dia Fabiana, Já recebi sua submissão, mas será necessário alguns ajustes. *Título do seu trabalho deve estar em letra maiúscula. *Apenas seus título e seu nome em negrito nas páginas. *Após o agradecimento em inglês é necessário colocar o agradecimento em português. Com a conclusão destes ajustes tudo está certinho. Fazer novamente a postagem e aguardar a URL para assim fazer a submissão no aluno online. Qualquer dúvida estamos à disposição. Att, Pâmela Tonsa on 2017-03-20T13:36:23Z (GMT) / Submitted by FABIANA SOUZA (souza.m.fabiana@gmail.com) on 2017-03-20T14:57:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_final version_20.03.2017_final 14h55.pdf: 1527728 bytes, checksum: 54003154e3eecd0b2ea7326a1f8312dc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2017-03-20T15:37:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_final version_20.03.2017_final 14h55.pdf: 1527728 bytes, checksum: 54003154e3eecd0b2ea7326a1f8312dc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-20T15:39:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_final version_20.03.2017_final 14h55.pdf: 1527728 bytes, checksum: 54003154e3eecd0b2ea7326a1f8312dc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-15 / This thesis is a set of three studies concentrated on the antecedents and effects of users trust in online health groups on Facebook. People in Brazil are increasingly using these groups as a way to find health information and support from people who experience the same health challenges. There are several types of online groups addressing various topics of interest gathering together hundreds and thousands of individuals who can easily participate and interact with others. Their goal is to be able to improve their knowledge about their topic of interest, to manage their health condition better. Also many seek advice to better deal with the disease and alleviate its symptoms. Others are seeking support for behavior change to be healthier. The participation of people in such groups has the potential to address many health issues and positively influences health systems. So it is important to better understand about aspects that can contribute to the online group's sustainability and longevity, such as the activity of members, its inner workings and the relationship between members. These online groups are constituted by people who do not know each other personally. Thus, trust is an aspect that materializes from the interactions experienced and relationships constituted within the community. These experiences, result of the interaction of the individual with the other participants and the knowledge available, has the potential to increase or decrease their trust in the online groups. Which in turn impacts the way people engage in the community and contribute their knowledge as well as the adoption of knowledge available in the online group. The first study discusses aspects of the activity of members and the online group inner workings. These aspects imply the vitality of online communities, a crucial element for its success and development. Based on previous literature, we identified that there is no measure to assess the vitality of the community, although its dimensions have already been conceptualized. The main contribution of this paper is the development and validation of the Online Community Vitality scale, which can be measured by 20 items composed of five sub-dimensions: content quantity, content quality, interactivity, responsiveness, and atmosphere. The second study seeks to address the literature gap by exploring the determinants of individuals trust in online health groups. The main contribution of the second paper is the extension of the literature of trust in the context of social medias by testing and validating new variables as antecedents of trust: online community vitality, community support and perceived information credibility. The last study proposes that the participant's trust in online health groups have the potential to increase their engagement, knowledge adoption and contribution. Also, proposes that engagement positively influences the adoption of knowledge and knowledge contribution. The results support all prepositions. The findings contribute to the expand the literature about trust and engagement, considering the context of online health groups on Facebook. / Esta tese é um conjunto de três estudos sobre os fatores que impactam a confiança do indivíduo em grupos online de saúde no Facebook, bem como os efeitos da confiança nestes grupos. No Brasil as pessoas estão cada vez mais utilizando tais grupos como forma de acesso as informações de saúde e também para obter apoio de pessoas que enfrentam os mesmos desafios de saúde. Existem vários tipos de grupos online que tratam de temas diversos e reúnem centenas e milhares de pessoas, que facilmente participam e interagem com semelhantes. Estas pessoas buscam melhorar o seu conhecimento sobre o tópico de seu interesse, a fim de melhor administrar sua condição de saúde. Além disso, muitos procuram aconselhamento para melhor lidar com a doença e aliviar seus sintomas. Outros buscam suporte para que mudem seu próprio comportamento de modo a se tornarem mais saudáveis. A participação de pessoas em tais grupos tem potencial para ajudar na solução de muitos problemas de saúde e também influenciar positivamente os sistemas de saúde. Desta forma, é relevante a compreensão dos aspectos que podem contribuir para a sustentabilidade e longevidade do grupo online, tais como: as atividades dos membros, o funcionamento interno da comunidade e a relacionamento entre os membros. Os grupos on-line são constituídos por pessoas que geralmente não se conhecem pessoalmente, sendo assim, a confiança é um aspecto que se materializa a partir das interações vivenciadas e das relações constituídas dentro da comunidade. Essas experiências, resultado da interação do indivíduo com os outros participantes e do conhecimento disponível no grupo, têm potencial para aumentar ou diminuir sua confiança nos grupos on-line. O que por sua vez afeta a forma como as pessoas se engajam e contribuem com seus conhecimentos, bem como a adoção do conhecimento disponível no grupo on-line. O primeiro estudo discute aspectos relativos a atividade dos membros e o funcionamento do grupo online. Esses aspectos implicam a vitalidade da comunidade on-line, crucial para seu sucesso e desenvolvimento. Com base na literatura anterior, foi identificado que não há instrumento de medida para avaliar a vitalidade da comunidade, embora suas dimensões já tenham sido previamente conceituadas. A principal contribuição deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento e validação da escala de Vitalidade na Comunidade, que pode ser medida através de 20 itens distribuídos em cinco subdimensões: quantidade de conteúdo, qualidade do conteúdo, interatividade, capacidade de resposta e atmosfera. O segundo estudo trata de uma lacuna da literatura e explora os fatores determinantes da confiança dos indivíduos em grupos de saúde on-line. A principal contribuição do segundo artigo é a ampliação do arcabouço teórico de confiança no contexto das mídias sociais, por meio do teste e validação de novas variáveis como antecedentes de confiança, são elas: vitalidade da comunidade, suporte da comunidade e percepção de credibilidade da informação. O último estudo propõe que a confiança dos participantes em grupos on-line de saúde tem o potencial de aumentar seu engajamento, adoção e contribuição de conhecimento. Também propõe que o engajamento influencia positivamente a adoção de e contribuição de conhecimento. Os resultados suportam todas as proposições. Os achados contribuem para ampliar a literatura sobre confiança e engajamento, considerando o contexto dos grupos de saúde on-line no Facebook.

GeNeMe steht für Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien, im englischen Sprachgebrauch als Web-based Communities oder Online Communities bezeichnet. Diese Konfigurationen aus Informationstechnologie und sozialer Gemeinschaft sind gleichermaßen Thema für Anwendung und Forschung. Dabei wird deutlich, dass diese Konfigurationen aus Informationstechnologie und sozialer Gemeinschaft in vielfältigen Kontexten zu beobachten sind. Online Communities sind ohne Softwaretechnologie nicht denkbar - ebenso wenig wie ohne die neue Kultur gemeinschaftlichen Online-Handelns in Wirtschaft, Forschung und Bildung oder in privaten Räumen. Online Communities sind daher Thema mehrerer Fachdisziplinen: Informatik und Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Bildungswissenschaft und natürlich Kommunikationswissenschaft. Auf der GeNeMe trifft Medien- und Softwaretechnologie auf Wirtschaftsinformatik, Sozial- und Erziehungswissenschaft, werden Wissensarchitektur und -kooperation diskutiert. Diese Interdisziplinarität ist Tradition und Stärke der GeNeMe auch im 17. Jahr ihres Bestehens. Die Schwerpunkte des vorliegenden Bandes widmen sich eingangs überblicksartig der Analyse und Exploration von Trends und der Ausdifferenzierung von Forschungsfeldern. In den folgenden Kapiteln stehen dann zum einen die Beobachtung und Analyse von Informations- und Kommunikationshandeln unterschiedlicher Zielgruppen sowie zum anderen praktische Ansätze zur technologisch-didaktischen Gestaltung kollaborativer Systeme im Vordergrund. Nach Beiträgen aus spezifischen Einsatz- bzw. Forschungsfeldern bilden Analysen zu Nutzerverhalten in Business-Netzwerken sowie zu Geschäftsmodellen für MOOCs den Abschluss.:Inhalt A Eingeladene Vorträge 1 A.1 Wissenskooperation in betrieblichen Gemeinschaften 1 A.2 Dropbox & Co, alles schon ge-cloud? 3 B Trend- und Strukturanalysen 5 B.1 Trends der digitalen Lehre. Befunde einer Analyse des wissenschaftlichen Fachdiskurses. 5 B.2 Existieren Wissensmanagement-Schulen? - Eine Clusteranalyse von Wissensmanagement-Beiträgen aus den letzten 10 Jahren 17 B.3 Fablabs für die Forschung: Die Fusion von Makerspace und Bibliothek 33 C Information und Kommunikation 49 C.1 Gut vernetzt ist halb gewonnen? – Eine Analyse der Zusammenhänge zwischen Facebook-Nutzung und sozialem sowie akademischem Erfolg von Studierenden 49 C.2 Informationsbezogene Mediennutzung Jugendlicher und Senioren in (Online-)Communities 63 C.3 Enterprise 2.0 – ein Konzept das dem Kommunikationsverhalten junger Menschen entgegen kommt? 79 D Wissensgenerierumg und -kollaboration 93 D.1 Vergleich von offener und Script-basierter Kollaboration in einer Videolernumgebung 93 D.2 COMPASS – Eine kollaborative Plattform zur Wissensgenerierung über Accessibility-Probleme und deren Lösungen 105 D.3 auditorium – Frage, Diskutiere und Teile Dein Wissen! 117 E Anwendungsfelder 127 E.1 Online Communities für Energieversorger – Mehr als nur Self-Service? 127 E.2 „Ich nehme etwas für meine persönliche Balance mit“ – Eine explorative Studie zum Erleben von Erholung in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games 137 F Business Netzwerke 153 F.1 Einfl usskompetenz 2.0 – eine Analyse erfolgsstrategischen Nutzerverhaltens in webbasierten Business-Netzwerken 153 F.2 Mehr Schein als Sein? – Eine Analyse der Selbstdarstellung vonStudierenden im Karrierenetzwerk Xing 165 G MOOCs .179 G.1 Analyse von Geschäftsmodellen nationaler und internationaler MOOC-Provider 179 G.2 Kosten und Wert von MOOCs am Beispiel der Plattform iMooX 191 Adress- und Autorenverzeichnis 207

GeNeMe steht für Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien, im englischen Sprachgebrauch bezeichnet als Web-based Communities oder Online Communities. Einen wichtigen Impuls erfuhren die wissenschaftliche Analyse und die wirtschaftliche Nutzung dieser Communities unter der Metapher des Web2.0. Internet-basierte Technologien wie z. B. Social Media Werkzeuge, aber auch (soziale) Intranet-Systeme und Wissensplattformen bestimmen mehr denn je Lernen, Forschen und Arbeiten in Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Bildung und insbesondere das private (Zusammen-) Leben. Dabei führt die zunehmende Mobilität moderner multimedialer Systeme (Smartphone, Tablet PC, etc.) zu neuen Nutzungsoptionen und kollaborativen Anwendungen - sei es im Bereich des Gaming, der Barrierefreiheit oder beim gemeinsamen Gestalten digitaler Produkte. Die GeNeMe ’13 richtet sich in gleichem Maße an Wissenschaftler und Praktiker, die sich über den aktuellen Stand der Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet der Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien informieren möchten. Im 16. Jahr der Tagung geht es weiterhin um Fragen der (Ver-)Gemeinschaftung bei der Nutzung neuer Medien, virtueller Communities und des Social Web. Unabhängig von der sektoralen Zugehörigkeit der behandelten Szenarien zu Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft, Bildung und Unterhaltung geht es schwerpunktmäßig um folgende Themen: • Research Communities • Multi- and Rich Media Communication/Collaboration in mobilen Anwendungsszenarien und Kollaborative Barrierefreiheit • Global Communities, transnationale Kooperationen und - Netzwerke • Virtual and Massive Communities in Education Neben der methodischen und technologischen Perspektive interessiert das Verhältnis von individueller versus gemeinschaftlicher Aktivität, respektive Nutzung. Stärker als 2012 wurde auch die themenbezogene Praxis von Communities berücksichtigt. Der Sammelband zur Tagung „Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien“ steht 2013 unter dem Rahmenthema „Online Communities: Enterprise Networks, Open Education and Global Communication“ und strukturiert sich in Beiträge zu den Themenfeldern Community Technologies, Community Topics und Community Didactics. Alle in den Proceedings publizierten Beiträge wurden mit Hilfe eines anonymisierten Begutachtungsverfahrens auf Basis von mindestens 2 Gutachten aus einem breiten Angebot interessanter und qualitativ hochwertiger Beiträge ausgewählt.:A EINGELADENE VORTRÄGE 1 A.1 Neue Technologien – Neue Anforderungen an die Forschungsmethoden im Bildungswesen 1 A.2 Bürgerbeteiligung beim Hochwasserkampf - Chancen und Risiken einer kollaborativen Internetplattform zur Koordination der Gefahrenabwehr 13 B COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGIES 23 B.1 Mobile Bildungsmedien für die berufliche Ausbildung lernerorientiert entwickeln 23 B.2 Akzeptanz und Nutzung von E-Books 35 B.3 Einsatz Mobiler Apps im E-Learning 47 B.4 SENSE: Combining Mashup and HSM technology by semantic means to improve usability and performance 61 B.5 Fishification – Visualizing Activity Streams Using the Aquarium Metaphor 73 B.6 Designing e-research: A framework for researcher’s social online knowledge 83 C COMMUNITY TOPICS 101 C.1 Der Einfluss der Länge von Beobachtungszeiträumen auf die Identifizierung von Subgruppen in Online Communities 101 C.2 Topic-Based Aggregation of Questions in Social Media 113 C.3 Zesare: Kompetenzbündelung zur Unterstützung Studierender beim Erwerb studienbegleitender Zertifizierungen an sächsischen Hochschulen – Ein Projektbericht 125 C.4 Die Medienkompetenz Jugendlicher im Umgang mit digitalen sozialen Netzwerken 137 C.5 Status Quo und Bedeutung der Meinungs-führerforschung für Online-Communities 149 C.6 Förderung der Anerkennung in agilen Softwareentwicklungsprozessen 185 C.7 Trauern in virtueller Gemeinschaft. Geteiltes Gefühl in Online Gemeinschaften 189 C.8 Personalmarketing auf Social Network Sites. Die Top-100-Arbeitgeber auf Facebook 209 D COMMUNITY DIDACTICS 225 D.1 Play real – Kollaboratives Mock-Trial-Training in der OpenSim-basierten Virtual Learning World 225 D.2 Empirische Befunde zur mediengestützten Weiterbildung an sächsischen Hochschulen 237 D.3 Lebenslanges „Lernen, Lehren und Forschen” mit brauchwiki.de! Der interdisziplinäre Einsatz einer Web 2.0-Anwendung in einem geisteswissenschaftlichen Kooperationsprojekt an der Universität Augsburg 249 D.4 Kooperative Lehr-/Lernkonzepte im Bereich – tutoriell begleitete, virtuelle, kollaborative Gruppenarbeit in multinationalen Lernergruppen 259 D.5 Entwicklung eines Werkzeugs zur onlinebasierten Bestimmung typenspezifischer Lernpräferenzen 263 D.6 Virtuelle Praxisgemeinschaften in der Hochschullehre: Das mobil-virtuelle Klassenzimmer 273 D.7 Kommunikation geht alle an! – Mitarbeiterkompetenzen für neue Kommunikationsaufgaben durch Social Media 281 D.8 Studierende als Zielgruppe von Open Online Courses: Potenziale und Herausforderungen am Beispiel des SOOC13 293 D.9 Massive Open Online Courses: Kategorisierung und Analyse des Teilnehmerverhaltens am Beispiel der OPCOs 2011 und 2012 305 E POSTERBEITRÄGE 319 E.1 CloudBooks - LOOP ein neues Autorentool 319 E.2 Does community matter? Social and cultural influences on acceptance and use of collaborative educational technologies 325 E.3 Recommending in an Enterprise Social Media Stream without Explicit User Feedback 337

In der Gesellschaft gibt es einige wenige Individuen, die besonders überzeugend auf andere wirken und diese daher in Bezug auf Ideen, Informationen und Produkte beeinflussen können. Sie werden Meinungsführer genannt und sind in allen Bereichen der Gesellschaft zu finden. Meinungsführer sind aber, um Einfluss nehmen zu können, auf Meinungssuchende angewiesen. Diese finden sie zumeist in sozialen Netzwerken, wie Communities (online als auch offline), in welchen sie am aktivsten sind oder welche den Interessen der Meinungsführer am ehesten entsprechen. Im Onlinemarketing werden Meinungsführer zunehmend wichtiger, da es effektiver ist, sie direkt zu informieren und zu bewerben und dadurch Informationen verbreiten zu lassen oder durch sie Produkte, wie beispielsweise mittels Produktmuster, weiter zu empfehlen. Durch diese Prozesse können Produktempfehlungen und deren Verbreitung initiiert werden. In vielen Forschungsprojekten wurden bereits Aspekte der Meinungsführerschaft sowie Identifikationsmöglichkeiten für Meinungsführer in sozialen Netzwerken erarbeitet. Bisher sind Definitionen von Online-Communities und die Definition des Einflusses oder der Eigenschaften und Kennzahlen von Meinungsführern nicht einheitlich. Besonders die Kennzahlen zur Identifikation von Meinungsführerschaft in sozialen Netzwerken überschneiden sich teilweise inhaltlich, als auch namentlich. (...)

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Unter dem gemeinsamen Dach „Wissensgemeinschaften“ werden nun zwei Tagungen mit sich gegenseitig ergänzenden thematischen Schwerpunkten zusammengebracht, die Lern- und Wissensprozesse im Spannungsfeld zwischen Organisation, Technologie und (Unternehmens-)Kultur verhandeln. Während die Konferenz „Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien (GeNeMe)“ organisationale und technische Perspektiven im Kontext von Virtual Enterprises, Communities & Social Networks thematisiert, liefert die zweijährlich stattfindende Konferenz „Professionelles Wissensmanagement (ProWM)“ der Fachgruppe Wissensmanagement in der Gesellschaft für Informatik (fgwm) einen breiten integrativen Überblick über die organisatorischen, kulturellen, sozialen und technischen Aspekte des Wissensmanagements.

This thesis challenges core assumptions associated with the peer production of culture using the web-based collaborative film production platform Wreckamovie to understand how peer production works in practice. Active cultural participation is a growing political priority for many governments and cultural bodies, but these priorities are often implemented without a basis in empirical evidence, making it necessary for rigorous scholarship to tackle emerging networked cultural production. Existing work portrays peer production efforts as unrealistically distinct from proprietary, market-based production, incorrectly suggesting that peer production allows distributed, non-monetarily motivated, collaboration between self-selected individuals in hierarchy-free communities. In overcoming these assumptions, this thesis contributes to the development of a consolidated theoretical framework encompassing the complicated and multifaceted nature of networked cultural production. This theoretical framing extends Bourdieu’s theory of cultural production and reconciles it with Becker’s Art Worlds framework, and further embeds and draws on Benkler’s notion of commons-based peer production. Concretely, this research tackles the emergence of new collaborative production models enabled by networked technologies, and theorizes the tensions and challenges characterizing such production forms. Secondly, this thesis redefines cultural participation and considers the divisions of labour in online filmmaking materializing from the interactions between professional and non-professional filmmakers. Finally, this study considers the social economies surrounding networked cultural production, including crowdfunding, and characterizes associated conversions of capital, such as the conversion of symbolic capital into financial capital. Methodologically, this thesis employs an embedded case study strategy. It examines four feature film productions facilitated by the online platform Wreckamovie, as well as the online community within which these productions are embedded. The four production cases have completed all production stages, and have resulted in completed cultural goods during the course of data collection. This study’s findings were derived from two and half years of participant observations, interviews with 29 Wreckamovie community and production members, and the examination of archived production-related discourses (2006-2013). Ultimately, this study makes concrete proposals towards a theory of networked cultural production with clear policy implications.

This thesis introduces and analyses the emerging Website genre of Resource Centre Sites. RCSs are sites which combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. They also offer spaces for virtual communities of specialists or enthusiasts to emerge, who in the process and as a product of their interaction on these sites collate detailed resource collections and hyperlink directories for their fields of interest. Therefore, Resource Centre Sites significantly involve their users as content contributors and producers, turning them into what is here termed ‘produsers’ of the site. Aiming to evaluate all the content relevant to their field that is becoming available online, and to coopt or at least link to this information from the news and resources collection that is a central part of the RCS, Resource Centre Site produsers engage in an adaptation of both traditional journalistic gatekeeping methodologies and librarianly resource collection approaches to the Web environment: in the absence of gates to keep online, they have become ‘gatewatchers’, observing the publication of news and information in other sources and publicising its existence through their own sites. Their operation is studied here through a number of case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites from various fields of interest. These sites are analysed both based on their available Web content, and using background information obtained in a series of email interviews with RCS creators. In combination, this offers insights into the operating philosophies of sites and site editors, and provides an opportunity to assess to what extent these ideas have been translated into everyday practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of past and current theoretical views of the Web in an effort to evaluate their suitability for the current study. Older approaches positing an abstract ‘ideal’ form of hypertext are rejected in favour of a direct engagement with the World Wide Web as the now dominant mode of hypertextuality. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of gatewatching in contrast to traditional methods of evaluating news and information as they exist in journalistic media and archival institutions, and investigates the effects such gatewatching practices may have on editors and users. Chapter 3 describes the overall characteristics of Resource Centre Sites as a genre of Web publications. It notes the special role site users play in the operation of such sites (in their new role as ‘produsers’), and distinguishes the RCS genre from similar Website models such as portals and cybermediaries. Chapter 4 observes the everyday operation of such Websites in practice, using case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites including Slashdot, MediaChannel and CountingDown, and interviews with their creators. (These interviews are included in full in the Appendix.) This analysis works with both a synchronic view to the variety of topics existing Resource Centre Sites are able to address, and a diachronic view to the evolution of proto-RCSs (such as enthusiast community or online advocacy sites) into fully-featured Resource Centre Sites. Finally, based on this analysis, Chapter 5 is then able to point out some of the implications and effects that increasing use of this media form may have on its users and the network of news and information publications on- and offline, and to indicate the potential for further developments of the site genre.

This thesis introduces and analyses the emerging Website genre of Resource Centre Sites. RCSs are sites which combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. They also offer spaces for virtual communities of specialists or enthusiasts to emerge, who in the process and as a product of their interaction on these sites collate detailed resource collections and hyperlink directories for their fields of interest. Therefore, Resource Centre Sites significantly involve their users as content contributors and producers, turning them into what is here termed ‘produsers’ of the site. Aiming to evaluate all the content relevant to their field that is becoming available online, and to coopt or at least link to this information from the news and resources collection that is a central part of the RCS, Resource Centre Site produsers engage in an adaptation of both traditional journalistic gatekeeping methodologies and librarianly resource collection approaches to the Web environment: in the absence of gates to keep online, they have become ‘gatewatchers’, observing the publication of news and information in other sources and publicising its existence through their own sites. Their operation is studied here through a number of case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites from various fields of interest. These sites are analysed both based on their available Web content, and using background information obtained in a series of email interviews with RCS creators. In combination, this offers insights into the operating philosophies of sites and site editors, and provides an opportunity to assess to what extent these ideas have been translated into everyday practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of past and current theoretical views of the Web in an effort to evaluate their suitability for the current study. Older approaches positing an abstract ‘ideal’ form of hypertext are rejected in favour of a direct engagement with the World Wide Web as the now dominant mode of hypertextuality. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of gatewatching in contrast to traditional methods of evaluating news and information as they exist in journalistic media and archival institutions, and investigates the effects such gatewatching practices may have on editors and users. Chapter 3 describes the overall characteristics of Resource Centre Sites as a genre of Web publications. It notes the special role site users play in the operation of such sites (in their new role as ‘produsers’), and distinguishes the RCS genre from similar Website models such as portals and cybermediaries. Chapter 4 observes the everyday operation of such Websites in practice, using case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites including Slashdot, MediaChannel and CountingDown, and interviews with their creators. (These interviews are included in full in the Appendix.) This analysis works with both a synchronic view to the variety of topics existing Resource Centre Sites are able to address, and a diachronic view to the evolution of proto-RCSs (such as enthusiast community or online advocacy sites) into fully-featured Resource Centre Sites. Finally, based on this analysis, Chapter 5 is then able to point out some of the implications and effects that increasing use of this media form may have on its users and the network of news and information publications on- and offline, and to indicate the potential for further developments of the site genre.

This thesis introduces and analyses the emerging Website genre of Resource Centre Sites. RCSs are sites which combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. They also offer spaces for virtual communities of specialists or enthusiasts to emerge, who in the process and as a product of their interaction on these sites collate detailed resource collections and hyperlink directories for their fields of interest. Therefore, Resource Centre Sites significantly involve their users as content contributors and producers, turning them into what is here termed ‘produsers’ of the site. Aiming to evaluate all the content relevant to their field that is becoming available online, and to coopt or at least link to this information from the news and resources collection that is a central part of the RCS, Resource Centre Site produsers engage in an adaptation of both traditional journalistic gatekeeping methodologies and librarianly resource collection approaches to the Web environment: in the absence of gates to keep online, they have become ‘gatewatchers’, observing the publication of news and information in other sources and publicising its existence through their own sites. Their operation is studied here through a number of case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites from various fields of interest. These sites are analysed both based on their available Web content, and using background information obtained in a series of email interviews with RCS creators. In combination, this offers insights into the operating philosophies of sites and site editors, and provides an opportunity to assess to what extent these ideas have been translated into everyday practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of past and current theoretical views of the Web in an effort to evaluate their suitability for the current study. Older approaches positing an abstract ‘ideal’ form of hypertext are rejected in favour of a direct engagement with the World Wide Web as the now dominant mode of hypertextuality. Chapter 2 outlines the principles of gatewatching in contrast to traditional methods of evaluating news and information as they exist in journalistic media and archival institutions, and investigates the effects such gatewatching practices may have on editors and users. Chapter 3 describes the overall characteristics of Resource Centre Sites as a genre of Web publications. It notes the special role site users play in the operation of such sites (in their new role as ‘produsers’), and distinguishes the RCS genre from similar Website models such as portals and cybermediaries. Chapter 4 observes the everyday operation of such Websites in practice, using case studies of major existing Resource Centre Sites including Slashdot, MediaChannel and CountingDown, and interviews with their creators. (These interviews are included in full in the Appendix.) This analysis works with both a synchronic view to the variety of topics existing Resource Centre Sites are able to address, and a diachronic view to the evolution of proto-RCSs (such as enthusiast community or online advocacy sites) into fully-featured Resource Centre Sites. Finally, based on this analysis, Chapter 5 is then able to point out some of the implications and effects that increasing use of this media form may have on its users and the network of news and information publications on- and offline, and to indicate the potential for further developments of the site genre.