No description available.

Social capital is the value of the relationships we create and maintain within our social networks to gain access to and mobilize needed resources (e.g., jobs, moral support). Quantifying, and subsequently leveraging, social capital are challenging problems in the social sciences. Most work so far has focused on analyses from static surveys of limited numbers of participants. The explosion of online social media means that it is now possible to collect rich data about people's connections and interactions, in a completely ubiquitous, non-intrusive manner. Such dynamic social data opens the door to the more accurate measuring and tracking of social capital. Similarly, online data is replete with additional personal data, such as topics discussed in blogs or hobbies listed in personal profiles, that is difficult to obtain through standard surveys. Such information can be used to discover similarities, or implicit affinities, among individuals, which in turn leads to finer measures of social capital, including the often useful distinction between bonding and bridging social capital. In this work, we exploit these opportunities and propose a computational framework for quantifying and leveraging social capital in online communities. In addition to being dynamic and formalizing the notion of implicit affinities, our framework significantly extends current social network analysis research by modeling access and mobilization of resources, the essence of social capital. The main contributions of our framework include 1) hybrid networks that provide a way for potential and realized social capital to be distinguished; 2) the decoupling of bonding and bridging social capital, a formulation previously overlooked which coincides with empirical evidence; 3) the unification of multiple views on social capital, in particular, the seamless integration of resources. We demonstrate the broad applicability of our framework through a number of representative, real-world case studies to test relevant social science hypotheses. Assuming that the extraction of implicit affinities may be useful for community building, we built a large social network of blogs from an active, tech-oriented segment of the Blogosphere, using cross-references among blogs. We then used topic modeling techniques to extract an implicit affinity network based on the content of the blogs, and showed that potential sub-communities could be formed through increased bonding. A widespread assumption in sociology is that bonding is more likely than bridging in social networks. In other words, people are more likely to seek out others who are like them than attempt to link to those they share little or nothing with. We wanted to test that hypothesis, particularly in the context of online communities. Using Twitter, we created an experiment where hand-crafted accounts would tweet at regular intervals and use varied following strategies, including following only those with maximum affinity, following only those with no affinity, following random users, etc. Using the number of follow-backs as a surrogate for social capital, we showed that the assumed physical social behavior is also prevalent online, p < 0.01. There is much interest in computational social science to compare physical and cyber behaviors, test existing hypotheses on a large scale and design novel experiments. The advent of social media is also impacting public health, with growing evidence that some global health issues (e.g., H1N1 outbreak) may be discovered and tracked more efficiently by monitoring the content of social exchanges (e.g., blogs, tweets). In collaboration with colleagues from Health Sciences, we wanted to test whether broadly applicable health topics were discussed on Twitter, and to design and guide the process of discovering such themes. We gathered a large number of tweets over several regions of the United States over a one-month period, and analyzed their content using topic modeling techniques. We found that while clearly not a mainstream topic, health concerns were non-negligible on Twitter. By further focusing on tobacco, we discovered several subtopics related to tobacco (e.g., tobacco use promotion, addiction recovery), which indicate that analysis of the Twitter social network may help researchers better understand how Twitter promotes both positive and negative health behaviors. Finally, in collaboration with colleagues from Linguistics, we wanted to quantify the effect of social capital on second language acquisition in study abroad. Using questionnaire data collected from about 200 study abroad participants, we found that students participating in bridging relationships had significantly higher levels of language improvement than their counterparts, F(1,201) = 12.53, p < .0001.

No description available.

In this dissertation, I investigate how online social interactions and user-generated content affect sellers and consumers in online platforms. I conduct three empirical studies to understand the effect of user-generated content in three different types of online platforms: (1) an e-commerce marketplace, (2) an online reviews platform, and (3) an online health community. In study one, I examine how social features (e.g., following others, sharing others’ products) within an electronic commerce marketplace affect status and sales for sellers. This essay contributes to the literature on electronic commerce by deepening the understanding of online social processes among sellers. In study two, I explore how humorous appropriation of an online review platform affects purchase intention and consumer engagement. Utilizing both controlled experiments and analysis of real-world reviews, I demonstrate that humorous appropriation attenuates the effect of review valence on purchase intentions and increases consumer engagement. In study three, I investigate how community ratings are related to patient treatment evaluations and compliance in an online health community. I find that community ratings are positively associated with treatment evaluations and compliance. Moreover, I find that community size and ratings variance moderate the effect of community ratings on treatment evaluations and compliance. Taken together, these essays contribute to the literature on Information Systems by augmenting the understanding of the effects of different types of user-generated content on social (status, engagement, and evaluations) and economic outcomes (purchase intentions and sales). The studies also offer insights for strategic decisions regarding user-generated content in online platforms. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems

One of the key features of an online community network is that there is no central management authority; the community members themselves manage it. At the same time, for any application to be complete it must have a useful help system. So, for a community network to be completely run by the members, the task of creating and manipulating help documents must also be handled by the members/end-users. Previous studies about community networks show that extensive volunteer effort is one of the basic characteristics of a community network. Therefore a study about end-user authoring is possible in a community network. Minimalism is an instruction design method that helps users to learn about the system by performing real tasks. This study aimed at analyzing the possibilities of guiding the end-users to create a better minimalist help document than a more traditional and comprehensive one. The users' performance and preferences were used to compare the two approaches. The study also focused on users' preference to using minimalist help documents versus traditional help documents. The results indicated that it is possible to guide the end-users to create minimalist help documents. However, no significant results were found to conclude that the end-user authored minimalist help document would be better than an end-user authored traditional help document. The results also indicated that, although significant results were not found, the users seem to prefer a more traditional help, than a minimalist help, for a community network. The implications of the study and recommendations for future work are presented. / Master of Science

Eine Online-Community oder auch virtuelle Gemeinschaft ist ein Bereich im Internet, in der Personen sich zu bestimmten Themen treffen, sich unterhalten, sich selbst darstellen oder um zu konsumieren. Der Erfolg einer Online-Community ist durch die Usability des User Interfaces einer Online-Community nicht angemessen zu beschreiben. Daher wird in diesem Beitrag analysiert, welche weiteren Faktoren neben der Usability bei der Evaluation von Online-Communities berücksichtigt werden müssen. Online-Communities unterstützen kooperatives Verhalten, wie die Kommunikation zwischen Teilnehmern und das Arbeiten in Gruppen. Daher spielen soziale Eigenschaften der Anwendung eine zentrale Rolle. Hierzu wird das Konzept der Sociability eingeführt und es werden Kriterien abgeleitet, die bei der Bewertung von Online-Communities berücksichtigt werden sollten. Neben Usability und Sociability werden Eigenschaften der Online-Communities bewertet, die den Nutzer bei der Anwendung sowohl stimulieren als auch ihn dabei unterstützen, sich mit der Gemeinschaft zu identifizieren und ihm helfen, sich innerhalb der Umgebung seiner gewünschten Identität angemessen auszudrücken.

Social networking services (SNS) like Facebook are used by an increasing number of people worldwide for social exchange. Given the amount of time that is spent on these online services, they are likely to have an impact on how individuals interact with each other. On this note, anecdotal examples emphasize both positive (i.e., expanding or strengthening relationships) and negative effects (i.e., bullying, feelings of disconnectedness). To shed more light on this issue, scholars from various disciplines have started to investigate the significance of social networking services on interpersonal relationships and on how individuals might experience benefits on the one hand, or face challenges through the use of online services on the other hand [1, 2]. One research interest that has gained significant attention in recent years is the analysis of effects that social networks may have on the quantity and quality of interpersonal online social support in different contexts. [... from the introduction]

Eine Online-Community oder auch virtuelle Gemeinschaft ist ein Bereich im Internet, in der Personen sich zu bestimmten Themen treffen, sich unterhalten, sich selbst darstellen oder um zu konsumieren. Der Erfolg einer Online-Community ist durch die Usability des User Interfaces einer Online-Community nicht angemessen zu beschreiben. Daher wird in diesem Beitrag analysiert, welche weiteren Faktoren neben der Usability bei der Evaluation von Online-Communities berücksichtigt werden müssen. Online-Communities unterstützen kooperatives Verhalten, wie die Kommunikation zwischen Teilnehmern und das Arbeiten in Gruppen. Daher spielen soziale Eigenschaften der Anwendung eine zentrale Rolle. Hierzu wird das Konzept der Sociability eingeführt und es werden Kriterien abgeleitet, die bei der Bewertung von Online-Communities berücksichtigt werden sollten. Neben Usability und Sociability werden Eigenschaften der Online-Communities bewertet, die den Nutzer bei der Anwendung sowohl stimulieren als auch ihn dabei unterstützen, sich mit der Gemeinschaft zu identifizieren und ihm helfen, sich innerhalb der Umgebung seiner gewünschten Identität angemessen auszudrücken.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to gain in-depth knowledge of how the members of online communities form impressions of organisations that use online communities in their communication activities. Online impression formation has its peculiarities and in order to succeed companies need to better understand this phenomenon. In order to appreciate and evaluate an interaction, those involved in it must know their own identity. Hence, individuals as well as companies engage in identity production by trying to project a favourable impression. The process of identity production can take place in both the offline and the online world. This study focuses on the online world, more specifically on online communities, by investigating how online community members form impressions of companies that produce their identities in online communities. Technology has changed customer behaviours dramatically. People have embraced the Internet to meet and interact with one another. This behaviour is in line with the postmodern assumption that there is a movement towards re-socialisation. Online communication platforms connect people globally and give them the possibility to interact and form online social networks. These platforms are interactive, and thus change the traditional way of communication. Companies therefore have to embrace those interactive ways of communication. In the online world consumers are quick to react to communication weaknesses. Inappropriate corporate communication activities can affect the image they have formed of the company in question.