Social network analysis (SNA) provides tools to examine relationships between people. Text mining (TM) allows capturing the text they produce in Web 2.0 applications, for example, however it neglects their social structure. This paper applies an approach to combine the two methods named "content-based SNA" (CB-SNA). Using the R mailing lists, R-help and R-devel, we show how this combination can be used to describe people's interests and to find out if authors who have similar interests actually communicate. We find that the expected positive relationship between sharing interests and communicating gets stronger as the centrality scores of authors in the communication networks increase. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

Media channels play an important role in the flow, construction, and curation of knowledge in software development. Understanding how developers use media channels is key to improving developer practices and supporting channel evolution. In this thesis, I investigate the way developers use media channels to curate knowledge within the R software development community. By applying a case study methodology consisting of mining archival data and survey methods, I investigate the R community on Stack Overflow and the R-help mailing list, using a qualitative approach. The findings reveal that Stack Overflow and mailing lists foster knowledge co-construction differently---crowd-sourced and participatory respectively. Furthermore, developers use actively both channels to optimize knowledge exchange and curation. My thesis contributes to the understanding of knowledge curation by developer communities, and describes a model for a systematic comparison of two or more media channels, within a community of practice. This model allows knowledge categorization and can be used in future studies to explore knowledge flow within multiple media channels. Moreover, based on my observations in conjunction with the survey data analysis, I extracted a set of recommendations to assist practitioners in the use of multiple Question and Answer (Q&A) channels. / Graduate

Este trabalho investiga os e-mails de apresentação pessoal gerado em duas listas eletrônicas de discussão que têm por objetivo discutir e praticar a língua inglesa. Por ser uma modalidade de comunicação de muitos para muitos, o presente estudo tem por objetivos: a) apresentar e discutir alguns aspectos da formação de comunidade online a partir dos modelos clássicos e contemporâneos; b) confrontar a interação nos contextos face-a-face e eletrônico; c) averiguar as informações contidas nos e-mails que indicam o comprometimento do autor com seu enunciado e, com isso, revelar o seu papel na interação; e d) identificar as informações pessoal e social dos usuários que compõem sua identidade social. A discussão sobre a formação de comunidade online está relacionada a uma descrição do funcionamento das listas e a produção interativa dos membros. A análise dos e-mails de apresentação pessoal está baseada nos conceitos de representação de papéis na interação e na construção de uma identidade social (Goffman, 1959, 1963 e 1967). A construção de identidade dos usuários é feita por meio do levantamento dos itens lexicais: I, ME, WE e MY e seus contextos de uso. As investigações mostram que: as listas eletrônicas podem ser descritas como um grupo de pessoas que compartilham interesses comuns; a identidade dos usuários é estabelecida a partir das informações pessoal e social dadas no discurso de apresentação; as informações pessoal e social situam o interlocutor sobre biografia social do enunciador. / This study comprises the investigation of self-introduction e-mail messages sent by individuals who want to take part in two group-discussion lists created for the purpose of practicing English and addressing issues related to this particular language. By focusing on a many-to-many communication environment, this study aims at: (a) presenting the classic and contemporary concepts of community, and discussing which conceptual features allow the establishment of online communities; (b) confronting the interaction that emerges from face-to-face and electronic communication contexts; (c) analyzing whether data conveyed in self-introduction messages depict the engagement between the writer and the text produced as well as the role performed by the writer in the interaction; and (d) identifying which attributes of the personal and social data put across indicate the sender’s social identity. As for the theoretical foundations, the discussion about online communities includes a description of group-discussion lists both in terms of their internal organization and of the interactive behavior of their members. The analysis of the self-introduction e-mail messages is based on the notion of roles performed in interaction and on the concept of social identity construction (Goffman, 1959, 1963, 1967). The constitution of the users’ identity is inspected through the investigation of some specific lexical itens (I, me, we, and my), and their collocation. The outcomes of this investigation suggest that group-discussion lists may be conceived of a group of people who, by sharing common interest. Furthermore, the sender’s identity is grounded on the personal and social information provided by his/her self-introduction discourse which also reveals his/her social biography.

Este trabalho investiga os e-mails de apresentação pessoal gerado em duas listas eletrônicas de discussão que têm por objetivo discutir e praticar a língua inglesa. Por ser uma modalidade de comunicação de muitos para muitos, o presente estudo tem por objetivos: a) apresentar e discutir alguns aspectos da formação de comunidade online a partir dos modelos clássicos e contemporâneos; b) confrontar a interação nos contextos face-a-face e eletrônico; c) averiguar as informações contidas nos e-mails que indicam o comprometimento do autor com seu enunciado e, com isso, revelar o seu papel na interação; e d) identificar as informações pessoal e social dos usuários que compõem sua identidade social. A discussão sobre a formação de comunidade online está relacionada a uma descrição do funcionamento das listas e a produção interativa dos membros. A análise dos e-mails de apresentação pessoal está baseada nos conceitos de representação de papéis na interação e na construção de uma identidade social (Goffman, 1959, 1963 e 1967). A construção de identidade dos usuários é feita por meio do levantamento dos itens lexicais: I, ME, WE e MY e seus contextos de uso. As investigações mostram que: as listas eletrônicas podem ser descritas como um grupo de pessoas que compartilham interesses comuns; a identidade dos usuários é estabelecida a partir das informações pessoal e social dadas no discurso de apresentação; as informações pessoal e social situam o interlocutor sobre biografia social do enunciador. / This study comprises the investigation of self-introduction e-mail messages sent by individuals who want to take part in two group-discussion lists created for the purpose of practicing English and addressing issues related to this particular language. By focusing on a many-to-many communication environment, this study aims at: (a) presenting the classic and contemporary concepts of community, and discussing which conceptual features allow the establishment of online communities; (b) confronting the interaction that emerges from face-to-face and electronic communication contexts; (c) analyzing whether data conveyed in self-introduction messages depict the engagement between the writer and the text produced as well as the role performed by the writer in the interaction; and (d) identifying which attributes of the personal and social data put across indicate the sender’s social identity. As for the theoretical foundations, the discussion about online communities includes a description of group-discussion lists both in terms of their internal organization and of the interactive behavior of their members. The analysis of the self-introduction e-mail messages is based on the notion of roles performed in interaction and on the concept of social identity construction (Goffman, 1959, 1963, 1967). The constitution of the users’ identity is inspected through the investigation of some specific lexical itens (I, me, we, and my), and their collocation. The outcomes of this investigation suggest that group-discussion lists may be conceived of a group of people who, by sharing common interest. Furthermore, the sender’s identity is grounded on the personal and social information provided by his/her self-introduction discourse which also reveals his/her social biography.

This dissertation describes research which investigated the use of communication tools in a WebCT learning environment. The instrumental case study investigated the level and frequency of use of the web-based communication tools during a full-fledged course delivery at a university that enrols only full-time students. The unit of analysis was the case and the instruments included group interviews, observation anecdotal notes, communication diaries, focus group and a journal/logbook. A mixed qualitative and quantitative research method was used in this research. The study evaluated how the interactivity and not how either the lesson or the WebCT function. The conceptual framework focused on interactivity, features of communication tools that promote interactivity, as well as the domains such as cognition, motivation and learner interface as aspects that influence the use of communication tools. Various web-based tools were used by a sample consisting of a selected small group of IT students who participated in the study. Those communication tools were used to facilitate learning in WebCT. The results showed a total of 145 interactions for the duration of ten sessions. The WebCT communication tools supported either synchronous or asynchronous communication. Communication tools were used to retrieve information and send text-based messages to lecturers and students. Interaction at different levels was evident between student and student, student and lecturer, lecturer and student, lecturer and lecturer, as well as, student and content. In addition to the WebCT communication tools, students used extra web-based communication tools, to facilitate their learning. It was concluded that with continuous advances in information and communication technology and with ever increasing student numbers at resident universities, more tertiary institutions should offer on-line courses. More communication tools should be considered on WebCT to facilitate more interactive learning. / Dissertation (MEd (Curriculum Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Waking up in a world where everyone carries a miniature supercomputer, interaction designers find themselves in their forerunners dreams. Faced with the reality of planetary-scale we have to confront the task of articulating approaches responsive this accidental ubiquity of computation. This thesis attempts such a formulation by defining computation as a strange material, a plasticity shaped equally by its technical properties and the mode of production by which is its continuously re-produced. The definition is applied through a methodology of excursions — participatory explorations into two seemingly disparate sites of computation, connected in they ways they manifest a labor of care. First, we visit the social infrastructures that constitute the Linux kernel, examining strangle entanglements of programming and care in the world's largest design process. This is followed by a tour into the thorny lands of artificial intelligence, situated in the smart replies of LinkedIn. Here, we investigate the fluctuating border between the artificial and the human with participants performing AI, formulating new Turing tests in the process. These excursions afford an understanding of computation as fundamentally re-produced through interaction, a strange kind of affective work the understanding of which is crucial if we ambition to disarm the critical accidents of our present future.