OnlineCommunities/Concepts

Conceptual Frameworks

• Communities of Practice

• Network Theory

• Social Capital Analysis

Key Concepts and Definitions

Real-world vs. Virtual Communities:

Are [virtual communities] truly "communities" in the traditional meaning? One way to determine if virtual communities are like traditional communities is to examine their "sense of community", their feelings of belonging, attachment and identity with each other. -Blanchard

Differentiating "online communities" from "communities of practice":

Every group that shares interest on a website is called a community today, but communities of practice are a specific kind of community. They are focused on a domain of knowledge and over time accumulate expertise in this domain. They develop their shared practice by interacting around problems, solutions, and insights, and building a common store of knowledge. -Wenger

Differentianting a "community" from an "audience":

The difference between a 'community' and an 'audience', namely that 'communities have strong upper limits on size, while audiences can grow arbitrarily large' -Clay Shirky

Social Capital:

"Social Capital" refers to the value of social networks. To describe something as "capital" is simply to highlight that it is a resource which we can invest time and money in, and which pays returns. Social networks deliver a range of goods -- they provide efficient circulation of information and facilitate mutual support, leading to a range of social and economic benefits. The norms and trust levels that facilitate collaborative behaviour provide communities with public goods: lower crime, economic vitality, higher health levels. Social networks are also implicated with private individual benefits -- most notably, job prospects. Putnam

Methodologies

• Quantitative Linguistic Analysis

• Qualitative Discourse Analysis

• Value Chain Analysis

• Social Network Analysis

• Interviews: in-person and through e-mail with message board participants

• Case Study

• Ethnography