Online participation
Encyclopedia
Several motivation
s lead people to contribute to virtual communities. Various online media (i.e. Blogs, Chat rooms, Electronic mailing lists, Internet forums, Wikis), are becoming ever greater knowledge-sharing resources. Many of these communities
are highly cooperative and establish their own unique culture
. They also involve significant time from contributors with no monetary gain.
infrastructures include the following:
In the past important online knowledge sharing infrastructures included:
Peter Kollock
researched motivations for contributing to online communities. outlines three motivations that do not rely on altruistic behavior on the part of the contributor: anticipated reciprocity; increased recognition; and sense of efficacy.
There is another motivation, implicit in the above, which Marc Smith mentions in his 1992 thesis: Voices from the WELL: The Logic of the Virtual Commons: "Communion", as Smith terms it, or "sense of community
" as it is referred to in social psychology
.
is important to online contributors such that, in general, individuals want recognition for their contributions. Some have called this Egoboo
. Kollock outlines the importance of reputation online: “ in his discussion of the WELL
(an early online community) lists the desire for prestige as one of the key motivations of individuals’ contributions to the group. To the extent this is the concern of an individual, contributions will likely be increased to the degree that the contribution is visible to the community as a whole and to the extent there is some recognition of the person’s contributions. … the powerful effects of seemingly trivial markers of recognition (e.g. being designated as an “official helper”) has been commented on in a number of online communities…”
One of the key ingredients of encouraging a reputation
is to allow contributors to be known or not to be anonymous
. The following example, from study of the computer underground illustrates the power of reputation. When involved in illegal activities, computer hackers must protect their personal identities with pseudonyms. If hackers use the same nicknames repeatedly, this can help the authorities to trace them. Nevertheless, hackers are reluctant to change their pseudonyms regularly because the status associated with a particular nickname would be lost.
On the importance of online identity
: Profiles and reputation are clearly evident in online communities today. Amazon.com
is a case in point, as all contributors are allowed to create profiles
about themselves and as their contributions are measured by the community, their reputation increases. Myspace.com
encourages elaborate profiles for members where they can share all kinds of information about themselves including what music they like, their heroes, etc. In addition to this, many communities give incentives for contributing. For example, many forums award Members points for posting. Members can spend these points in a virtual store. eBay
is an example of an online community where reputation is very important because it is used to measure the trustworthiness of someone you potentially will do business with. With eBay, you have the opportunity to rate your experience with someone and they, likewise, can rate you. This has an effect on the reputation score.
The participants may therefore be encouraged to manage their online identity
in order to make a good impression
on the other members of the community.
, that is, a sense that they have had some effect on this environment. There is well-developed research literature that has shown how important a sense of efficacy is (e.g. Bandura
1995), and making regular and high quality contributions to the group can help individuals believe that they have an impact on the group and support their own self-image as an efficacious person.
Wikipedia is a good example of an online community that gives contributors a sense of efficacy
. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which uses online software to enable anyone to create new articles and change any article in the encyclopedia. The changes you make are immediate, obvious, and available to the world.
. However, it seems safe to say that there are some overlapping areas between all four motivators.
In addition to participants that actively contribute to online discussions, many people join virtual community spaces and do not post, a concept referred to as lurking . There are several reasons why people choose not to participate online, and chief among them are: getting what they needed without having to participate actively, thinking that they were being helpful by not posting, wanting to learn more about the community before diving in, not being able to use the software because of poor usability and not liking the dynamics that they observed within the group .
of the participants. The Department of Psychology in the University of Windsor found some levels of correlation in the articles “Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use” and “The Influence of Shyness on the Use of Facebook in an Undergraduate Sample”. The articles state that people who have high levels of anxiety or stress or a shy personality are more likely to favor socializing through the Internet. The reason for this is because they are able to communicate with others without being face-to-face, and mediums such as chat rooms give a sense of anonymity, which makes them feel more comfortable in getting involved in discussions with their peers .
such as:
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
s lead people to contribute to virtual communities. Various online media (i.e. Blogs, Chat rooms, Electronic mailing lists, Internet forums, Wikis), are becoming ever greater knowledge-sharing resources. Many of these communities
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
are highly cooperative and establish their own unique culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
. They also involve significant time from contributors with no monetary gain.
Knowledge sharing infrastructures
Some key examples of online knowledge sharingKnowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge is exchanged among people, friends, or members of a family, a community or an organization....
infrastructures include the following:
- WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
: An online, publicly editable encyclopaedia with hundreds of thousands of editors - SlashdotSlashdotSlashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
: A popular technology-related forum, with articles and comments from readers. Slashdot subculture has become well-known in Internet circles. Users accumulate a "karma score" and volunteer moderators are selected from those with high scores. - UsenetUsenetUsenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
: Established in 1980, as a "distributed Internet discussion system," it became the first medium for InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
communities. Volunteer moderators and votetakers contribute to the community. - Etc. (the Web2.0 is also referred to as the writable web for indicating that many people participate to the creation of its content)
In the past important online knowledge sharing infrastructures included:
- AOLAOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
: The largest of the online service providers, with chat rooms which for years were voluntarily moderated by community leadersAOL Community Leader ProgramThe AOL Community Leader Program or AOL CLP was the official name for the large group of America Online online service volunteers who moderated chat rooms, message boards, and download libraries....
. It should be noted that rooms and most message boards are no longer moderated, however. - The WELL: A pioneering online community established in 1985. The WELL's culture has been the subject of several books and articles. Many users voluntarily contribute to community building and maintenance (e.g., as conference hosts).
Theories
Several researchers have investigated motivation in virtual communities. Studies show that over the long term users gain a greater insight into the material that is being discussed and a sense of connection to the world at large.Peter Kollock
Peter Kollock
Peter Enrique Kollock was an American sociologist and an associate professor and vice chair in the department of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles...
researched motivations for contributing to online communities. outlines three motivations that do not rely on altruistic behavior on the part of the contributor: anticipated reciprocity; increased recognition; and sense of efficacy.
There is another motivation, implicit in the above, which Marc Smith mentions in his 1992 thesis: Voices from the WELL: The Logic of the Virtual Commons: "Communion", as Smith terms it, or "sense of community
Sense of community
Sense of community is a concept in community psychology and social psychology, as well as in several other research disciplines, such as urban sociology, which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features...
" as it is referred to in social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
.
Anticipated reciprocity
A person is motivated to contribute valuable information to the group in the expectation that one will receive useful help and information in return. Indeed, there is evidence that active participants in online communities get more responses faster to questions than unknown participants .Increased recognition
RecognitionRecognition (sociology)
Recognition in sociology is public acknowledgement of person's status or merits .When some person is recognized, he or she is accorded some special status, such as a name, title, or classification...
is important to online contributors such that, in general, individuals want recognition for their contributions. Some have called this Egoboo
Egoboo
Egoboo is a colloquial expression for the pleasure received from public recognition of voluntary work.The term was in use in science fiction fandom no later than 1947, when it was used in a letter from Rick Sneary published in the letter column of Thrilling Wonder Stories...
. Kollock outlines the importance of reputation online: “ in his discussion of the WELL
The Well
- Titled works :* The Well , 1986 novel by Elizabeth JolleyMusical albums:* The Well , by Waking Ashland* The Well, 2001, by Jennifer Warnes* The Well, a song from the "Come to the Well" album by christian group Casting Crowns...
(an early online community) lists the desire for prestige as one of the key motivations of individuals’ contributions to the group. To the extent this is the concern of an individual, contributions will likely be increased to the degree that the contribution is visible to the community as a whole and to the extent there is some recognition of the person’s contributions. … the powerful effects of seemingly trivial markers of recognition (e.g. being designated as an “official helper”) has been commented on in a number of online communities…”
One of the key ingredients of encouraging a reputation
Reputation
Reputation of a social entity is an opinion about that entity, typically a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria...
is to allow contributors to be known or not to be anonymous
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
. The following example, from study of the computer underground illustrates the power of reputation. When involved in illegal activities, computer hackers must protect their personal identities with pseudonyms. If hackers use the same nicknames repeatedly, this can help the authorities to trace them. Nevertheless, hackers are reluctant to change their pseudonyms regularly because the status associated with a particular nickname would be lost.
On the importance of online identity
Online identity
An online identity, internet identity, or internet persona is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites...
: Profiles and reputation are clearly evident in online communities today. Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
is a case in point, as all contributors are allowed to create profiles
User profile
A user profile is a collection of personal data associated to a specific user. A profile refers therefore to the explicit digital representation of a person's identity...
about themselves and as their contributions are measured by the community, their reputation increases. Myspace.com
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
encourages elaborate profiles for members where they can share all kinds of information about themselves including what music they like, their heroes, etc. In addition to this, many communities give incentives for contributing. For example, many forums award Members points for posting. Members can spend these points in a virtual store. eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
is an example of an online community where reputation is very important because it is used to measure the trustworthiness of someone you potentially will do business with. With eBay, you have the opportunity to rate your experience with someone and they, likewise, can rate you. This has an effect on the reputation score.
The participants may therefore be encouraged to manage their online identity
Online identity management
Online identity management also known as online image management or online personal branding or personal reputation management is a set of methods for generating a distinguished Web presence of a person on the Internet...
in order to make a good impression
Impression management
In sociology and social psychology, impression management is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event; they do so by regulating and controlling information in social interaction...
on the other members of the community.
Sense of efficacy
Individuals may contribute valuable information because the act results in a sense of efficacySelf-efficacy
Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
, that is, a sense that they have had some effect on this environment. There is well-developed research literature that has shown how important a sense of efficacy is (e.g. Bandura
Albert Bandura
Albert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University...
1995), and making regular and high quality contributions to the group can help individuals believe that they have an impact on the group and support their own self-image as an efficacious person.
Wikipedia is a good example of an online community that gives contributors a sense of efficacy
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which uses online software to enable anyone to create new articles and change any article in the encyclopedia. The changes you make are immediate, obvious, and available to the world.
Sense of community
People, in general, are fairly social beings and it is motivating to many people to receive direct responses to their contributions. Most online communities enable this by allowing people to reply back to contributions (i.e. many Blogs allow comments from readers, one can reply back to forum posts, etc.). Again, using Amazon.com as an example, other users can rate whether one's product review was helpful or not. Granted, there is some overlap between increasing reputation and gaining a sense of communitySense of community
Sense of community is a concept in community psychology and social psychology, as well as in several other research disciplines, such as urban sociology, which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features...
. However, it seems safe to say that there are some overlapping areas between all four motivators.
In addition to participants that actively contribute to online discussions, many people join virtual community spaces and do not post, a concept referred to as lurking . There are several reasons why people choose not to participate online, and chief among them are: getting what they needed without having to participate actively, thinking that they were being helpful by not posting, wanting to learn more about the community before diving in, not being able to use the software because of poor usability and not liking the dynamics that they observed within the group .
Online participation and psychology
Studies have also found that the nature and the level of participation in online social networking sites have been correlated with the personalityBig Five personality traits
In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....
of the participants. The Department of Psychology in the University of Windsor found some levels of correlation in the articles “Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use” and “The Influence of Shyness on the Use of Facebook in an Undergraduate Sample”. The articles state that people who have high levels of anxiety or stress or a shy personality are more likely to favor socializing through the Internet. The reason for this is because they are able to communicate with others without being face-to-face, and mediums such as chat rooms give a sense of anonymity, which makes them feel more comfortable in getting involved in discussions with their peers .
Participation in the social web
Online participation is relevant in different systems of the social webSocial Web
The social Web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The Social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social interactions form the basis of much online activity...
such as:
- Blogging
- Micro-bloggingMicro-bloggingMicroblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
- Online dating serviceOnline dating serviceOnline dating or Internet dating is a dating system which allows individuals, couples and groups to make contact and communicate with each other over the Internet, usually with the objective of developing a personal, romantic, or sexual relationship...
s - Social bookmarkingSocial bookmarkingSocial bookmarking is a method for Internet users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren't shared, merely bookmarks that reference them....
- Social network services
- Virtual worlds
- WikiWikiA wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
See also
- Collective intelligenceCollective intelligenceCollective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
- e-participationE-participatione-participation is the generally accepted term referring to "ICT-supported participation in processes involved in government and governance". Processes may concern administration, service delivery, decision making and policy making...
- Knowledge ecosystemKnowledge ecosystemThe idea of a knowledge ecosystem is an approach to knowledge management which claims to foster the dynamic evolution of knowledge interactions between entities to improve decision-making and innovation through improved evolutionary networks of collaboration....
- Legitimate peripheral participationLegitimate peripheral participationLegitimate peripheral participation describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practice or collaborative project . According to LPP, newcomers become members of a community initially by participating in simple and low-risk tasks that are...
(in Community of practiceCommunity of practiceA community of practice is, according to cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because of the members' common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created...
) - Lurking
- MotivationMotivationMotivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
- Motivations of Wikipedia ContributorsMotivations of Wikipedia contributorsWikipedia is an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. The encyclopedia is maintained by volunteers who willingly edit and create articles with no monetary recompense...
- Online communities
- Online identityOnline identityAn online identity, internet identity, or internet persona is a social identity that an Internet user establishes in online communities and websites...
- Online Community of PracticeOnline community of practiceAn Online Community of Practice , also known as a Virtual Community of Practice, is a Community of Practice that is developed on, and is maintained using the Internet. To qualify as an OCoP, the characteristics of a Community in Practice as described by Lave and Wenger must be met...
- Reputation system
- Self-efficacySelf-efficacySelf-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
- Sense of communitySense of communitySense of community is a concept in community psychology and social psychology, as well as in several other research disciplines, such as urban sociology, which focuses on the experience of community rather than its structure, formation, setting, or other features...
- Social actionsSocial actionsIn sociology, social action refers to an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals .According to Max Weber, "an Action is 'social' if the acting individual takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course" .- Social action and Max Weber :The...
- Social cognitionSocial cognitionSocial cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, in the brain, of information relating to conspecifics, or members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the...
- Social exchange theorySocial exchange theorySocial exchange theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties. Social exchange theory posits that all human relationships are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and...
- Social translucenceSocial translucenceSocial translucence is a term that was proposed by Thomas Erickson and Wendy A. Kellogg to refer to "design digital systems that support coherent behavior by making participants and their activities visible to one another"....
- Virtual communities
- Virtual community of practiceVirtual Community of PracticeTo some a virtual community of practice is a misnomer as the original concept of a community of practice was based around situated learning in a co-located setting. However, with increasing globalization and the continued growth of the Internet many now claim that virtual CoPs do exist...
- 1% rule (Internet culture)
External links
- Community Equity Specification - Sun project which objective is to build a dynamic Social Value system by calculating the Contribution, Participation, Skills, and Reputation equity a person can gain by actively engaging in online communities.