Dissertations / Theses: 'Virtual communities'

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GABBIADINI, ALESSANDRO. "Partecipation in virtual communities." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/29747.

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The main aim of this dissertation is to examine in depth some aspects of the participation process to a virtual community. We used the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB, Perugini & Bagozzi, 2001) to investigate the role of motivational factors in the processes of active contribution and use of web community resources in online communities. Given the social dimension of a virtual community, similar to other authors (Dholakia and Bagozzi 2002, 2006a, 2006b; Bagozzi, 2011) we introduced the concept of we-intentions from Toumela‟s work (1995) in addition to individual intentions. Nielsen (2006) analyzed the contribution process defining the inequality in the contribution as the tendency for most web community users to participate modestly, while only some community members represent the active part of content production (1% as active content producers, 9% as content modifiers). Drawing from this idea, our research question was to better understand what are the factors that may inhibit a user from participating in a virtual community. The first study, a longitudinal research, aimed at identifying the processes underlying the willingness to actively contribute to a virtual community. Users from a virtual community of practice (N = 263), namely HTCBLOG.com, were considered for this study. A first plus of the present study is that we used a measure of an actual behavior of contribution. We tested the MGB considering the we-intentions to contribute but the first model tested did not predict the observed behavior. The introduction of greed and anonymity constructs to the MGB led to an increase in the explained variance in the observed behavior. In the second study, which was longitudinal, following the suggestions offered by Antin & Cheshire (2010), we decided to deepen the meaning of participation to a virtual community considering the idea of participation not necessarily identified with active contribution. Indeed, an individual can feel as a part of the community, simply because as a member he/she may access and read community contents. Drawing from this assumption we hypothesized that participation might be divided in two distinctive behaviors: active contribution and the individual use of contents by reading. Respondent to our survey were members of a virtual discussion forum (N = 428), namely PIPAM.org. Also in this second study we used a measure of an actual behavior of contribution. Using the MGB rationale plus collective intentions, we focused our attention on the distinction of the three processes of contribution, use of community contents and participation. We found that the we-intentions to participate were promoted by the we-intentions to contribute and by the we-intentions to use community contents by reading. Moreover, the participation behavior was predicted by we-intentions to participate as well as by the behaviors of contribution but negatively by the community contents usage behavior. Greed confirmed the negative significant effects on contribution process, whereas it showed a positive effect on the use of contents by reading instrumental behavior.

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Vianello, Silvia <1979&gt. "Online consumer behavior in virtual communities." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/660.

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LEAL, GABRIELA PASINATO ALVES. "VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES AS REFERENCE GROUPS: PARTICIPANT’S PERSPECTIVE." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2010. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=16675@1.

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A literatura sobre comunidades virtuais as considera como um grupo de referência. Este estudo exploratório buscou investigar as relações entre os membros dessas comunidades e as influências que os grupos exercem sobre decisões de compra de seus participantes. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas: inicialmente os comentários dos membros da comunidade escolhida como objeto de estudo foram analisados, para identificar categorias mais suscetíveis a influências. A seguir, 21 participantes foram entrevistados, a partir de roteiro elaborado com base nas categorias identificadas. A análise mensagens postadas no grupo e das entrevistas apresentou evidências da existência de um código básico de comportamento, sugerindo que para alguns membros a comunidade age como grupo de referência normativo, caracterizado por forte identificação entre os participantes. Os líderes do grupo parecem ser os mais participativos nos debates, ou os que já tiveram experiências com a gama de produtos e serviços relacionados ao tema do grupo, ou os que são percebidos como pessoas de bom gosto. Ficaram evidente também as modificações em escolhas e comportamentos como resultado das interações entre os participantes.
The literature considers the virtual communities as a group of reference. This explanatory study looked to investigate the relationship among the members of these communities and the influence that the groups exercise on the purchase decisions of its members. The research was divided into two parts: initially the comments of the community members, chosen as an object of study, were analyzed to indentify categories related to the influences. Following that, 21 participants were interviewed from a detailed outline based on identified categories. The analysis of the messages posted in the group and of the interviews showed evidence of an existing code of behavior, suggesting that for some members, the community acts as a normative reference group, characterized by strong identification among the participants. The group leaders seem to participate the most in the debates, or the ones who already had experiences with a range of products and services related to the subject of the group, or the ones who are believed to have good taste. Besides everything that was said, changes in choices and behavior were also observed, as a result of the interactions among the participants.

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Zemlyakova, Lyudmila (Lyudmila Vladimirovna) 1976. "Virtual communities on the Web : content management." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/86638.

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Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-104).
by Lyudmila Zemlyakova.
M.Eng.

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Itani, Jihad. "A Service Mediation Framework for Virtual Communities." Thesis, Pau, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015PAUU3036/document.

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Les communautés virtuelles ont de plus en plus d’influence dans nos activités quotidiennes. Qu’elles soient sociales, d’affaires, professionnelles, d’apprentissage, ces communautés sont en concurrence pour la conquête de l'Internet, en ciblant une audience de plus en plus large et en proposant une offre de services de plus en plus variée. Par voie de conséquence, le succès ou l'échec de ces communautés dépend largement des services proposés dont la diversité, la qualité et l'adaptation sont les facteurs clés de satisfaction des clients. C’est pourquoi la démarche SOA (Service Oriented Architecture /Architecture Orientée Service) favorise la vision d'environnements ouverts où services, fournisseurs et clients sont indépendants les uns des autres, grâce au découplage et à l'allocation dynamique des services. Malheureusement, les environnements de communautés virtuelles ne prennent pas vraiment en compte les principes SOA et sont considérés fermés d’un point de vue des services offerts car ceux-ci sont limités aux fonctionnalités de la plateforme qui les hébergent. Cette dépendance des services vis-à-vis de la plateforme est considérée comme une limitation qui influence d'une manière négative le succès et la durabilité des communautés virtuelles. Du point de vue des membres d’une communauté, cette limitation entraine le départ de certains d’entre eux, et/ou impose à ses membres de joindre d'autres communautés afin de bénéficier des services offerts par ces dernières qui ne sont pas disponibles dans leur communauté d'origine. Du point de vue de l’environnement, l'introduction de nouveaux services nécessite de modifier la plateforme existante, et peut demander dans certains cas une migration vers une autre plateforme, ce qui peut perturber la communauté en question lorsque celle-ci est opérationnelle avec des membres en ligne. Dans ce contexte, ce travail a pour but de palier les limites de la gestion de services dans les communautés virtuelles afin de satisfaire les besoins de leurs membres, d'assurer une meilleure gestion des services d'un point de vue individuel et d'un point de vue de la communauté, et de garantir une évolution dynamique des services au sein de la communauté. L’objectif principal est donc de " Fournir le bon service, au bon utilisateur, au bon moment et avec la bonne qualité". L’hypothèse fondatrice de ce travail est que les communautés virtuelles peuvent être construites en commençant par un ensemble minimal de services de base, cet ensemble pouvant ensuite être étendu par l'ajout de nouveaux services selon les besoins des membres de la communauté. En adoptant cette approche, nous proposons un cadre de gestion de services qui aborde les difficultés rencontrées par les communautés virtuelles et leurs membres. En conséquence, le focus porte sur la satisfaction de ces membres plutôt que sur le service lui-même ou le fournisseur du service. Ainsi, nous définissons une nouvelle structuration des services au sein d’une communauté qui s’appuie sur une classification en différentes catégories fonctionnelles. Puis, nous étendons l'architecture SOA avec les concepts nécessaires pour modéliser ces catégories et leur associer un ensemble de propriétés non fonctionnelles de Qualité de Service (QdS ou QoS en anglais) utilisées par un système de médiation pour proposer les services adaptés aux besoins des usagers. Une description des unités fonctionnelles de ce système, ainsi que la façon dont elles opèrent, coopèrent et collaborent afin d'accomplir l’objectif défini ci-dessus constitue le cœur de notre contribution
Virtual Communities are dominating our daily activities from different insights. Social, Business, Professional, Educational and many virtual communities are competing among each other to conquer the internet by targeting more audience through the services they provide. Consequently, the success or failure of virtual communities depends to a great extent on its services. In a world driven by services, diversity, quality and adaptation are key factors to achieve customer satisfaction. Accordingly the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach promotes the vision of open environments where services, providers and consumers are considered independently from one another thanks to decoupling and dynamic allocation of services. But virtual communities environment did not really care about SOA and are considered closed with respect to the services they provide since they are bounded to the capabilities of the platform that host them. This implies the delivery of services inside the virtual communities is dependent on the platform used which is considered a limitation that have negative influence on the success and sustainability of virtual communities. From a member perspective this limitation causes community members to leave the community, and/or imposes them to join other virtual communities to benefit from the services they host and that are not available in their home virtual communities. From an environment perspective, introducing new services into these communities require modifications on the existing platforms or might require a complete shift to another platform in some cases which might affect the target community in case it is operational with active users. In this context, our research work aims to overcome the limitation in managing services of virtual community to satisfy community members’ needs, to provide better service management from a member perspective as well as from a community perspective, and to guarantee dynamic evolution of services inside the community. Our main objective is “To provide the right service to the right user in the right time with the required quality of service”. Our assumption is that virtual communities can be built starting from a minimal set of basic services and then add more services based on the needs of the community members. This drives us to adopt this approach and propose a service management framework that address the challenges faced by virtual communities and their members. Accordingly, we approach the problem from a members’ perspective and choose to work on members’ satisfaction more than we care about the service itself or the provider of the service. Thus, we define a new structure of services within a community that is based on a classification into different functional categories. Then, we extend SOA with the concepts necessary to model these categories and associate a set of non-functional properties of Quality of Service (QoS ) used by a mediation system to offer services best suited to the needs of members. Finally, we provide a description of the functional units of the system and how they operate, cooperate and collaborate to achieve the aforementioned objective. This is the core of our contribution

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Araya, Rebolledo Jacqueline Paz. "Analysis of scientific virtual communities of practice." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2015. http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/130775.

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Ingeniera Civil Industrial
Las diferentes redes sociales han surgido a partir del sentido común y natural de los humanos por reunirse en torno a un tema, sintiendo que pertenecen a una Comunidad, la cual es representada por una red de relaciones complejas entre las unidades que cambia con el tiempo. Una Comunidad es un grupo de vértices que comparten propiedades comunes y desempeñan un papel similar dentro del grupo, las cuales pueden ser clasificadas como Comunidades de interés, en el que los miembros comparten un interés particular, y Comunidades de práctica, donde los miembros comparten inquietudes, participan y desarrollan un tema volviéndose expertos. Si estas interacciones ocurren sobre plataformas en línea, son llamadas Comunidades virtuales de interés (VCoI) y Comunidades virtuales de práctica (VCoP). El estudio de las Comunidades virtuales (VC) no sólo ayuda a entender su estructura interna, sino que también a descubrir cómo el conocimiento es compartido, los principales miembros, proporcionar herramientas a los administradores para mejorar la participación y asegurar la estabilidad de la comunidad en el tiempo. El área de Análisis de Redes Sociales y de Minería de Datos han estudiado el problema, pero ninguno toma en cuenta el significado del contenido que los miembros de una comunidad generan. Por lo tanto, la principal contribución de este trabajo es tomar en cuenta la semántica de los contenidos creados por los miembros de dos VCoP, así como las propiedades estructurales de las redes que forman, para estudiar la existencia de otros miembros claves, buscar los principales temas de investigación, y estudiar las propiedades de las nuevas redes creadas con contenido. Se utilizó una VCoP científica del área de computación ubicua, y otra del área Web Semántica, considerando como data los autores de los papers aceptados en las conferencias de las comunidades y su contenido. Este trabajo propone dos métodos, el primero, busca representar cada artículo escrito por los miembros por sus Keywords, y el segundo, busca extraer los temas subyacentes de cada paper con el modelo probabilístico LDA. Con el resultado de estos métodos, las interacciones entre autores pueden ser construidas basándose en el contenido en lugar de sólo la relación de coautoría (red base para comparar los métodos). La metodología propuesta es un proceso híbrido llamado SNA-KDD que incluye la extracción y procesamiento de datos de texto, para su posterior análisis con SNA para descubrir nueva información, utilizando teoría de grafos, algoritmos de clasificación (HITS y PageRank) y diferentes medidas estructurales para redes. Los resultados muestran que las redes científicas en estudio pueden ser modeladas como VCoPs usando la metodología SNA-KDD usando teoría de grafos. Esto queda evidenciado en los resultados de la métrica Modularidad, obteniendo valores sobre 0,9 en la mayoría de las redes, lo que indica una estructura de comunidad. Además, los métodos propuestos para introducir el contenido generado por sus miembros, Keywords y Modelo de Tópicos LDA, permite reducir la densidad de todas las redes, eliminando relaciones no relevantes. En la red de Computación Ubicua, con 1920 nodos, se redujo de 5.452 arcos a 1.866 arcos para método de Keywords y a 2.913 arcos para modelo LDA; mientras que en la red de Web Semántica permitió reducir de 20.332 arcos a 13.897 arcos y 8.502 arcos, respectivamente. La detección de miembros claves se realizó contra una comparación de los autores más prominentes del área según las citaciones en Google Scholar. Los resultados indican que la mejor recuperación de miembros claves se da en el método de tópicos por LDA con HITS para el primer dataset, para el segundo se da en Keywords, tanto en métricas de Recall como en Precision.

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Terrell, Matthew. "Utilising virtual communities for innovative consumer identification." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51814/.

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Consumers can play a pivotal role in the development of new products and services. People are observed to independently create and modify existing products in order to meet their needs, unmet by current market offerings (Luthje 2004; Von Hippel & Urban 1988; Hienerth & Lettl 2011). Research into these innovative consumers has shown they can be differentiated from other consumers by a set of characteristics. This has enabled firms to identify and engage with these consumers, document their behaviour and integrate them into the process of developing new products and services. By doing so firms have experienced a range of benefits including an increase in product novelty, attractiveness and variety (Franke & Shah 2003; Schreier & Pruegl 2008; Franke et al. 2006). Today firms are utilising virtual communities to access consumer knowledge, discover their emerging needs and observe their own innovations. This has had a positive effect on a firm’s innovation output and performance (Ryzhkova 2015; Wadell et al. 2013; Carbonell et al. 2009). Many investigations have started to focus on virtual communities, and their utility for firms to identify consumers, but given the sheer size of virtual communities, and their heterogeneity, our understanding of how to exploit these resources are under-explored. This thesis conducted a series of investigations, seeking to contribute a new perspective on consumer innovation research in a number of different areas. The core aim is to provide a new understanding of how organisations can use virtual communities to help them efficiently identify innovative consumers in the pursuit of new insights and innovation. The investigation focuses on how to approach the identification of innovative consumers in virtual communities. Firstly the consumer’s choice of the virtual community, which reveals innovative consumers, specifically those who are more willing to collaborate with organisations, are more likely to exist in forum style virtual communities. These are free from functionality that facilitates acts of selling and professional endeavours, such as shopping carts and file exchange mechanisms. This has never before been considered as an influencing factor in the process of identifying innovating consumers, and shows that organisations could positively influence the overall outcome of the collaboration process with consumers if a consumer’s choice of community was also included in the identification process. Ultimately this could have a positive knock-on effect to the type, and success of, the resulting innovation produced when collaborating with consumers for new product development (NPD). This study suggests that organisations need to take into consideration the following factors: community functionality, to reduce the number of consumers with professional interests; and the community social systems, to understand the values and ideologies of virtual communities when it comes to external collaboration. Additionally, this investigation expands on the existing knowledge about using weblog data for identification, by analysing the relationships between their self-reported data and web-log data. This is the first time the observation of weblog data and its potential to influence the wider use of weblog data has been taken into consideration. Almost all previous investigations appear to observe data that is isolated to a specific community (Füller et al. 2008), and do not consider how metrics could be transferable across communities to influence the overall approach to online consumer identifications, across communities. Finally this study provides new knowledge on the application of the community manager in the process of identifying innovative consumers. The research concludes by highlighting novel insights gained from interviewing community managers. The significance, and arguably, the advantageous position held by the community managers, places them in a position to influence social systems that inform the perceptions of external collaboration; they understand the community dynamics and often individual characteristics of community members, and they act as a gatekeeper to the community. These findings show that, for organisations looking to collaborate with consumers of the community, they should approach the community managers first. They can provide organisations with insights about the community social system, their values and ideologies, which will indicate the effectiveness of the community for identification. Essentially, by collating the findings from the thesis, organisations can add timesaving steps in the process of identification.

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Shachaf, Pnina, and Noriko Hara. "Team Effectiveness in Virtual Environments: An Ecological Approach." Idea Group Publishing, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/105896.

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This chapter attempts to address the need for more research on virtual team effectiveness and outlines an ecological theoretical framework that is applicable to virtual learning environments (VLE). Prior empirical studies on virtual team effectiveness used frameworks of traditional team effectiveness and mainly followed Hackman's normative model (input-process-output). We propose an ecological approach for virtual team effectiveness that accounts for team boundaries management, technology use, and external environment in VLE, properties which were previously either non-existent or contextual. The ecological framework suggests that three components, external environment, internal environment, and boundary management, reciprocally interact with effectiveness. The significance of the proposed framework is a holistic perspective that takes into account the complexity of the external and internal environment of the team. Furthermore, we address the needs for new pedagogical approaches in VLE.

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Pogreb, Sofya 1978. "Virtual communities : uniting Internet users with similar interests." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/86637.

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Majewski, Grzegorz. "Online knowledge sharing in virtual communities of practice." Thesis, University of the West of Scotland, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.557267.

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Knowledge Management (KM) techniques and tools have been utilized by organizations from diverse sections of the Economy to achieve numerous goals such as: competitive advantage, increased innovativeness and global project management. One of the techniques of KM that has gained prominence as a very useful knowledge sharing tool is Virtual Communities of Practice. It originated from work on situated learning. In order to utilize it in a proper way it is necessary to take into account human, psychological, social and technological factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that influence participants of VCoP while they play two distinct roles: knowledge provider and knowledge receiver. This is a gap in knowledge as there is a shortage of studies that analyse these two roles in VCoPs. Most of the research in this area focus on the knowledge provider role, with few studies considering the knowledge receiver role. Both roles are present only in a few studies and even so they are not the main topics of those researches and thus these roles are not fully recognized by the authors. This leads to the research problem of how to evaluate knowledge sharing activities performed by the participants of VCoPs while they play these two distinct roles: knowledge provider and knowledge receiver. In order to address this research problem it was necessary to identify and analyse the underlying constructs and how they interact with each other. The process of identifying these constructs and their relationships was supported by existing literature and models formulated by other researchers. In 2 particular and substantial to this research were three models formulated by: Chiu et al. 2006, Lin et al 2009 and Jiacheng et al 2010. The research built relationships between the identified constructs in order to develop a research model. The constructs of the research model were operationalized into appropriate questionnaire items and interview questions. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire and interviews with key members of two VCoPs. The first study was performed with Laurea Labs in Finland and focused on knowledge intensive processes, while the second study with a group in Second Life investigated online knowledge sharing in an immersive virtual environment. In order to evaluate the research model, collected data was analysed. The tools used were Principal Components Analysis, Correlation Analysis and Multiregression Analysis. It was utilized to evaluate the conceptual model. The contribution to knowledge of this study is the identification of the critical factors influencing online knowledge sharing in virtual communities of practice, the design of conceptual model for knowledge sharing that brings together the two distinct roles participants can play (knowledge provider and knowledge receiver), operationalisation of the factors into questionnaire items and interview questions as well as empirical research in two diverse environments (research lab and immersive virtual world). 3 The most significant relationships were between Knowledge Provision and Knowledge Reception on the one hand and Online Knowledge Sharing on the other as well as Perceived Benefits and Perception of Community. The nonsignificant relationships were dropped in the final model. Qualitative findings introduced Language and Innovation Capabilities as new constructs. Besides, further findings from correlation analysis have introduced new relationships termed as propositions on the model. The implications of the research include the difference in the way the receivers as opposed to givers of knowledge in VCoPs should be motivated to engage in knowledge sharing processes. Some of the motivatiors confirmed by this study are benefits, social ties and reciprocity.

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Teytelman, Leonid, Alexei Stoliartchouk, Lori Kindler, and Bonnie L. Hurwitz. "Protocols.io: Virtual Communities for Protocol Development and Discussion." Public Library of Science, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621275.

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The detailed know-how to implement research protocols frequently remains restricted to the research group that developed the method or technology. This knowledge often exists at a level that is too detailed for inclusion in the methods section of scientific articles. Consequently, methods are not easily reproduced, leading to a loss of time and effort by other researchers. The challenge is to develop a method-centered collaborative platform to connect with fellow researchers and discover state-of-the-art knowledge. Protocols. io is an open-access platform for detailing, sharing, and discussing molecular and computational protocols that can be useful before, during, and after publication of research results.

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Bashir, Shahnaz. "Knowledge sharing in virtual communities: Societal cultural considerations." Thesis, University of the West of Scotland, 2016. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.735851.

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Khan, Imran U. "Knowledge sharing in virtual communities: organisational cultural considerations." Thesis, University of the West of Scotland, 2013. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.748539.

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Kinniburgh, James B. "Who networks? The social psychology of virtual communities." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2004. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/04Jun%5FKinniburgh.pdf.

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Kleanthous, Loizou Styliani. "Intelligent support for knowledge sharing in virtual communities." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2010. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1413/.

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Virtual communities where people with common interests and goals communicate, share resources, and construct knowledge, are currently one of the fastest growing web environments. A common misconception is to believe that a virtual community will be effective when people and technology are present. Appropriate support for the effective functioning of online communities is paramount. In this line, personalisation and adaptation can play a crucial role, as illustrated by recent user modelling approaches that support social web-groups. However, personalisation research has mainly focused on adapting to the needs of individual members, as opposed to supporting communities to function as a whole. In this research, we argue that effective support tailored to virtual communities requires considering the wholeness of the community and facilitating the processes that influence the success of knowledge sharing and collaboration. We are focusing on closely knit communities that operate in the boundaries of organisations or in the educational sector. Following research in organisational psychology, we have identified several processes important for effective team functioning which can be applied to virtual communities and can be examined or facilitated by analysing community log data. Based on the above processes we defined a computational framework that consists of two major parts. The first deals with the extraction of a community model that represents the whole community and the second deals with the application of the model in order to identify what adaptive support is needed and when. The validation of this framework has been done using real virtual community data and the advantages of the adaptive support have been examined based on the changes happened after the interventions in the community combined with user feedback. With this thesis we contribute to the user modelling and adaptive systems research communities with: (a) a novel framework for holistic adaptive support in virtual communities, (b) a mechanism for extracting and maintaining a semantic community model based on the processes identified, and (c) deployment of the community model to identify problems and provide holistic support to a virtual community. We also contribute to the CSCW community with a novel approach in providing semantically enriched community awareness and to the area of social networks with a semantically enriched approach for modeling change patterns in a closely-knit VC.

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Trier, Matthias. "IT-supported visualization and evaluation of virtual knowledge communities." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2005. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=976772639.

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Kuenne, Christoph W., Sabrina Adamczyk, Matthias Rass, Angelika C. Bullinger, and Kathrin M. Möslein. "IT-based Interaction Platforms to Foster Virtual Patient Communities." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2014. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-143583.

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Carter, Denise Maia. "Living in virtual communities : an ethnography of life online." Thesis, University of Hull, 2005. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5649.

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This thesis examines some of the issues involved in the development of human relationships in cyberspace. Set within the wider context of the Internet and society it investigates how geographically distant individuals are coming together on the Internet to inhabit new kinds of social spaces or virtual communities. People 'live in' and 'construct' these new spaces in such a way as to suggest that the Internet is not a placeless cyberspace that is distinct and separate from the real world. Building on the work of other cyberethnographers, I combine original ethnographic research in Cybertown (http: /www. cybertown. com), a Virtual Community, with face-to-face meetings to illustrate how, for many people, cyberspace is just another place to meet. Secondly I suggest that people in Cybertown are investing as much effort in maintaining relationships in cyberspace as in other social spaces. By extending traditional human relationships into Cybertown, they are widening their webs of relationships, not weakening them. Human relationships in cyberspace are formed and maintained in similar ways to those in wider society. Rather than being exotic and removed from real life, they are actually being assimilated into everyday life. Furthermore they are often moved into other social settings, just as they are in offline life.

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Bezerra, Juliana de Melo. "A process to design incentive mechanisms for virtual communities." Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, 2012. http://www.bd.bibl.ita.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=2141.

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The success of a virtual community is in general measured as the participation of members to accomplish online tasks. Unperformed or badly performed tasks in virtual communities can result in undesirable effects to their continuity while well performed tasks can be understood as achievement of the communities'; goals. Online incentive mechanisms constitute a strategy to stimulate members to participate and perform tasks satisfactorily; however the design of incentive mechanisms is a challenge due to heterogeneity of communities'; contexts and members'; expectations. A process to design incentive mechanisms is proposed to support virtual community designers. The expected result of the process is the proposal of online incentive mechanisms that aim at improving the level of members'; participation in online tasks. The process encompasses studies from humanistic and technical areas, which guide designers to reason about the characteristics of the community as a whole, to identify and analyze the attributes of members involved in online tasks as well as their motivations to participate. In this way, the process provides both a deep foundation and a structured systematization to the design of online incentive mechanisms. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed process, reasoning about the perspectives of effectiveness, efficiency and designers'; satisfaction. The process was found to be effective and efficient because designers supported by the process were able to define incentives with higher quality and less rework. Designers who used the process were also satisfied with the design quality and gain of design expertise.

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Kuenne, Christoph W., Sabrina Adamczyk, Matthias Rass, Angelika C. Bullinger, and Kathrin M. Möslein. "IT-based Interaction Platforms to Foster Virtual Patient Communities." Technische Universität Dresden, 2011. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A28075.

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Chen, Jianrong. "An architecture for agent-oriented virtual inhabited call centres." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.250511.

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Simpson, Roderick F. "EcoSystem-Sim a virtual ecosystem simulator /." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2001. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0000352.

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2001.
Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 60 p.; also contains graphics. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Templin, J., and R. Dachselt. "Das Potential von Virtual Communities auf Basis von Distributed Virtual Environments für Kundengewinnung und -bindung." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-209516.

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Zusammenfassung: "In diesem Artikel soll der Einsatz von Distributed Virtual Environments (DVE) zur Bildung von Virtual Communities (VC) für kommerzielle Interessen untersucht werden. Nach der Charakterisierung von VC und DVE wird deren Symbiose zum Zweck der Kundengewinnung und -bindung im Consumer-Bereich untersucht. Dabei wird eine kritische Bewertung erster Prototypen und die Analyse der damit verbundenen technologischen, psychologisch-soziologischen und marketing-strategischen Probleme vorgenommen. Auf dieser Basis erfolgt abschließend die Diskussion eines Vorgehensmodells für den Aufbau DVE-basierter Gemeinschaften zur kommerziellen Nutzung und die Spezifikation eines Anforderungskataloges für erfolgreiche DVE in diesem Sektor."

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Templin, J., and R. Dachselt. "Das Potential von Virtual Communities auf Basis von Distributed Virtual Environments für Kundengewinnung und -bindung." Josef Eul Verlag GmbH, 1999. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A29768.

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Zusammenfassung: 'In diesem Artikel soll der Einsatz von Distributed Virtual Environments (DVE) zur Bildung von Virtual Communities (VC) für kommerzielle Interessen untersucht werden. Nach der Charakterisierung von VC und DVE wird deren Symbiose zum Zweck der Kundengewinnung und -bindung im Consumer-Bereich untersucht. Dabei wird eine kritische Bewertung erster Prototypen und die Analyse der damit verbundenen technologischen, psychologisch-soziologischen und marketing-strategischen Probleme vorgenommen. Auf dieser Basis erfolgt abschließend die Diskussion eines Vorgehensmodells für den Aufbau DVE-basierter Gemeinschaften zur kommerziellen Nutzung und die Spezifikation eines Anforderungskataloges für erfolgreiche DVE in diesem Sektor.

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Diviné, Marc Louis. "La collaboration virtuelle : Proposition d'un modèle, d'une mesure et d'une méthode d'aide au management d'entités virtuelles." Thesis, Châtenay-Malabry, Ecole centrale de Paris, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013ECAP0046/document.

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Equipes et communautés virtuelles deviennent un mode relationnel collectif largement généralisé. Elles possèdent des caractéristiques spécifiques : distances géographiques, rencontres physiques rares voire inexistantes, aptitude à inclure des grands nombres, facilité d’entrée-sortie, communication écrite dominante, ou effacement du statut social. Elles disposent d’un important bouquet d’outils web 2.0 collaboratifs avec des capacités propres, telles que la mémorisation des échanges, la possibilité du synchrone et de l’asynchrone, le dialogue multiple simultané, l’anonymat éventuel. La collaboration à distance réclame l’acquisition d’un nouveau savoir-faire devenu impératif, que nous appelons le management virtuel. Basée sur l’Analyse Systémique et l’Adaptive Structuration Theory, cette recherche propose un modèle, une mesure et une méthode d’aide au management virtuel. Le modèle est une représentation d’une entité virtuelle en trois dimensions fonctionnelles : la valeur ajoutée collective, la satisfaction des membres, et la flexibilité des frontières. Il s’appuie sur le concept d’adjacence, qui ajoute aux deux rôles d’un individu – l’agent, membre agissant pour la collectivité et l’acteur, stratège agissant pour lui - celui de personne connectée à d’autres individus ou communautés de même domaine d’intérêt. Toute entité virtuelle possède des individus adjacents et communautés adjacentes, en dehors d’elle, et intéressant le management virtuel. La mesure de la e-collaboration comprend celles de l’usage et de l’intérêt pour 18 outils collaboratifs. Elle a été réalisée auprès d’un échantillon de 199 entreprises pendant trois ans. The traitement de cette base de données a permis la création du modèle. Elle révèle des sous-groupes hostiles ou en faveur de la e-collaboration et indique sous quelles conditions elle est envisageable. Elle donne des tendances. Ainsi, les pratiques de community management commencent à être exploitées en interne dans le management d’équipes virtuelles. L’échantillon de grandes entreprises a montré aussi que la e-collaboration est en avance dans un pays émergent, le Vietnam, par rapport à la France. La recherche propose enfin une méthode, dénommée VEMS, Virtual Entities Management Support. Elle part d’une analyse de l’environnement et de la définition d’une stratégie en trois dimensions, puis détermine les fonctions de l’équipe ou de la communauté, les attitudes et les outils adéquats. Elle offre un choix de 18 fonctions et 79 attitudes déduites des recommandations de la littérature et enrichies des observations de l’échantillon. Cette méthode a été appliquée à cinq entités virtuelles de nature très différentes : internes chez un industriel et une banque, externes chez un réseau social, une communauté de fans de web séries, et une autre de fans de cuisine. Ces communautés possèdent de 160.000 à 40 membres. Pour chacune, une stratégie a pu être déployée, avec une série précise d’attitudes et d’outils, point de départ d’un programme opérationnel. Cinq fonctions et 22 attitudes sont communes à toutes les entités étudiées, dont six concernent les adjacences. Elles peuvent être considérées comme le fondement du management virtuel. La méthode a été également déployée auprès de quatre communautés de marques d’un même secteur à faible engagement. Quatre scénarios ont été déduits, dont la participation dans une communauté adjacente, préférable à celui de la création d’une communauté propre
Virtual teams and communities become a widely spread collective relational mode. They have specific characteristics: geographical distances, physical meetings rare or nonexistent, ability to include large numbers, ease of input-output, dominant written communication, erasure of social status. They can benefit from a large number of web 2.0 collaborative tools with their own capacities, such as the storage of communications, the possibility of synchronous and asynchronous dialogue, multiple simultaneous exchanges, eventual anonymity. The e-collaboration requires the acquisition of a new imperative skill that we call virtual management. Based on the Systemic Analysis and Adaptive Structuration Theory, this research proposes a model, a measurement and a method, the Virtual Entities Management Support. The model is a representation of a virtual entity in three functional dimensions: the collective value, member satisfaction, and flexible frontiers. It is based on the concept of adjacency, which adds to the two roles of the individual - the agent acting for the community, and the actor acting for himself - the person connected to other individuals or communities with the same area of interest. Any virtual entity is connected to adjacent individuals and communities, an area of interest of the virtual management. The proposed measurement of e-collaboration includes the use and the interest for 18 collaborative tools. It was conducted with a sample of 199 companies for three years. This database processing has enabled the creation of the model. It reveals subgroups hostile or for e-collaboration and under what conditions it is interesting. It provides trends. Thus, the practice of community management begins to be used internally in the management of virtual teams. The sample of large firms also showed that e-collaboration is ahead in an emerging country, Vietnam, compared with France. The research also proposes a Virtual Entities Management Support method, called VEMS. It starts with an analysis of the environment, the definition of a strategy in three dimensions, and then determines the functions of the team or community, the attitudes and its appropriate tools. It offers a choice of 18 functions and 79 attitudes derived from the literature recommendations and enriched with the sample observations. This method has been applied to five virtual entities of different kinds: internal to an industrial manufacturer and a large bank, external to a social network, a community of fans of web series, and another community of fans of cookery. This entities include from 40 up to 160,000 members. For each, a strategy has been defined, with a specific set of attitudes and tools, the starting point of an operational program. Five functions and 22 attitudes are common to all the entities studied, six of which relate to adjacencies. They can be considered as the foundation of virtual management. The method has also been deployed to four brand communities of a sector with low consumer engagement. Four scenarios were deducted, including the participation to an adjacent community, preferable to the creation of a brand community

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Ma, Meng. "IT design for sustaining virtual communities an identity-based approach /." College Park, Md. : University of Maryland, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2833.

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Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.
Thesis research directed by: Business and Management. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

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Li, Xuguang Li. "A study of knowledge construction in virtual product user communities." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8613/.

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In this research the virtual product user community is defined as a producer sponsored customer aggregation existing on the Internet to share usage experience and to collaboratively find technical solutions to problems with specific brand products. Such groups have a variety of benefits to members and organisations, one being that they are a knowledge resource for product users to look for solutions to specific problems with products and identify how to use them effectively. They are also a platform for the producer to communicate with its customers, to collect market intelligence, and to incorporate users’ innovative insights and problem solving skills. However, how knowledge is constructed and shared in such groups has been rarely studied. Previous literature that focuses on cognitive development and critical thinking stages in a formal online learning context may offer some relevant insights and methodologies but requires translation to the new context, and is not likely to provide a comprehensive understanding of this area. Accordingly, this thesis aims to explore knowledge construction in virtual product user communities. The philosophical basis of the research design was constructivism and interpretivism. A qualitative research methodology was adopted. Dozens of discussion threads of theoretical interest were chosen from a typical virtual product user community on the Dell User Support Forum (and from the Dell Idea Storm Community) and were analyzed through a qualitative content analysis method. In addition, semi-structured interviews with 20 community members of the Dell User Support Forum were conducted via e-mail. A deductive thematic analysis method was used for analysing the interview transcripts. More threads were chosen from a range of other virtual product user communities for content analysis in order to explore the influences of attributes such as language, national culture and technology platform on knowledge construction. A new content analysis tool, which is based on a combination of prior codes and new categories identified from the data, was created, in order to analyze the knowledge construction embedded in the discussion of technical problems. The research identified five types of key knowledge construction episodes that make up the knowledge building process and which are characterised by low-level cognitive engagement. A knowledge construction model which represents knowledge building in reality was developed. Furthermore, problem description episodes, non-constructive episodes, and moderation episodes were identified and their relations clarified. The problem description episodes were found to facilitate knowledge construction by providing knowledge about the problem and knowledge about its context. Following from this the peer advisor could diagnose the cause of technical problems and propose tailored solutions ideas based on the users’ experiential knowledge. The moderation episode can offset the negative influence of non-constructive episodes, maintaining social order and promoting knowledge contribution. The findings illustrate that knowledge construction needs collective contribution through various types of participation by community members at different knowledge levels. The influences of contextual attributes of a virtual product user community, including communication technology, sponsorship, national language and culture, moderation, and discussion topics, on knowledge construction, were all explored in this research. Models of different types of knowledge transfer across the boundaries between the virtual product user community and the organization, highlighting the role of moderators, were constructed. Besides the above findings, this research identified and defined this specific type of online community on the Internet, i.e. the virtual product user community. In addition, it provided a content analysis tool which is tailored to the purpose of examining low-level critical knowledge construction, which complements existing analytical frameworks, derived from formal learning contexts. The study mainly contributes to the general area of information and knowledge management, specifically knowledge construction in the virtual product user community and other low-level cognitive engagement contexts. It provides a theoretical basis for practices in managing online communities, and offers useful suggestions for educators in designing and managing formal online learning communities.

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Mason, Cecily Jane, and cecilym@deakin edu au. "Virtual Communities of Enterprise Value Creation Potential for Regional Clusters." Deakin University. Management and Marketing, 2008. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20090129.152913.

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Governments around the world have pursued ICT based initiatives including the provision of infrastructure to assist regional areas to develop economically (Beckinsale et al. 2006). There has been considerable interest in exploiting ICT to develop high technology clusters and support innovative networks (Lawson & Lorenz 1999). However, these initiatives have met with mixed success. It is clear that such development depends on more than providing appropriate technology Attention to social and organisational factors is crucial if regional areas are to realise the potential of ICT as a tool for regional development (Gengatharen & Standing 2005). It is important to understand the nature of business networking as well as the perspective of those participating in such networks if successful initiatives are to be established. The aim of this research is to identify how ICT can be used for knowledge sharing among businesses in regional areas and how the online networks through which knowledge is shared can contribute to the development of the region. This research investigates the question of what value small businesses in those regions derive from knowledge sharing networks using ICT. It also seeks to identify the value creation potential of those networks for their region. Previous research has shown that large organisations have achieved significant value from virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) as a structure for sharing knowledge and supporting innovation (Wenger 2004). The concept of Communities of Practice and Virtual Communities of Practice provided a useful point of departure for this research. The investigation comprised interpretive case studies of two Australian regional areas and their local business networks which incorporated SMEs in a variety of industries. Each case study was conducted in three stages. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with regional economic development leaders. Second, 192 small and medium business owners were surveyed about their business activities and their participation in local business networks. Third, in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 small business owners to gain a richer understanding of their participation in knowledge-sharing networks and the value they realised or anticipated from various knowledge-sharing activities. A combined analysis of the two cases was conducted as well as the individual analyses. The research adopted a modified Structured Case method (Carroll & Swatman 2000). The analysis of the two case studies revealed: a.) There was a significant difference between the majority of SMEs who traded within the region and those trading largely beyond the region. The latters more proactive online sharing knowledge and seeking of business opportunities would enable them to access most value from VCoEs. b.) The participating SMEs operated in a number of industries and what they had in common was an interest in improving their enterprises. Consequently they used their regional networks which were not aligned to any one industry to make connections and share knowledge. They did not necessarily seek to access specific information. c.) A necessary prerequisite of VCoEs is having vibrant CoEs where face-to-face interaction enhances the development of trust and social capital. This appeared as an important factor facilitating the move to incorporate online knowledge sharing. d.) Younger businesses appeared to gain the most value from knowledge sharing in CoEs as they were using their networks to determine how to grow their firm. e.) The value of VCoEs to the SME participants is primarily in their general connection to other businesses in the region. Since the participants operate in a number of industries, what they have in common is an interest in their enterprises. The main value appears to come from the potential of the VCoEs to add to this connection and to social capital. This study found that successful management of VCoEs must: i) Ensure the network website is actively used by members before attempting to incorporate online knowledge sharing. ii) Monitor and stimulate online forum interaction rather than rely on interaction to occur naturally. iii) Not rely on email as a mechanism for stimulating knowledge sharing. Email is seen as more appropriate for formal documentation than for candid exchange of views. The concept of virtual communities of practice was found to be somewhat inappropriate for the diverse SMEs in the regional networks. Because of their diversity, they do not necessarily see value in sharing knowledge about practice but they do see value in sharing more general information and in providing support, connection and ideas that facilitate the strategic direction of their business. To address this issue, the concept of virtual communities of enterprise (VCoEs) is proposed as recognition of what the participating SMEs had in common: an interest in their individual businesses as part of the region. The original contribution of this research consists of its identification of the issues in linking SMEs across industries. It provides new insights on the business practices of regional SMEs and developed the concepts of Community of Enterprise (CoE) and Virtual Community of Enterprise (VCoE) to capture the special nature of knowledge sharing in regional multi-industry business networks. New perspectives are revealed on the ways that value could be derived from knowledge sharing by these regionally networked SMEs, as such it adds to the body of knowledge in an area where there has been little systematic investigation. This research reinforces the importance of social capital as an essential pre-requisite for accessing the value of intellectual capital in regions. Social capital emerges as vital when establishing and maintaining face-to-face knowledge sharing in regional networks and a necessary pre-condition for successfully establishing online knowledge sharing. Trust is a key factor and this research extends understanding of the role of social capital and the importance of trust in regional networks and online interaction. Its findings have significant implications for the development and management of CoEs and VCoEs as it outlines the key elements that need to be addressed when establishing and maintaining them, the appropriate applications for this context and the issues involved in management of the networking and online contexts. These findings not only increase our understanding of the management dynamics of online networks, they can also provide guidance to those seeking to establish successful VCoEs.

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Valck, Kristine de. "Virtual Communities of Consumption Networks of Consumer Knowledge and Companionship /." [Rotterdam]: Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), Erasmus University Rotterdam ; Rotterdam : Erasmus University Rotterdam [Host], 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/6663.

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Diemers, Daniel. "Virtual Knowledge Communities : erfolgreicher Umgang mit Wissen im digitalen Zeitalter /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2001. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=009584931&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.

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Ghonim, Ibrahim Ahmad. "Virtual Communities in Egypt - The Digital Library as a Model." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2014. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-143205.

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Robb, Jaime Shamado. "In Search of Solidarity| Identification Participation in Virtual Fan Communities." Thesis, University of South Florida, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10108005.

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This study questions the way sports fans create (a sense of) community through online conversations. Here, ‘community’ and ‘internet’ are seen as invitational terms that suggest an authentic social interaction. By examining the language used by fans to sustain a sense of solidarity in the virtual realm, this study questions the ways in which rhetoric frames the situation. Participation in the virtual space relies on practices of identification derived from physical engagements. By using a rhetorical approach, this study illuminates the way individual participants operationalize a rhetoric in virtual conversations that spiritualize the fan’s experience at the base of a sporting hierarchy.

This study centralizes identification as key to participation and the formation of community identity. The same language practices that work to shape the group also reinforce a sports ideology that spiritualizes fan participation. What emerges as a dominant substance is loyalty as key to identification/participation in the virtual community. This value-based substance offers the fan the ability to re-purpose their role as a profit source in the capitalist sporting structure. Therefore, the individuals focus on loyalty is rhetorical due to the internet space as capitalized communication. This study speaks to the way communication fosters virtual organizations, and points to how our cultured understandings conceal the rhetoric in everyday interactions.

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Ghonim, Ibrahim Ahmad. "Virtual Communities in Egypt - The Digital Library as a Model." Technische Universität Dresden, 2010. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A28048.

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Budiman, Adrian M. "Virtual Online Communities: A Study of Internet Based Community Interactions." Ohio : Ohio University, 2008. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1215559506.

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Ogbamichael, Hermon Berhane. "Information & knowledge sharing within virtual communities of practice (VCoPs)." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2799.

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Thesis (DTech (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017.
The concept of virtual community of practice (VCoP) emanates from the need to create a new mode of learning and knowledge creation. It is found that highly structured forums are not necessarily the best way to assist people to learn and improve their knowledge. This then, requires organisations to seek alternative informal ways to share knowledge. The significance of optimising knowledge sharing results in VCoPs receiving considerable attention while searching for new ways to draw on expertise dispersed across global operations. This impacts organisations, thereby enabling them to respond more speedily to the demands of their stakeholders. The fast pace of change in their business environments is also a factor to contend with. Within this context, the use of VCoPs to optimise both, tacit and explicit knowledge sharing within stakeholders, is the central theme of this research. The findings from literature enables the researcher to explore scientific based models that may have the potential to enhance knowledge sharing in an enterprise. The Life Cycle knowledge flow model is found to be the most comprehensive compared to two other models – namely, a Spiral knowledge flow model and Dynamic knowledge flow model. The outflow from the findings in literature is that the Life Cycle knowledge flow model is selected as the basis to conduct two surveys to determine if the model could be adapted to improve knowledge sharing within VCoPs in particular, and in an enterprise in general. The result of the two surveys conducted (in 2011/2012 and 2016), leads to establishing an extended Life Cycle knowledge flow model. The established model enhances knowledge sharing within VCoPs, and in turn, assists when optimising knowledge sharing in an enterprise. This extended model covers six phases of knowledge development to improve knowledge sharing within VCoPs. The first phase enhances the creation of both, tacit and explicit knowledge. The second phase enables to optimise the organisation of knowledge. The third phase enables the formalisation of tacit knowledge, that is, conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge. The fourth phase improves the distribution of knowledge. The fifth phase enables to optimise the application of knowledge and the final phase enables the evolution or continuous development of knowledge. The contribution of this research proposes that a comprehensive knowledge flow model, namely the Life Cycle knowledge flow model found in literature, served as the basis for this research. However, this model was never tested or verified if it indeed optimises knowledge sharing within VCoPs. The two surveys (Survey One 2011/12 and Survey Two 2016) were developed and distributed to respondents to verify the model’s suitability to VcoPs. As a result of responses received from the two surveys, the researcher was then able to develop an extended Life Cycle knowledge flow model that particularly, optimises knowledge sharing within VCoPs. This research further contributes in formulating a scientific based knowledge flow model that can be adapted to social networks. Therefore, this research also creates the foundation to further study to investigate the optimisation of knowledge sharing in social networks. In recent literature, social networks are established as one of the informal mechanisms to share and enhance knowledge sharing in an enterprise.

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Earnshaw, Rae A., R. A. Guedj, Dam A. van, and J. A. Vince. "Frontiers of Human-Centered Computing, Online Communities and Virtual Environments." Springer Verlag, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/3534.

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No
Presents the results of a joint National Science Foundation and European Commission Workshop, set up to identify directions for the future of human-centered computing, online communities and virtual environments. Discusses ways to meet the ultimate goal of facilitating human-computer interaction centered around human needs and capabilities.

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Romano, Nicholas C., Christina Bauer, Hsinchun Chen, and Jay F. Nunamaker. "The MindMine Comment Analysis Tool for Collaborative Attitude Solicitation, Analysis, Sense-Making and Visualization." HICSS, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/105501.

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Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona
This paper describes a study to explore the integration of Group Support Systems (GSS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to provide solicitation, analytical, visualization and sense-making support for attitudes from large distributed marketing focus groups. The paper describes two experiments and the concomitant evolutionary design and development of an attitude analysis process and the MindMine Comment Analysis Tool. The analysis process circumvents many of the problems associated with traditional data gathering via closed-ended questionnaires and potentially biased interviews by providing support for online free response evaluative comments. MindMine allows teams of raters to analyze comments from any source, including electronic meetings, discussion groups or surveys, whether they are Web-based or same-place. The analysis results are then displayed as visualizations that enable the team quickly to make sense of attitudes reflected in the comment set, which we believe provide richer information and a more detailed understanding of attitudes.

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Cicognani, Anna. "A Linguistic Characterisation of Design in Text-Based Virtual Worlds." University of Sydney. Design Science, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/371.

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In this research, it is suggested that design in text-based virtual worlds can be identified as a series of interactions between users and the virtual environment, and that these interactions for design can be approached using a linguistic perspective. The main assumption of this research is that a parallel can be drawn between the performance of design commands, and the one of speech acts in the physical world. Design in text-based virtual environments can then be articulated using a restricted set of speech acts, as design commands. Virtual worlds, represented as spaces, can be constructed following an architectural design metaphor. This metaphor provides a framework for the organisation of virtual entity relationships, and for the choice of words used to design. A linguistic characterisation is presented, by means of design activities, prototypes and scenarios, which derive from the architectural design metaphor. The characterisation of design is then validated by the analysis of an existing text-based virtual world.

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Tickle, Matthew. "A framework for developing and deploying business-to-business virtual communities." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.569552.

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The last decade has seen a growing interest in virtual communities (VCs) as a way of transferring and generating knowledge within organisations (Michaelides et al., 2010). The MySpace phenomenon and the increased use of VCs by large international organisations such as IBM and Procter and Gamble (P&G) confirms the importance of VCs in today's society and the global economy. The holistic approach of using modern Internet tools and technologies with social networks presents both opportunities and challenges in the modern era (Tickle et al., 2007). A VC can be defined as a community of people with a common interest but not necessarily a common geographic location (Sands, 2003). In their most basic form, VCs are websites that allow their users to interact with each other using tools such as discussion forums, 'Blog Spaces', real-time chat and trading areas. VCs allow companies to build stronger, more cost-effective connections between themselves, their partners and their customers (Roberts, 2006). If planned and executed correctly, VCs can benefit businesses by improving resource allocation, customer service and revenues, as well as lowering operating costs. Furthermore, VCs can act as bridges between companies and their customers by fostering product awareness, providing forums for questions and concerns and serving as conduits for feedback to improve future company products. It is therefore imperative that companies embrace business-to-business (B2B) VCs in order for them to remain competitive. Despite the benefits there are numerous challenges that stand to impede the success of each VC; the landscape is littered with VC projects that have failed to meet their expectations due to poor decision making at the development and subsequent deployment stages (Roberts, 2006). This research uses four qualitative case studies to create a holistic Framework with the aim of aiding practitioners wishing to develop and deploy their own B2B VCs. The Framework highlights the various decisions that must be made during the lifecycle of a VC before emphasising each decision's respective consequences. Contrary to common belief, this research has found that the technological aspect of a VC's development and deployment is not the most important factor - it is, in fact, the establishment of a community culture that dictates the success of a B2B VC.

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Archer-Brown, Chris. "Towards an understanding of the antecedents of influence in virtual communities." Thesis, University of Bath, 2013. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.665374.

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Analysis of online social network traffic can identify a cascade as it flows through a community but, often, the reasons for its initiation are tacit. Commercial measures of online influence focus on the consequences of influence not the causes and have been criticized as lacking efficacy. This research uses social capital and personal influence theories to investigate the characteristics and behaviours that allow certain network nodes to be able to cascade ideas (or memes) through networks. The relationships between structural, relational and cognitive sources of social capital and two distinct dimensions of influence are investigated using: interviews with experts in the field, focus groups of social network users and 1,970 respondents from three large-scale online communities. Data has been analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and allows the researcher to develop robust conclusions on the antecedents to influence. These help to explain recent contradictory findings by different researchers in studies using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The dimensions of influence measured are: respondents’ intention to propagate the message and; the extent to which the message has affected their perception of the subject. The model of influence that leads to both dimensions is strikingly similar; presenting strong support for the notion that contagion-based cascades through networks are predictors of perception change. The paper proposes a bridge between the theories of social capital and personal influence and this is considered an original contribution to these well-established theories. Techniques are suggested which can help organisations to identify opinion-leaders and, if required, subvert or redirect the nature of their influence. Other applications are considered in the fields of: Innovation (identification of lead users); Virtual Organisations (engaging with informal leaders and influencers in networks); Cyber- Defence (identification and subversion of online radicalisation).

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Rowland, Elden R. "Social Creativity: The Geographic, Virtual, and Artistic Communities of Athens, Ohio." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1308313980.

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Roveri, Pietro Fornitano. "As organizações no ciberespaço: o caso da estruturação e da manutenção de uma comunidade virtual não-monetária." Universidade de São Paulo, 2008. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/96/96132/tde-28012009-131500/.

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Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a estruturação e a manutenção de uma comunidade virtual não-monetária - a Wikipédia lusófona , em consonância com os modelos organizacionais existentes. Com base em um norteamento teórico sobre algumas das mais influentes forças que atuam na sociedade, o trabalho segue de maneira qualitativa utilizando o método do estudo de caso, com o auxílio de observação, entrevistas e questionários como instrumentos de coleta e que foram aplicados aos integrantes e mantenedores da organização, de acordo com uma amostragem qualitativa. Os resultados obtidos indicam evidências de algumas teorias pré-concebidas e suas novas dimensões no contexto do ciberespaço. Há suposições da existência de um opinião pública interna que pode influir no sistema político tradicional. É possível observar uma relação de trocas entre o trabalho do membro da comunidade por necessidades pessoais. Ainda, se sugere que há uma espécie de mercado nessa organização, apesar de não existir intermediação financeira. Outra característica remete ao fato dos membros da comunidade arcarem com os custos transacionais do projeto. Para concluir, se verifica que o trabalho que mantém a organização pode ser uma base para analisar todas os modelos organizacionais em um único feixe teórico.
The aim of this work is to analize the structure and maintance of a non-financial virtual community portuguese language Wikipedia -, in relation to the structure\'s organization already existed. Based on the theoretical direction on one of those most influenced strenghts over the society, the work follows a qualitative way, using the method of case study research, being helped by the observation, interviews and questionaries as collection tool that were applaied on the members and supporters of the organization founded on qualitative sample. The results obtained indicate some evidence of pre-concepted theories and their new dimension on the ciberspace context. It\'s supposed that the public opinion can influence on the tradicional politic system. It\'s possible to observe an exchanging relation between the work of the community member by the personal needs. Than it\'s suggested there is a specific market in this organization although there isn\'t a financial relation. Another caractheristic refers of the fact to the organization\'s members deal with project\'s transation costs.To conclude, it\'s observed that the work which supports the organization can be a base to analyse all the organizations models in a unique theoretical bundle.

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Coleman, Anita Sundaram. "Building Communities." 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/105372.

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This is a presentation of 21 slides at the Leadership Development session of the ASIST 2005 Annual Meeting at Charlotte, N.C. on October 30. It discusses the 2002 virtual community building experiment undertaken by the Arizona Chapter of ASIST. The chapter experimented with three different pieces of software, a wiki, a content management system, and slashcode. This presentation was also video-taped and may become available through the ASIST website, http://www.asis.org/.

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Ramírez, Luelmo Sergio Iván. "Pedagogical practices typology : virtual platform usages of the virtual communities." Master's thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/12585.

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Usually, Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in university ambiances, due to their novelty, did not profit from a pedagogical nor a technical usage analysis at the moment of their implementation. Once their adoption is cemented within the university community, it becomes necessary to gauge how its usage corresponds with three aspects: (a) either its original purpose, (b) the actual needs of the community and, (c) the current mission and goals of the institution. By effectuating a usage analysis on the implementation of a VLE and by proposing a categorization of this usage, we intent to provide statistical insight for VLE characterization and informed decision making. Thus, this research consists of developing a Typology of Pedagogical Practices based on the usage of a Virtual Learning Environment by members of Virtual Communities (VC) in a university ambiance. This quantitative research applies Log Analysis (LA) and Data Mining (DM) to Big Data. In order to conceive the Typology, we comb through arrays of metadata associated with the events generated by the users while interacting with the VLE. Our study features then (a) a Typology of Pedagogical Practices of a VLE which comprises five categories of usage and (b) preliminary diagnostic usage results characterizing the VLE studied. However, we consider that further exploration in the form of a qualitative analysis is needed to refine and give a human dimension to this Typology.
Geralmente, os Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA) em contextos universitários não se beneficiam nem de uma análise de uso técnica e nem de uma análise de uso pedagógico no momento da sua implementação. Uma vez que sua adoção encontra-se sedimentada dentro da comunidade universitária, faz-se necessário mensurar a correspondência do seu uso real com três outros aspectos: (a) o seu propósito original, (b) as necessidades reais da comunidade, e (c) a missão atual e os objetivos institucionais. Por meio de uma análise da implementação de um AVA e de uma proposição de categorização do seu uso real, nós pretendemos fornecer, a partir de uma introspecção estatística, um esquema de caracterização de AVA e argumentos para tomada de decisões. Assim, esta pesquisa consiste em desenvolver uma Tipologia de Práticas Pedagógicas baseada no uso de um AVA por membros de Comunidades Virtuais (CV) num contexto universitário. A pesquisa quantitativa aplica Log Analysis (LA) e Mineração de Dados (MD) ao Big Data. A concepção da Tipologia deu-se através de matrizes de metadados associados aos eventos gerados pelos usuários ao interagir com o AVA. Nosso estudo apresenta então (a) uma Tipologia de Práticas Pedagógicas de um AVA que compreende cinco categorias de uso e (b) resultados de uso preliminares de diagnósticos que caracterizam o AVA estudado. Contudo, consideramos que uma exploração adicional na forma de uma análise qualitativa faz-se necessária para refinar e dar uma dimensão mais humana a esta Tipologia.
Comúnmente, los Entornos Virtuales de Aprendizaje (EVA) en ambientes universitarios, debido a su novedad, no beneficiaron de un análisis de uso ni técnico ni pedagógico al momento de su implementación. Una vez que su adopción ya se encuentra cimentada dentro de la comunidad universitaria, es necesario calibrar cómo su uso real corresponde con tres aspectos: (a) su propósito original, (b) las necesidades actuales de la comunidad y, (c) la misión actual y los objetivos institucionales. Por medio de un análisis de uso sobre la implementación de un EVA y de una propuesta de categorización de su uso real, tenemos la intención de proveer, a partir de una vision estadística, un esquema de de caracterización de EVA y argumentos para toma de decisiones. Así, esta investigación consiste en desarrollar una Tipología de Prácticas Pedagógicas basada en el uso de un Entorno Virtual de Aprendizaje por miembros de las Comunidades Virtuales (CV) que lo conforman, en un ambiente universitario. Adicionalmente, este estudio se encuentra inscrito dentro de un proyecto de mayor alcance conducido por la Universidad de Poitiers, enmarcado por el trabajo del Observatoire du Numérique à l’Université de Poitiers (ONUP). Esta investigación cuantitativa aplica Análisis de Logs (AL) y Minería de Datos (MN) a Big data: registramos minuciosamente arreglos de metadatos asociados a los eventos generados por los usuarios al interactuar con el EVA para concebir la Tipología. Nuestro estudio presenta entonces (a) una Tipología de Prácticas Pedagógicas de un EVA que comprende cinco categorías de uso y (b) resultados preliminares de diagnóstico que caracterizan al EVA analizado. Sin embargo, consideramos que una exploración adicional en la forma de un análisis cualitativo es necesaria para refinar y dar una dimension más humana a esta Tipología.
Souvent, les Environnements Numériques de Travail (ENT) à l’université n’ont pas bénéficié d’une analyse ni pédagogique ni technique au moment de leur implémentation. L’usage des ENT étant ancré dans la communauté universitaire, il devient necessaire de jauger la correspondence entre leur usage et trois aspects: (a) leur propos originnel, (b) les besoins réels de la communauté, (c) la mission et les objectifs actuels de l’institution. En réalisant une analyse d’usages sur l’implémentation d’un ENT et en proposant une catégorisation de cet usage, nous avons l’intention de fournir une vision statistique pour la caractérisation d’un ENT et pour une prise de décision informée. Ainsi, cette recherche consiste à développer une Typologie de Pratiques Pédagogiques basée sur l’usage d’un Environnement Numérique de Travail par les membres des Communautés Virtuelles (CV) à l’université. En outre, cette recherche est réalisée dans la cadre de l’Observatoire du Numérique à l’Université de Poitiers (ONUP). Cette recherche quantitative applique l’Analyse de Traces (AT) et l’Exploration de Données (ED) au Big Data: nous sillonnons des tableaux de métadonnées associées aux événements générés par les utilisateurs en interagissant avec l’ENT afin de concevoir la Typologie. Notre étude fait figurer (a) une Typologie de Pratiques Pédagogiques d’un ENT comprenant cinq categories d’usage et (b) les résultats d’usage préliminaires de diagnostic caractéristiques de l’ENT étudié. Toutefois, nous considérons qu’une exploration approfondie sous la forme d’une analyse qualitative est nécessaire pour raffiner et donner une dimension plus humaine à cette Typologie.

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Shen, Meny-Wei, and 沈孟薇. "Online Herd Behavior in virtual communities." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/gvh793.

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碩士
中原大學
國際經營與貿易研究所
103
Previous studies on WOM have stressed the importance of peer consumer reviews in making purchase decision. When people follow the others purchase decision on the Internet, online herd behavior occurs. This paper presents three experiments that examine herd behavior in virtual communities: In experiment 1, a 2 (Volume: sales/recommendation) online experiment was conducted. Experiment 2 investigated herd effects using a 2 (Number of framing effect: relative/absolute) × 2 (Number of scale: large/small) online experiment. Online experiment 3 examined herd effects using a 2 (Number of experience-sharing messages: more/fewer) × 2 (Number of recommendations: more/fewer) online experiment. These experiments involved 484 people in a Taiwanese virtual community. Results demonstrated that consumer recommendation volume causes significantly more frequent online herd behavior compared with sales volume. However, in small-scale products settings, a relative volume had a significantly higher effect than an absolute number; in large-scale products settings, an absolute volume had a significantly higher on effect than a relative volume. Members with more product experience-sharing messages had a significantly greater effect on herd behavior than those with fewer experience-sharing messages. Extending this result, no matter what volume of recommended, condition of members with higher amount of experience-sharing message will cause online herd behavior than lower one.

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CHIA, CHENG-HAO, and 賈振豪. "Understanding knowledge exploitation in virtual communities." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/nujy4r.

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碩士
國立高雄第一科技大學
資訊管理系碩士專班
105
ABSTRACT The development of virtual community has consequently changed the ways of life for most of the modern humans. As the accessibility towards the internet has ramped up quickly, more and more people can not only get closer to the services offered and contributed by information technology, but also acquire related knowledgeable services with ease. The trend has, without a doubt, improved people’s professional network, human relationship, work efficiency, and the most important of all, the quality of life... This study has aimed at researching mainly on the issue of knowledgeable application that takes place in a virtual community. The conclusion refer to as the following: the "online relationship" among the members from the group, which is considered as the major factor exists in a successful operation often affected positively by the behavior of members' "self-presentation" and "relationship compatibility" with others in between of the entire group, will directly affect the interactive conduct and the sustainable employment of wisdom in the community. Therefore, in order to attract and keep more "high quality" members who possess compatible trait and develop beneficial results in organization learning and knowledge utilizing for the community, it is strongly recommended that all of the members and managers should put great efforts in supporting fine community culture and norms of conduct, building up good online relationships, and presenting active self-presentation so as to fit in perfectly.

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Huang, Shang-Che, and 黃上哲. "Dissonance and Engagement in Virtual Communities." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/86399491784416727563.

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碩士
國立雲林科技大學
資訊管理系碩士班
101
This paper presents a conceptual model, coupled with several eminent social psychology theories, for illustrating the transmitting process of engagement behavior in virtual community. The model comprises three hypotheses with three major construct and S-O-R Model is used as its theoretical framework by taking conflict as stimulus, dissonance as organism and engagement as response. With the perspective of treating internal state dissonance as a mediating construct, this study explores the precursory construct of engagement behavior from innermost root of human psychology. Result shows conflict has positive influences on both dissonance and engagement while dissonance is positively associated with engagement. In consequence, this study provides a distinct working mechanism for supporting the engagement behavior in virtual community.

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Wu, Wen-Chung, and 吳文中. "Online herd behavior in hotel virtual communities." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ka87g3.

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碩士
中原大學
國際經營與貿易研究所
104
Previous studies demonstrated that source credibility have a significant effect on purchase intention. Furthermore, website quality, relationship quality, and information sharing intention also have significant impacts on loyalty in social networking sites. This paper further explores the influence of reviews on consumer herd behavior in online hotel virtual communities. This work presents three studies examining herd behavior in online hotel virtual communities. Study 1 investigates the influences of a single article recommended quantity (more / less), and all articles total recommended quantity (more / less) on herd behavior in online hotel virtual communities. Study 2 investigates the influences of member qualifications (senior /junior), and numbers of Q&;A (high / low) on herd behavior in online hotel virtual communities. study 3 investigates the influences of article date (near / far), and region (domestic / foreign) on herd behavior in online hotel virtual. The three experiments involved a total of 975 subjects. The experimental results demonstrated that the impact of a single article recommended more on herd behavior are higher than a single article recommended less. Under a single article recommended less, the influence of all articles total recommended quantity are not significant on consumer herd behavior. Additionally, the influence of senior members on consumer herd behavior are higher than junior members. Under junior members, the influence of numbers of Q&;A have no significant effect on consumer herd behavior. Finally, the influence of article published date near on consumer herd behavior are higher than article published date far. When article published dates are not the same, the influence of domestic and foreign on consumer herd behavior are not significant.

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Motsi, Harma. "Wireless applications for virtual communities of practice." 2004. http://encore.tut.ac.za/iii/cpro/DigitalItemViewPage.external?sp=1000853.

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Thesis (MTech. degree in Information Technology) Tshwane Univesrity of Technology
The idea of wireless application protocols (WAP) has been around for a while. Many organisations have invested heavily in developing these applications and services, but have failed to find the real benefits due to limitations of the most important aspect that could turn it into an everyday aspect of life, namely a reliable broadband connection. At the dawn of the wireless Internet, many organisations emerged with grand ideas of extending existing Internet content and services to mobile devices, making personal and corporate data and application services available anytime and anywhere. This dissertation proposes enhancements of the bidding process of m-auctions for agricultural virtual communities of practice. This application will be used to access auction market information on a portal developed by the Tshwane University of Technology for such a purpose using WAP technology. The farming community will receive real-time auction information and share knowledge through their mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDA) when they need it. This will assist in making the community more effective and thus improving productivity. For example, knowledge of real market prices will put the farmer in a better position to negotiate with the middleman, offering to transport goods to the market. WAP is seen as a means of connecting wired networks to the new wireless networks. Wireless technology can provide agricultural communities with the opportunity to access vast amounts of information independently of their location. This, in turn, will open the door to m-commerce for these communities. The unified modelling language (UML) is used to aid the design and development of the simulation system with the application programme code written in WML. WMLScript is used for the implementation of the simulation. The simulation is demonstrated using the Nokia Toolkit. The dissertation is concluded with suggestions for future research and development based on the work throughout this research.

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Chang, Jui-lin, and 張瑞麟. "How Virtual Communities Strengthen Sense of Belonging." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/24748084604452093514.

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碩士
國立雲林科技大學
企業管理系碩士班
90
The number of internet users have rapidly grown in recent years and consequently this tendency boosts the development of the internet application in business. According to the survey, many on-line trading websites still maintain at the deficit situation. For example, the biggest online bookstore in the world, Amazon, can’t avoid this situation. Then some experts think operating virtual communities can help to develop e-commerce, and solve an awkward situation of e-commerce. So the purposes of this study are to explore how to strengthen the operating base of virtual communities to increase the sense of belonging of virtual communities members, and finally virtual communities can help the operating of e-commerce. By systematic observation, this research try to find the current operating situation of Taiwan’s virtual communities to sort out current operating situation of virtual communities. And then using interviews to gather information. Basing on “Hexagon of virtual communities” proposed by Mole, Mulcahy, O’Donnell & Gupta to confer cases to analyze whether the importance of causes affecting virtual communities in different types of virtual communities in insides is different. The result is as follow: 1. The current operating situation of virtual communities can be sorted out three kinds, the first kind is what it operates e-commerce by virtual communities and it charges come from consumers, the second kind is what it operates e-commerce by virtual communities and it charges come from businesses, and third kind is what it operates excluding e-commerce tasks by virtual communities and it charges come from consumers. 2. The elements how virtual communities strengthen sense of belonging are Precisely tailored content, Identification with the brand, Awareness of other like-minded users, Ability to interact with others on website, Opportunity to shape the development of website, and Mutual benefits of participation primarily. 3. The differences how virtual communities strengthen sense of belonging of the different kinds of communities’ website is as follow: (1) The first kind of communities’ website strengthen sense of the members’ belonging of virtual communities by inputting to set high levels of Precisely tailored content, Ability to interact with others on website and Mutual benefits of participation primarily. (2) The second kind of communities’ website strengthen sense of the members’ belonging of virtual communities by inputting to set high levels of Precisely tailored content , Identification with the brand, Awareness of other like-minded users, Ability to interact with others on website, Opportunity to shape the development of website, and Mutual benefits of participation primarily. (3) The third kind of communities’ website strengthen sense of the members’ belonging of virtual communities by inputting to set high levels of Precisely tailored content, and Mutual benefits of participation primarily.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Virtual communities'

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