Content Reuse and Interest Sharing in Tagging Communities

Tagging communities represent a subclass of a broader class of user-generated content-sharing online communities. In such communities users introduce and tag content for later use. Although recent studies advocate and attempt to harness social knowledge in this context by exploiting collaboration among users, little research has been done to quantify the current level of user collaboration in these communities. This paper introduces two metrics to quantify the level of collaboration: content reuse and shared interest. Using these two metrics, this paper shows that the current level of collaboration in CiteULike and Connotea is consistently low, which significantly limits the potential of harnessing the social knowledge in communities. This study also discusses implications of these findings in the context of recommendation and reputation systems.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, AAAI Spring Symposium on Social Information Processin

Knowledge Flow in Online Communities: A Study of the Relationship Between Knowledge Complexity, Online Collaboration, and Knowledge Flow

Prior research establishes useful theory on knowledge flow, knowledge complexity, and collaboration in organizations. However, blogs, wikis, and discussion forums support collaboration and knowledge flow in a new realm, distributed work settings, where participants rarely if ever enjoy face-toface contact. This research will investigate the unique features of online communities that facilitate knowledge flow. Specifically, we will look at the interaction of knowledge complexity and collaboration in knowledge flow in online communities and help provide guidance for researchers in designing online communities for more efficient knowledge transfer

When to Signal? Contingencies for Career-Motivated Contributions in Online Collaboration Communities

Online collaboration communities are increasingly taking on new roles beyond knowledge creation and exchange, especially the role of a skill-signaling channel for career-motivated community members. This paper examines the contingency effects of job-market conditions for career-motivated knowledge contributions in online collaboration communities. From the data of individual-level activities in a computer programming-related online Q&A community (Stack Overflow), merged with job-market data for software developers, we find robust evidence of a positive association between community members’ career motivations and their knowledge contributions. More importantly, we find that this positive relationship is strengthened by job-market conditions: the number of vacancies in the job market, the expected salaries from these jobs, and the transparency in the flow of career-related information between the community and external recruiters. We contribute to the motivation literature in online collaboration communities by identifying and substantiating the role of contextual factors in mobilizing members’ career motivation. Our study thus offers novel insight into how career motivation can be effectively utilized to motivate contributors in these communities. Our findings also point to a possible paradigm change by characterizing online collaboration communities as emerging institutions for career motivation and skill signaling

Explaining online communities’ contribution to socio-economic development

In recent times, online communities are emerging as a potential source of information technology-led socio-economic development by enabling new generative mechanisms. Existing studies provide useful insights yet do not recognize the contributions of online communities in achieving socio-economic development. To address this knowledge gap, this paper documents a netnography study conducted on an online community for teaching the youth how to earn income online legitimately. We applied the theoretical notion of IT affordances to examine the possibilities for socio-economic action via online communities in the context of a developing country. Preliminary findings show how the online community contributes to socio-economic development by fostering collaboration, information sharing, and learning leading to income generation

Participatory knowledge mobilisation: an emerging model for international translational research in education

Research alone does not inform practice, rather a process of knowledge translation is required to enable research findings to become meaningful for practitioners in their contextual settings. However, the translational process needs to be an iterative cycle so that the practice itself can be reflected upon and thereby inform the ongoing research agenda. This paper presents the initial findings of a study into an international, participatory model of knowledge mobilization in the context of translational research in the field of education. Using a mixed methods approach, the study draws upon data collected from the Education Futures Collaboration (EFC), an educational charity, which has developed an international knowledge mobilization strategy. Through the innovative use of technologies this initiative improves the link between research and practice by finding new and practical ways to improve the knowledge base for practitioners. The EFC has developed two work strands within the international knowledge mobilization strategy, which utilise two complementary digital platforms. The first is the online MESHGuides (Mapping Educational Specialist knowHow), a collaborative tool for connecting educators with visual summaries of educational research from which practice can be developed. The second is the online Education Communities of Practice network, which is used to support international partnerships for collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Findings indicate that utilising web 2.0 tools to develop translational research through MESHGuides is significantly groundbreaking in its vision and scope with respect to practitioners accessing and building the knowledge base of the teaching profession internationally and strengthening the link between researchers and practitioners, thereby increasing the impact of research in education

MORMED: towards a multilingual social networking platform facilitating medicine 2.0

The broad adoption of Web 2.0 tools has signalled a new era of "Medicine 2.0" in the field of medical informatics. The support for collaboration within online communities and the sharing of information in social networks offers the opportunity for new communication channels among patients, medical experts, and researchers. This paper introduces MORMED, a novel multilingual social networking and content management platform that exemplifies the Medicine 2.0 paradigm, and aims to achieve knowledge commonality by promoting sociality, while also transcending language barriers through automated translation. The MORMED platform will be piloted in a community interested in the treatment of rare diseases (Lupus or Antiphospholipid Syndrome)

Zapotec Language Activism And Talking Dictionaries

Online dictionaries have become a key tool for some indigenous communities to promote and preserve their languages, often in collaboration with linguists. They can provide a pathway for crossing the digital divide and for establishing a first-ever presence on the internet. Many questions around digital lexicography have been explored, although primarily in relation to large and well-resourced languages. Lexical projects on small and under-resourced languages can provide an opportunity to examine these questions from a different perspective and to raise new questions (Mosel, 2011). In this paper, linguists, technical experts, and Zapotec language activists, who have worked together in Mexico and the United States to create a multimedia platform to showcase and preserve lexical, cultural, and environmental knowledge, share their experience and insight in creating trilingual online Talking Dictionaries in several Zapotec languages. These dictionaries sit opposite from big data mining and illustrate the value of dictionary projects based on small corpora, including having the flexibility to make design decisions to maximize community impact and elevate the status of marginalized languages

Sustainability in online communities of practice : the case study of a group of Secondary School Educators in Victoria

This paper reports on Information Technology (IT) secondary school educators in Victoria and their involvement in an online community of practice. It examined the social effects of the online mailing list technology on their participation and factors that influenced their collaboration with other colleagues. In mapping these elements, the motivations of educators and the effects on online communities of practice can be distilled and then used to build and sustain other architectures of participation. It was found that mailing list subscribers seem to trade a currency of support, thoughts, ideas and answers, which helped them in their day-to-day teaching. Online communities of practice provide a convenient way to keep up professional networks while continuing to stay abreast with subject specific knowledge and skills. The findings of this case study may be generalised to other educational mailing lists to guide designers and managers and inspire educators to join and ultimately benefit from these text based online environments.<br /