Modeling Evolutionary Dynamics of Lurking in Social Networks

Lurking is a complex user-behavioral phenomenon that occurs in all large-scale online communities and social networks. It generally refers to the behavior characterizing users that benefit from the information produced by others in the community without actively contributing back to the production of social content. The amount and evolution of lurkers may strongly affect an online social environment, therefore understanding the lurking dynamics and identifying strategies to curb this trend are relevant problems. In this regard, we introduce the Lurker Game, i.e., a model for analyzing the transitions from a lurking to a non-lurking (i.e., active) user role, and vice versa, in terms of evolutionary game theory. We evaluate the proposed Lurker Game by arranging agents on complex networks and analyzing the system evolution, seeking relations between the network topology and the final equilibrium of the game. Results suggest that the Lurker Game is suitable to model the lurking dynamics, showing how the adoption of rewarding mechanisms combined with the modeling of hypothetical heterogeneity of users' interests may lead users in an online community towards a cooperative behavior.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Accepted at CompleNet 201

Are Online Parasites Really Different from Lurkers?

With the development of digital technology, the internet environment has dramatically changed the way people share information, which has been changed by different types of sources, making it convenient to obtain information. The lurking phenomenon in the network is becoming increasingly common, and previous studies have been conducted on lurkers on the internet with shifting focus from active users to passive users. Under these circumstances, this tries to conceptualize a new type of passive users, titled as “online parasites” who focus on obtaining information by utilizing the internet or their host to achieve their other purposes. The aim is to deeply understand these users and clearly distinguish them from other types of users such as lurkers

How Do They Differ? Analyzing the Motivations of Posters and Lurkers for Participation in Enterprise Social Networks

Organizations have increasingly begun to implement enterprise social networks (ESNs) due to their potential to afford enterprise-wide collaboration, knowledge sharing, and interaction. Despite their proliferation, many companies still struggle to motivate a sufficient number of employees to actively participate in these collaborative networks. Consequently, many ESNs fail due to a lack of contributions. While most employees only read and consume content (lurking), few actively create content (posting). Little research has examined the differences between posters and lurkers and their underlying motivations, particularly in the ESN context. Building on social exchange theory (SET), we identify and test a set of motivational factors that researchers have scarcely studied in corporate social networks: reputation, common identity, common bond, social interaction, and community commitment. By investigating a rich data set of 4,892 respondents in a large knowledge-intensive multinational company, we provide evidence that posters and lurkers significantly differ in why they participate in ESNs. Further, we introduce a nuanced classification of participant roles to distinguish five user groups (super frequent posters, frequent posters, infrequent posters, frequent lurkers, and infrequent lurkers) with super frequent posters showing significantly higher mean values for all motivational factors to use an ESN compared to the other user groups. Our findings yield important theoretical and practical implications regarding different usage behaviors and on how to enhance participation in ESNs

[Book review] Populism, Media and Education: Challenging discrimination in contemporary digital societies

Published in January 2016, this book is based on a recent cross-European research project, ‘e-Engagement Against Violence’ (e-EAV), which ran from 2012 to 2014 and included research partners from seven EU member states. The project comprised two separate research strands, which are reflected in the structure of the book. First, a discursive approach known as Critical Frame Analysis was used in order to analyse populist communicative strategies online. For clarity, Ranieri sets out the definition of populism as used by the project as “an explorative concept to systematically analyse the ‘discursive strategies’ of ‘othering’ through which right-wing organisations construct and locate the ‘others’ ‘out of the people’ by making them objects of discrimination and exclusion” (Ranieri, 2016, p. 2). In contrast, the second part of the project involved an action research-based approach to design, implement and evaluate media literacy education practices, to improve young peoples’ awareness of the issues online and enhance civic engagement

Understanding User Contributions in Smoking cessation Online Health Communities

Users make contributions to online communities in different ways. Prior literature has rarely investigated how different user groups make contributions to smoking cessation OHCs. To illuminate the contribution of different user groups in smoking cessation OHCs, this study aims to evaluate user contribution from two dimensions (Content-contribution and popularity) associated with users’ questioning and answering behaviors. Based on the user log data collected from a smoking cessation OHC in Finland (Stumppi.fi), we plan to assess user contribution level for four different user groups (lurker, conversation-starter, conversation-replier, and Conversation-starter & replier) based on user activity data via applying entropy method. The research might make theoretical contributions to the literature on user contribution and offer practical implications to smoking cessation OHC service providers

Computer-Mediated Communication in the Age of Communication Visibility

This article argues that a distinctive aspect of computer-mediated communication (CMC) is the way it can make communication visible to others in ways that were previously impractical. We propose a theory of communication visibility that recognizes its multidimensional nature: resulting from activities that make communication visible, efforts by actors to see communication, and a sociomaterial context that influences possibilities for visibility. The different dimensions of communication visibility are explored as they relate to possibilities for action with CMC, and the ability of third-parties to view communication between others. Centering communication visibility in the study of CMC compels scholars to ask new questions regarding the interdependence of active, strategic efforts to make communication more or less visible to others, and the ways in which communication is assessed by observers. To facilitate ongoing research we offer an agenda for incorporating communication visibility into the study of contemporary and future forms of CMC

Rulemaking in 140 Characters or Less: Social Networking and Public Participation in Rulemaking

Rulemaking—the process by which administrative agencies make new regulations—has long been a target for egovernment efforts. The process is now one of the most important ways the federal government makes public policy. Moreover, transparency and participation rights are already part of its legal structure. The first generation of federal erulemaking involved putting the conventional process online by creating an e-docket of rulemaking materials and allowing online submission of public comments. Now the Obama administration is urging agencies to embark on the second generation of technology-assisted rulemaking, by bringing social media into the process. In this Article we describe the initial results of a pilot Rulemaking 2.0 system, Regulation Room, with particular emphasis on its social networking and other Web 2.0 elements. Web 2.0 technologies and methods seem well suited to overcoming one of the principal barriers to broader, better public participation in rulemaking: unawareness that a rulemaking of interest is going on. We talk here about the successes and obstacles to social-media based outreach in the first two rulemakings offered on Regulation Room. Our experience confirms the power of viral information spreading on the Web, but also warns that outcomes can be shaped by circumstances difficult, if not impossible, for the outreach effort to control. There are two additional substantial barriers to broader, better public participation in rulemaking: ignorance of the rulemaking process, and the information overload of voluminous and complex rulemaking materials. Social media are less obviously suited to lowering these barriers. We describe here the design elements and human intervention strategies being used in Regulation Room, with some success, to overcome process ignorance and information overload. However, it is important to recognize that the paradigmatic Web 2.0 user experience involves behaviors fundamentally at odds with the goals of such strategies. One of these is the ubiquitousness of voting (through rating, ranking, and recommending) as “participation” online. Another is what Web guru Jacok Neilsen calls the ruthlessness of users in moving rapidly through web sites, skimming rather than carefully reading content and impatiently seeking something to do quickly before they move on. Neither of these behaviors well serves those who would participate effectively in rulemaking. For this reason, Rulemaking 2.0 systems must be consciously engaged in culture creation, a challenging undertaking that requires simultaneously using, and fighting, the methods and expectations of the Web