Supporting the sense of locality with online communities

Online communities have become popular among geographically distributed users of the Internet. However, there is a growing interest to use online communities to support social interaction also in geography-based communities. In this paper, we study the value of online sociability and the possibilities to support local networking by online communities in two different online communities. We present the results of a survey carried out among Finnish users of Facebook, and complement the with user interviews of a local community service of Helsinki city surroundings. The results show that Facebook is used mainly for nourishing existing friendships online and less for organizing local activities and meeting new people. However, the results can be utilized as implications for designing sociability in location-oriented online communities

Peer Influence, Family Dysfunction or Conditioning? – An Empirical Analysis of Facebook Addiction Predispositions

The high increase of usage rates of Social Networking Sites (SNS) such as Facebook are a worldwide phenomenon as are people spending hours in Facebook especially among young adolescents. However, beside their useful and enjoyable features, SNS like Facebook have also proven to have undesired outcomes in terms of technostress, social overload, or even addiction. Addiction as a variable in adoption models has been introduced into the IS community by Turel and Serenko (2011) who operationalized online-auction addiction and assessed its impact on adoption determinants as perceived usefulness. By means of an empirical study of 125 young adults, the present research shifts the focus to the causes of addiction using the example of Facebook. We thereby focus on three groups of addiction predispositions (Family dysfunction, peer influence and behavioral conditioning) and empirically investigate their impact on Facebook addiction

Empleo de Twitter en la docencia universitaria: hacia un modelo de aprendizaje basado en la co-creación

[EN] College students are considered by some researchers "digital natives". New technologies are part of their mental structures and their way of understanding reality and information. Based on the various theories of learning, it seems appropriate to consider whether the use of social platforms like Twitter collaborates and supports the process of autonomous learning and team participation in the cocreation of knowledge, the involvement and student motivation for learning process. Following a review of previous research, the authors of this study address the use of Twitter in the university teaching field from an undirected and facilitator new perspective. The results obtained through surveys and a qualitative assessment of their tweets, support the validity of some of the statements of previous research and discard others. The analysis also suggests that Twitter has great potential in the generation of a virtual community of continuous self-learning and updated very valuable for the students. The study also proposes a series of recommendations to teachers for the implementation of Twitter to support higher education.[ES] Los estudiantes universitarios son considerados por algunos investigadores “nativos digitales”. El uso de nuevas tecnologías forma parte de sus estructuras mentales y de su forma de comprender la realidad e información. Partiendo de las diversas teorías del aprendizaje parece pertinente estudiar si el uso de plataformas sociales como Twitter colaboran y apoyan el proceso de aprendizaje autónomo y en equipo, la participación en la co-creación de conocimiento, la implicación y la motivación del alumno por su proceso de aprendizaje. Tras una revisión de las investigaciones previas, los autores de este estudio abordan el uso de Twitter en el ámbito docente universitario desde una perspectiva nueva no dirigida y facilitadora. Los resultados obtenidos a través de encuestas a los alumnos y una valoración cualitativa de sus tweets, apoyan la validez de algunas de las afirmaciones de investigaciones anteriores y descartan otras. El análisis también sugiere que Twitter tiene un gran potencial en la generación de una comunidad virtual de autoaprendizaje continuo y actualizado muy valioso para el estudiante. El estudio propone además, una serie de recomendaciones a los docentes para la implementación de Twitter como apoyo a los estudios superiores.Emmanuel Martínez, E.; Gómez Rodríguez, P. (2015). Empleo de Twitter en la docencia universitaria: hacia un modelo de aprendizaje basado en la co-creación. En In-Red 2015 - CONGRESO NACIONAL DE INNOVACIÓN EDUCATIVA Y DE DOCENCIA EN RED. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/INRED2015.2015.1550OC

Kuntoilua tukevien verkkopalvelujen yhteisöllisyyden arviointi

Fitness and sociability online are two very interesting subjects for research at the moment. In this thesis the aim is to study a combination of these subjects, fitness-related web services with social features. The main motivation for this research is the validation of sociability heuristics devised in the PROFCOM project. In addition, the study aims to find out about users’ opinions regarding social aspects of fitness-related web services. The focus in the study is on sociability and what kind of social features users want included in such a web service, if any. The study also aims to describe how such features affect user experience. The study was carried out using three fitness-related web services. These were Suunto Movescount, Nokia Sports Tracker and Polar Personal Trainer. Suunto Movescount was still being developed at the time of the study. The two other services had been in public use for several years. At the beginning of the study, heuristic evaluations were conducted to all three services in order to gather information about their social features and sociability. The evaluations were carried out using the eight PROFCOM sociability heuristics, Nielsen’s five participation guidelines and a collection of nine sociability heuristics devised by Preece. In order to validate sociability heuristics and gather information regarding sociability in fitness-related web services, users from all three services were interviewed. A total of 20 interviews were carried out. In addition, the 10 interviewees who used Suunto Movescount took part in a diary study designed to gather information during the testing of the service. The results of the interviews and diary study were summarized and used to analyze the users’ opinions in regard to sociability. These results were also compared to the results of the heuristic evaluations in order to validate the sociability heuristics. Based on the findings in this study, the sociability heuristics produce analogous results to those gathered from users when evaluating sociability. The most serious problems can be found by both methods although there are differences in the results in regard to less critical sociability issues. Some problems noted during heuristic evaluation are not necessarily problems for users and vice versa. This indicates that whilst heuristics can significantly help in evaluating sociability, using them as the only tool involves a risk of erroneous conclusions. Interviewees’ opinions suggest that fitness-related web services that include social features should offer users different ways of interacting. It is also important to consider what users actually use the service for. If the main purpose is maintaining a training diary, social features should be designed to support this. On the other hand, if the focus is on creating an online community, the biggest effort should be aimed at designing ways of interaction that feel natural to users and encourage discussion among them. /Kir1

Development of social capital through place-based virtual groups

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2012."September 2012." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-161).Over the last decade, as computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become ubiquitous., place-based virtual groups have become increasingly common in the U.S. People are using various CMC tools, such as email lists, message boards, and social network sites, to form these virtual groups in order to connect with their neighbors and learn about their neighborhoods. While our society's relationship with the idea of neighborhood has become more complicated as our conception of community has become more liberated and less rooted in place, many Americans still want - and benefit from - relationships they form with people they live near. This thesis uses social capital as a lens to investigate whether place-based virtual groups may be supporting community and neighbor social networks in neighborhoods. It focuses on four dimensions of social capital in particular: sense of community. neighboring, citizen participation / civic engagement, and collective efficacy. The author looked at four place-based virtual groups-three neighborhood email discussion lists and one neighborhood Facebook Group-in the San Francisco Bay Area. She interviewed members of the virtual groups and reviewed content from the groups' archives, looking for evidence that the groups were supporting the development of social capital for the individuals who participated in them. This thesis analyzes the experiences of individuals in the groups, assesses each group with respect to how it seems to be supporting the development of social capital, and presents lessons for planners interested in increasing social capital or building community in neighborhoods. The author found evidence that each of the four place-based virtual groups did seem to support the development of sense of community, neighboring, and civic engagement, and that they had the potential to support the development of collective efficacy. However, she also found a lot of variation among the different groups., and the results raise interesting questions about what circumstances might be required to bring about place-based virtual groups that strongly encourage all dimensions of social capital.by Maryann Hulsman.M.C.P