Research 2.0 : improving participation in online research communities

Web 2.0 thinking and technologies create a number of new opportunities to conduct research broadly labeled as Research 2.0. Research 2.0 is a growing area of academic and commercial interest, which includes research undertaken in online research communities. This research in progress paper explores the practice of online research communities using a case study example operated by the commercial market research company Virtual Surveys Limited (VSL) in the UK on behalf of their client United Biscuits UK Ltd. The preliminary findings are based on VSL and academics working together to improve the online research community participants’ response rate and the quality of contributions. Data collected for this study is based on meetings, participant observation, and a pilot survey of United Biscuits online research community (snackrs.com) members. Using the responses of 112 snackrs.com community members, a preliminary typology of motivational factors is proposed. This can be used to refine the recruitment and development of activities in an online research community. Also, a model for supporting online research communities to ensure longitudinal engagement based on an adaptation of Salmon’s (2004) 5 Stage Model for e-moderation is proposed, extending the 5 stages to 7 – adding the stages of selection and disengagemen

Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story: A case study investigation into extracting and analysing stories using CATWOE

The use of storytelling as a knowledge elicitation tool has attracted much attention in recent years, yet there is limited literature on how to illicit or stimulate the story. The challenge is to find appropriate research instruments that stimulate storytelling and morph vocalised individual narratives into multifaceted stories that provide an insight into the emotions, politics and ‘life’ of organizations. This paper reports on the use of storytelling as a research instrument to elicit highly contextualized knowledge from knowledge holders. The intention was not to attempt to find an objective truth but rather to stimulate discursive openness. Specifically we present a technique based on CATWOE analysis that can stimulate storytelling and story creation. The technique is particularly useful for those who are new to the storytelling approach and provides a simple formalism for structuring story elicitation and analysis. The paper concludes by reflecting on the concept of ‘truth’ and the process of story emergence a legitimization, specifically identifying the contribution that alternative ‘truths’ can make in socializing and disseminating knowledge in organizations

Ideal participants in online market research: Lessons from closed communities

Online market research communities are dependent upon their members’ participation that in turn provides market intelligence for community operators. However, people join these communities for different reasons. The selection process for market research community members and the moderation process of these communities have a number of pitfalls, which can result in misleading interpretations of intelligence and flawed decisions based on their contributions. Using social capital theory in conjunction with research on different motivational types of participants, this paper focuses on lessons from commercially operated, closed online market research communities; it provides us with insights on membership selection and community moderation methods. The practical finding is that the ideal participant of such communities would be attracted by activities and rewards, which do not directly or obviously relate to the specific objective of an online market research community