Analyzing Online Communities: A Narrative Approach

Marketing intelligence companies such as Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics, J.C. Power’s Umbria and Motivequest tell us that “there is gold buried in the mountains of data” accruing on blogs, online forums, and other forms of social media. The analytical services offered by these companies treat the various social media as one large database with which they decode “the language of the consumer” (http://motivequest.com). Semantic Network Analysis offers an alternative approach that “extracts and analyzes links among words to model an authors “mental map” as a network of links” (Carley et al. 2006). This paper suggests that this type of analysis can lead to a detailed and informative conceptual map of online conversations that will preserve the narrative context and offer a greater understanding of what motivates and holds these communities together

Brand Communities in a World of Knowledge-based Products and Common Property

Brands have become an integral part of our culture. Consumers rely upon brand names as proxy for information about the products they purchase. They consider their own brand usage, not only in terms of product value, but also as a statement about themselves, their values, and their life choices. Studies of postmodern consumer culture have suggested that brands have emerged as a way for consumers to express their individuality and as a means for people to form groups with other like-minded consumers

Deconstructing Wikipedia: Collaborative Content Creation in an Open Process Platform

Collaboration in Wikipedia articles has widely been touted as a great leap forward and an example of how technology can be leveraged to improve collaborative processes. If we focus on the creation of individual articles, what does that creation process look like? Information was collected from the Revision History Statistics page of thirty Wikipedia featured articles to examine variables such as number of edits, number of editors and total edits by the largest contributors to a given article. This small pilot study suggests that the article creation process may more closely mirror the traditional writer/editor process than it does the “crowd as writer-editor”. It also raises questions about potential changes in how people view the content creation process

Polyvore Collaboration: Innovation in Informal Online Affiliation Networks

Online communities engaged in collaborative exchange exhibit characteristics of spontaneous communitas as defined by Victor Turner (1982). Interactions taking place in these communities also correspond to Harrison White\u27s (2008) concept of network formation as a tension between identity and control. A social network analysis of activities in the Polyvore community maps the behavior of members as they oscillate between liminoid transactions and structured integration; between creativity and conformity. An affiliation network is a two-mode network consisting of a set of actors and a set of events. This paper studies an affiliation network as it develops within the Polyvore community

Understanding Slow Growth in the Adoption of E-Textbooks: Distinguishing Paper and Electronic Delivery of Course Content

E-textbooks have experienced a lower than anticipated rate of adoption among college students. Studies consistently show a student preference for paper versus e-textbooks. When seeking an explanation for the continued reluctance of students to adopt e-textbooks, it is necessary to consider e-textbooks as a technological innovation. This is an exploratory study of the first year of a pilot program during which 991 students in 9 core courses in the Virginia State University (VSU) Reginald F. Lewis College of Business (RFLCB) replaced traditional textbooks with openly licensed e-textbooks. A questionnaire was administered to students who had participated in the e-textbook pilot study in the second semester of the implementation. The adoption process was examined using Venkatesh’s Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as a framework. The questions in the survey were categorized to represent performance expectancy and effort expectancy; two of the four primary constructs in the UTAUT. In accordance with the UTAUT framework, the moderating variables, age, experience, gender and voluntariness, were cross-tabulated with these constructs to see how the moderating factors might influence adoption of digital textbooks. Results show that student gender and voluntariness, as expressed as reported time spent with e-textbook, need to be taken into account when implementing technological innovations such as an e-textbook initiative

Using Social Network Analysis to Explore Digital Student Interactions and Business Competency Learning in a Web-based Educational Platform:

Web 2.0 tools occupy a large part of our lives, and their use in the classroom offers instructors a unique opportunity to gather substantial information about individual and interactive student behaviors. The authors’ challenge is understanding the implications of this rich data source for assessing course efficacy and student learning, and applying these insights to further enhance the development of global business competencies. This paper reviews 311 student interactions as reflected in comments exchanged in a digital social learning community and, using social network analysis, discusses the potential to use these interactions to assess student critical thinking, communication, and collaborative feedback skills. The authors conclude with implications and recommendations for instructors who want to use Web 2.0 platforms and data to enhance their understanding of student and class digital interactions, and apply this information to course enhancement

Using Yellowdig in Marketing Courses: An Analysis of Individual Contributions and Social Interactions in Online Classroom Communities and Their Impact on Student Learning and Engagement

Students in four marketing classes participated in a pilot program where they used Yellowdig in the classroom. Yellowdig is a private network for collaboration targeted towards educational institutions to increase student engagement. Yellowdig seeks to engage students using a broad array of resources including videos, news articles, blogs and more. It offers a Facebook-like experience (a platform the majority of students are very familiar with) for ease of use. In the classes, Yellowdig was used for two purposes: as a way to create a community inside and outside of the classroom and as a means by which students create and share course-relevant content throughout the semester. To achieve those goals, students posted items of interest relating to course content to Yellowdig and commented on and up-voted others’ posts. Yellowdig data was used to capture insights about students’ individual contributions and social interactions. The manuscript summarizes academic literature on social learning and social media, followed by a description of Yellowdig and how it was used in the marketing classes to benefit student learning and engagement. The results of quantitative analyses, including data visualization and social network analysis, are used to help educators understand both individual contributions to and social interactions in the network. In addition, multiple linear regression results suggest that engagement through Yellowdig activities does benefit student learning. Strategies for instructors to enhance student engagement and learning using these types of analyses are provided

Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data.

Neurodevelopmental maturation takes place in a social environment in addition to a neurobiological one. Characterization of social environmental factors that influence this process is therefore an essential component in developing an accurate model of adolescent brain and neurocognitive development, as well as susceptibility to change with the use of marijuana and other drugs. The creation of the Culture and Environment (CE) measurement component of the ABCD protocol was guided by this understanding. Three areas were identified by the CE Work Group as central to this process: influences relating to CE Group membership, influences created by the proximal social environment, influences stemming from social interactions. Eleven measures assess these influences, and by time of publication, will have been administered to well over 7,000 9-10 year-old children and one of their parents. Our report presents baseline data on psychometric characteristics (mean, standard deviation, range, skewness, coefficient alpha) of all measures within the battery. Effectiveness of the battery in differentiating 9-10 year olds who were classified as at higher and lower risk for marijuana use in adolescence was also evaluated. Psychometric characteristics on all measures were good to excellent; higher vs. lower risk contrasts were significant in areas where risk differentiation would be anticipated

Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes

This study reports findings from a year-long pilot study during which 991 students in 9 core courses in the Virginia State University School of Business replaced traditional textbooks with openly licensed books and other digital content. The university made a deliberate decision to use open textbooks that were copyrighted under the Creative Commons license. This decision was based on the accessibility and flexibility in the delivery of course content provided by open textbooks. More students accessed digital open textbooks than had previously purchased hard copies of textbooks. Higher grades were correlated with courses that used open textbooks

Recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator versus a novel dosing regimen of urokinase in acute pulmonary embolism: a randomized controlled multicenter trial

AbstractThrombolysis of acute pulmonary embolism can be accomplished more rapidly and safely with 100 mg of recombinant human tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) (Activase) than with a conventional dose of urokinase (Abbokinase) given as a 4,400-U/kg bolus dose, followed by 4,400 U/kg per h for 24 h. To determine the effects of a more concentrated urokinase dose administered over a shorter time course, this trial enrolled 90 patients with baseline perfusion lung scans and angiographically documented pulmonary embolism. They were randomized to receive either 100 mg/2 h of rt-PA or a novel dosing regimen of urokinase: 3 million U/2 h with the initial 1 million U given as a bolus injection over 10 min. Both drugs were delivered through a peripheral vein.To assess efficacy after initiation of therapy, repeat pulmonary angiograms at 2 h were performed in 87 patients and then graded in a blinded manner by a panel of six investigators. Of the 42 patients allocated to rt-PA therapy, 79% showed angiographic improvement at 2 h, compared with 67% of the 45 patients randomized to urokinase therapy (95% confidence interval for the difference in these proportions [rt-PA minus urokinase] is −6.6% to 30.4%; p = 0.11). The mean change in perfusion lung scans between baseline and 24 h was similar for both treatments. Three patients (two treated with rt-PA and one with urokinase) had an intracranial hemorrhage, which was fatal in one.The results indicate that a 2-h regimen of rt-PA and a new dosing regimen of urokinase exhibit similar efficacy and safety for treatment of acute pulmonary embolism