Dear Ben & others,
you asked what 'personal goals' like getting status and making
contacts have to do with structural properties of e-groups:
the point is that structural properties of electronic groups can
influence whether active participation in electronic discussions can
be a successful means for a researcher to obtain status or to make
new contacts.
We do not have to regard a researcher's goal to make new
contacts or to gain reputation as personal in nature. These are
social goals that are induced by the research system and its
career system.
If we assume that obtaining reputation and making contacts, to
some extent, are intrumental for every researcher's career
advancement, the question is which properties of electronic groups
link the pursuing of these goals to active participation in e-
discussions.
An example: Let's assume that a researcher's active participation
in e-discussions is driven by the wish to obtain reputation in the
academic system. We could then expect that academic mailing
lists that are embedded in well-integrated research communities
with face-to-face meetings stimulate active participation more than
academic mailing list consisting of a less integrated community of
researchers, since in the latter you cannot obtain much reputation
that is helpful for your career advancement.
The idea that a hope for reciprocity may stimulate participation in
discussions of electronic group can be traced back to
out0100,0100,0100Times New RomanThorn BK, Connolly T. 1987. "Discretionary Data Bases: A Theory and
Some Experimental Findings." Communication Research
14(5):512-28
ArialWe can use different models based on different ideas about what
drives participation in e-discussions (reputation, contacts, hope for
reciprocity) for deriving hypotheses about which structural
properties of electronic groups stimulate active participation.
I elaborated and tested a number of like-wise hypotheses in my
thesis (see last email).
Best wishes,
Uwe
0000,0000,0000
> Uwe,
>
> Sorry if I'm being dense, but you say first that your focus is more on the
> significant structural properties of electronic groups (eg their
> embeddedness in face-to-face networks), but then go on to outline the
> influences on active participation that are very much more personal in
> nature - hope for reciprocity, status and contact.
>
> Could you clarify.
>
> Thanks,
>
> ben
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Uwe Matzat" <
> To: <
> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 4:33 PM
> Subject: [Air-l] Re: Lurking
>
>
> > I am busy wading through my saved emails - that's the reason I
> > react so lately to the thread on lurking in electronic group
> > discussions.
> >
> > In December I finished my Ph.D. thesis at the Department of
> > Sociology, University of Groningen (the Netherlands) which is of
> > interest for those analyzing 'lurking' or active participation in
> > electronic discussions.
> >
> > The thesis contributes to answering the question under which
> > conditions some electronic groups on the Internet reach a high
> > degree of active member participation (posting) in group
> > discussions while other Internet groups fail to involve many
> > members.
> >
> > The focus is more on structural properties of the electronic group
> > (e.g. does it stimulate the discussion if an electronic group is
> > embedded in face-to-face networks of researchers?) than on
> > properties of individuals (e.g. does it stimulate the discussion if a
> > member is an altruist?) that faciliate the involvement of members in
> > group discussions.
> >
> > You don't have to read the whole book. In chapters 5 and 6 of the
> > book, three models for explaining the active participation of
> > researchers in discussions of academic mailing lists are presented
> > and empirically tested. These models rely on three different basic
> > arguments about which incentives influence the provision of help
> > and information in discussions of electronic groups:
> >
> > 1. a hope for reciprocity
> > 2. the goal to obtain some status in the research community
> > 3. the goal to make new contacts to other researchers
> >
> > Since these models are instruments for finding out what are crucial
> > structural properties, they leave out ideas about altruistic
> > motivations, like group attachment etc, that could stimulate group
> > discussions.
> >
> > Matzat, U. (2001). Social Networks and Cooperation in Electronic
> > Communities. A theoretical-empirical Analysis of Academic
> > Communication and Internet Discussion Groups. Amsterdam:
> > Thela Publishers (ISBN 90-367-1541-5)
> >
> > The models make use of economic price-theory in a very simple
> > way, so that the reasoning and results are understandable for
> > Internet researcher who may not be familiar with micro-economics.
> >
> > By the way, the book is also online available at the university
> > library of the University of Groningen :-):
> >
> > http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/ppsw/u.matzat/
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Uwe
> > PS: The project information on my web-site is not yet up-dated. I
> > am sorry!
> >
--------------------------------------------------
Uwe Matzat
ICS / Department of Sociology
University of Groningen
Grote Rozenstr. 31
NL-9712 TG Groningen
Tel: (+31)/(0)50/363-6237 Fax: (+31)/(0)50/363-6226
EMail: U.Matzat@PPSW.RUG.NL
Social Networks & academic Internet Discussion Groups:
http://www.ppsw.rug.nl/~matzat
--------------------------------------------------