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 Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS) Department of Sociology University of Groningen Grote Rozenst. 31 9712 TG Groningen The Netherlands u.matzat@ppsw.rug.nl Social Networks and Academic Internet Discussion Groups: http://www2.ppsw.rug.nl/~matzat Tel: +31/50/3636237 (NL) or +49/2841/173112 (GER) +++++++++++++++++++++++++
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" <u.matzat@t-online.de> To: <air-l@aoir.org> 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 Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS) Department of Sociology University of Groningen Grote Rozenst. 31 9712 TG Groningen The Netherlands u.matzat@ppsw.rug.nl Social Networks and Academic Internet Discussion Groups: http://www2.ppsw.rug.nl/~matzat Tel: +31/50/3636237 (NL) or +49/2841/173112 (GER) +++++++++++++++++++++++++
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