Participation inequality - querying the crowd
Dear AoIRers, Over the past few years I've seen numerous studies demonstrating how participation online follows an extreme skew in any given context. Many people post few comments, few people post many comments. Jakob Nielsen characterized this in a classic short article: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html This was dovetailing on some "new networks" work showing online networks having a similar skew (although, it is somewhat different for the statistically inclined - perhaps power-law rather than pareto, log-normal etc...). But for simplicity's sake, its similar- many sites have few links, few sites have many links. But while scale-free networks and extreme skews have been extensively studied from a statistical point of view (i.e. what is the parameter for this curve or how does the clustering shift over time), I can't recall any studies discussing the motivations (either social, economic or psychological) for participation inequality and why it differs from person to person or site to site. I've heard of some studies showing gender, efficacy or time online to be factors, but even these are minor - I'm more interested in why any of those people are massive contributors while others less so, not subtle variations among the massive contributors. Any thoughts? Papers? Presentations? Take care, BERNiE Bernie Hogan Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute University of Oxford 1 St. Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JS United Kingdom http://individual.utoronto.ca/berniehogan/
Hi Bernie, I have wondered the exact same thing. There is a lot out there that is quantitative, some of it good, some of it bad. Pew's research gives well researched clues; Forrester Research provides outright clap-trap, but clues nonetheless. I believe this primarily to be a qualitative question. I think what you're getting at is the notion not just of "participation" (although that's part of it), but of "broadcasting" one's identity. What are the motivations that go into this kind of mediated extroversion? Under what circumstance are people less or more comfortable in doing so? In other words, what gives some people the feeling of being "loud" while others being "quiet"? Well I suppose age and gender play a role. I suppose also social groups play a role. I have use the following source before to understand how young people, at least, come to engage with "broadcasting" their identities online: McMillan, S. and Morrison, M. 2006. "Coming of Age On the Internet: A Qualitative Exploration of How The Internet Has Become An Integral Part of Young People's Lives." New Media and Society. Vol 8. 1. best, -s. -- ~~~~~ Sam Ladner, PhD Sociologist Toronto
Neat question Bernie, I'd be interested in a summary of what you find. It seems like the 1990s rhetoric of the digital divide and access is dying (in the U.S., not worldwide). I'm more concerned about types of participation being unequal. One paper I like that may be of interest is Eszter Hargittai's "Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites". It looks at how differences in race, gender, and ethnicity influence participation. It's not about motivation--which your question asks--but the Discussion section does look to explore some of the findings towards this end. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/hargittai.html -- Human-Centered Computing College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology www.cc.gatech.edu/~yardi
You may also want to look at some of the literature on Lurkers (e.g., by Preece and colleagues, as well as others more recently). While it doesn't address all of the issues you raise, it will give a few pointers. There is also an article by Butler, et al. ("Community Work, Who Does the Work and Why?") that looks at motivations of highly active members (e.g., admins): http://kb.cospa-project.org/retrieve/3248/butler.pdf Two additional thoughts on what factors may be important to consider: 1) How closely the topic of the discussion aligns with a person's own interests or needs 2) Factors related to the specific nature of the communities - e.g., in health communities (which I have studied) the stage of disease (e.g., newly diagnosed) seems to impact participation; most dramatically, people may stop participating once they are cured of an illness (although interestingly some of the most active members don't). I haven't addressed the question itself, but that is my impression based on interviews etc. Derek Hansen Assistant Professor Maryland's iSchool On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Sarita Yardi <sarita.yardi@gmail.com> wrote:
Neat question Bernie,
I'd be interested in a summary of what you find. It seems like the 1990s rhetoric of the digital divide and access is dying (in the U.S., not worldwide). I'm more concerned about types of participation being unequal. One paper I like that may be of interest is Eszter Hargittai's "Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites".
It looks at how differences in race, gender, and ethnicity influence participation. It's not about motivation--which your question asks--but the Discussion section does look to explore some of the findings towards this end.
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/hargittai.html
-- Human-Centered Computing College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology www.cc.gatech.edu/~yardi _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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participants (4)
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Bernie Hogan -
Derek Hansen -
Sam Ladner -
Sarita Yardi