The analysis of social capital in online social communities

Social networks have proven to be an attractive avenue of investigation for researchers since humans are social creatures. Numerous literature have explored the term “social networks” from different perspectives and in diverse research fields. With the popularity of the Internet, social networking has taken on a new dimension. Online social communities therefore have become an emerging social avenue for people to communicate in today’s information age. People use online social communities to share their interests, maintain friendships, and extend their so-called circle of “friends”. Likewise, social capital, also known as human capital, is an important theory in sociology. Researchers usually utilise social capital theory when they investigate the topic relating to social networks. However, there is little literature that can provide an explicit and strong assertion in that research area due to the complexity of social capital. This thesis therefore focuses on the issue related to providing a better understanding about the relationship between social capital and online social communities. To enhance the value within the scope of this analysis, an online survey was conducted to examine the effects of the dimensions of social capital: relational capital, structural capital, and cognitive capital, determining the intensity of using online social communities. The data were derived from a total of 350 self-selected respondents completing an online survey during the research period. The main results indicate that social capital exists in online social communities under normal circumstances. Finally, this thesis also presents three contributions for both theory and practice in Chapter 5. The main results contribute to the understanding of connectivity in the interrelationships between individual social capital exchange within online social networks. Secondly, social trust was found to have a weak effect in influencing the intensity of individuals using online social communities. Third, the perpetual role of information sharing has an indirect influence on individual users participating in online social communities. This study also benefits online marketing consultants as marketers can not only gain consumer information easier from online social communities but also this understanding assists in designing effective communication within online social communities. The cross-sectional study, the reliability of Internet survey data, and sampling issues are the major three limitations in this research. The thesis provides a new research model and recommends that the mediating effects, privacy paradox, and social trust on online social communities should be further explored in future research.

In their own words: Why teenagers don't use social networking sites

We explored common reasons for non-use of the rapidly growing popularity of social networking sites among a sample of Australian adolescents (N = 69). Transcripts were coded by grouping responses along similar themes for non-use that had been commonly stated by participants. The primary reasons offered by adolescents were: lack of motivation, poor use of time, preference for other forms of communication, preference for engaging in other activities, cybersafety concerns, and a dislike of self-presentation online. The identification of these themes allows for a greater understanding of teenagers' decisions not to engage in the popular medium of communication and points to possible strategies that could be utilised by Web site developers in efforts to appeal to a wider teenage audience.

‘Please leave your mobile phone on’ : Social educational networking in a social society : Encouraging in-class engagement at QUT across physical and virtual learning environments

Though stadium style seating in large lecture theatres may suggest otherwise, effective teaching and learning is a not a spectator sport. A challenge in creating effective learning environments in both physical and virtual spaces is to provide optimal opportunity for student engagement in active learning. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has developed the Open Web Lecture (OWL), a new web-based student response application, which seamlessly integrates a virtual learning environment within the physical learning space. The result is a blended learning experience; a fluid collaboration between academic and students connected to OWL via the University’s Wi-Fi using their own laptop or mobile web device. QUT is currently piloting the OWL application to encourage student engagement. OWL offers opportunities for participants to: • Post comments and questions • Reply to comments
 • "Like" comments
 • Poll students and review data • Review archived sessions. Many of these features instinctively appeal to student users of social networking media, yet avail the academic of control within the University network. Student privacy is respected through a system of preserving peer-peer anonymity, a functionality that seeks to address a traditional reluctance to speak up in large classes. The pilot is establishing OWL as an opportunity for engaging students in active learning opportunities by enabling • virtual learning in physical spaces for large group lectures, seminar groups, workshops and conferences • live collaborative technology connecting students and the academic via the wireless network using their own laptop or mobile device • an non- intimidating environment in which to ask questions • promotion of a sense of community • instant feedback • problem based learning. The student and academic response to OWL has been overwhelmingly positive, crediting OWL as an easy to use application, which creates effective learning opportunities though interactivity and immediate feedback. This poster and accompanying online presentation of the technology will demonstrate how OWL offers new possibilities for active learning in physical spaces by: • providing increased opportunity for student engagement • supporting a range of learners and learning activities • fostering blended learning experiences. The presentation will feature visual displays of the technology, its various interfaces and feedback including clips from interviews with students and academics participating in the early stages of the pilot.

A recommendation method for online dating networks based on social relations and demographic information

A new relationship type of social networks - online dating - are gaining popularity. With a large member base, users of a dating network are overloaded with choices about their ideal partners. Recommendation methods can be utilized to overcome this problem. However, traditional recommendation methods do not work effectively for online dating networks where the dataset is sparse and large, and a two-way matching is required. This paper applies social networking concepts to solve the problem of developing a recommendation method for online dating networks. We propose a method by using clustering, SimRank and adapted SimRank algorithms to recommend matching candidates. Empirical results show that the proposed method can achieve nearly double the performance of the traditional collaborative filtering and common neighbor methods of recommendation.

Online counselling for enhancing relationships

Most young people are students attending school where their peer relationships impact on their educational outcomes. At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, young people also depend on the communication technologies to assist them with their developing relationships. Increasingly this connectedness to the peer group is being carried out both in the physical and virtual worlds as evidenced by the rapid increase in the membership of social network internet sites. However, schools seem reluctant to implement educational processes that utilize the social networking sites that young people inhabit. In fact, schools seem to be only emphasizing the dangers of enhancing peer relationships do not seem to be acknowledged. Online school counselling could be one way for schools to promote the positive uses of technology to contribute to young people's education and to enhance their social relationships and connectedness.

Trust, reputation and the small firm : building online brand reputation for SMEs

Social media provides numerous opportunities for small businesses to promote their products and services, build brand communities and reach diverse market niches. An important factor in seizing these opportunities is developing trust and creating reputation among consumers. This qualitative study examines how a group of Australian small business managers utilize social media websites to connect to, communicate with and maintain their customer base. For the purpose of this paper we are using case studies of four companies physically based in Victoria, Australia. These businesses have a high presence in online consumer groups, being both active members of communities and representatives of their businesses. The duality of their role as participant and company representative imposes difficulties in creating reputation among community members. We have used in-depth interviews as a primary research method, additionally monitoring their activities on social media sites such as forums, social networking services, blogs and micro-blogs. We have identified practices helpful for developing trust, building reputation and create a brand image in online communities.

ACE research vignette 003 : different strokes for different folks - classification of entrepreneurial musicians and their use of online social networks

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team of international entrepreneurship researchers. In this vignette Dr Maria Kaya and Associate Professor Paul Steffens consider both the classification of musicians and their use of online social networks.

Chinese online literature : creative consumers and evolving business models

Purpose – The internet is transforming possibilities for creative interaction, experimentation and cultural consumption in China and raising important questions about the role that “publishers” might play in an open and networked digital world. The purpose of this paper is to consider the role that copyright is playing in the growth of a publishing industry that is being “born digital”. Design/methodology/approach – The paper approaches online literature as an example of a creative industry that is generating value for a wider creative economy through its social network market functions. It builds on the social network market definition of the creative industries proposed by Potts et al. and uses this definition to interrogate the role that copyright plays in a rapidly-evolving creative economy. Findings – The rapid growth of a market for crowd-sourced content is combining with growing commercial freedom in cultural space to produce a dynamic landscape of business model experimentation. Using the social web to engage audiences, generate content, establish popularity and build reputation and then converting those assets into profit through less networked channels appears to be a driving strategy in the expansion of wider creative industries markets in China. Originality/value – At a moment when publishing industries all over the world are struggling to come to terms with digital technology, the emergence of a rapidly-growing area of publishing that is being born digital offers important clues about the future of publishing and what social network markets might mean for the role of copyright in a digital age.

Web 2.0, social networking and the courts

In the last decade or so, we have witnessed the growth of web 2.0 technology and social networking platforms, and their rapid rise in popularity as methods of social interaction and communication. Yet, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are not just online social phenomena, but can impact on the way the law and courts operate. This article highlights the issues that legal practitioners and courts need to be aware of in engaging with this technology, and suggests possible ways forward.

Impact of the social networking applications for health information management for patients and physicians

Most social network users hold more than one social network account and utilize them in different ways depending on the digital context. For example, friendly chat on Facebook, professional discussion on LinkedIn, and health information exchange on PatientsLikeMe. Thus many web users need to manage many disparate profiles across many distributed online sources. Maintaining these profiles is cumbersome, time consuming, inefficient, and leads to lost opportunity. In this paper we propose a framework for multiple profile management of online social networks and showcase a demonstrator utilising an open source platform. The result of the research enables a user to create and manage an integrated profile and share/synchronise their profiles with their social networks. A number of use cases were created to capture the functional requirements and describe the interactions between users and the online services. An innovative application of this project is in public health informatics. We utilize the prototype to examine how the framework can benefit patients and physicians. The framework can greatly enhance health information management for patients and more importantly offer a more comprehensive personal health overview of patients to physicians.

Online multiple profile manager for eHealth information sharing

Online social networks connect millions of people around the globe. These electronic bonds make individuals comfortable with their behaviours. Such positive signs of sharing information is useful phenomena requires consideration to establish a socio-scientific effect. Recently, many web users have more than one social networking account. This means a user may hold multiple profiles which are stored in different Social Network Sites (SNNs). Maintaining these multiple online social network profiles is cumbersome and time-consuming [1]. In this paper we will propose a framework for the management of a user's multiple profiles. A demonstrator, called Multiple Profile Manager (MPM), will be showcased to illustrate how effective the framework will be.

The state-of-the-art in personalized recommender systems for social networking

With the explosion of Web 2.0 application such as blogs, social and professional networks, and various other types of social media, the rich online information and various new sources of knowledge flood users and hence pose a great challenge in terms of information overload. It is critical to use intelligent agent software systems to assist users in finding the right information from an abundance of Web data. Recommender systems can help users deal with information overload problem efficiently by suggesting items (e.g., information and products) that match users’ personal interests. The recommender technology has been successfully employed in many applications such as recommending films, music, books, etc. The purpose of this report is to give an overview of existing technologies for building personalized recommender systems in social networking environment, to propose a research direction for addressing user profiling and cold start problems by exploiting user-generated content newly available in Web 2.0.

Synchronised integrated online e-health profiles

Web-based social networking applications have become increasingly important in recent years. The current applications in the healthcare sphere can support the health management, but to date there is no patient-controlled integrator. This paper proposes a platform called Multiple Profile Manager (MPM) that enables a user to create and manage an integrated profile that can be shared across numerous social network sites. Moreover, it is able to facilitate the collection of personal healthcare data, which makes a contribution to the development of public health informatics. Here we want to illustrate how patients and physicians can be benefited from enabling the platform for online social network sites. The MPM simplifies the management of patients' profiles and allows health professionals to obtain a more complete picture of the patients' background so that they can provide better health care. To do so, we demonstrate a prototype of the platform and describe its protocol specification, which is an XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) [1] extension, for sharing and synchronising profile data (vCard²) between different social networks.

Designing online assessment tools for disengaged youth

This article reports on the development of online assessment tools for disengaged youth in flexible learning environments. Sociocultural theories of learning and assessment and Bourdieu’s sociological concepts of capital and exchange were used to design a purpose-built content management system. This design experiment engaged participants in assessment that led to the exchange of self, peer and teacher judgements for credentialing. This collaborative approach required students and teachers to adapt and amend social networking practices for students to submit and judge their own and others’ work using comments, ratings, keywords and tags. Students and teachers refined their evaluative expertise across contexts, and negotiated meanings and values of digital works, which gave rise to revised versions and emergent assessment criteria. By combining social networking tools with sociological models of capital, assessment activities related to students’ digital productions were understood as valuations and judgements within an emergent, negotiable social field of exchange.

Improving the design of online applications for social benefit through a behaviour change model

Community support agencies routinely employ a web presence to provide information on their services. While this online information provision helps to increase an agency’s reach, this paper argues that it can be further extended by mapping relationships between services and by facilitating two-way communication and collaboration with local communities. We argue that emergent technologies, such as locative media and networking tools, can assist in harnessing this social capital. However, new applications must be designed in ways that both persuade and support community members to contribute information and support others in need. An analysis of the online presence of community service agencies and social benefit applications is presented against Fogg’s Behaviour Model. From this evaluation, design principles are proposed for developing new locative, collaborative online applications for social benefit.