Young people in virtual community : creating knowledge in cyberspace

1
Young people in virtual community creating
knowledge in cyberspace

• Creating Knowledge V. August 2008
• Pia Södergård
• Åbo Akademi University
• Library / Department of Information Studies

2
Metanetwork (Standard model)

• Network of networks which links up computer
  resources for public access
• Designed to safeguard the transfer of information
  (Leiner et al., 2003)

3
Platform for CMC

• Computer network which connects computers and
  people behind these computers
  computer-supported social network (Wellman et
  al., 1996)
• Asynchronous communication possibilities to
  store information
• Information is embedded in the social networks
  that connect people to each other
  (Haythorntwaite, 2001)

4
Internet as cyberspace

• A cultural approach to the Internet
• A spatial metaphor frontier region
• Earlier cyberculture studies more enthusiastic
  and praising than later, critical studies
  (Silver, 2003)
• Later cyberculture studies emphasize connections
  between cyberspace and Real Life.
• Information is everywhere(Porter, 1997 Jones,
  1995)

5
Advantages and disadvantages of the approach

• Changing perspective between life in the
  community and real life
• Provided a way of talking about information
  without using the word information
• False expectations

6
The study, method and material

• Why do young people participate in virtual
  communities? What kind of value does it add to a
  young persons life to be a member of a
  community?
• Qualitative data, gathered through observations
  and thematic interviews.Themes inspired by
  cyberculture studies
• 29 Swedish-speaking Finns from different areas of
  the Swedish-speaking regions in Finland
• Members of LunarStorm webcommunity

7
LunarStorm community www.lunarstorm.se

• Members have a nest of their own
• Presentation, net-diary and photo album
• Frinds list, status points, top list etc.
• E-mail, guestbook entries, chat rooms, discussion
  groups
• Consumer information, quizzes, radio

8
Identity establishment conventions to be
followed

• Sincere in order to be meaningful
• The aim is to describe ones actual self
• Basic facts First name (given name or pet name),
  age, geographical location, present occupation or
  concerns
• Basic facts unlike the basic facts of the real
  world
• Additional elements are needed to arouse
  interest. Plagiarism disapproved of.

9

• Quantitative aspects are also important
• A very long presentation person is a lunar
  freak- a no lifer
• Difference vs. Similarity
• Visible social network source of surprise and
  wonder to the viewer

10
Strategies of evaluation

• Two strategies of evaluation comparison and
  cognitive authorities
• Comparison between presentation and person in
  real life, between different elements in the
  presentation, between presentation and behaviour
• Friends act as cognitive authorities (Wilson,
  1983)

11
To sum up

• Qualitative and quantitative aspects of
  information
• Evaluation criteria the authority of the source,
  the accurateness and truthfulness of information

12
Activities in the community

• Testing different functions
• LunarStorm-routine (part of a wider
  Internet-routine
• Interactive and non-interactive behaviour (e.g.
  Burnetts (2000) typology)
• Information oriented/not information oriented

13
Non-interactive behaviours

• Keeping track of people
• Checking on people
• Information what they formulate about
  themselves, their registered behaviour, the
  social structure

14
Relevant information (Barry Schamber, 1998)

• Easily accessible
• Up-to-date
• A form that is understandable and palpable
• It varies
• It can be verified
• It comes from a source that is reliable

15
Interactive behaviour

• Very demanding
• Implied aim to develop relations
• Communicating with friends (c.f. Enochsson, 2005,
  Thulin, 2004)
• List of friends an auxiliary structure
• Guestbook the most important application
• Standard message structure
• Hi, Im okay, how r u? Hugs

16

• Sustains contact
• Ritual with the aim of uniting people (Carey,
  1989)
• Develops trust (Iacono and Weisband, 1997)

17
In conclusion

• Tool for developing information literacy
• Tool for getting to know oneself
• Tool for developing trust in a relationship
• Tool for developing social capital

18
Dimensions of Social Capital (Nahapiet Ghoshal,
1998)

• Structural dimension
• Relational dimension
• Cognitive dimension

19
The creation of a knowledge base

• Information about peoples everyday lives, how to
  be, how to describe your way of being, your
  position in a social network
• Varied, different perspectives, reliable
• Embedded in a social structure and accessible to
  those who are a part of that structure

20

• Thank you!
• E-mail pia.sodergard_at_abo.fi

21
References

• Barlow, J. P. (1996). A declaration of the
  independence of cyberspace. On-line Tillgänglig
  14.6.2006 från http//homes.eff.org/barlow/Decla
  ration-Final.html.
• Barry, C. L., Schamber, L. (1997). Users
  criteria for relevance evaluation a
  cross-situational comparison. Information
  Processing and Management, 34, 219-236.
• Burnett, G. (2000). Information exchange in
  virtual communities a typology. Information
  Research, 5, (4). On-line Tillgänglig 9.4.2002
  från http//InformationR.net/ir/5-4/paper82.html
  
• Carey, J. W. (1989). Communication as culture
  essays on media and society. Boston Unwin
  Hyman.
• Chryssochoou, X. (2003). Studying identity in
  social psychology some thoughts on the
  definition of identity and its relation to
  action. Journal of Language and Politics, 2,
  225-241.
• Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the
  creation of human capital. American Journal of
  Sociology, 94, 95-120.

22

• Donath, J.(1999). Identity and deception in the
  virtual community. I M. A. Smith, P. Kollock
  (Eds.), Communities in cyberspace (s. 29-59).
  London Routledge.
• Enochsson, A. (2005). Ett annat sätt att umgås
  yngre tonåringar i virtuella gemenskaper.
  Tidskrift för lärarutbildning och forskning,
  (1-2), s. 81-99.
• Haythornthwaite, C. (2001). Tie strength and the
  impact of new media. I Proceedings of the 34th
  Hawaii International Conference On System
  Sciences (HICSS), January 3-6. Maui, Hawaii. Vol.
  1. Los Alamitos, CA IEEE Computer Society.
• Herring, S. (2002). Computer-mediated
  communication on the Internet. Annual Review of
  Information Science and Technology, 36, 109-168.
• Hirsh, S. G. (1999). Childrens relevance
  criteria and information seeking on electronic
  resources. Journal of the American Society for
  Information Science, 50, 1265-1283.
• Iacono, C. S., Weisband, S. (1997). Developing
  trust in virtual teams. I Proceedings of the
  30th Annual Hawaii International Conference on
  System Sciences (HICSS). January 7-10. Maui,
  Hawaii. Vol. 2, 412-420.

23

• Jones, S. G. (1995). Understanding community in
  the Information Age. I S. G. Jones (Ed.)
  Cybersociety computer-mediated communication
  and community (s. 10-35). London Sage.
• Leiner, B. M., Cerf, V.G, Clark, D.D., Kahn,
  R.E., Kleinrock, L., Lynch, D.C et al. (2003). A
  brief history of the Internet. Version 3.32.
  On-line Tillgänglig 12.5.2006 från
  http//www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml
• Lin, N. (2001). Social capital a theory of
  social structure and action. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press.
• Lloyd, A. (2006). Information literacy landscapes
  an emerging picture. Journal of Documentation,
  62, 570-583.
• Nahapiet, J., Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social
  capital, intellectual capital, and the
  organizational advantage. Academy of Management
  Review, 23, 40-54.
• Porter, D. (1997). Introduction. I D. Porter
  (Ed) Internet culture (s. x-xviii). New York
  Routledge.

24

• Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling alone Americas
  declining social capital. Journal of Democracy, 6
  (1), 65-78.
• Rousseau, D. M.,Sitkin, S. B., Burt, R. S.,
  Camerer, C. (2004). Introduction to special topic
  forum Not so different after all a
  cross-discipline view of trust. The Academy of
  Management Review, 23, 393-404.
• Silver, D. (2000). Looking backwards, looking
  forwards cyberculture studies 1990-2000. I D.
  Gauntlett (Ed.). Web studies rewiring media
  studies for the digital age. (s. 19-30). London
  Arnold.
• Thulin, E. (2004). Ungdomars virtuella rörlighet
  användningen av dator, internet och
  mobiltelefon i ett geografiskt perspektiv.
  Göteborg Göteborgs universitet.
  Kulturgeografiska institutionen.
• Wellman, B., Salaff, J., Dimitrova, D., Garton,
  J., Gulia, M. Haythornthwaite, C. (1996).
  Computer networks as social networks
  collaborative work, telework, and virtual
  community. Annual Review of Sociology, 22,
  213-238.
• Wilson, P. (1983). Second-hand knowledge an
  inquiry into cognitive authority. Westport, CT
  Greenwood Press.