[Air-l] Community "Critical Mass"?

[Dr. Christian Stegbauer]

In my thought, to look only on the numbers is a fault.

We did many studies about online communities (mailing list, chat)with 
very different numbers of participants.

Every community had a distinct structure with a centre-periphery structure.

What we found is, that communication will break down if the centre 
becomes inactive.

So it is not a question of a pure mass, it is a question about the 
intern structure of the community.

Best wishes
Christian

Two publications to this topic:
Christian Stegbauer, 2001, Grenzen virtueller Gemeinschaft. Wiesbaden: 
Westdeutscher Verlag
Christian Stegbauer & Alexander Rausch, 2006, Strukturalistische 
Internetforschung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.


Anders Fagerjord schrieb:
> Before this thread snowballs into a discussion of methodology, two  
> cultures or Truth:
>
> I'm not a "quant person", but it seems to me that if we are to find a  
> measure of critical mass, that will not be the number of members, but  
> a quantification of the communication between them. The number of  
> messages they post, etc.
>
> --anders
>
> --
> Anders Fagerjord, dr. art.
> Associate professor,
>
> Department of Media and Communcation,
> Unversity of Oslo
> P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
> N-0317 OSLO
> Norway
>
> http://www.media.uio.no   http://fagerjord.no
>
>
>
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-- 
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PD Dr. Christian Stegbauer
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Institut für Gesellschafts- und Politikanalyse
60054 Frankfurt
Tel.Uni:  069 798-23543 
Tel.priv: 069 55 43 92
e-mail: stegbauer at soz.uni-frankfurt.de



Magazin:
kommunikation at gesellschaft
Journal für alte und neue Medien aus soziologischer, kulturanthropologischer 
und kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Perspektive
www.kommunikation-gesellschaft.de

noch druckfrisch:
Stegbauer, Christian / Rausch, Alexander
Strukturalistische Internetforschung. 2006. Ca. 240 S. Wiesbaden, VS-Verlag,*
ISBN: 3-531-15110-X         
und
ab 11.06
Stegbauer, Christian
Geschmackssache? Eine kleine Soziologie für Genießer.
2006. Ca. 200 Seiten.ISBN 3-939519-16-2. Hamburg: Merus 


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