[Air-l] we need a better word than lurking

[Ulf-Dietrich Reips]

Hi Barry, all,
you might be interested in the following two works:

Stegbauer, C. & Rausch, A. (2002). Lurkers in mailing lists. In B. 
Batinic, U.-D. Reips, & M. Bosnjak (Eds.), Online Social Sciences 
(pp. 263-274). Seattle: Hogrefe & Huber.

Bosnjak, M. (2001). Participation in non-restricted web surveys: A 
typology and explanatory model for item non- response. In U.-D. Reips 
& M. Bosnjak (Eds.), Dimensions of Internet Science (pp. 193-208). 
Lengerich: Pabst.

While the first one is from the area of social network theory, the 
second one proposes a highly useful typology of non-responders in 
online research. In Bosnjak's view, lurkers are just one of seven 
types. While created for online research, the typology seems useful 
for other purposes as well.

Best --u

At 15:48 Uhr -0400 7.5.2007, Barry Wellman wrote:
>John Veitch gave us a useful post that showed that most people Lurk.
>Altho John didn't explicitly say so, the general implication is that
>Lurking Is a Bad Thing.
>But imagine if everybody was actively contributing all the time. We'd be
>filled with noise. (As it is, I wonder about some of the posts on this
>list, including mine;-))
>I absolutely don't want my 13-year old cousin (whom I love dearly) to
>contribute to the Social Networks article, or probably anything else. Nor,
>in fact, do I want some ignorant person to contribute.
>I am not for credentialism, but I am for knowledge and expertise.
>
>Indeed, 99% of the time, I am a Reader only of Wikipedia articles. I try
>only to contribute when I actually know something, like Social Network,
>Bronx High School of Science, and Barbra Streisand.
>
>YMMV
>
>  Barry Wellman
>  _____________________________________________________________________
>
>   Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
>   455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
>   wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
>         for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>  _____________________________________________________________________
>
>
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