[Air-L] Interrelations of "Virtual Communities" and"Social Networks"

Heather medlib2007 at gmail.com
Fri Sep 14 08:41:41 PDT 2007


Raquel,

I would also like to read more. Could you provide reference information for
your thesis?

Thanks,
Heather Coates
MLS & MS Health Informatics student
Indiana University at Indianapolis

On 9/14/07, richard.ling at telenor.com <richard.ling at telenor.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> This is interesting stuff.  Is it possible to get a copy of your work?
>
> Rich Ling
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Raquel Recuero
> Sent: 14. september 2007 14:45
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Interrelations of "Virtual Communities" and"Social
> Networks"
>
> Hello. :-)
>
> My thesis was actually about virtual communities in social networks. The
>
> idea was to explore how communities would appear in social networks, but
>
> not considering communities just an structure (as part of literature
> does) but also as a group of people with strong ties and social capital
> ( Rheingold's concept and sociological concepts).
>
> The original point was to track the structure of a cluster in the
> network of a social network site (in the end I just analyzed Fotolog,
> but I started with weblogs and Orkut as well) through reciprocal social
> interaction within the users (comments in fotologs and weblogs and
> scraps in Orkut). Then, after observing the network structure and
> identifying the nodes in the cluster and their ties, I analyzed the
> comments contempt (interaction, social ties and social capital) and
> afterwards, the cluster structure within time (dynamics).
>
> Well, there is a lot to talk about that but the conclusions were,
> basically:
> - it is possibile to find at least 2 types of clusters in fotologs: One
> is created through interaction between users and represent a type of
> community very close to sociological concepts of VC. Those usually have
> strong ties and also strong social capital within users. The second one
> is created through association and is not related to social interaction
> at all.
> - Most of the interaction-centered clusters are strongly related to
> geographic spaces and language;
> - Users recognize these nodes as their "group of friends" most of the
> time.
>
> So, I think virtual communities are a part of social networks as you
> said. But I also think there is a very important difference between the
> community (the users and their ties) and the space (or system) where
> they share these interactions. Orkut, for example, is *not* a virtual
> community but it can help people create one.  Most of the  "communities"
>
> in Orkut, for example, have no interaction between users at all, only
> spam. People join these communities as a statement (an addition to their
>
> profile, for example, to show likes and dislikes). So are those *real*
> communities? In my opinion, a VC is basically a group of people so,
> orkut communities may help them appear, but they are not a VC just
> because they exist.
>
>
> []s
> Raquel
>
>
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-- 
"I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it."

Vincent Van Gogh



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