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<P class=MsoBodyText3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" align=justify><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">As
part of my study of an online community I have to measure the participation
rates among participants, in a way similar to Nancy Baym's in her classic
study of the r.a.t.s online community. From my participation and observation of
this particular community so far, it is obvious to me that most of the
messages are contributed by a small group of heavy users. However, I need
to quantify it, measure it and present it as a table containing percentages
of posters and posts contributed. My question is how can I do it? What is the
method of measuring these rates? Does it simply consist in noting down
how many messages each member writes? Prima facie that may look like an easy
procedure but once starting to do it it turns out to be extremely
difficult since this online community is made up of more than 20
conferences each one comprising more than 50 different topical discussions.
Overall the number of messages written every week is enormous. Any ideas on how
I can measure overall participatio rates of such an environment? </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" align=justify><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Thank
you, </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText3 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" align=justify><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">K.
Diamantaki </SPAN></FONT></P></BODY></HTML>