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Beyond bowling together: Sociotechnical capital
Abstract
Social resources like trust and shared identity make it easier for people to work and play together. Such social resources are sometimes referred to as social capital. Thirty years ago, Americans built social capital as a side effect of participation in civic organizations and social activities, including bowling leagues. Today, they do so far less frequently (Putnam 2000). HCI researchers and practitioners need to find new ways for people to interact that will generate even more social capital than bowling together does. A new theoretical construct, SocioTechnical Capital, provides a framework for generating and evaluating technology-mediated social relations.
... We apply the concept of digital capital to qualitative data based on semistructured interviews (N = 107) with drug buyers and sellers from various digital markets, as well as extensive digital ethnography. Earlier research on technology and capital often focused on the social capital aspects of technology (Gilbert, 2010;Resnick, 2001), developing concepts such as 'technological/technical capital' and 'sociotechnical capital'. Rather, our focus is on the cultural side of technology and the digital as incorporated in people's everyday lives. ...
... This has resulted in concepts such as 'technological/technical capital' and 'sociotechnical capital' that merge the technological and the social regarding how technology leads to new forms of competencies being valued. However, most of this research bringing technology into capital theory focuses on the social capital aspects of technology (Gilbert, 2010;Julien, 2015;Resnick, 2001). These investigations dismiss the role of cultural capital and the role of digital communication technology in setting the standard of culturally based competencies. ...
Digital societies demand technological competence, including for actors in illegal activity. Inspired by Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and related criminological concepts such as street capital, this study analyses digital capital as a wider concept relating to digital drug markets that capture both technological and cultural competences. We pursue this empirically via interview data ( N = 107) on social media and darknet drug markets. The overall need for digital competence erodes the earlier divide in drug markets based on either subculture or networks. The need to be familiar with mainstream technological tools and behaviours connects digital drug markets to more general cultural competencies. Consequently, illegal activities become connected with mainstream cultural capital because both fields value the same competencies.
... One hallmark of social capital is that it can be converted into other forms of capital (Resnick 2001), yet naturally occurring episodes of social capital conversion "in the wild" are difficult for researchers to capture. This study examines one component of Facebook use we believe is a likely conduit of social capital conversation-asking questions and making requests of one's network via Facebook status updates. ...
... Social capital is similar to many other forms of capital, such as financial capital, but is distinguished by its focus on relationships between individuals. Through these relationships-and the interactions that constitute themindividuals may gain opportunities to obtain other forms of capital (Burt 1992) or convert social capital into other forms of capital (Resnick 2001), such as human capital. Past research on SNS use and social capital has explored two kinds of social capital: "bridging" and "bonding" (Putnam, 2000). ...
Past research suggests Facebook use is linked to perceptions of social capital, a concept that taps into the resources people gain from interactions with their social network. In this study, we examine a sample of public Facebook status updates (N=20,000) for instances in which users request a response from their network. These attempts to mobilize resources offer insight into the mechanisms through which Facebook is used for social capital conversion. After identifying mobilization requests (N=856), we categorize them by cost (i.e., effort needed to satisfy the request) and type (e.g., opinion, information, social coordination) in order to describe the prevalence of these requests and the extent to which they require effort on the part of the potential responders. Finally, we examine characteristics of these users and the linguistic characteristics of status updates that contain mobilization requests.
... According to Resnick(2001), in recent times, researchers have given emphasis to the importance of internet based relations for the development of weak ties, which functions as the basis of the phenomenon of bridging social capital. It is probable that new forms of social capital and connection building will take place in online social networks. ...
... It is probable that new forms of social capital and connection building will take place in online social networks. Bridging social capital can be increased by the use of these networks, permitting its users to generate and preserve large account of associations from which they could possibly fetch resources (Donath & Boyd, 2004;Resnick, 2001;. Donath and Boyd (2004) have postulated that online social networking sites could significantly upsurge the weak relations because the technology is wellmatched to retaining such connections inexpensively and without difficulty. ...
This research work was intended o study the effects of Facebook usage on the social capital of youth in Pakistan. Through this study, the researcher anticipated to make valued contribution in developing better understanding of Facebook uses among Pakistani youth. For this purpose a research questionnaire was devised to collect data from the university students of Islamabad. The questions were based on demographics, intensity of Facebook usage and social capital. The results were tested to identify and explain the relationship of Facebook usage on the social capital of the youth. The researcher also tried to explore the concepts of bonding and bridging social capital in the online settings. It is evident from the findings of the statistical analysis that there is a high intensity relationship between Facebook and the scale of social capital among the university students in Pakistan. Mostly, individuals who were found to have membership in Facebook since long considered it one of the most effective tools of building social capital.
... Among the many emerging social media practices, the act to pass along interesting content among weak-tie contacts often forges a communal experience that promotes bridging social capital. Empirical studies have found that social media activities such as photo sharing, file-sharing in group chatting, or even social searching encouraged netizens to reach out to distant acquaintances who may share common interests [77,78]. When most in-person contact with a broader range of distant acquaintances was banned during the COVID-19 outbreaks, netizens may have depended even more on social media sharing rituals to overcome the limits of space and time and to re-gain a sense of "being in community". ...
... Sharing behaviors particularly promote bridging social capital, as scholars have found that passing along fun and humorous content in cyberspace is more suited to forming shallower social relationships than strong ties [79]. Therefore, sharing a COVID-19 related duanzi among one's acquaintances during the epidemic may constitute a major ritual for home-bound netizens to create and maintain diffuse networks of bridging social capital [34,78,80]. ...
Practices oriented to digital technologies are being invented to change how people cope with crises. This study examines how Chinese netizens’ networked practices (e.g., liking, sharing, or commenting) with COVID-19 related duanzi (short online satires) influenced their psychological well-being, external social support, and issue knowledge during the pandemic. The role of social capital in moderating these relations is explored. Findings from the survey demonstrate that the act of “liking” a COVID-19 duanzi on WeChat has become a routine practice for Chinese netizens to kill time during the quarantine. However, the more bonding social capital one already had, the less they depended on duanzi “liking” to kill their boredom. Those less supported outside the family household, or less knowledgeable about the virus were also more likely to share a COVID-19 duanzi. Bonding social capital promotes one’s well-being, therefore, the positive psychological effect of duanzi sharing or commenting grows more pronounced for netizens with more bonding social capital. Bridging social capital brought external social support. Netizens with more bridging social capital obtained more external support and more COVID-19 knowledge from duanzi sharing. The theoretical and practical implications are elaborated in the conclusions.
... The study of socio-technical systems to better understand how we might design for increasing social capital (e.g., [9,29,145,163]) has remained a topic of great interest in HCI. Prior studies [148,158,159,172] have established our understanding of technological features used to help moderators govern online communities (e.g., automatic bans, virtual jails, and freezing players in the game). ...
... Whereas Survival Lab design included technology-mediated audio communication through tools like TeamSpeak and rituals such as reflective discussions, CAs, and game-play quests aimed at increasing social interactions among the youth. Our analysis of the traces data shows that this setup made "social practices" [145] more possible as youth collectively participated in generating CAs, discussed and improved interpersonal rapport and teamwork, and self-organized into groups to complete the assigned quests. Our findings support prior conceptualizations in HCI that the design of socio-technological systems is often asymmetric. ...
Online settings have been suggested as viable sites for youth to develop social, emotional, and technical skills that can positively shape their behavior online. However, little work has been done to understand how online governance structures might support (or hinder) such learning. Using mixed-methods research, we report findings from a 2-year, in-the-wild study of 8–13 year olds on a custom multiplayer Minecraft server. The two-part study focuses on the design of youth-centered models of community governance drawn from evidence-based offline practices in the prevention and learning sciences. Preliminary results point to a set of socio-technical design approaches shaping player behavior while also supporting youth interest in Minecraft-like online environments. More broadly, the findings suggest an alternative vision of youth’s capacity for ownership and control of mechanisms shaping the culture and climate of their online communities: managing player behavior while challenging current norms around adult control and surveillance of youth activity.
... Maximizers seek to derive the maximum possible utility from drama watching, but if they possess an outward-looking tendency, such as a predilection toward bridging social capital, they can develop problematic drama watching and suffer from burnout. Bridging social capital can be a cause or result of an activity (Resnick, 2001). We focus on its role as a cause, which implies that people with bridging social capital share some similarities with maximizers. ...
... By definition, social capital refers to "resources embedded in one's social networks, resources that can be accessed or mobilized through ties in the network" (Lin, 2001, p. 51). It describes the ability of individuals or collectives to access resources embedded in their social network, which can subsequently be transformed into other forms of capital such as favors (human capital) or new information (intellectual capital) (Resnick, 2001). For decades, this concept has offered researchers the missing link explaining how collaborations among individuals are formed and collective problems are resolved (Best and Krueger, 2006;Fukuyama, 2001). ...
Social capital development has been extensively studied on relationship-based networks (i.e., Facebook, WeChat), whereas scant attention has been devoted to another critical category: interest-based networks. People join interest-based networks primarily to exchange information on shared topics and interests, as opposed to relationship development or maintenance. Guided by social capital theory, the current research takes an initial step by looking into whether and how bridging and bonding social capital accrues on interest-based networks. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among users of a well-known Chinese interest-based network, Douban.com (N = 624). The participants reported their bridging and bonding social capital, frequency of online interactions with content (i.e., posting, favoriting) and with humans (i.e., chatting, discussing), and sense of belonging. The mediation analysis results informed us of a theoretical model of social capital development on interest-based networks with both online interactions with content and with humans as the antecedents, and a sense of belonging as the consequence. The findings also revealed the steps of bridging and bonding social capital development on interest-based networks. This study advanced our understanding of social capital theory by examining its applicability in an interest-based SNS, identifying OIs with humans and content as potential antecedents, and elucidating the association between two types of social capital. The findings hold practical significance for designers of interest-based networks.
... Reciprocity refers to mutual help between individuals. That is, anyone who receives help should return it to the helper or another person (77). Research has pointed out that reciprocity indirectly influences health by helping maintain social networks and social participation. ...
Background
Loneliness is an important problem afflicting the health of older adults, and has been proven to be associated with social capital. Previous research in China rarely investigated the differences of social capital and loneliness between older adults living in community dwellings and nursing homes. This study aims to examine the status of social capital and loneliness among older adults living in community dwellings and nursing homes, and analyze the relationship between them.
Methods
A total of 1,278 older adults were recruited for the study from the cities of Hangzhou, Huzhou, and Lishui in Zhejiang Province of China from July to October 2021 by using multi-stage stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect data on the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, social capital, and loneliness. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the relationship between social capital and loneliness. The interaction of social capital and institutionalization on loneliness was also explored.
Results
Compared with community-dwelling older adults, institutionalized older adults had higher levels of loneliness and lower degrees of social support, social connection, trust, cohesion, and reciprocity. A further analysis of the social capital showed that low levels of social support, trust, and cohesion were related to high levels of loneliness among adults in both community dwellings and nursing homes. Social connection was negatively correlated with loneliness among older adults living in community dwellings. Institutionalization itself demonstrated a strong effect on loneliness.
Conclusion
Health-related policies should help older adults gain more social support, trust and cohesion to alleviate their loneliness. This is particularly crucial for older adults living in nursing homes, as they have higher levels of loneliness and lower levels of social capital than noninstitutionalized older adults.
... ICT cannot be the main consequence of anything (McKenna & Bargh, 2000;Peter et al., 2005), but contextual and individual factors determine the impact on social contacts. That is, in this case, ICT is a tool that can support or strengthen social contacts with the family (Resnick, 2001). ...
The study goal was to empirically test the direct and indirect effects of involvement in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and family social capital. To test these effects, we interviewed 104 families (parents and adolescents, n = 208). The direct effect test showed that the involvement in ICT use is a significant predictor of family social capital. At the same time, there is an inverse relationship: the higher the level of involvement of family members in ICT use, the lower the level of family social capital and all its components, especially trust. This means that the more adolescents and their parents are involved in ICT use (Internet, tablets, phones and other gadgets), the less they trust each other, pay attention to needs and mutual support, and the relationship becomes more distant and formal. As we can see, the primary results obtained using the construct of “family social capital” confirm the “displacement hypothesis”, according to which involvement in ICT use reduces the time for contacts between family members and they “displace” direct interaction, making it formal. The indirect effect test showed that the involvement in ICT use is a significant mediator of the relationship between family social capital and subjective wellbeing. In this case, involvement in ICT use acts as a coping strategy if individuals are not satisfied with their relationships with relatives. The results obtained confirm the “social compensation hypothesis”.
... However, the scope of this thesis is within the support of informal social interactions rather than the emergent effect on community as a whole, which is discussed in detail elsewhere (e.g. Resnick, 2002). ...
Community Displays are a new genre of large digital wall display system for the support of informal social interaction in communal spaces. Prior research shows that encouraging the initial voluntary adoption of Community Displays in situ can be difficult, and is currently not well understood. This problem is investigated in this thesis.
A critical analysis of research studies is carried out, revealing two distinct categories of Community Display settings: “one shot’ and “on-going” usage. Three case studies are carried out, which investigate the similarities and differences between these settings in terms of Community Display usage and voluntary adoption. A combination of observational studies, laboratory studies and prototyping are employed. The first case study observes the use of a physically large display in a shared office by a team of locally mobile workers, and provides a grounding understanding of the situated use of large displays. The second case study involves the prototyping of a Community Display called “Opinionizer”, deployed in two observational studies in one-shot settings, both social gathering events. The third case study involves informing the design of “Dynamo”, a Community Display for on-going settings, and its subsequent study in an on-going setting: the common room of a local college.
Findings relate to the spatial distribution and flow of interaction around a Community Display; and the corresponding progression of users’ understanding and adoption. The public availability of interaction with a Community Display is shown to be highly important since it allows observers to learn vicariously, by watching others. It is also shown to facilitate spontaneous social congregations in the vicinity of a Community Display, which is described as “the honey-pot effect”. Key differences between on-going and one-shot settings are described, and a number of recommendations are suggested for future Community Display designers to encourage the initial voluntary adoption of their systems.
... In the last decade, the use of SNSs has grown tremendously and touched the lives of a large number of people across the world. Studies show that SNSs enhance the efficiency of social networking and bring "latent benefits" to the users [1][2][3]. These latent benefits have been shown to accrue in the form of online social capital, which is found to be embedded in the theory of social networking. ...
This study firstly aims to understand how social networking site usage results in online social capital formation, considering two different types of social networking sites (SNS)—LinkedIn and Facebook. It further aims to investigate if the process varies among different social networking sites or remains uniform. This study also validates two prominent scales, namely the Facebook Intensity Scale (FIS) and the Internet Social Capital Scale (ISCS). A structured questionnaire was administered through various social media platforms resulting in a total of 329 valid responses (167 LinkedIn users and 162 Facebook users). Applying the partial least squares method of structural equation modelling, it was found that social networking site use results in the formation of both online-bonding and online-bridging social capital for both types of SNS. Further, moderation analysis results show that the type of SNS platform does not affect the relationship between SNS intensity and online social capital. This implies that users’ social capitals are dependent on how they use an SNS. These findings have both practical and academic implications. They provide new insights into the usage, intensity, and online social capital that should be beneficial for commercial purposes. In terms of academic contribution, this research contributes to the scarce studies that have considered SNSs other than Facebook and also compared two SNSs. It further confirms the social capital theory in the field of online networking.
... Internet y las redes sociales incrementan y facilitan las relaciones sociales, ya que minimizan los costes que implica estar en contacto con otras personas, así como estar informado (Resnick 2001;Ellison, Steinfield y Lampe 2007). De este modo, internet puede reducir la distancia social en contextos rurales o despoblados o para personas con tendencia al aislamiento social (Durston, Gaete y Pérez 2016; Stern y Adams 2010). ...
Este artículo introduce el volumen monográfico que lleva por título ‘Capital Social en Democracia: Una Perspectiva de la Influencia del Capital Social en Sociedades Diversas’. En primer lugar, este artículo captura brevemente y con una mirada temática amplia, las distintas acepciones y operacionalizaciones de Capital Social, y cómo se ha introducido el constructo a través de diferentes disciplinas. El artículo también explica el devenir del Capital Social dentro del contexto de internet y las redes sociales, así como desgrana nuevos actores y temas en torno a esta materia. Finalmente, se incluye una sección donde se integran los resúmenes de cada uno de los estudios que componen este monográfico.
... Finally, the analysis of affordances for information practices was based both on the coding of the collected thread data and analysis of the observational notes on the technical features of and associated actions in the forum. This analysis phase combined inductive and deductive coding and was informed by previous research on affordances (Treem and Leonardi, 2012;Boyd, 2011;Ellison and Vitak, 2015;Schrock, 2015;Resnick, 2002;Ellison et al., 2016;Hopster, 2021;Kitzie, 2019) as well as the criteria for affordances by Evans et al. (2017). ...
Purpose
The study examines how the technical features and associated social practices of an anonymous, text-based online forum intended for young people make it a unique platform for acquiring and sharing health information among peers.
Design/methodology/approach
The features and content of a young people's section of a popular Finnish discussion forum were examined with a focus on health-related threads. Observational notes and thread content were analysed with a focus on the forum's affordances for health information practices.
Findings
The findings indicate that the forum's affordances including anonymity, persistence, searchability, cohesion and tolerance enabled the pooling of peer experiences, opinions and experience-based advice on health, rather than sharing factual information or embracing reciprocal discussion. As such, instead of competing for a cognitive authority position with medical authorities or offering emotional support like tight online support communities, the anonymous forum served as a platform for young people to gain information on others' experiences and opinions on sensitive, mundane and disnormative health issues and for reflecting their own lived experiences to those of others.
Originality/value
The study is original in its approach to examining the affordances of an online platform for health information practices. It helps in understanding young people's ways of using different resources to meet their diverse health information needs and the value of gaining access to experiential health information.
... One stream of scholarship has explored the effect of social media affordances on social capital outcomes. The term "socio-technical capital" (Resnick, 2002), captures these relations, arguing that individual users enjoy a greater ability to accrue social capital in the age of social media, as it becomes easier to maintain and create new connections. ...
This study focuses on users’ practices involved in creating and maintaining Facebook memorial Pages by adapting the theoretical perspective of the social capital approach. It examines 18 Pages in Israel, which are dedicated to ordinary people who died in nonordinary circumstances. We employ qualitative analysis based on a digital ethnography conducted between 2018 and 2021. Our findings show how memorial Pages serve as social capital resources for admin users. Admins negotiate Facebook affordances when creating, designing, and maintaining such Pages. They discursively position the deceased as a respectable public figure worth remembering and their followers, who are otherwise strangers, as vital partners in this process. The resources followers provide range from economic capital and practical support to solidarity and emotional support. Finally, we point at the perceived connection users make between visible/measurable online engagement (Like, Share, Follow), and cognitive or emotive implications—public memory, recognition, and esteem.
... /fpubh. . network members when needed, so social support can be seen as an outcome of social capital (26). Although the buffering effect of social capital has been discussed in other studies, no studies have examined the effect of social capital between NLE and QoL in the community adults. ...
Objective
To evaluate whether social capital played a mediating role in the relationship between negative life events (NLE) and quality of life (QoL) among adults in China after proposed a conceptual model based on stress buffering theory.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted based on baseline survey from the Chinese Multi-ethnic Cohort (CMEC) in Yunnan province. A total of 22,866 adults were recruited by multistage stratified cluster sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the general demographic characteristics and the occurrence of NLE. A self-developed brief social capital scale was utilized to assess the social capital and the EQ-5D-5L scale was used to measure the QoL. The relationships among NLE, social capital and QoL were analyzed using multiple linear regression analyses. Structural equation models were used to evaluate whether social capital had a mediating effect on the relationship between NLE and QoL. The standardize coefficient (β) and it's 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated in this process.
Results
The mean age of participants was 52.70 years old. The mean of EQ-5D index value was 0.92 (SD = 0.12) and the mean of EQ-VAS score was 71.77 (SD = 13.80). NLE not only directly affected EQ-5D index value [β = −0.127, 95% CI (−0.144, −0.110)] but also indirectly negatively affected EQ-5D index value through social capital [β = −0.019, 95% CI (−0.023, −0.015)]. Social capital had a direct positive effect on EQ-5D index value [β = 0.114, 95% CI (0.097, 0.133)]. A similar pattern was identified for the association between NLE and EQ-VAS score. The direct effect of NLE on EQ-VAS score was negatively significant [β = −0.132, 95% CI (−0.146, −0.118)]. Moreover, the indirect effect through social capital was also negatively significant [β = −0.022, 95% CI (−0.026, −0.019)]. There was a positive direct effect of social capital on EQ-VAS score [β = 0.135, 95% CI (0.117, 0.151)].
Conclusion
Social capital played an important mediating role in the relationship between NLE and QoL, and it alleviated the negative effects of NLE on the QoL of the community residents in China. Providing reliable social capital for community residents experiencing NLE could effectively improve their quality of life.
... "抖音"使用强度(Tictok intensity)，是信息时代下社交媒体依赖的一种典型表现。 作为众多短视频的代表，抖音短视频平台因其内容时尚性、社交便利性等特点，深受普罗大 众的喜爱。由于互联网公司开发者针对抖音平台所编制的预设算法，让用户无时无刻不置身 于符合自我价值认同的"社交信息茧房"之中，自我控制水平较低的青少年学生群体极易出 现抖音依赖、网络成瘾等问题 [14][15][16][17] 的显著预测因子。媒介效果理论(Media Effect Theory) 指出，相较于电视、报纸等传统媒体，频繁的新媒体使用会给用户，特别是青少年个体，带 来高强度的压力体验与焦虑 [18] 。研究表明，焦虑的产生与个体在社交媒体环境中的不同行 为模式有关，诸如网上冲浪、追剧等漫无目的等线上行为或习惯与个体的社会焦虑感有显著 正向关系 [19] 。由此不难看出，短视频使用在低自我控制与青少年社交媒体焦虑之间扮演了 重要的中介角色。综上，基于前述理论与文献依据，本研究提出以下两项假设，H2：低自 我控制对大学生群体的抖音使用强度具有显著正向影响；H3：抖音使用强度对大学生产生 社交媒体焦虑具有显著正向影响； 社会资本(Social capital)，是指个体通过和他人之间的交往关系而积聚的各种资源 [20] 。 作为一项跨学科的普遍概念，社会资本被不同学者差异化地界定为外生变量或内生变量 [21][22] 。Putnam 将社会资本划分为两类，即桥梁式(bridging)和纽带式(bonding) [23] ，分 别指个体与其家人或社交网络之间的弱联结与强联结。情绪调节理论认为，个体的社会资本 力量构建了情绪调节的外部资源 [24] ，能够缓冲负向生活事件的影响，并对其心理健康起到 一种正向调节作用 [25] 。研究表明，青少年的朋友支持力量会显著降低个体的手机过度依赖 与其焦虑之间的正向效应值 [26] ，并显著提升个体的各项心理健康指标 [27][28] ...
Objective: The current study aims to explore the relationship among low self-control, Tiktok intensity, and social media anxiety and test the moderating effects of bridging social capital and bonding social capital on the mediation paths. Methods: A sample of 743 university students were recruited in the study to complete the questionnaires of low self-control, Tiktok intensity, social anxiety of social media, and social capital, and the study using structural equation model and Johnson-Neyman analysis to test hypothesis. Results: Low self-control has a significant and direct effect on social media anxiety (β = 0.381, P＜0.001) and a significant indirect effect through Tiktok intensity (β = 0.101, P＜0.05; β = 0.157, P＜0.001). Bridging social capital and bonding social capital could significantly and negatively moderate the effect of Tiktok intensity on social media anxiety. Conclusions: Tiktok intensity acts as a mediator between low self-control and social anxiety of social media, while bridging social capital and bonding social capital play protective roles in the effects of Tiktok intensity on social media anxiety.
... The following three interview extracts refer to elements of this: Farmer 9 illustrates how Twitter is important not only for the display of good farming capitals, but also for the exchange and (re)development of these, particularly bridging social capital which may facilitate broader, albeit often weaker, ties which offer "innovation diffusion" (Putnam, 2001, p.22). Whilst this may take the more passive form of following other farmers on Twitter, especially those seen as champions of the public face of farming 11 , Farmer 12 illustrates how they might be more proactive as farmers seek, through 'fan out' (Resnick, 2001) 12 , the advice or opinion of others with whom they may only have a weak(er) connection and that may offer what Williams (2006) refers to as diffuse reciprocity. Taken alongside the example of Farmer 16, these cases show how Twitter may allow farmers to move beyond their "narrow daily existences" (Williams, 2006, p.600) -both geographically and also the potentially narrow outlook of their proximate neighbours who, in the past, would have been the most frequent source of both support and assessment. ...
This paper advances the literature on the ‘good farmer’ by considering the role social media may play in the presentation, refinement and reworking of notions of good farming. In exploring these ideas, the paper brings current understandings of the good farmer into conversation with those literatures on online capital exchange and the extensions of Goffman's ideas of identity performance. The paper draws on analysis of 5000 farming tweets and interviews with 22 farmers who utilise Twitter. The paper considers how social media offers a change to the geographies and temporalities of good farming as it allows connection to a broader, geographically unrestricted, audience, might open up the previously un(der)observed or inaccessible micro‐spaces of the farm, and allow the multifarious and often ephemeral aspects of farming practices to be captured. In moving, conceptually, beyond the idea of identity performance toward one of curation, the paper introduces the idea of didactic text, which serves to contextualise what is seen as good (and bad) farming practice. The paper shows how social media's ability to offer this regular and contextual information allows us to move beyond abstracted and decontextualised symbols of good farming toward recognising the context‐specific nature of the ‘rules of the game’, and how a broader audience beyond the farming community may be beginning to play a role in (re)shaping the symbols and practices of good farming. farming, good farmer, identities, online farming, social media, virtual farmer This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... For bridging social capital, SNSs enable users to communicate with others who may have never or only briefly met in person. SNSs also help users develop bridging social capital by enabling them to build and maintain wide networks of relationships from which they can draw resources (Donath & Boyd, 2004;Resnick, 2001;Wellman, 2001b). Ellison et al. (2007) discovered that SNSs enable individuals to easily and inexpensively form and maintain weak ties. ...
Social capital enriches social relationships and helps individuals accomplish goals that may not be achievable without it. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have emerged as channels for the development of social capital. Social networks sites (SNSs) are the most crucial of these tools because SNSs users account for half of the world’s population. Numerous studies have explored the factors influencing SNSs use; however, few studies have investigated competence in CMC, a major determinant of SNSs use. Moreover, the relationship between SNSs use and competence in CMC has not been identified, nor has in their effect on social capital. This study bridges this gap by proposing a novel model to determine this relationship, with SNSs as a mediator. The findings can be used as a reference for using competence in CMC to increase the social capital of individuals, thereby offering a competitive advantage to companies on the market.
... Steinfield et al. (2008), through longitudinal analysis, concluded that Facebook use increases psychological happiness and BRS. Resnick (2001) concluded that social media supports weak social ties (bridging social capital) and keeps broader and more diverse networks of relationships. SNSs can considerably strengthen interpersonal connections because the online platforms are designed and shaped to create and maintain weak relations effortlessly and inexpensively (Donath & Boyd, 2004). ...
The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of the use of social networking sites (SNS) on bridging social capital (BRS). This paper also aimed to identify the popular medium used for developing BRS. A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed by following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA). This SLR was conducted based on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar to collate and synthesize the findings of published studies by 2021. During the reported period, 29 quantitative studies fall under the inclusion criterion. The generalized findings indicated that SNS use has a significant and positive impact on bridging social capital (BRS). The relationship between SNS use and bridging capital is stronger in Western countries as compared to Eastern countries. Facebook is the mostly used medium for developing bridging social capital. Social networking sites (SNSs) offer a platform to develop new relations and strengthen weak ties. It also prioritized SNS-based social interaction for developing weak bonds, which further help to form bridging social capital within online communities. These findings support media designers in highlighting cultural differences while designing SNSs based applications. This is one of the first attempts to accumulate systematically published literature in the area of study during the reported period. The study's outcomes are result-oriented contributions for marketers in developing marketing agendas and strategies compatible with consumer preferences while designing and improving SNS based information systems.
... One of the benefits of exhibiting reciprocity can be social capital (Parks-Yancy et al., 2008). Social capital has different definitions according to various schools of thought, but it generally refers to benefits produced in a social network structure (Putnam, 2000;Resnick, 2001;Williams, 2006). Putnam (2000) introduced two types of social capital: bridging and bonding. ...
In-game affordances that can encourage a positive community may be a means to avoid toxicity in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Therefore, it is essential to investigate the affordances of a game design that can encourage prosocial behavior and positive outcomes among players. Drawing on play theories, affordance theory, and bounded generalized reciprocity theory, this study examined group play and its impact on in-game reciprocal behavior and subsequent social benefits (i.e., in-game social status, social capital) in a mobile MMOG, Sky: Children of the Light. A combination of cross-sectional survey data and six months of matched and anonymized preceding behavioral data (N = 1056) were used for path analysis. The results suggest that players who engaged in more group play than solo play during the previous six months exhibited more reciprocity, had higher social status, and reported more social capital. In addition, players who were more reciprocal had higher bridging social capital and a higher social status. Moreover, reciprocity was a significant partial mediator of the relationship between group play and social status. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
... Sociotechnical human capital theory predicts the impact of humantechnology interactions on institutions (Resnick, 2001). Technology transfer can be conceptualized as a process of human capital development and knowledge network expansion. ...
Social norms wield significant influence in public policy development. This paper offers a description of four norms that influence technology transfer within and between US institutions. These norms are located within the three environments of the US policy system: policy formation, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. Introducing the concept of ‘norm transfer’, we argue that norms cannot be assumed to permeate the entire policy system and that some prominent norms are in fact influential only in one or two of the policy environments. We demonstrate this idea using the case of technology transfer in the US, and suggest that understanding the role of norms in technology transfer is essential for improving the ability of universities and research labs to serve the public good. Our intention is to help policy makers better understand the influence of norms in the process of designing policy.
... In other words, individuals' social networks have value. People may accumulate social capital as a result of their daily interactions with family, friends, coworkers and strangers, but also through conscious investment of effort with the aim to specifically increase or maintain social networks (Resnick, 2001). Both reasons can be linked to why people join social media. ...
Purpose
This study examines the direct and indirect effect mechanisms of how using smartphones for social media is associated with college students' civic engagement via levels of communication network heterogeneity and social capital. In addition, this study tests whether such indirect effects mechanisms are moderated by the need to belong.
Design/methodology/approach
The study analyzes data from an online survey ( N = 580) conducted at a public university. The PROCESS macro is used to examine the mediation association between mobile social media use, communication network heterogeneity, social capital, and civic engagement and the moderated mediation conditional upon need to belong.
Findings
College students who often use smartphones for social media were more likely to communicate with people who have different socio-demographic characteristics and different opinions. There was also a positive mediation mechanism between smartphone use for social media, network heterogeneity, social capital and civic engagement, which means that college students who often use mobile social media are more likely to communicate with heterogeneous others and develop a sense of social capital, which in turn led to greater levels of civic engagement. Importantly, these indirect effects of smartphone use for social media on civic engagement were stronger for those with greater levels of need to belong.
Originality/value
The findings of the current study are significant given that little is known about how young adults' mobile social media use is associated with communication network heterogeneity and civic engagement in their everyday life. The research expands the research agenda by investigating the most popular interactive communication media platforms.
... A study among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in China showed that social support played an important moderating role in the relationship between traumatic life events and QoL [24]. Social capital can provide individuals with connections to receive social support from network members when needed, so social support can be seen as an outcome of social capital [25]. Although the buffering effect of social support has been discussed in other studies, no studies have examined the effect of social capital between negative life events and QoL in the general population. ...
Objective
Life events and social capital can affect one’s quality of life. Stress buffering theory holds that social capital can buffer the negative effects of life events. A conceptual model based on stress buffering theory was proposed to test whether social capital played a mediating role in the relationship between life events and quality of life among adults in Yunnan, China.
Methods
This study was based on baseline survey data from the Yunnan Cohort in the Chinese Multi-ethnic Cohort (CMEC). A total of 22881 adults were recruited by multistage stratified cluster sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect participants’ information, including general demographic characteristics and life events. A self-developed ultra-brief social capital scale was utilized to assess the participants’ social capital and the EQ-5D-5L scale was used to measure their quality of life. Correlation coefficients were used to analyze the relationships among life events, social capital and quality of life, and structural equation models were used to evaluate whether social capital had a mediating effect on the relationship between negative life events and quality of life.
Results
Social capital had a direct positive effect on quality of life (β = 0.108, 95% CI [0.089, 0.128]). Life events not only directly affected quality of life (β= -0.117, 95% CI [-0.135, -0.099]) but also indirectly negatively affected quality of life through social capital (β= -0.018, 95% CI [-0.022, -0.014]). The results showed that social capital had a mediating effect on the relationship between negative life events and quality of life.
Conclusion
Social capital played an important mediating role in the relationship between life events and quality of life, and social capital alleviated the negative effects of life events. Providing better social capital for adults experiencing negative life events could effectively improve their quality of life.
... This results in a more equal distribution of social capital in online communities, especially benefitting people of disadvantaged social origins. In the online world, weak ties flourish, information flows freely, and job and other opportunities become accessible for everyone (Resnick, 2001;Neves, 2015). ...
This article explores the relationship between face-to-face and online social life, by developing different constructs for each. The paper investigates if the online and offline forms of social capital mirror each other, and which socio-economic groups have benefitted the most from the digitalization of social life. Using data from a survey carried out in Spain in 2016, the study confirms that social capital is more diversified and instrumental when expressed online than offline. The findings also suggest a widening of the digital gap between generations and socioeconomic groups in favour of the younger, the better educated, and the upper classes.
... In terms of trauma, making these people more sociable and interactive with their stakeholders will lead to create their social capital. However, information technologies can support social capital of individuals, If they have founded trust, reciprocity and shared identity with each other (Resnick, 2001). How can we leverage ICT to build environment that encourage refugees and asylum seekers to engage in social activities and produce social trust, reciprocity and sense of belonging? ...
This thesis presents a conceptual framework for understanding the challenges that refugees and asylum seekers face in Australia and the role of ICT in rebuilding their social capital. It has been built based on four studies that involved a mix of contextual inquiry, cultural probes, and participatory design methods. The framework offers implications for technology design, policies, and the theory of social capital. The collective contributions of this research will inform designers of appropriate technologies that support social capital in the refugee and asylum seeker context. It will also inform policymakers to implement policies that affect this demography.
The level of competency and skills possessed by an individual determines the scope of growth opportunities available to that individual both within and outside of the organization. They can advance their careers and achieve success because of it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role that individual participation plays in competency development initiatives and their organizational support on his career success. Moreover, the indirect effect of perceived employability is also examined. The data was gathered from the various branches of three leading banks in Lahore, Pakistan. The results of the study reported that there is a significant relationship between employee participation, organization support in competency development, and career success. Moreover, perceived employability mediates the relationship between employee participation, organization support in competency development, and career success. There are important implications for practitioners who are looking for ways to increase the employability of workers and who want to benefit from the advantages of employability for both the organization and the employee. Further, it highlights the importance of competency development for both individuals and organizations.
A constructive outcome of interpersonal connection is referred to as social capital. In recent years, the development paradigm has transformed from a virtually sole focus on physical capital to a people-focused approach targeting sustainable growth that accentuates the social elements of development, particularly human and social capital. The perspective on social capital emphasizes the importance of individual and community ties and the broader social and political context in which social structures and norms develop. It underscores the significance of institutional relationships, government support, and collaboration among various sectors for encouraging economic and social development. This chapter infers on a few current hot topics, focusing on how online social capital influences development and exploring if there are economic benefits to building social capital.
Enjoying one’s leisure time is one of the significant factors that provides happiness to people. Apart from the obligatory times that we need to work to gain a better life, we try to enjoy and relax in our leisure times. As many studies demonstrate, the primary activity that young people do to enjoy their leisure times today is to navigate in social media platforms. However, young people are mostly mentioned with addictive social media usage which damages their psychology and well-being. This study, on the other hand, aims to measure whether there is a direct relationship with the social media usage of college youth and their happiness levels. For this reason, we took the theory of happiness at the center, specifically focusing on what makes today’s youth happy, and their social media use as a leisure activity which may have impact on their happiness levels. As a result of applying surveys that include Social Media Use Integration Scale and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire on 387 college-aged students in total from Turkey and Pakistan, we found that there is no direct relationship between social media use and happiness levels of youth. Possible explanations of these findings will be discussed throughout the article.
Research reported herein presents a conceptual model that explores the relationship between social media factors and entrepreneurial intention, with a focus on the Greek startup ecosystem. The significance of the study is that social media have gained importance in explaining the entrepreneurial process, and through them, nascent and potential entrepreneurs seem to get inspired and motivated to initiate their business. The research methodology employed in this study, included a qualitative research approach, utilizing in-depth interviews with a sample of 15 startup entrepreneurs providing valuable retrospective information. The data collected were analyzed using content analysis method. The major findings of the study are that social media factors such as usefulness, influence, and credibility have a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. We also found that social media can be a powerful tool for entrepreneurs to access resources, knowledge and networks, that can help them in their venture creation. Overall, this research contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by uncovering the relationship between social media factors and entrepreneurial intention and has implications for entrepreneurial education, policymakers, and official partners, highlighting the potential of social media to enhance the startup ecosystem.
There is a growing dynamism to inspire academic staff to network through Zoom technologies in teaching, research, and supervision. This dynamism has increased demand for more responsive and customized modes of understanding curriculum research and practices in online Zoom settings. Network learning involves interpersonal and relational characteristics as situated within the online classroom, signifying that the teacher has an important pedagogical role in supporting students through their journey to become innovative educators. Another focus within the field of network learning is whether technology is an independent force driving teaching and learning that is socially shaped and co-constructed by its design and context when it is taken up in online settings by the teacher and learner or whether technology and its synchronous and asynchronous features are seen as defining the educational practices of the teacher and learner (Castells, 2000; Goodyear et al., 2014; Gourlay, 2015; Jones, 2015; Van Dijk, 1999). Such a focus prompts the recognition that online and blended learning are at times endowed with specific ethical tenets that support curricular research within Zoom networking environments. As such, the guiding questions for this discussion are as follows: What theoretical ways of knowing are made durable when synchronous platforms become modes of attachment for online doctoral learners? What signification processes are theoretically embedded through the sociomaterial interactions within synchronous and asynchronous practices of doctoral learners? How might we know the ways in which curricular designs within particular online environments endow incommensurable relations of knowledge among the students and other material actors? What epistemological tasks enable mapping the ways in which human and nonhuman interactions come into being and simultaneously constitute communities of learners and collaboratively enhance student learning within online settings? How do we design curriculum to build students’ trust that allows their agency to emerge through familiarity with the social and the material as shaped by the experiences embodied within network learning?
In this article, we examine how a loosely knit, mediated community in the massively multiplayer online game EverQuest II rapidly coalesced to carry out collective action in response to a request to help a terminally ill child. We examine the factors that motivated hundreds of people to donate their time, expertise, and in-game resources to people they had never met. These factors included specific affordances of the many technologies relied upon, the emotional weight and urgency of the initial post, both trusted and well-connected actors in the network, and a sense of belonging to the greater community by many of those who helped. Furthering our knowledge on how rituals surrounding death and mourning work in digital networks can provide insights into the continued health of online communities in general.
To date, research on social network sites (SNSs) has primarily focused on Facebook. Professionally oriented social network sites (P-SNSs), such as LinkedIn, have been under-researched in the information systems discipline. Additionally, little is known about the effects of important elements of SNSs (such as one's profile) on social capital formation. As such, the main objective of this research is to propose and validate a model that explains the process by which individuals develop and accrue social capital through P-SNS use. This model draws upon social capital theory and social network analysis and is validated through a survey of 377 LinkedIn users. Our results find that (1) P-SNS users’ actions (perceived profile disclosure, active participation, and passive consumption) have significant positive effects on perceived social connectedness; (2) perceived social connectedness on P-SNSs has a significant positive effect on perceived networking value on these sites; (3) perceived profile disclosure and passive consumption have significant positive effects on network size; (4) active participation does not have any effect on network size, and (5) network size does not have a significant effect on perceived networking value. Overall, this investigation advances our understanding of how social capital is formed in P-SNSs. Additionally, this is the first study in the P-SNS context that investigates the role of the user profile in the social capital formation process, along with user actions of active participation and passive consumption. From a practical perspective, this study has implications for different audiences, such as job seekers, recruiters, and P-SNS providers, assisting them in playing a more effective role in the social capital formation process on P-SNSs.
Drawing on uses and gratifications theory, the current research investigates how social media users exploit different media affordances to satisfy their motives, and how such motives are shaped by their personalities. A cross-sectional survey among college students (N = 190) was conducted to examine their most frequently used social media platforms, use motives, and perceived media affordances. Their personalities were also assessed along the Big Five and narcissism. An exploratory factor analysis yielded five broad categories of social media use motives. Structural equation modeling results revealed that social media use motives were differentially associated with affordances and that personalities play an influential role in shaping individuals' use motives and affordance preferences. Findings are discussed in relation to the theoretical contributions to the U&G approach as well as the practical implications to social media platform design and development.
Objective. Critical analysis of existing research about the correlation between involvement in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and social capital; formulation of the author’s point of view on limitations of existing research about the correlation between ICT and social capital.Background. The development of ICT creates a new social reality and appearance of new social practices. Spreading of ICT and, in particular, the Internet, defines global changes in the technological context of communications. Social capital as one of the most important products of social interaction can be determined by the development of ICT, and at the same time social capital can influence the development of ICT. What is the nature of this relationship, how social capital will change in the context of ICT’s development, and how social capital affects the inclusion people in ICT’s using — these are the main questions that this study focuses on.Conclusions. Existing studies prove the correlation between social capital and developing of ICT. In doing so, both social capital influences the nature and intensity of ICT’s using, and ICT influence the creation and maintenance of social capital. This link can be analyzed not only on the individual, but also on the collective level. At the same time, the existing studies on the relationship between ICT and social capital have some limitations. Among the main limitations: imbalance in the levels of analysis (individual and collective levels) in studies on the relationship between ICT and social capital; lack of theoretical explanations of link mechanism between ICT and social capital; lack of studies that summarize the current knowledge about the relationship between ICT and social capital.
The growing use of social media has resonated with scholars to examine the role of social media in society. Given that sports are an integral part of American society, it is imperative to ask how the use of social media for sports is associated with individuals’ lives. In an attempt to answer this question, the current study employs the concept of social identification and social capital as a theoretical framework. Using survey data collected in the domain of college sports, the path analysis demonstrates the interlinked relationships between the use of social media, social capital, identification, and life satisfaction. Particularly, it is noteworthy that the use of social media is positively related to the production of social capital and life satisfaction both directly and indirectly through identification. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Social networking sites (SNSs) are extensively used worldwide, and the number of workers who use them in their workplaces is increasing. This study empirically examined whether social capital, knowledge sharing, and job satisfaction can mediate the effects of Facebook use on job performance. The results demonstrated that Facebook use positively affected both bonding and bridging social capital. In addition, both types of social capital have positive effects on online and offline knowledge sharing. While offline knowledge sharing and job satisfaction positively affected perceived job performance, online knowledge sharing negatively affected perceived job performance. On the other hand, offline and online knowledge sharing did not have a statistically significant effect on supervisor-rated job performance. Only job satisfaction had a positive effect. This study’s findings provide practical implications for financial companies that are considering policies related to the use of SNSs and want to enhance their employees’ job performance.
As we interact online we are creating new kinds of knowledge and community. How are these communities formed? How do we know whether to trust them as sources of information? In other words, Should we believe Wikipedia? This book explores what community is, what knowledge is, how the internet facilitates new kinds of community, and how knowledge is shaped through online collaboration and conversation. Along the way the author tackles issues such as how we represent ourselves online and how this shapes how we interact, why there is so much bad behavior online and what we can do about it. And the most important question of all: What can we as internet users and designers do to help the internet to bring out the best in us all?
Now well into its second decade, the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) appears healthy, encompassing a diversity of topics of study, methodologies, and representatives of various research communities. It is an appropriate time to ask: what central questions can integrate our work into a coherent field? This chapter proposes the study of technology affordances for intersubjective meaning making as an integrating research agenda for CSCL. A brief survey of epistemologies of collaborative learning and forms of computer support for that learning characterize the field to be integrated and motivate the proposal. A hybrid of experimental, descriptive, and design methodologies is proposed in support of this agenda. A working definition of intersubjective meaning making as joint composition of interpretations of a dynamically evolving context is provided and used to propose a framework around which dialogue between analytic approaches can take place.
he Future of Digital Surveillance
Why Digital Monitoring Will Never Lose Its Appeal in a World of Algorithm-Driven AI
Yong Jin Park
We are willing participants in our own surveillance
Description
Are humans hard-wired to make good decisions about managing their privacy in an increasingly public world? Or are we helpless victims of surveillance through our use of invasive digital media? Exploring the chasm between the tyranny of surveillance and the ideal of privacy, this book traces the origins of personal data collection in digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in social network sites, search engines, mobile apps, the web, and email. The Future of Digital Surveillance argues against a technologically deterministic view—digital technologies by nature do not cause surveillance. Instead, the shaping of surveillance technologies is embedded in a complex set of individual psychology, institutional behaviors, and policy principles.
Yong Jin Park is Professor at Howard University.
Praise / Awards
“With deep insight and conceptual clarity, Professor Park constructs a rich map of the modern privacy terrain. Resisting caricature and simplistic diagnoses, he teases out the complex interplay between individual agency and institutional drivers within the modern political, economic, social, and technological ecosystems. This book is an illuminating read for all who care about the future of privacy in an increasingly algorithmic world.”
—Jerry Kang, Distinguished Professor of Law and (by courtesy) Asian American Studies, UCLA
"Yong Jin Park has produced a remarkably nuanced, balanced, and engaging analysis of the polarized debate about privacy in the digital age. This isn’t a rhetorical collection of anecdotes. It is thoughtfully crafted social science. Park’s explanation of how artificial intelligence and algorithms enter the mix make the book unique."
—W. Russell Neuman, New York University
“Professor Park has produced a comprehensive and quite timely engagement with the technological, social, economic, and political influences in the current status and likely future of the privacy that individuals and collectives can hope to enjoy. His presentation of critical issues, concerns, and potential responses deserves wide readership.”
—Oscar Gandy, University of Pennsylvania
“While the end of privacy as we know it is a certainty, privacy is not doomed. In this analytically strong book, Yong Jin Park shows that regulatory solutions are available, at least in the US and the EU. The strongest achievement of this book is the full integration of the individual perspective of privacy and the institutional drive of surveillance enabled by AI and Big Data.”
—Jan A.G.M. van Dijk, Professor of Communication Science and the Information Society at the University of Twente and author of The Network Society (1999/2020)
Social media platforms provide access to informational and emotional resources that can enable low-income populations to further their socioeconomic mobility and cope with unexpected life demands. However, lack of both interpersonal trust and a sense of shared identity often prevent low-income individuals from eliciting resources from the diverse networks embedded in these platforms. Building on past research, we investigated factors that facilitated and deterred low-income members of the community-based non-profit organization Family Independence Initiative (FII) from seeking informational and emotional support from other members on the organization's social media platform, UpTogether. We found that despite participants' perceived shared identity, members primarily requested resources from other UpTogether members through offline interactions due to lack of interpersonal trust. We extend existing research on the limitations of shared identity and the role of interpersonal trust and social norms in facilitating resource-seeking interactions among strangers in low-income contexts. We suggest that social media platforms incorporate pseudonymous posting to facilitate relationship development and allow users to disclose their needs without revealing identifying information.
L’individualisme est souvent invoqué pour expliquer la désyndicalisation et le manque présumé d’engagement des travailleurs dans des projets collectifs. Cet ouvrage propose une alternative à cette lecture fataliste. La thèse défendue ici est que le lien social dans le travail n’est pas en train de se dissoudre dans un individualisme croissant. La nature et les formes de ce lien social s’expriment différemment. Toutefois, si l’on reste prisonnier des catégories héritées de l’époque industrielle, on continuera à voir que du vide social là où se tissent de nouveaux réseaux. Cette transformation du lien social dans le travail s’explique à la fois par une nouvelle donne industrielle mais également par une évolution individus eux-mêmes : leur manière de s’engager dans le travail et de se lier aux autres change.
To help small firms navigate changing rural markets, this study investigated how small businesses use social media to expand their customer and stakeholder networks to sustain their businesses. Focus group interviews with owners of small retail and service businesses were conducted in three selected rural Iowa communities. Our findings indicate that social media is an innovative marketing tool to promote interactive, collaborative, and personalized interactions with customers and stakeholders. These interactions enabled small businesses to attract new customers and foster commitment to the business. In addition, reciprocal relationships with stakeholders leveraged social media content creation and fostered social capital formation. However, social media integration poses challenges for many small businesses, due to operational, economic, infrastructural, legal and regulatory, and psychological factors. Our findings highlight education, legal and regulatory guidelines and policies, tools to measure the effectiveness of social media on marketing, and business assistance and support for small businesses to utilize social media to build customer and other business support networks. Implications support the potential for social media to enhance online interactions for these small firms, leading to the development of social capital, a valuable source of competitive advantage and business sustainability in rural markets.
Giant strides in information technology at the turn of the century may have unleashed unreachable goals. With the invention of groupware, people expect to communicate easily with each other and accomplish difficult work even though they are remotely located or rarely overlap in time. Major corporations launch global teams, expecting that technology will make "virtual collocation" possible. Federal research money encourages global science through the establishment of "collaboratories." We review over 10 years of field and laboratory investigations of collocated and noncollocated synchronous group collaborations. In particular, we compare collocated work with remote work as it is possible today and comment on the promise of remote work tomorrow. We focus on the sociotechnical conditions required for effective distance work and bring together the results with four key concepts: common ground, coupling of work, collaboration readiness, and collaboration technology readiness. Groups with high common ground and loosely coupled work, with readiness both for collaboration and collaboration technology, have a chance at succeeding with remote work. Deviations from each of these create strain on the relationships among teammates and require changes in the work or processes of collaboration to succeed. Often they do not succeed because distance still matters.
Computers are the catalyst for bigger changes.
The introduction of new communication and information technologies in work communities has primarily been used to create new channels of communication and/or reduce the cost of communication among members in the workplace. Ironically, the prevasiveness of electronic communication media in virtual work communities make it increasingly difficult for individuals to discern social structures. Fortunately, information technologies that are responsible for triggering this problem can also be used to overcome these obstacles. Because information transacted over electronic media such as the Web can be stored in digital form, a new generation of software called "collaborative filters" or "communityware" (Contractor, O'Keefe, & Jones, 1997; Kautz, selman, & Shah, 1997) can be used to make visible the work communities' virtual social structure. One such tool, IKNOW (Inquiring Knowledge Networks On the Web; http://iknow.spcomm.uiue.edu/), has been designed by a team of UIUC researchers to assist individuals to search the arganization's databased to automatically answer questions about the organization's knowledge network, that is, "Who knows what?" as well as questions about the organization's cognitive knowledge networks, that is, "Who knows who know what?" within the organization. Unlike traditional web search engines that help an individual search for content on the web, tools such as IKNOW search for content and contacts (direct and indirect). In addition to being instantly beneficial to users, they also provide the researcher with an opportunity to unobtrusively and reliably study the influence of communityware on the co-evolution of knowledge networks.
%ciotechnical systems theory suggests several themes about implementation, including continuous mutual adaptation of tool and context, task emphasis, the priority of process, and changes in evaluative criteria over time. The effectiveness of these ideas is illustrated in the experience of the World Bank in its implementation of a group decision support system, GroupSystems.
The relationship between information technology (IT) and productivity is widely discussed but little understood. This article summarizes what we know and do not know, distinguishes the central issues from diversions, and clarifies the questions that can be profitably explored in future research. After reviewing and assessing the research to date, it appears that the shortfall of IT productivity is as much due to deficiencies in our measurement and methodological tool kit as to mismanagement by developers and users of IT. The key findings and essential research references are highlighted and discussed.
Using a sample of Harvard undergraduates, the authors analyze the trust and social capital in two experiments. Trusting behavior and trustworthiness rise with social connectionl differences in race and nationality reduce the level of trusworthiness.
The paper describes a new project intended to provide a firmer
theoretical and empirical foundation for such tasks as enterprise
modeling, enterprise integration, and process re-engineering. The
project includes: (1) collecting examples of how different organizations
perform similar processes, and (2) representing these examples in an
on-line `process handbook' which includes the relative advantages of the
alternatives. The handbook is intended to help: (a) redesign existing
organizational processes, (b) invent new organizational processes that
take advantage of information technology, and perhaps (c) automatically
generate software to support organizational processes. A key element of
the work is a novel approach to representing processes at various levels
of abstraction. This approach uses ideas from computer science about
inheritance and from coordination theory about managing dependencies.
Its primary advantage is that it allows users to explicity represent the
similarities (and differences) among related processes and to easily
find or generate sensible alternatives for how a given process could be
performed
Scientists who use IT appear to be more productive-they reportedly write more papers, earn greater peer recognition, and know more colleagues (4). "Collaboratories" provide new ways to coordinate large-scale research projects and to access remote data sets, research specialists, and equipment (5). This evidence supports the promise of the World Wide Web to build broader, richer scientific communities. physicists group at CERN, after all, designed the Web to enhance collaboration.
The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved. Dr Ostrom uses institutional analysis to explore different ways - both successful and unsuccessful - of governing the commons. In contrast to the proposition of the 'tragedy of the commons' argument, common pool problems sometimes are solved by voluntary organizations rather than by a coercive state. Among the cases considered are communal tenure in meadows and forests, irrigation communities and other water rights, and fisheries.
The small-world phenomenon formalized in this article as the coinci-dence of high local clustering and short global separation, is shown to be a general feature of sparse, decentralized networks that are neither completely ordered nor completely random. Networks of this kind have received little attention, yet they appear to be widespread in the social and natural sciences, as is indicated here by three dis-tinct examples. Furthermore, small admixtures of randomness to an otherwise ordered network can have a dramatic impact on its dy-namical, as well as structural, properties—a feature illustrated by a simple model of disease transmission.
This paper addresses the problem of how to automatically generate visual representations of recorded histories of distributed multimedia collaborations. The work reported here focuses mainly on what we consider to be an innovative approach to this problem, ...
Trust is the prerequisite for success when a collaborative task involves risk of individualistic or deceitful behaviors of others. Can trust emerge in electronic contexts? This issue is explored in an experiment in which trust emergence is measured in both face-to-face (l-t-F) and electronic contexts. In this experiment trust is revealed by the degree of cooperation the group is able to reach in solving a social dilemma, i.e. a situation in which advantages for individualistic behavior make group cooperation highly vulnerable. The experiment consists of two stages. The first stage analyzes the effects of F-t-F and electronic communication on trust Trust succeeds only with F-t-F communication. The second stage investigates whether a pre-meeting F-t-F can promote trust in electronic contexts- Results are positive. Examination of how people converse in these two contexts sheds some light on the effects of technical characteristics and social circumstances on the emergence of trust.
When making a choice in the absence of decisive first-hand knowledge, choosing as other like-minded, similarly-situated people have successfully chosen in the past is a good strategy - in effect, using other people as filters and guides: filters to strain out potentially bad choices and guides to point out potentially good choices. Current human-computer interfaces largely ignore the power of the social strategy. For most choices within an interface, new users are left to fend for themselves and if necessary, to pursue help outside of the interface. We present a general history-of-use method that automates a social method for informing choice and report on how it fares in the context of a fielded test case: the selection of videos from a large set. The positive results show that communal history-of-use data can serve as a powerful resource for use in interfaces.
Video-based media spaces are designed to support casual interaction between intimate collaborators. Yet transmitting video is fraught with privacy concerns. Some researchers suggest that the video stream be filtered to mask out potentially sensitive ...
For a long while, economists, like specialists in other fields, often took it for granted that groups of individuals with common interests tended to act to further those common interests, much as individuals might be expected to further their own interests. If a group of rational and self-interested individuals realized that they would gain from political action of a particular kind, they could be expected to engage in such action; if a group of workers would gain from collective bargaining, they could be expected to organize a trade union; if a group of firms in an industry would profit by colluding to achieve a monopoly price, they would tend to do so; if the middle class or any other class in a country had the power to dominate, that class would strive to control the government and run the country in its own interest. The idea that there was some tendency for groups to act in their common interests was often merely taken for granted, but in some cases it played a central conceptual role, as in some early American theories of labour unions, in the ‘group theory’ of the ‘pluralists’ in political science, in J.K. Galbraith’s concept of ‘countervailing power’, and in the Marxian theory of class conflict.
This paper presents evidence that “social capital” matters for measurable economic performance, using indicators of trust
and civic norms from the World Values Surveys for a sample of 29 market economies. Memberships in formal groups—Putnam's measure
of social capital—is not associated with trust or with improved economic performance. We find trust and civic norms are stronger
in nations with higher and more equal incomes, with institutions that restrain predatory actions of chief executives, and
with better-educated and ethnically homogeneous populations.
Collaborative filers help people make choices based on the opinions of other people. GroupLens is a system for collaborative filtering of netnews, to help people find articles they will like in the huge stream of available articles. News reader clients display predicted scores and make it easy for users to rate articles after they read them. Rating servers, called Better Bit Bureaus, gather and disseminate the ratings. The rating servers predict scores based on the heuristic that people who agreed in the past will probably agree again. Users can protect their privacy by entering ratings under a pseudonym, without reducing the effectiveness of the score prediction. The entire architecture is open: alternative software for news clients and Better Bit Bureaus can be developed independently and can interoperate with the components we have developed.
The primary aims of this paper are to review the concept of social capital and related constructs and to provide a brief guide to their operationalization and measurement. We focus on four existing constructs: collective efficacy, psychological sense of community, neighborhood cohesion and community competence. Each of these constructs taps into slightly different, yet overlapping, aspects of social capital. The existence of several instruments to measure each of these constructs calls for further study into their use as measures of social capital. Despite differences in the approach to measurement, there is general agreement that community characteristics, such as social capital, should be distinguished from individual characteristics and measured at the community level.
This study examined how different measures of individual perceptions of community social dynamics relate to each other and how these measures relate to self-reported general health and depressive symptoms. Results of a principal components analysis conducted to investigate the interrelationships between these individual measures suggest that these measures measure separate phenomena. In addition, in results of multiple-regression analyses conducted to examine associations between the various measures of individual perceptions of community social dynamics and the dependent variables of self-reported general health and depressive symptoms, sense of community, perceived neighborhood control, and neighborhood participation were all associated with the outcome variables in separate regression models. In a regression model with these three variables added to control variables, only sense of community was significantly, albeit modestly, associated with depressive symptoms and self-reported general health.
I study a budget-constrained, private-valuation, sealed-bid sequential auction with two incompletely-informed, risk-neutral bidders in which the valuations and income may be non-monotonic functions of a bidder's type. Multiple equilibrium symmetric bidding functions may exist that differ in allocation, efficiency and revenue. The sequence of sale affects the competition for a good and therefore also affects revenue and the prices of each good in a systematic way that depends on the relationship among the valuations and incomes of bidders. The sequence of sale may affect prices and revenue even when the number of bidders is large relative to the number of goods. If a particular good, say [alpha], is allocated to a strong bidder independent of the sequence of sale, then auction revenue and the price of good [alpha] are higher when good [alpha] is sold first.
This document was created and printed through WordPerfect on a PostScript printer. All
Online auctions have recently gained widespread popularity and are one of the most successful forms of electronic commerce. We examine a dataset of eBay coin auctions to explore features of online bidding and selling behavior. We address three main issues. First, we measure the extent of the winner's curse. We find that for a representative auction in our sample, a bidder's expected profits fall by 3.2 percent when the expected number of bidders increases by one. Second, we document that costly entry is a key component in understanding observed bidding behavior. For a representative auction in our sample, a bidder requires $3.20 of expected profit to enter the auction. Third, we study the seller's choice of reserve prices. We find that items with higher book value tend to be sold using a secret as opposed to posted reserve price with a low minimum bid. We find that this is, to a first approximation, consistent with maximizing behavior. We also develop new techniques for structurally es...
We consider the problems of societal norms for cooperation and reputation when it is possible to obtain "cheap pseudonyms", something which is becoming quite common in a wide variety of interactions on the Internet. This introduces opportunities to misbehave without paying reputational consequences. A large degree of cooperation can still emerge, through a convention in which newcomers "pay their dues" by accepting poor treatment from players who have established positive reputations. One might hope for an open society where newcomers are treated well, but there is an inherent social cost in making the spread of reputations optional. We prove that no equilibrium can sustain significantly more cooperation than the dues-paying equilibrium in a repeated random matching game with a large number of players in which players have finite lives and the ability to change their identities, and there is a small but nonvanishing probability of mistakes. Although one could remove the ine...
The Internet and World Wide Web have brought us into a world of endless possibilities: interactive Web sites to experience, music to listen to, conversations to participate in, and every conceivable consumer item to order. But this world also is one of endless choice: how can we select from a huge universe of items of widely varying quality? Computational recommender systems have emerged to address this issue. They enable people to share their opinions and benefit from each other's experience. We present a framework for understanding recommender systems and survey a number of distinct approaches in terms of this framework. We also suggest two main research challenges: (1) helping people form communities of interest while respecting personal privacy, and (2) developing algorithms that combine multiple types of information to compute recommendations. In HCI In The New Millennium, Jack Carroll, ed., Addison-Wesley, 2001 p. 2 of 21 Introduction The new millennium is an age of i...
Computer Mediated Communications: Past and Future. HCI in the New Millennium
- M Turoff
- S R Hiltz
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HCI Meets theReal World": Designing Technologies for Civic Sector Use. HCI in the New Millennium
- D Schuler
Schuler, D. (2001). HCI Meets the "Real World": Designing Technologies for Civic Sector Use.
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Not Only for Myself; Identity Politics and the Law
- M Minow
Minow, M. (1997). Not Only for Myself; Identity Politics and the Law, The New Press.
Interaction and Outeraction: Instant Messaging in Action An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
- B Nardi
- S Whittaker
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CSCW 00: Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, New York, ACM
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Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
Distance Matters. HCI in the New Millennium
- G M Olson
- J S Olson
Olson, G. M. and J. S. Olson (2001). Distance Matters. HCI in the New Millennium. J. Carroll,
ed., Addison-Wesley.
Computer Support for Local Communities, NYU Stern School of Business: Working paper
- L Sproull
- J Patterson
Sproull, L. and J. Patterson (2000). Computer Support for Local Communities, NYU Stern
School of Business: Working paper. April, 2000.