No abstract

A consistent theoretical and practical challenge in the design of socio-technical systems is that of motivating users to participate in and contribute to them. This study examines the case of Everything2.com users from the theoretical perspectives of Uses and Gratifications and Organizational Commitment to compare individual versus organizational motivations in user participation. We find evidence that users may continue to participate in a site for different reasons than those that led them to the site. Feelings of belonging to a site are important for both anonymous and registered users across different types of uses. Long-term users felt more dissatisfied with the site than anonymous users. Social and cognitive factors seem to be more important than issues of usability in predicting contribution to the site.

Social network sites such as Facebook are often conceived of as purely social spaces; however, as these sites have evolved, so have the ways in which students are using them. In this study, we examine how undergraduate students use the social network site Facebook to engage in classroom-related collaborative activities (e.g., arranging study groups, learning about course processes) to show how Facebook may be used as an informal tool that students use to organize their classroom experiences, and explore the factors that predict type of use. Data from two surveys (N=302, N=214) are used to analyze how Facebook use, social and psychological factors, self-efficacy, and types of instructorstudent communication on Facebook are related to positive and negative collaboration among students. We found that predictors of Facebook use for class organizing behaviors include self-efficacy and perceived motivation to communicate with others using the site. When placed in the context of social and psychological factors, Facebook intensity did not predict either positive or negative collaboration, suggesting that how students used the site, rather than how often they used the tool or how important they felt it was, affected their propensity to collaborate.

Non-expert computer users regularly need to make securityrelevant decisions; however, these decisions tend not to be particularly good or sophisticated. Nevertheless, their choices are not random. Where does the information come from that these non-experts base their decisions upon? We argue that much of this information comes from stories they hear from other people. We conducted a survey to ask open-and closed-ended questions about security stories people hear from others. We found that most people have learned lessons from stories about security incidents informally from family and friends. These stories impact the way people think about security, and their subsequent behavior when making security-relevant decisions. In addition, many people retell these stories to others, indicating that a single story has the potential to influence multiple people. Understanding how non-experts learn from stories, and what kinds of stories they learn from, can help us figure out new methods for helping these people make better security decisions.

Social network games embedded within social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook facilitate play with "Friends" within the SNS. In this study, we look at different dimensions of how game play contributes to relationship initiation and development using qualitative data collected from adult Facebook users (N=18). Our data suggest that interpersonal motivations are a primary driver of initial game play and that while game play doesn't facilitate direct social interaction, participants perceive indirect interaction and sharing game-based content as useful in maintaining and even enhancing relationships.