Analyzing the social capital value chain in community network interfaces

Abstract

Purpose -This work aims to probe how interface designers concerned with human-computer interaction of community networks might use the theoretical constructs of social capital and activity awareness. Design/methodology/approach -A design model for community network interfaces is introduced that reconciles various computer-mediated communication research contributions with support for typical community network scenarios of use. Using this model, an inspection is performed on existing community network implementations (available December 2002) and then the adequacy of the model for informing the design process is examined. Findings -Based on the insight gained through this analysis, a generic prototype and new user evaluation method are introduced that allow survey of user reaction to community network design elements under differing conditions. It is shown how results obtained through this method frame a value-chain understanding of conceptual tradeoffs. Research limitations/implications -To demonstrate the new user evaluation method in an analysis of critical design tradeoffs, the issues of persistent virtual identity implementation and usage motivation are probed. However, the evaluation method must be validated with other issues and tested by researchers that were not part of its creation process. Practical implications -Contributions from this paper include tools (a design model, a generic prototype, and an evaluation method) linking theory with community design artifacts, building on previous work. Evaluators now have indicators for assessing community informatics. Originality/value -Interface designers of community networks and those interested in social capital theory will appreciate the link between practice and theory provided by this approach.

Scenario-Based Methods for Evaluating Collaborative Systems

“…For example, a particular scenario, analyzed in isolation using the first two techniques, may not appear to contribute to organizational goals. An upstream scenario in the scenario value chain (Chewar et al 2005) may, however, be critical to supporting other downstream scenarios that do make a positive contribution. Without explicitly linking claims from related scenarios, users of upstream scenarios may not recognize or appreciate how their work with a system contributes to downstream scenarios that are conducted asynchronously.…”

“…For instance, the short-term task goal of one scenario may precede the accomplishment of other scenarios and goals, some of which may be performed by people using different features of the system. SWIMs adapts a scenario value chains model (Chewar et al 2005) to conceptually link otherwise temporally and spatially decoupled scenarios, viewing some as upstream and some as downstream relative to overall information flow. Upstream scenarios often require investment of effort by users, whereas users in downstream scenarios often reap the benefits of these efforts.…”

Co-evolving E-tail and On-Line Communities: Conceptual Framework

“…For the latter group, security may be less important than the interactions between community members [13]. In another example, service providers required accountability, whereas service demanders required privacy [11].…”

“…Sociability is a less well-established concept focusing on guiding the social development of the community, planning and developing social policies, supporting social interaction and developing trust, thereby enabling and fostering participant contributions and interactions [28,49,60]. Other community-development models support the importance of including the elements identified by Preece in the Web site design stage [11,13,28,36,66]. Although an understanding of on-line interactional rules and expectations is clearly indicated, site development has often largely ignored relationship-building issues [18].…”

Web 2.0 Social Networks: The Role of Trust

“…The notions of network and community have been examined under various contexts over the years. Recently, several researchers have begun to clarify the relevant questions and investigate important characteristics of OSNs (Boyd and Ellison, 2007;Chewar et al, 2005).…”