Picturing Usenet: Mapping Computer-Mediated Collective Action

Abstract

Usenet is a complex socio‐technical phenomenon, containing vast quantities of information. The sheer scope and complexity make it a challenge to understand the many dimensions across which people and communication are interlinked. In this work, we present visualizations of several aspects and scales of Usenet that combine to highlight the range of variation found in newsgroups. We examine variations within hierarchies, newsgroups, authors, and social networks. We find a remarkable diversity, with clear variations that mark starting points for mapping the broad sweep of behavior found in this and other social cyberspaces. Our findings provide the basis for initial recommendations for those cultivating, managing, contributing, or consuming collectively constructed conversational content.

You Are Who You Talk To: Detecting Roles in Usenet Newsgroups

“…A number of different visualization tools exist [2,10,12] that are meant to give some sense of how a conversation space is constructed. These various visualizations have all shown different perspectives on metadata within online social spaces [11].…”

“…There have been a number of studies that have attempted to examine and describe the sets of social roles that occur in both online and offline conversation [6,11]. In this paper, we expand on the ideas of Turner et al [11] and Welser [14], in examining a small number of visibly different roles.…”

“…In this paper, we expand on the ideas of Turner et al [11] and Welser [14], in examining a small number of visibly different roles.…”

Pattern-Based Cross Media Social Network Analysis for Technology Enhanced Learning in Europe

“…Each process belongs to a process type taxonomy (P TYPE ) which is defined collaboratively by each community. We define a standard taxonomy [42,48] with five different process types: a) acquisition pro-cesses which are used to acquire new media, b) search processes for media, c) transcription processes for media, d) retrieval processes for media, and e) monitoring processes for media. An Actor characterizes humans or groups of humans (consist-relationship) performing a process.…”

“…According to the activity of the members and their patterns of communication, we defined several patterns based on the analyis of literature [8,13,32,48] like questioners, answering persons, trolls, conversationalists, and spammers. A questioner is a member, who seeks help and information.…”