Exploring Multiplexity: Social Network Structures in a Computer-Supported Distance Learning Class

A computer-mediated group is a complex entity whose members exchange many types of information via multiple means of communication in pursuit of goals specific to their environment. Over time, they coordinate technical features of media with locally enacted use to achieve a viable working arrangement. To explore this complex interaction, a case study is presented of the social networks of interactions and media use among members of a class of computer-supported distance learners. Results show how group structures associated with project teams dominated who communicated with whom, about what, and via which media over the term, and how media came to occupy their own communication niches: Webboard for diffuse class-wide communication; Internet Relay Chat more to named others but still for general communication across the class; and e-mail primarily for intrateam communication. Face-to-face interaction, occurring only during a short on-campus session, appears to have had a catalytic effect on social and emotional exchanges. Results suggest the need to structure exchanges to balance class-wide sharing of ideas with subgroup interactions that facilitate project completion, and to provide media that support these two modes of interaction.     

Measuring project performance by applying social network analyses

It is often argued that the core of organizational success is efficient collaboration. Some authors even posit that efficient collaboration is more important to organizational innovation and performance than individual skills or expertise. However, the lack of efficient models to manage collaboration properly is a major constraint for organizations to profit from internal and external collaborative initiatives. Currently, much of the collaboration in organizations occurs through virtual network channels, such as e-mail, Yammer, Jabber, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Zoom. These are even more important in situations where different time zones and even threats of a pandemic constrain face-to-face human interactions. This work introduces a multidisciplinary heuristic model developed based on project risk management and social network analysis centrality metrics graph-theory to quantitatively measure dynamic organizational collaboration in the project environment. A case study illustrates the proposed model's implementation and application in a real virtual project organizational context. The major benefit of applying this proposed model is that it enables organizations to quantitatively measure different collaborative, organizational, and dynamic behavioral patterns, which can later correlate with organizational outcomes. The model analyzes three collaborative project dimensions: network collaboration cohesion evolution, network collaboration degree evolution, and network team set variability evolution. This provides organizations an innovative approach to understand and manage possible collaborative project risks that may emerge as projects are delivered. Organizations can use the proposed model to identify projects' critical success factors by comparing successful and unsuccessful delivered projects' dynamic behaviors if a substantial number of both project types are analyzed. The proposed model also enables organizations to make decisions with more information regarding the support for changes in observed collaborative patterns as demonstrated by statistical models in general, and linear regressions in particular. Further, the proposed model provides organizations with a completely bias-free data-collection process that eliminates organizational downtime. Finally, applying the proposed model in organizations will reduce or eliminate the risks associated with virtual collaborative dynamics, leading to the optimized use of resources; this will transform organizations to become more lean-oriented and significantly contribute to economic, social, and environmental global sustainability.     

Understanding trust influencing factors in social media communication: A qualitative study

Based on five types of trust, this research explores trust influencing factors in peer-to-peer interpersonal communication, group communication and mass communication. Previous research has mainly focused on trust and the corresponding antecedents in electronic commerce communication and online collaboration. This study extends the literature on trust influencing factors in social media communication. A trust traffic light model is used to illustrate the importance of keywords, drawn from interviews with 115 participants who use WeChat frequently. Salient trust factors were found and further elaborated through qualitative analysis. Furthermore, we developed a trust cognitive onion model to illustrate the interactions of trust factors.     

Measuring the impact of spammers on e-mail and Twitter networks

This paper investigates the research question if senders of large amounts of irrelevant or unsolicited information – commonly called “spammers” – distort the network structure of social networks. Two large social networks are analyzed, the first extracted from the Twitter discourse about a big telecommunication company, and the second obtained from three years of email communication of 200 managers working for a large multinational company. This work compares network robustness and the stability of centrality and interaction metrics, as well as the use of language, after removing spammers and the most and least connected nodes. The results show that spammers do not significantly alter the structure of the information-carrying network, for most of the social indicators. The authors additionally investigate the correlation between e-mail subject line and content by tracking language sentiment, emotionality, and complexity, addressing the cases where collecting email bodies is not permitted for privacy reasons. The findings extend the research about robustness and stability of social networks metrics, after the application of graph simplification strategies. The results have practical implication for network analysts and for those company managers who rely on network analytics (applied to company emails and social media data) to support their decision-making processes.     

Learning About Information Technologies and Social Change: The Contribution of Social Informatics

Social informatics is the body of research that examines the design, uses, and consequences of information and communication technologies in ways that take into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts. This article serves as a brief introduction to social informatics. Examples such as computer networks, scientific communication via electronic journals, and public access to the Internet are used to illustrate key ideas from social informatics research. Some of the key themes include the importance of social contexts and work processes, sociotechnical networks, public access to information, and social infrastructure for computing support. The article draws upon 25 years of systematic analytical and critical research about information technology and social change.     

Social media influencers’ narrative strategies to create eWOM: A theoretical contribution

Social media influencers (SMIs) as significant stakeholders are increasingly collaborating with brands to cultivate marketing campaigns. However, literature concerning the narrative strategies used by SMIs to create electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) to introduce brands and products remains under-theorised. This research takes a theoretical perspective of marketing communication, advances the eWOM theory to develop SMIs’ eWOM model as the theoretical lens, and adopts semiotic and rhetorical approaches to identify SMIs’ narrative strategies to create eWOM to promote brands and products to consumers. By conducting a netnographic study to observe fashion bloggers’ messages concerning Western luxury brands on Chinese social media, this research identified six distinct narrative strategies that are different in linking the purpose of eWOM, assigning brands with roles in eWOM, representing the meanings associated with brands, and using modes of persuasion to convince consumers to accept these meanings. This research also proposes a model to illustrate the structure of SMIs’ narrative strategies. The results of this research have implications for the advancement of social media marketing theories and provide a foundation for future development of knowledge regarding SMIs’ narrative strategies.     

Developing online health communities through digital media

Twenty-first century's advancement in information technologies and the emergence of online communities have considerably influenced the online communication channels between patients and health service providers. Online health communities are now popular venues for health information sharing, yet little is known about the benefits in developing countries such as Iran. The aim of this case is to investigate on online health communities in Iran and to have a better understanding of consumer's behaviour using health services. The case integrates social support theory and social media concepts with traditional consumer behaviour theory, notably satisfaction. Using a content analysis of three online health communities indicates the value of social media in developing service quality in health industry.     

高校数字图书馆支援教师教学的现状和对策研究

电子资源是国内外高校图书馆不可或缺的馆藏资源,为高校的教学和科研提供了极大的帮助。本文从大学教师使用电子资源的现状出发,分析了教师的信息需求和教师使用电子资源进行教学的限制,同时给出了图书馆使用电子资源提供的现有服务,最后提出图书馆利用电子资源支援教师教学的几点建议,旨在为高校教师的教学提供更好的服务。     

基于读者决策采购的高校图书馆资源建设策略研究

分析高校图书馆资源建设的现状,指出其存在的问题;分别阐述读者决策采购和读者荐购的概念、特征及意义,分析读者决策采购相对于读者荐购的优越性;认为高校图书馆应开拓文献资源建设新渠道,在采取基于读者荐购的资源建设模式下积极尝试读者决策采购模式,进一步突出“以用户为核心,以需求为向导,以服务为手段”的资源建设理念。     

Electronic journals and their unbundled functions in scholarly communication: Views and utilization by scientific,technological and medical researchers in Japan

In recent years, electronic journals are in common use in scholarly communication and we can interpret this situation in various ways. On the one hand, we can say that scholarly communication is now much dependent on electronic resources. On the other hand, it would be too simplistic to say that scholarly communication is now greatly dependent on electronic resources because researchers seldom use other electronic resources. The purpose of this article is to show the position of electronic journals in scholarly communication based on Japanese researchers’ information behavior and estimation. The main focus is on distinguishing the function of scholarly journal and the electronic form. A questionnaire was sent to 1427 physicists, 1026 chemists and 1276 pathologists in universities and other research institutes all over Japan, of whom 775 (54.3%), 494 (48.1%) and 541 (42.4%), respectively, supplied answers. The main results are as follows. Japanese researchers in STM fields use electronic journals as a matter of course, and other electronic resources to some extent, for accessing information; but this shift to electronic resources seemed to be not a transformation but a modification of traditional patterns of use. Researchers still rely on traditional scholarly journals for accessing information and publication, although their recognition has begun to change.     

基于电子网络辅助大学英语教学模式的探索

电子网络是一种现代技术,在信息传输方面具有许多异常突出的优点,在许多领域得到了广泛的应用。利用电子网络辅助大学英语教学,可以使教学信息资源在师生间快捷地进行传递。方便师生的交流沟通,促进教与学的融合。介绍了在大学英语教学中如何利用电子网络进行教学信息的传输,从而改进教学的方式和方法,促进大学英语教学效率和质量的提高。     

Social networks and coordination performance of distributed software development teams

In this study, we explore the coordination performance of the geographically distributed software development teams by exploring OSS (Open Source Software) development dataset available through SourceForge.com. OSS team structures have traditionally been geographically dispersed and therefore, the coordination of post release activities such as testing efforts have been carried out by means of communication via electronic forms, such as email or message boards and forums. In our current communication-enriched environment, best practices for coordination are adopted by all software projects yet some still fail to achieve their target performance. Does team structure have any bearing on the performance outcome of the project? How does the communication between teams and their external parties affect ultimate success or failure of projects? We seek to answer above questions by applying existing theories and analytical methods from social networks for exploring the coordination performance of defect management activities found in OSS projects. We propose social networks based theoretical model for exploring distributed coordination structure and apply that for the case of OSS defect management process for exploring the structural properties, which induce the greatest coordination performance. The outcome of our suggest that there is correlation between certain network measures such as density, centrality and betweenness and coordination performance measures of defect management systems such as quality and timeliness.     

Exploring factors affecting social e-commerce service adoption: The case of Facebook Gifts

Although social commerce is an important trend in practice, relatively few research studies have explored the impact of social commerce innovations launched within social networking sites. The deployment of a gift-giving service within a social networking site provides a unique opportunity to study the intersection of technological innovations and social norms and its potential to generate new revenue for ecommerce sites. Using Facebook Gifts as a real-world context for the study, we explore the factor structure of salient user beliefs influencing usage intention, and examine the relationships between beliefs and intention to use the service in a broader nomological network. Instead of adopting constructs from existing models, we started with the elicitation of salient beliefs and proceeded with successive stages of refinement to develop a suitable model. The empirical results show countervailing effects of perceived social utility and perceived convenience of the service on one hand, and low perceived value and privacy concerns on the other. A notable finding is the potential conflict arising between the expectations of effort associated with the procurement of a gift and the common perception of technology as reducing the required effort. The net result is that a technology-mediated gift service in the context of a social networking site runs counter to the social norms associated with traditional gift exchanges. This insight provides evidence of the dual challenge for social commerce initiatives. In order to be successful, new services in this area must leverage the potential of the technology as well as social practices.     

高校图书馆信息资源建设对策研究——以长江大学图书馆为例

以长江大学图书馆为例,在全面了解高校图书馆信息资源建设及利用现状的基础上,分析了高校图书馆在采访、纸质馆藏资源建设、电子资源评价方面存在的问题,并提出了相应的解决对策。     

Examination of how social aspects moderate the relationship between task characteristics and usage of social communication technologies (SCTs) in organizations

Because of the increasing significance of social communication technologies within an organization, they have become a new form of information processing, resulting in business process transitions and increased benefits. By applying media richness theory and social theories, this study investigated how social communication technologies (SCTs) can be used by an employee to fit his/her task characteristics. Additionally, it also examined how the employee's social relationships moderated media usage in the current job environment and how this usage influenced the task performance. Five media were selected in this study (telephone, video conferencing, email, instant messaging, and blog). Using a hierarchical regression approach, we found that task characteristics were related to media usage, whereas social factors (social influence and social affinity) moderated the degree of the relationships. A few particular media and technologies seemed to perform well, however these are influenced by the social aspects. Moreover, the usage of social technologies results in positive task performance. The performance of a few specific technologies demonstrated binding effects (email performance was associated with instant messenger performance). In summary, we found that the usage of SCTs is instrumentally determined by the interaction between the task and social relationships.     

A social network scorecard to monitor knowledge flows across communication media

This paper describes the application of a scorecard, based on social network analysis, to monitor the evolution of knowledge flows. This scorecard helps organizations to identify new ways to optimize knowledge flows by combining communication media that match their working environments. Three case studies were conducted: one within an Italian Research Centre, and two within U.S.-based Research and Education Centres. The interactions of members of these business communities were observed by monitoring multiple communication media over time. This is a departure from the common practice of using only e-mail communications to describe social networks. The goal of this paper is to answer the following question: does e-mail alone represent an accurate approximation of the social network? The results suggest that a better approximation can be found by monitoring multiple media: e-mail, chat, telephone, social networking websites, and face-to-face interactions.     

Scholarly research and information practices: a domain analytic approach

This paper deals with information needs, seeking, searching, and uses within scholarly communities by introducing theory from the field of science and technology studies. In particular it contributes to the domain-analytic approach in information science by showing that Whitley’s theory of ‘mutual dependence’ and ‘task uncertainty’ can be used as an explanatory framework in understanding similarity and difference in information practices across intellectual fields. Based on qualitative case studies of three specialist scholarly communities across the physical sciences, applied sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities, this paper extends Whitley’s theory into the realm of information communication technologies. The paper adopts a holistic approach to information practices by recognising the interrelationship between the traditions of informal and formal scientific communication and how it shapes digital outcomes across intellectual fields. The findings show that communities inhabiting fields with a high degree of ‘mutual dependence’ coupled with a low degree of ‘task uncertainty’ are adept at coordinating and controlling channels of communication and will readily co-produce field-based digital information resources, whereas communities that inhabit fields characterised by the opposite cultural configuration, a low degree of ‘mutual dependence’ coupled with a high degree of ‘task uncertainty’, are less successful in commanding control over channels of communication and are less concerned with co-producing field-based digital resources and integrating them into their epistemic and social structures. These findings have implications for the culturally sensitive development and provision of academic digital resources such as digital libraries and web-based subject portals.     

Leveraging social grouping for trust building in foreign electronic commerce firms: An exploratory study

Internet development has fueled e-commerce firms’ globalization efforts, but many have met with only limited success. This often stems from the foreign firms’ limited understanding of a focal country's local culture and idiosyncrasies. Foreign firms are usually viewed as out-group entities, which lowers consumers’ trust in them. The extent of such a phenomenon varies. In locations where people are more skeptical of out-groups, a critical question is whether it is possible to transform such foreign out-group firms into in-groups, specifically with the support of popular social networking media. Based on Social Identity Theory and Trust Transference Process, five strategies leveraging social grouping and social ties to build trust for foreign electronic commerce firms were proposed. A survey was conducted to examine their effectiveness. The results suggest that social-grouping strategies are useful for in-grouping foreign out-group entities to build trust, and the effectiveness of strategies is determined by the social similarity and psychological distance between the consumer and the endorser. This has important implications for scholars and practitioners, both local and abroad, to leverage social grouping to boost Internet sales.     

高校图书馆社会开放服务现状与策略研究——以重庆地区高校为例

对重庆地区高校图书馆开展社会服务的实际状况进行调研,结合社会舆论报道和社会读者对于高校图书馆服务的实际需求,指出当前重庆地区高校图书馆进行社会化服务的不足。结合不同层次高校的实际人力、财力情况和高校图书馆对社会开放的现状,提出诸如加强社会读者的信息素养教育、提供多渠道的校外访问方式、实现图书馆社会开放服务的制度化、提供开放服务监管和反馈渠道、善用媒体渠道扩大影响力等合理化建议,以期提升高校图书馆社会化服务能力并拓展服务方式,体现高校图书馆的社会价值。     

Social media use and consumer shopping preferences

We empirically explore the associations between social media use at home and shopping preferences using survey data. We focus on popular retail firms including brick-and-mortar firms such as Walmart, Target, Nordstrom, and Best Buy, and online retailers, such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. Social media use of popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype and a general category Other Social Media are analyzed. We find that use of LinkedIn, Skype and Other Social Media at home, in the model without control variables, is associated with shopping at Nordstrom, Walmart and Target. Shopping online at Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart, without control variables in the model specification, is associated with use of Facebook, Skype, Twitter and Other Social Media at home. We report additional insights using an alternative specification that includes social media use at work. Media Richness Theory (MRT) and Strength of Weak Ties from Social Network Analysis (SNA) and related theories help explain our results. Our results have important implications for social marketing campaigns and social media policies for consumer retail firms.