“It is what one does”: why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice

Advances in information and communication technologies have fundamentally heightened organizational interest in knowledge as a critical strategic resource. However, organizations are finding that members are often reluctant to exchange knowledge with others in the organization. This paper examines why. We review current knowledge management practices and find that organizations are treating knowledge as a private good, owned either by the organization or by organization members. We propose that knowledge can also be considered a public good, owned and maintained by a community. When knowledge is considered a public good, knowledge exchange is motivated by moral obligation and community interest rather than by narrow self-interest. We provide support for the public good perspective by providing results from a survey examining why people participate and share knowledge in three electronic communities of practice. The results indicate that people participate primarily out of community interest, generalized reciprocity and pro-social behavior.     

Local Groups Online: Political Learning and Participation

Voluntary associations serve crucial roles in local communities and within our larger democratic society. They aggregate shared interests, collective will, and cultivate civic competencies that nurture democratic participation. People active in multiple local groups frequently act as opinion leaders and create “weak” social ties across groups. In Blacksburg and surrounding Montgomery County, Virginia, the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) community computer network has helped to foster nearly universal Internet penetration. Set in this dense Internet context, the present study investigated if and how personal affiliation with local groups enhanced political participation in this high information and communication technology environment. This paper presents findings from longitudinal survey data that indicate as individuals’ uses of information technology within local formal groups increases over time, so do their levels and types of involvement in the group. Furthermore, these increases most often appear among people who serve as opinion leaders and maintain weak social ties in their communities. Individuals’ changes in community participation, interests and activities, and Internet use suggest ways in which group members act upon political motivations and interests across various group types.      

The use of social network analysis in modeling the organizational processes of information and knowledge circulation

At the end of the 20th century, a branch of management theory appeared called “knowledge management.” Knowledge of a company is part of intellectual capital and an important strategic resource for running and operating business. The main part of corporative knowledge exists in vague form, i.e., in knowledge, experience, intuition, and in the heads of staff members. Communication is main process for the transfer of this knowledge, i.e., communication between coworkers. The theory of social network analysis considers a group of people as an interconnected system of nodes (people, participants of group), the ties between which (relations) can be used for the visual representation and analysis of the exchange and dissemination processes of vague knowledge and information in collectives of coworkers.     

基于Logistic模型的社会安全治理公众参与意愿实证分析

社会安全与公众的利益息息相关，因此社会安全的治理离不开公众的参与。为了分析社会安全治理中公众参与意愿的影响因素，本文以知信行理论和计划行为理论为理论基础，设计相关问题进行实地调研。运用Logistic回归方法研究分析发现：公众的个体特征对公众参与社会安全治理的意愿影响具有差异性；公众对社会安全的认知、态度、主观规范、知觉行为控制对公众参与社会安全治理的意愿具有正向影响。藉此探索公众在社会安全治理方面参与维度及途径，为公众有序合理地参与社会安全治理工作提供参考。     

The structure of support: Mapping network evolution in an online support group

Online social support groups enable individuals to create specialized networks that provide access to a variety of resources. Although the efficacy of such communities has been studied, less understood are the structural mechanisms behind their emergence and the ways these mechanisms foster ties and may subsequently affect provision of support. This paper analyzes an online support group (OSG) for parents of children with ADD/ADHD over a one-year period, focusing on the interplay of structure and technology in the creation of the emergent support network. Findings highlight a dual network structure that supports a variety of relationships and levels of participation. Whereas a core group of members generates the initial content, the network becomes self-sustaining and supports a fluid membership between active and inactive members. Structurally, the network offers four types of support: direct, indirect, relational, and functional. Together, findings emphasize the interplay among technology, structure, and communication in advancing specialized channels of communication in a digital age.     

Networked learning a relational approach: weak and strong ties

Abstract   In this paper, we explore the idea of weak ties in networked learning. We go back to the original conception of the strength of weak ties and relate this to Bakhtin and a dialogic understanding of networked learning. These theoretical ideas are applied to the examination of two networked settings in which educational leaders exchange ideas and have the potential to create knowledge. We examine these networks from the point of view of the overall pattern of interaction and from an interest in the kinds of dialogues engaged in by participants in the network. We identify an area for further research in a comparison of the dimensions of links that appear to be weaker in these networks, those concerning affective aspects of the relationship, with those concerned with the sharing of knowledge which appear to be relatively well developed. We suggest that presence and proximity become forms of telepresence and tele-proximity and rely more heavily on interactional means to achieve identity formation. Finally we note that knowledge is negotiated and the marks of its personal and situated origin are essential parts of the exchange through dialogue.     

ML-SOR: Message routing using multi-layer social networks in opportunistic communications

Opportunistic networks are a generalization of DTNs in which disconnections are frequent and encounter patterns between mobile devices are unpredictable. In such scenarios, message routing is a fundamental issue. Social-based routing protocols usually exploit the social information extracted from the history of encounters between mobile devices to find an appropriate message relay. Protocols based on encounter history, however, take time to build up a knowledge database from which to take routing decisions. While contact information changes constantly and it takes time to identify strong social ties, other types of ties remain rather stable and could be exploited to augment available partial contact information. In this paper, we start defining a multi-layer social network model combining the social network detected through encounters with other social networks and investigate the relationship between these social network layers in terms of node centrality, community structure, tie strength and link prediction. The purpose of this analysis is to better understand user behavior in a multi-layered complex network combining online and offline social relationships. Then, we propose a novel opportunistic routing approach ML-SOR (Multi-layer Social Network based Routing) which extracts social network information from such a model to perform routing decisions. To select an effective forwarding node, ML-SOR measures the forwarding capability of a node when compared to an encountered node in terms of node centrality, tie strength and link prediction. Trace driven simulations show that a routing metric combining social information extracted from multiple social network layers allows users to achieve good routing performance with low overhead cost.     

A study of social participation and knowledge sharing in the teachers' online professional community of practice

To facilitate professional development of teachers in the online context, the online community of practice (CoPs) has become an important platform in which individuals with similar interests or common goals get together to share their resources, develop working strategies, solve problems, and improve individual as well as organizational performance. In this study, we have collected self-reported knowledge-sharing behaviors from 321 members of the largest online professional CoP of teachers in Taiwan. The results show that closer connections among online CoP members can lead to greater recognition of and altruism towards others. Moreover, performance expectation and self-efficacy belief play essential roles in knowledge-sharing participation. Thus, the development of social relationships among online teacher members helps them obtain potential resources and reliable support through their social network. Also, teachers' membership in the online professional CoP fosters a prosocial attitude that heightens their willingness to share useful resources and solve other members' problems, both emotionally and instrumentally. Consequently, knowledge-sharing behaviors, in terms of knowledge giving and knowing receiving, are significantly predicted by prosocial commitment and performance expectation respectively. The implications to both research and practice are provided in this paper.     

Networking relations of using ICT within a teacher community

The purpose of the present study was to examine the network structure of a teacher community in relation to their use of information and communication technology (ICT). The participants in the study were the 33 members of the teacher community of an upper comprehensive school from a suburban area of Helsinki, Finland. The methodology of the study was social network analysis. The participants were asked to assess their networking relations according to the following five dimensions: (1) providing technical advice regarding ICT, (2) providing pedagogical advice for using ICT, (3) collaboration regarding web-based learning, (4) acquiring new knowledge or ideas of web-based learning, and (5) informal interaction between the members of the community. The results indicated that there were a few central actors in the community who dominated technical and pedagogical knowledge exchange and to whom their colleagues actively turned when seeking advice. Two of the cognitively central actors represented hybrid expertise, a characteristic of which was to merge technological and pedagogical expertise in using ICT in education. These actors also tended to have their own external networking relations that helped them keep up their high level of competence. The participants’ ICT-related egocentric networks differed in size and density. There were some actors central in the network of informal interaction that were, simultaneously, peripheral in ICT-related networking activities. On the other hand, the central actors of ICT were not necessarily the socially central persons in the community. Four patterns of networking were identified in the analysis; The Counsellor offers advice actively without seeking information herself from colleagues; The Inquirer is an active seeker of ICT-related information capitalizing on her social relations; The Collaborator engages in collaborative efforts of web-based learning by using several media; and The Weakly Social prefers media rather than face-to-face contacts in his information seeking.     

Enhancing Innovation Capacity in SMEs through Early Network Relationships

Networks can offer SMEs a number of advantages, especially in terms of providing greater opportunities for knowledge activities that support innovation, but there is little in the literature to suggest how firms develop their innovation capacity through network participation. In this paper, we present an in‐depth longitudinal case study of a small entrepreneurial firm within the mobile‐commerce industry. A principal finding from the study is that network relationships formed during the earliest stages of the firm's life cycle played a critical role in developing the SME's capacity for sustained innovation. Further, the study contributes to network theory by calling into question the weak and strong tie dichotomy, as relationships critical to the SME's innovation capacity possessed characteristics of both types of ties. The paper also contributes to managerial practice by emphasizing the importance of establishing strong relationships in the earliest stages of network formation.     

Exploring and mitigating social loafing in online communities

The motivation to share members’ knowledge is critical to an online community’s survival and success. Previous research has established that knowledge sharing intentions are based on group cohesion. Several studies also suggested that social loafing behavior will seriously corrode group cohesion. Therefore, social loafing is a key obstacle to fostering online community development. Although substantial studies have been performed on the critical factors that affect social loafing in the learning group, those on online communities are still lacking. By integrating two perspectives, social capital and perceived risk, a richer understanding of social loafing behavior can be gained. In the research model, social ties and perceived risk have been driven by anonymity, offline activities, knowledge quality, and media richness. Social ties and perceived risk are hypothesized to affect social loafing in the online community, which, in turn, is hypothesized as negatively affecting group cohesion. Data collected from 323 online users in online communities provide support for the proposed model. The study shows that social loafing is a significant negative predictor of the users’ group cohesion. The study also shows that social ties and perceived risk are important components of social loafing. Anonymity, offline activities, knowledge quality, and media richness all have strong effects on social ties and perceived risk in the online community. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Inter-organisational knowledge transfer in social networks: A definition of intermediate ties

A social network perspective helps identify and analyse informal knowledge transfer among people and organisations with the aim to recommend organisational interventions and improvements, for example in the form of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) support. This paper particularly focuses on a key concept of social network analysis (SNA), the concept of tie strength, in an inter-organisational knowledge transfer context. Tie strength describes the strength of a social relationship. In the past, SNA literature with a knowledge management context has often emphasized the importance of strong and/or weak ties rather than of intermediate (medium strong) ties in a social network. Nevertheless, in this study, intermediate ties are identified as the dominant links among key groups of organisation in a social network. Intermediate ties also help connect otherwise weakly linked organisations. Moreover, a definition of intermediate ties in the context of knowledge management is introduced. With the help of cluster analysis and an investigation into the levels of reciprocity, intermediate ties can be clearly defined in a social network. Due to their importance for knowledge transfer in a social network, intermediate ties should be primarily supported, for example by appropriate ICT.     

Leveraging social networks in the adoption of mobile technologies for collaboration

Mobile devices such as tablets, smart phones, and portable computers are connecting users in a myriad of contexts. Social networks can be a benefit for individuals in the knowledge acquisition process, and group dynamics disclosed by Social Network Analysis provides a good basis for studying how mobile collaboration is affected by social networks. This study focuses on two aspects of social network mechanism, namely eigenvector centrality and network reciprocity. The assumption is that social networks influence mobile technology use behaviors, and can be optimized to leverage mobile collaboration. A series of controlled field experiments involving 327 groups were conducted to evaluate the differences between two modes of mobile collaborative settings: individual non-collaborative vs. group collaborative. Results indicate that by leveraging social networks in a mobile platform, study participants were able to positively heighten their collaborative knowledge acquisition process through enhanced group interactions and enjoyment.     

Performance study of Byzantine Agreement Protocol with artificial neural network

Since 1982, numerous Byzantine Agreement Protocols (BAPs) have been developed to solve arbitrary faults in the Byzantine Generals Problem (BGP). A novel BAP, using an artificial neural network (ANN), was proposed by Wang and Kao. It requires message exchange rounds similar to the traditional BAP and its suitability, in the context of network size, has not been investigated. In the present study, we propose to adopt Nguyen-Widrow initialization in ANN training, which modifies message communication and limits the message exchange rounds to three rounds. This modified approach is referred to as BAP-ANN. The BAP-ANN performs better than the traditional BAP, when the network size n is greater than nine. We also evaluate the message exchange matrix (MEM) constructed during the message exchange stage. For a fixed number of faulty nodes and remainder cases of (n mod 3), the study shows that the mean epoch for ANN training decreases as the network size increases, which indicates better fault tolerance.     

A distributed energy-efficient clustering protocol for wireless sensor networks

Minimizing energy dissipation and maximizing network lifetime are among the central concerns when designing applications and protocols for sensor networks. Clustering has been proven to be energy-efficient in sensor networks since data routing and relaying are only operated by cluster heads. Besides, cluster heads can process, filter and aggregate data sent by cluster members, thus reducing network load and alleviating the bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed clustering algorithm where cluster heads are elected following a three-way message exchange between each sensor and its neighbors. Sensor’s eligibility to be elected cluster head is based on its residual energy and its degree. Our protocol has a message exchange complexity of O(1) and a worst-case convergence time complexity of O(N). Simulations show that our algorithm outperforms EESH, one of the most recently published distributed clustering algorithms, in terms of network lifetime and ratio of elected cluster heads.     

The influence of social capital on knowledge creation in online health communities

This study investigates how social capital influences knowledge creation in online health communities (OHCs), based on social capital theory. The study proposes that three social capital dimensions, namely trust, shared language, and network density, affect OHC members’ externalization and combination of knowledge creation, and that these in turn lead to membership continuance intention (MCI). Trust also directly contributes to MCI in the model. Three hundred fifty-three members from eight existing US based OHCs participated in surveys. The results provide overall support for the proposed model. Among the three dimensions of social capital, network density plays a critical role in developing both externalization and combination of knowledge creation. Externalization of knowledge in turn affects members’ MCI. Supplemental analysis shows that trust and shared language influence OHC members’ knowledge creation indirectly via network density.     

A game-theoretic incentive scheme for social-aware routing in selfish mobile social networks

Cooperative data forwarding can improve the performance of data routing in Mobile Social Networks (MSNs). However, previous studies mainly assumed that mobile nodes show selfish behaviors in data relaying merely due to their limited device resources. Nevertheless, the observation of everyday experience infers that they mitigate their selfishness based on their social relationships and content knowledge to achieve their social objective, i.e., they are socially selfish (SS). Therefore, how to promote SS nodes to participate in data forwarding becomes peculiarly challenging in MSNs. In this paper, we propose Game-theoretic Incentive Scheme for Social-aware rOuting, namely GISSO, to stimulate SS nodes in message relaying and guarantee that the routing performance gets maximized when SS nodes follow the scheme. First, we identify the social utility of each message to an intermediate node based on the strength of her social ties and message properties. Then, we apply an alternating-offers bargaining game in which SS nodes trade their messages with the aim of maximizing their social utility. We not only use subgame perfect Nash equilibrium as the agreement of two players to prove the efficiency of our game but also extensively evaluate the performance of GISSO using simulations over two real datasets. The comparison of GISSO with some benchmark social-aware protocols illustrates that GISSO overcomes SS nodes and outperforms the other algorithms regarding message delivery ratio and delay while generates low communication cost.     

Improving productivity and creativity in online groups through social comparison process: New evidence for asynchronous electronic brainstorming

This article extends the findings in synchronous room-based electronic brainstorming about the impact of social comparison process on productivity and creativity in a web-based context of asynchronous electronic brainstorming. Social comparison was manipulated with a feedback informing group members of their respective contributions on the electronic brainstorming task through a shared table regularly updated by a facilitator. In another group, although participants had the possibility to identify each contribution within the newsgroup, they did not receive any feedback in a shared table. Results showed that both group productivity and group creativity are better in the social comparison feedback condition than in the other condition. It appears that social comparison process has a positive impact on productivity and creativity in a web-based context of asynchronous electronic brainstorming, but only when participants have access to a shared table facilitating the comparison among group members. This finding provides some useful recommendations for learning facilitators to improve productivity and creativity in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning over the Internet. It also invites to future innovative technological developments to improve participation in online groups.     

Blocking reduction for distributed transaction processing within MANETs

Atomic commit protocols for distributed transactions in mobile ad-hoc networks have to consider message delays and network failures. We consider ad-hoc network scenarios, in which participants hold embedded databases and offer services to other participants. Services that are composed of several other services can access and manipulate data of physically different databases. In such a scenario, distributed transaction processing can be used to guarantee atomicity and serializability throughout all databases. However, with problems like message loss, node failure, and network partitioning, mobile environments make it hard to get estimations on the duration of a simple message exchange. In this article, we focus on the problem of setting up reasonable time-outs when guaranteeing atomicity for transaction processing within mobile ad-hoc networks, and we show the effect of setting up “wrong” time-outs on the transaction throughput and blocking time. Our solution, which does not depend on time-outs, shows a better performance in unreliable networks and remarkably reduces the amount of blocking.