Session Information
16 SES 09 A, Net-based Community Building
Paper Session
Contribution
The use of online communities has been growing noticeably during the last years. However, it is not quite obvious what makes these platforms that attractive to so many users and what motivates them to engage very intensively in these environments. One aspect might be the possibility of building social relationships with others. Most systems offer mechanisms that show the ‘rank’ or ‘social reputation’ users have earned within this environment. To what extent can this be described as a reward mechanism that influences a users’ behaviour? We will illustrate this by regarding 'Twitter'. One expectation is that Twitter has such popularity, because users can become part of a network consisting of people with similar interests that can exchange information with each other. Twitter is according to the human need for social acceptance. People can be heard, maybe even because of the very open situation and they can be part of others’ activities. As Twitter thus is a social network it is also a (virtual) place in which users can gain online reputation. In the paper I will provide a detailed overview on social relations and reputation in general, before transferring it to mechanisms in Twitter. In Twitter, members can ‘follow’ each other and thus add one another to their social network. We can say that the number of followers is an indicator for the social reputation of this user. People in Twitter put a great focus on their number of followers and thus, carry out activities in order to increase this number. The paper outlines a theoretical model that explains why users try to gain social reputation in different virtual worlds. For this, a typology of virtual worlds has been developed based on possible spill-over effects of social reputation that can be gained in virtual and real worlds. The question then is whether reputation earned in virtual worlds can somehow be transferred to reputation in real worlds and vice versa. Twitter implements a certain model how users can relate to people they know from real life and virtual life, therefore, making spill-over effects of social reputation more likely then in other communities. A survey has been conducted with 250 users of Twitter in order to find out how important it is for users to gain “followers”. The results demonstrate that gaining “followers” is a relevant aspect that users of Twitter are concerned with. They are engaged in various activities to improve their “social reputation”. However, many users do not admit that openly. There are various opportunities to use Twitter for the purpose of learning. Relating to this, it is necessary to deal with the question to what extent the spill-over effect of transporting reputation from a real life network into Twitter and vice versa takes place and what implications for learning can be educed. Taking into account seriously that Twitter is a tool for collaborative activities, in what way can a reputation system influence the learning activities? How does online reputation manipulate group structures within learning groups?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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