A Conceptual and Operational Definition of 'Social Role' in Online Community

Both online and off, people frequently perform particular social roles. These roles organize behavior and give structure to positions in local networks. As more of social life becomes embedded in online systems, the concept of social role becomes increasingly valuable as a tool for simplifying patte...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences pp. 1 - 11
Main Authors Gleave, E., Welser, H.T., Lento, T.M., Smith, M.A.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.01.2009
Subjects
Collaboration
Digital communication
Environmental factors
Facebook
History
Pattern analysis
Pattern recognition
Psychology
Social network services
Wikipedia
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Both online and off, people frequently perform particular social roles. These roles organize behavior and give structure to positions in local networks. As more of social life becomes embedded in online systems, the concept of social role becomes increasingly valuable as a tool for simplifying patterns of action, recognizing distinct user types, and cultivating and managing communities. This paper standardizes the usage of the term 'social role' in online community as a combination of social psychological, social structural, and behavioral attributes. Beyond the conceptual definition, we describe measurement and analysis strategies for identifying social roles in online community. We demonstrate this process in two domains, Usenet and Wikipedia, identifying key social roles in each domain. We conclude with directions for future research, with a particular focus on the analysis of communities as role ecologies.
ISBN:9780769534503
0769534503
ISSN:1530-1605
2572-6862
DOI:10.1109/HICSS.2009.6