Supporting Participation in Online Social Networks

Background

The result of the interactions among the users in a social networking system is an online social network, i.e., a special case of the more general concept of social network. A social network is defined as a set or sets of actors and the relations defined on them (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Social networks are typically studied using social network analysis, a discipline that focuses on the structural and topological features of the network. More recently, additional dimensions have been added to the traditional social network analytic approach (Monge and Contractor 2003; Borgatti and Foster 2003; Parkhe et al. 2006; Hoang and Antoncic 2003).

The study of structure of Online Social Networks, expressed as patterns of links among nodes, can exploit models and ideas from classical sociology and anthropology, with particular attention to contextual and relational approaches. In fact, all the results obtained in decades of studies of human networks are also at the basis of the analysis of online social networks. However, these results cannot be simply applied to the different context of online relations. Instead they have to be evaluated and adapted to the new networks, which may have significantly different structure and dynamics.

Moreover, online social networking platforms may greatly vary both technically and in their aims. They may be used by people for organizing quite diverse activities, in different types of virtual communities. In particular, virtual organizations, virtual teams, and online networks of practice are the most discussed. Although there are several differences that clearly set the concepts apart, the trait d'union of these virtual communities are: i) the lack of central authority, ii) their temporary and impromptu nature, and iii) the importance of reputation and trust as opposed to bureaucracy and law.