Online Communities： A Social Computing Pe.pdfVIP

Online Communities: A Social Computing Perspective Xiarong Li, Daniel Zeng, Wenji Mao, and Fei-yue Wang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China lxr606@ Abstract. In recent years, the growth of the Internet has facilitated the rapid emergence of online communities. In this paper, we survey key research issues on online communities from the perspectives of both social science and computing technologies. We also sample several major online community applications, and propose some directions for future research. Keywords: online community, social computing, social theory, computing technology. 1 Introduction In the last twenty years, the growth of the Internet has greatly facilitated the rapid emergence of online communities. Community Memory of Berkeley, California, initially started in the mid-1970s, was viewed by many researchers as the first practical online community [1]. The phrase, online community, however, was created only later in Hiltzs book in 1984 [2]. An online community is a group of people interacting in a virtual environment, who have a purpose, are supported by technology, and are guided by norms and policies [3]. In this paper, we extend the scope of online community to refer to people, the technological infrastructure of virtual environments, and what is produced during online interactions. Whittaker et al [4] identified the core characteristics of online communities. Online communities can be viewed as technology-supported groups of people with a shared goal, interest, need, or act