Nye bruksmønstre i online communities

ICT

Nye bruksmønstre i online communities.

Jan Heim

Petter Bae Brandtzæg

SINTEF IKT

ICT

Members of online communities:

●Who are they?

●What do they do?

●What do they think about the community?

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Overview of communities in the study

Communities Start Number of members

Type of application

Open to every-one

Biip 2005 June 280 000 Youth, social network

Yes

Hamar-Ungdom 2002 August 190 000 Youth. Local, social network

Yes

Nettby 2006September

320 000 Social network

Yes

Underskog 2005 November

10 000 Cultural and social net-working, Oslo based

No

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The study: Sample size

Frequency

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

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●Who are they?

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Gender

Distribution of gender in the five samples

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Biip

Hamar

Ungdo

m

Nettb

y

Under

skog

Rep.S

ample

Per

cen

t w

ith

in e

ach

sam

ple

Male

Female

Online communities seems to differ with respect to their composition of the two genders

Online communities seems to differ with respect to their composition of the two genders

Girls use online communities much more frequent than they use ICT-technologies in general.


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Age

15:9 16:8

22:8

29:10

41:10Online communities are homogeneous with respect to age.

Online communities are homogeneous with respect to age.

Members of online communities are younger than the general population.

Members of online communities are younger than the general population.

ICT

Frequency of visitsFrequency of visits to most visited community

0

25

50

75

100

Per

cen

t w

ith

in s

amp

le

Once a week orless

Daily or severaltimes a week

Community members are very frequent visitors; more than 85% visit their community daily or several times a week.


About 30% of the general Internet population visits a community daily or several times a week.

About 30% of the general Internet population visits a community daily or several times a week.

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Number of communities visited daily

010203040

50607080

Biip

Hamar

Ungdo

mNet

tby

Unders

kog

Rep.S

ample

Pe

rce

nt

wit

hin

sa

mp

le

0

1

2

3

4 or moreCommunity members are usually visiting several communities, a majority visits two or more communities daily

Community members are usually visiting several communities, a majority visits two or more communities daily

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Frequency of visits to most visited community

Relationship between community engagement and attitude towards technology

3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

4

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8

Never, oralmost never

Once amonth

Severaltimes amonth

Once a week Severaltimes a week

Daily

3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

4

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8


Once amonth

Severaltimes amonth


Daily

3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

4

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8


Once amonth

Severaltimes amonth


Daily

3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

4

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8


Once amonth

Severaltimes amonth


Daily

3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

4

4,2

4,4

4,6

4,8


Once amonth

Severaltimes amonth


Daily

It is very important to me to have a well-equipped and good PC.

I am dependent on Internet to get several practical tasks done.

The mobile phone is very important to me, to keep in touch with family and friends.

To me, Internet is an important way to keep in touch with other people.

PC and Internet is very good sources for entertainment to me.

Technology

Usefulness

Mobile phone

CommunicationEntertainment

Deg

ree

of a

gree

men

t

Community members are more positive to the technology as a means for entertainment and communication than the general Internet population.


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●What do they do in the communities?

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Why are you here?0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %

Write a contribution

Publish or share pictures

Publish or share audio/music

See if somebdy has tried to contact me

Look for a new friend

Read new contributions

See other peoples videos/pictures

Make appointments for meetings withothers

Look for new information - withouthaving something particular in mind

Write letters or messages

Discuss

Profile Surfing

Contact others

Kill some time

Other reasons for being here

Biip

HamarUngdom

Nettby

Underskog

What are your reasons for visiting this community today?

Most visits have a social purpose. Communities differ with respect to members reading and writing contributions.


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Why are you here?

● Community members often have several different reasons for a visit.

● What they do can be classified into typical usage patterns.

● Members that tend to give the same answerers to “What are your reasons for visiting this community today? ” are clustered together. (Cluster analysis).

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What do they do? Five usage patterns:

● “Just-one-thing” Give few reasons for being in the community, spread equally over the four

communities, (10 – 20 %), and age; somewhat more males.

● “Kill some time”. Engaged in several activities to some degree, contribute very little, spread equally

over the four communities, (20 – 30 %), age and gender.

● Socializing Communicating with others, typical for young girls, frequent at Biip, practically

absent in Underskog.

● Debating Discuss, read and write contributions. Unequally distributed among the

communities, very frequent in Underskog, practically absent in Biip. Somewhat more males.

● Active Engage in all kinds of activities, unequally distributed among communities, most

frequent in Nettby and HamarUngdom

Social exchange is the main reason for using online communities: There are two main modalities for this social exchange; informal chatting and more serious debate.

Social exchange is the main reason for using online communities: There are two main modalities for this social exchange; informal chatting and more serious debate.

Biip is a typical “small-talk” community with younger members, while Undeskog is a typical “debating” community where the participants are older.

Biip is a typical “small-talk” community with younger members, while Undeskog is a typical “debating” community where the participants are older.

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How many different people did you have contact with within this community during the last week?

05

10152025303540

Non 1-2 3-5 6-10 11-20 21-30 Morethan30

Biip

HamarUngdom

Nettby

Underskog%

Majority contacted 3 to 10 people during a week. Small (but statistical significant) differences between communities.

Majority contacted 3 to 10 people during a week. Small (but statistical significant) differences between communities.

ICT

How many contacts do you have in your profile/network at this community?

0

5

10

15

20

25

Biip

HamarUngdom

Nettby

Underskog

.

%

Substantial differences between communities with regard to members contact net.

Substantial differences between communities with regard to members contact net.

More than half of all members have more than 30 persons in their profiles


Members of Hamarungdom have more contacts in their profiles, members of Nettby have less, probably reflecting how long the community has been running.

Members of Hamarungdom have more contacts in their profiles, members of Nettby have less, probably reflecting how long the community has been running.

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●What do they think about the community?

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What do users think about their community?

1 2 3 4 5

This community is easy and fast to use

I have experienced bullying or harassment inthis community

I feel responsibility to keep this community apleasant place to be

I have experienced that mine or otherspictures/videos have gotten misused in this

communityI meet many interesting people at this

community

This community are updating me on news andother important information

I find this community to be a safe place forchildren younger than 14 years

I find spending time at this community morerewarding than watching television

I feel a sense of belongingness to thiscommunity

I will recommend this community to my friends

Biip

HamarUngdom

Nettby

Underskog

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

Most users have very positive attitude towards their community.


Misuse and harassment is not a very dominant issue; however ….

Misuse and harassment is not a very dominant issue; however ….

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Harassment and Misuse

I have experienced that mine or others pictures/videos have been misused in this

community

01020304050607080

Stronglydisagree

Disagree Neither agreenor disagree

Agree Strongly agree

Per

cen

t o

f re

spo

nd

ents

I have experienced bullying or harassment in this community

0

20

40

60

80

Stronglydisagree

Disagree Neither agreenor disagree

Agree Strongly agree

Per

cen

t o

f re

spo

nd

ents

Harassment

Misuse

20 % has experienced harassment, 13% has experienced misuse of pictures/video. No difference between the genders.


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Reasons for having stopped to use or using an online community less frequent – responses from the 100 longest (number of characters) descriptions.

● People/friends (26), Too few interesting people, too few own friends in the community,

● Content (25) To many recurrences, nothing new is happening, uninteresting content.

● Usability (17) To hard to use, difficult to change profile, slow service, to many usage problems.

● Harassment/bullying: (19), 15 girls, 4 boys. Several of these girls have experienced sexual harassment from older boys or men.

● Commercialization (8), To much advertisements, expensive to buy extra services, expect services to be free of

charge.

● Trust (7), To many users with fake id, to much crap from other users.

● Time consuming/isolating (5): It takes time from real life connections. It takes to long to get to know others, therefore

contacts become superficial. You don’t get to really know people.

● Moderators (3): Dissatisfaction with moderators.

● Other: 5

Dissatisfaction with a community first of all comes from unsatisfactory social relations; uninteresting content and bad usability comes next.


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To sum up:





Community members are usually visiting several communities, a majority visits two or more communities daily or several times a week.

Community members are usually visiting several communities, a majority visits two or more communities daily or several times a week.







Five Usage patterns:• ”Just-one-thing”• “Kill some time”.• Socializing• Debating• Active

Five Usage patterns:• ”Just-one-thing”• “Kill some time”.• Socializing• Debating• Active









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Nye bruksmønstre i online communities