Atheism, sex, and databases: the net as a social technology
Public access to the Internet
Learning from notes: organizational issues in groupware implementation
Computerization and controversy (2nd ed.)
Net gain: expanding markets through virtual communities
Net gain: expanding markets through virtual communities
Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits
Communications of the AIS
Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge
The Social Life of Information
The Social Life of Information
Social Interaction on the Net: Virtual Community as Participatory
HICSS '97 Proceedings of the 30th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences: Digital Documents - Volume 6
A Relational View of Information Seeking and Learning in Social Networks
Management Science
Information exchange in virtual communities under extreme disaster conditions
Decision Support Systems
Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities
Organization Science
Interactive or interruptive? Instant messaging at work
Decision Support Systems
Understanding sustained participation in transactional virtual communities
Decision Support Systems
ASONAM '12 Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2012)
Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining
Case studies in research: Is social capital effective for online learning?
Information and Management
A local social network approach for research management
Decision Support Systems
Networked individuals predict a community wide outcome from their local information
Decision Support Systems
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Electronic networks of practice are computer-mediated social spaces where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and share knowledge, advice, and perspectives about their occupational practice or common interests. These interactions occur through message postings to produce an on-line public good of knowledge, where all participants in the network can then access this knowledge, regardless of their active participation in the network. Using theories and concepts of collective action and public goods, five hypotheses are developed regarding the structural and social characteristics that support the online provision and maintenance of knowledge in an electronic network of practice. Using social network analysis, we examine the structure of message contributions that produce and sustain the public good. We then combine the results from network analysis with survey results to examine the underlying pattern of exchange, the role of the critical mass, the quality of the ties sustaining participation, the heterogeneity of resources and interests of participants, and changes in membership that impact the structural characteristics of the network. Our results suggest that the electronic network of practice chosen for this study is sustained through generalized exchange, is supported by a critical mass of active members, and that members develop strong ties with the community as a whole rather than develop interpersonal relationships. Knowledge contribution is significantly related to an individual's tenure in the occupation, expertise, availability of local resources and a desire to enhance one's reputation, and those in the critical mass are primarily responsible for creating and sustaining the public good of knowledge. Finally, we find that this structure of generalized exchange is stable over time although there is a high proportion of member churn in the network.