Power relations in virtual communities: An ethnographic study

Authors:
Lemai Nguyen;Luba Torlina;Konrad Peszynski;Brian Corbitt
Affiliations:
School of Information Systems, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia 3125;School of Information Systems, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia 3125;GS1 Australia, Mt Waverley 3149;School of Business Information Technology, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Venue:
Electronic Commerce Research
Year:
2006

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Abstract

Peoples' need to socialize with others and greed for power can be best captured with Aristotle's description of human beings as "political animals"/"social animals." This paper reports on observations of how cyber communities, such as Web-based forums and mailing lists, manifest themselves through social interactions and shared values, membership and friendship, and commitments and loyalty. The paper highlights the importance of power relations in these communities, how they are formed, exercised and evolve. This paper explores power relations as they emerge in two online Vietnamese communities and suggests a new understanding of the formation and evolution of power in virtual societies.