Which questions are valuable? The knowledge diffusion in technical online forum

Shi, Yanqing; Chen, Si; Kang, Lele; Sun, Jianjun

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/103353 Copy

Description

Title

Which questions are valuable? The knowledge diffusion in technical online forum

Author(s)

• Shi, Yanqing
• Chen, Si
• Kang, Lele
• Sun, Jianjun

Issue Date

2019-03-15

Keyword(s)

• Knowledge diffusion
• Online forum
• Quantitative data analysis

Abstract

Technical forums serve as important tools for diffusing knowledge for specific subjects. The factors affecting knowledge diffusion through technical forum need to be better understood. In this study, we examine knowledge diffusion in the context of an online technical forum. We explore why some problems are paid more attention in this context by shifting perspectives to focus on knowledge network embedded in problems rather than knowledge seeker-problem-knowledge provider relationships, since in online technical forum the knowledge seekers are seeking immediate, customized responses efficiently. To explore the reasons, we examined the impact that characteristics of question tags had on popularity and quality of questions by collecting data from a programming-related Q&A site — Stack Overflow. For our analysis we collected data of ten years which spans from 2008 to 2017, which includes 6,833,276 users and 34,857,917 questions and answers. Our study contributes to conversations about how the knowledge is diffused in an online technical forum and further implies if these types of online forums promote knowledge sharing and innovation efficiently.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2019 Proceedings

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/103353

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21900/iconf.2019.103353

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Yanqing Shi, Si Chen, Lele Kang, and Jianjun Sun

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