Hand in glove, or square peg, round hole: An exploration of social network analysis applied to online community trace data

Glasgow, Kimberly

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/38381 Copy

Description

Title

Hand in glove, or square peg, round hole: An exploration of social network analysis applied to online community trace data

Author(s)

Glasgow, Kimberly

Contributor(s)

• Xie, Bo
• Boyd-Graber, Jordan

Issue Date

2013-02

Keyword(s)

• Social networks
• Digital trace data
• Online social networks--Case studies.
• Information behavior
• Social networking Web sites
• Research methods
• Social and community informatics
• Quantitative data analysis

Abstract

Online communities have been studied using social network analysis. These studies often utilize online community data extracted from digital trace data or user behavior observed in the system used by the community. However, the relationship between the networks depicted in the trace data and the social networks reported or observed by community members themselves is not well understood. As a result, the implications for interpretation of social network measures in this context are unknown. This is a fundamental gap in our understanding of and ability to analyze online community. This study analyzes empirical data for both trace networks and respondent-reported networks, and compares these networks across a number of social network measures for a salient online community. Significant differences between trace networks and reported social networks are found. These differences are observed at multiple levels of analysis, from the individual to the whole network.

Publisher

iSchools

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/38381

DOI

https://doi.org/10.9776/13166

Copyright and License Information

Copyright © 2013 is held by the authors.Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.

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