Abstract
This paper focuses on the extent to which online information sharing practice is socially motivated. A key interest is how knowledge of the existing social connections between actors may predict their information sharing behaviour when they move into an online environment, and the relative importance of these connections when set against other factors that may motivate online information sharing within a closed group. The examination of online information exchanges between members of a defined community of bloggers reveals that those with established off-line relationships are more likely to interact with one another when they move into an online environment than those who have not enjoyed earlier contact. The findings of the empirical study are evaluated with reference to social exchange theory, with acknowledgement of the importance of shared social capital as a prerequisite for the efficient operation of work-groups, both in face-to-face and online environments. It is concluded that social exchange theory can be deployed as a means of explaining online information sharing behaviours. The study findings have implications for the design of environments for purposes of online information sharing, especially in terms of the provision of substitutes for physical proximity in distributed organisations, the operation of reward systems, and expectations for communities to develop their own information sharing ecologies.
Highlights
The study reported in this paper germinated from an observation that student members of an online community appeared to replicate their classroom levels of interaction with one another in the blogging environment created for them to extend discussion of module content outside class time
It was anticipated that the outcome of the work might help the module tutors to develop strategies to encourage a greater level of interaction across all students taking the module in future deliveries, and to ensure that online conversations related to the study topics were broadened to include contributors beyond just small cliques of friends
Given the strong indication that social relationships were key to how students chose to make their contributions to the online community in question, the main tenants of social exchange theory provided a framework for the study
Summary
The research findings presented here are based on the analysis of data sets from two blogging communities made up of student members. For its first delivery students kept closed learning logs as word-processed files In these they were asked to reflect on their weekly experiences of the class reading, lectures and lab activities. In 2005 and 2006 a bespoke blogging environment internal to the module was set up for the students, moving the students¶ weekly entries from private space into one that was more public [1]. This, it was felt, would widen opportunities for collective learning through three main activities: 1. It would be possible to test the relative importance of other factors that motivate online information sharing within the defined group
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