Interaction In Virtual Communities Research Articles

Educating the digital generation: the role of virtual communities

Introduction. Modern educational space, as well as socialisation, exists in the framework of two interrelated components: the real (material) and virtual (digital) world. Adolescent self-realisation takes place in this mixed, or hybrid, space employing its means. One of them is virtual communities, i.e. communities existing on the platforms of digital resources, using digital devices, information and communication technologies. According to forecasts related to the near future, interaction in communities through ones digital counterparts and artificial intelligence will become a prerequisite for successful performance. However, teachers, having no experience of growing up in the conditions of the unfolding digital world, cannot always objectively assess the role of its factors and apply them as means of education. Aim. The present research aimed to investigate the influence of virtual communities on adolescent self-realization, to determine the conditions that guarantee positive influence and, thus, to validate and justify the pedagogical guidelines that will foster constructive interaction in virtual communities. Methodology and research methods. The study was based on the cultural-historical theory by L. S. Vygotsky. According to it, virtual communities are considered as a way of self-realization for adolescents in the context of digital society culture. Through virtual communities an adolescent undergoes socialization in a mixed environment in the course of his/her own activities and interaction with representatives of certain cultures. The constructive approach sets a course to identify the principles of teaching staff support for the subsequent teenagers’ successful usage of this tool. Data collection was carried out in the form of an online survey using the Yandex Forms Internet service in 2022. 2996 school students of the Chelyabinsk region aged from 13 to 17 years took part in the survey. The authors employed the methods of mathematical data processing: Somers’ D-test, Kramer’s V-test, CHAID (Chi Squared Automatic Interaction Detection) analysis. Results. The majority of teenagers (87 %) are involved in various types of virtual communities (educational, cognitive, and entertaining). The participation in virtual communities has a direct relation to involvement in different types of activities and respective satisfaction with self-realization. It generally implies being involved in several types of virtual communities, spending moderate amount of time in virtual communities, participating in virtual learning societies. Virtual communities have undeniable educational potential. The realization of this potential ensures constructive interaction and self-realization of adolescents, and requires pedagogical support. Scientific novelty. It is proved that virtual communities influence adolescent self-realization. The article determines the conditions of the constructive virtual community influence on adolescent self-realization. The research also substantiates the pedagogical principles, which guarantee the educational potential fulfillment (polysubjectivity, productive online-offline interaction, and proactivity). Moreover, the article established that the strategy of digital educational transformation should set a course to the transition from ensuring accessibility and security in a virtual environment to managing virtual communities for the purpose of the self-development and self-realization. Practical significance. The research outcomes may be applied for the development of educational programmes and the implementation of educational activity in the realities of a digital world.

Research on Technical Approaches of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms to Simulate Complex Human Interactions in Virtual Reality Environments

Abstract In the era of rapid technological development, the integration of artificial intelligence and virtual reality technology has gradually become a research hotspot. Interpersonal interaction, as an important part of virtual reality, also presents opportunities and challenges. The study builds the virtual interpersonal interaction model using the emotion model and hierarchical emotion as the learning algorithm after exploring the key technology of virtual interpersonal interaction based on the UGC model. Finally, the complex interpersonal interaction in virtual reality is simulated to examine the use of virtual community users and the factors affecting interpersonal interaction in virtual communities. According to the results, the percentage of female users of virtual communities is 14.28 percentage points higher than that of male users. The majority of people aged 18-40 who use virtual communities account for 88.01% of the population. In terms of education distribution, the group of bachelor’s degree holders is the group that uses virtual communities the most frequently, accounting for 66.52%. The study concluded that 8 out of the 11 hypotheses it proposed were valid. Among them, hypothesis 3 and hypothesis 11 were supported by 0.01 significance, and hypothesis 9 had a significance of 0.017, which reached 0.05 significance level.

Collaborative Structures in WikiProjects. Wikipedia Users' Activity Case Study

The research presented in the article concerns the development of organizational and cooperation structures from interpersonal interactions in virtual communities sharing knowledge. It is assumed that the activity of communities functioning on the Internet reflects the organization of human communities in the offline space. The main aim of the research was to characterize the structures of cooperation groups that are formed around WikiProjects. The research question was: what is the structure of activity of Wikipedians in WikiProjects in chosen language versions of Wikipedia? The method used in the research is the content analysis method. The author calculated data thanks to the Wikipedia xTools. The numbers of participants involved in WikiProjects were analysed by referring to the Dunbar number concept and the cultural determinants of cooperation, thus referring to the masculinity index (MAS) according to Hofstede. Research has shown that WikiProject members show similarities to the layered community formation proposed by Dunbar. The sizes of groups of active editors are closer to these values. As the WikiProjects group grows, the ratio of declared participants to active participants decreases. The production of value in virtual communities, the ability to work together as a team in physical isolation, is becoming increasingly important. The results of the research may be significant to the knowledge management specialists and virtual communities practitioners.

Study on the Strategy of Customer Participation in Service Innovation in Virtual Community

With the rapid development of information technology, the relationship between people has expanded upon the real world to the virtual Internet world. A new social form of virtual community has been formed. Through virtual community, customers can communicate with enterprises to realize convenient information. Enterprises can also obtain more accurate customer needs from virtual communities, grasp the trend of market development, and improve their service innovation ability [1]. However, in reality, the degree of customer participation in service innovation in virtual communities is not ideal enough. Therefore, it is necessary to study the strategy of customer participation in service innovation under the virtual community environment. On the basis of review of literature review, this paper expounds the connotation of customer participation in service innovation, then analyzes the characteristics of interpersonal interaction in virtual communities and the main factors that affected the process of customer participation in the process of innovation in virtual communities, and puts forward the strategy of customer participation in service innovation in virtual communities.

Sentiment analysis of virtual brand communities for effective tribal marketing

PurposeBy doing sentiment analysis of netnographic data, this study aims to explain the need to give special attention to negative sentiments expressed in virtual tribes, as they play a significant role in translating the informational mode of conversation to the relational mode of conversation. The overall purpose is to aid brand managers in the process of brand co-creation by articulating brand communication targeted to specific audiences based on their shared passions and interests.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a mixed-methods approach. The primary data were collected from two virtual brand communities through qualitative net-based ethnographic methods. Semantria Excel plug-in was used to categorize the extracted consumer statements based on positive, neutral and negative sentiments.FindingsManaging the negative interactions in the virtual communities and relationship development with members through non-commercial conversations should be the two main priorities for effective brand management. Sentiment analysis specifically helps to identify pain points and consumer sentiments at each stage of the shopper journey. The findings of the study endorse the importance of offering and supporting communities as a valid marketing.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper shows how systematic attention to user interactions on virtual brand communities can be used for tribal marketing, which in turn will impact the intangible aspects of the business, such as increasing brand value and loyalty. By engaging the consumers, the social ties among the target audience can be nurtured and strengthened.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on decoding their behavior by unpeeling the consumer statements rather than tangible aspects of the business, such as sales of products or services. It contributes to development of a theoretical framework that outlines how the interactions in virtual brand communities can aid in formulating the functional and communicational strategies for a brand.

SOCKER: Enhancing Face-to-Face Social Interaction Based on Community Creation in Opportunistic Mobile Social Networks

While Web-based social networking services significantly boost online social interactions in virtual communities, they fail to promote face-to-face interactions in the physical world. Mobile social networks have the potential to enhance social interactions in both virtual and physical world, however, effective ways to unleash this potential still need to be explored. This work attempts to enhance face-to-face social interactions in opportunistic mobile social networks (OMSNs) from a community creation perspective. First, we formulate the community creation problem in OMSNs as a broker based information dissemination and match-making issue. Second, we propose three broker selection metrics (i.e., user popularity, inter-user closeness and user effectiveness) to characterize people's capabilities of acting as brokers. According to these metrics, we further develop different community creation strategies and put forward a unified socially-aware community creation mechanism SOCKER. Based on real human mobility traces, extensive evaluations are conducted showing that SOCKER achieves high community completion ratio and good user experience, while incurring a small overhead.

Facebook and the professional behaviours of undergraduate medical students

The rapid growth and accessibility of social networking websites has fundamentally changed the way people manage information about their personal and professional lives. In particular, it has been suggested that interaction in virtual communities erodes elements of responsibility, accountability and social trust that build traditionally meaningful communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduate medical students use the social network website Facebook, and to identify any unprofessional behaviour displayed online. A voluntary anonymous online survey was devised by the University of Liverpool, and emailed to students. Question topics included the use of Facebook, privacy settings, groups relating to the course and professional behaviours. Results were input to spss for analysis. The response rate was 31 per cent (n = 56). The majority of respondents did have a Facebook account and admitted there were photos they found embarrassing on the site. Over half of the respondents reported they had seen unprofessional behaviour by their colleagues on Facebook. Although students say that they are aware of the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) guidance, unprofessional behaviour is still demonstrated on the site. This research highlights the issue of social networking websites and professionalism amongst medical students. Further guidance from the GMC and medical schools should remind students that images and information placed on social networking sites is in the public domain, and could impact upon their professional reputation and identity.

Understanding consumer-to-consumer interactions in virtual communities: The salience of reciprocity

Virtual communities (VCs) represent popular social environments in which people interact by exchanging resources such as information, ideas, and advice about their common interests. Existing research lacks an explication of why people help others in VCs and how such voluntary behaviors drive subsequent attitudes (VC commitment) and behavioral intentions (online co-shopping). This article adopts resource exchange theory to examine how two routes of interactivity (structural vs. experiential) influence reciprocity and affect commitment and co-shopping. Using a netnography study and an online survey, the authors confirm the significant effects of structural and experiential routes of interactivity on reciprocity. Reciprocity has critical effects on social system maintenance by enhancing commitment to the community and intention to co-shop. The results also identify partially mediated relationships among various variables, which suggest that the effects of the experiential route on VC commitment and co-shopping operate partly through reciprocity.

Exploring success factors of video game communities in hierarchical linear modeling: The perspectives of members and leaders

Video games are enjoying fast-growing popularity, becoming a major component of young people’s social lives and leisure activities. Many players share information and conduct social interactions in virtual communities (VC). The current study sought to examine the relationships between members and leaders in such video game communities using a number of variables to describe the member (i.e., knowledge sharing, usefulness, enjoyability, off-site interaction, satisfaction, loyalty, and intention to use) and the leader (i.e., leader involvement). Based on a sample of 2227 members and 41 leaders in 30 video game communities, the research demonstrated the use of a two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the relationships of VC leaders and members, appropriately adjusted for a nested structure. The results indicated that leaders who engage in higher levels of involvement in VC are more likely to have members who agree with and respond to the community. Furthermore, member- and leader-level factors were significantly associated with member satisfaction: knowledge sharing, usefulness, and enjoyability explained within-VC variance while leader involvement explained between-VC variance. Finally, member satisfaction demonstrated positive effects on both member loyalty and intention to use. The study further discussed the implications of these findings, offering direction for future research.

Melting-Pot or Homophily? - An Empirical Investigation of User Interactions in Virtual Investment-Related Communities

Much has been discussed in popular press about virtual communities being melting pots of ideas and opinions. However, little is known as to how individuals actually interact in virtual communities and to what degree interactions occur between individuals with different ideas and opinions, which are reflected in how individuals respond (i.e., post) to others’ messages. In this study, we analyze individual interactions in virtual communities based on the cognitive dissonance theory. We argue that individual interaction decisions are motivated by the desire to decrease dissonance between an individual’s own opinion and the opinions of others in the community. This desire results in confirmation bias and homophily phenomenon in individual interaction decisions, i.e., individuals prefer interaction with others with similar opinions. Based on the cognitive dissonance theory, we propose that, the degree of confirmation bias is moderated by the magnitude of dissonance, the availability of objective references, and the community size. Using 72,019 individual interactions in 29 stock message boards on Yahoo! Finance investment-related communities, we show significant support for the hypotheses. We discuss the implications of the confirmation bias on individual decision making, information dissemination and the value of virtual communities as an information source.

Cultivating Trust and Harvesting Value in Virtual Communities

Although previous scholars have examined the value of virtual communities to customers, in this study we investigate the role of a firm's efforts in cultivating trust and harvesting value for themselves via the virtual communities that they sponsor. We hypothesize that the perceptions of a firm's efforts to provide quality content, to foster member embeddedness, and to encourage interaction foster favorable customer beliefs about and trust in a virtual community sponsor. Further, we hypothesize that trust motivates customers to behave relationally toward the sponsoring firm by sharing information with, coproducing new products with, and granting loyalty to, the sponsoring firm. Data from 663 customers are analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. We find that efforts to provide quality content and foster member embeddedness have positive effects on customer beliefs about the sponsor. In fact, fostering member embeddedness has a stronger explanatory effect on customer beliefs than does providing quality content. However, despite the fact that previous studies show that customers value interaction in virtual communities, our findings suggest that firms must do more than encourage interaction among their community members if they hope to create value from their virtual communities.

Organisations as virtual communities: a sense-making approach for uniting knowledge consumers and knowledge workers

We propose virtual communities created around specific problems or ranges of problems on which organisations and consumers collaborate to solve. We propose two independent but compatible conceptualisations of sense-making behaviour as theoretic and methodological approaches for the basic interaction in virtual communities where dealing with problems is the primary activity.

Social Network Analysis to support interactions in virtual communities for the construction of knowledge

Discussion of approaches to analyze the interactions within virtual communities, shifting from quantity 'interactions assessment of the roles and functions of the individual participants in the process of collaborative construction of knowledge.

Social interaction in virtual communities: the significance of technology

In this paper, it is argued that supporting technology influences the way interaction occurs in a virtual community. The empirical part of the study comprises interviews with visitors at LunarStorm, the most popular online community among young people in Sweden. The study highlights a specific feature within the software environment of LunarStorm and the empirical data show that this feature strongly influences community life. Based on these findings it is argued that there is a need for further studies that aim for increasing the knowledge about the role of the technology.