Web-based Communities Research Articles

Benefits of adding small financial incentives or optional group meetings to a web‐based statewide obesity initiative

ObjectiveTo examine whether adding either small, variable financial incentives or optional group sessions improves weight losses in a community-based, Internet behavioral program.Design and methodsParticipants (N=268) from Shape Up Rhode Island 2012, a 3 month Web-based community wellness initiative, were randomized to: Shape Up+Internet behavioral program (SI), Shape Up+Internet program+Incentives (SII), or Shape Up+Internet program+Group sessions (SIG).ResultsAt the end of the 3 month program, SII achieved significantly greater weight losses than SI (SII:6.4% [5.1-7.7]; SI:4.2% [3.0-5.6]; P=.03); weight losses in SIG were not significantly different from the other two conditions (SIG: 5.8% [4.5-7.1], P’s≥.10). However, at the 12 month no treatment follow-up visit, both SII and SIG had greater weight losses than SI (SII: 3.1% [1.8-4.4]; SIG: 4.5% [3.2-5.8]; SI: 1.2% [-0.1-2.6]; P’s≤.05). SII was the most cost-effective approach at both 3 (SII: $34/kg; SI: $34/kg; SIG: $87/kg) and 12 months (SII: $64/kg; SI: $140/kg; SIG: $113/kg).ConclusionsModest financial incentives enhance weight losses during a community campaign and both incentives and optional group meetings improved overall weight loss outcomes during the follow-up period. However, the use of the financial incentives is the most cost-effective approach.

Innovations in STEM education: the Go-Lab federation of online labs

The Go-Lab federation of online labs opens up virtual laboratories (simulation), remote laboratories (real equipment accessible at distance) and data sets from physical laboratory experiments (together called “online labs”) for large-scale use in education. In this way, Go-Lab enables inquiry-based learning that promotes acquisition of deep conceptual domain knowledge and inquiry skills, with the further intent of interesting students in careers in science. For students, Go-Lab offers the opportunity to perform scientific experiments with online labs in pedagogically structured learning spaces. Go-Lab’s inquiry learning spaces (ILSs) structure the students’ inquiry process through an inquiry cycle and provide students with guidance in which dedicated (and connected) scaffolds for inquiry processes play a pivotal role. Teachers can create and adapt inquiry learning phases and the associated guidance in an ILS through a simple wiki-like interface and can add scaffolds and tools to an ILS using a straightforward drag and drop feature. Teachers can also adapt scaffolds and tools (e.g., change the language or the concepts available in a concept mapper) through an “app composer”. In creating ILSs, teachers are supported by scenarios and associated defaults ILSs that can be used as a starting point for development. In addition, teachers are offered a community framework to disseminate best practices and find mutual support. For lab-owners, Go-Lab provides open interfacing solutions for easily plugging in their online labs and sharing them in the Go-Lab federation of online labs. In its first year, Go-Lab created ILSs for thirteen online labs from different lab providers, including renowned research organizations (e.g., CERN, ESA) that participate in the consortium. The design of these inquiry learning spaces has been evaluated through mock-ups and prototypes with students and teachers. More advanced and later versions will be evaluated and validated in large scale pilots. The sustainability of Go-Lab will come from the opportunity for the larger science education community to add new online labs and share ILSs. An open and Web-based community will capitalize on the “collective intelligence” of students, teachers, and scientists.

Web-based Community of Practice and HRPC Advocacy Videos

Complementing past in-person HRPC teaching workshops for university faculty members, OSF and partners supported the development of an online Community of Practice (COP) for faculty members to stay in contact more regularly and for greater sharing of resources. The COP houses all prior teaching workshop materials, other materials developed by the faculty members themselves, and curated topical modules …

Social media for informal science learning in China: A case study

This article reports a case study on a popular informal science learning community via social media in China, named GuoKr (meaning “nutshell” in English). Data were collected through a variety of Chinese social media and social networking sites, web-based community portals, and discussion boards. Content analyses and data mining were conducted to investigate how GuoKr successfully attracted and engaged public in informal learning on scientific topics in particular. The study found three key characteristics that contributed to the success of such learning communities: (a) utilizing a variety of social media to empower participants with just-in-time, accidental learning opportunities; (b) daily tweets related to emerging or ongoing social events or hot topics to provide brief but intriguing knowledge “bites”, which often leads to extended readings and related resources; and (c) the integration of social media and traditional face-to-face local events to engage the public in science-related learning and knowledge sharing. Practical and research implications are discussed with suggestions for future research as related to ubiquitous learning communities for informal science learning.

Students 4 Best Evidence: a new way of engaging the younger generation in evidence-based health care

In March 2013, Sir Muir Gray stood up at the Cochrane UK & Ireland Anniversary Symposium Gala Dinner and asked everyone under the age of 40 to stand up and...

Web-based backpacking communities and online activism in China: Movement without marching

This article examines activism that has emerged in online communities. This ethnographic study of two web-based backpacking communities shows that citizens and activists use the Internet mainly for forming communities, sharing information, instilling democratic values and solving immediate social problems. They do not call for cyberwar, acts of hacktivism or other sorts of offensive online and offline actions, but seek to bring social justice and improve well-being within their sphere of influence. The dynamics of this new online activism and its significance for the development of associational life and civil society in China are explored in this article.

Exposing Clinicians to Exposure: A Randomized Controlled Dissemination Trial of Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Disorders

ObjectiveThe present study evaluated three technology-based methods of training mental health providers in exposure therapy (ET) for anxiety disorders. Training methods were designed to address common barriers to the dissemination of ET, including limited access to training, negative clinician attitudes toward ET, and lack of support during and following training. MethodClinicians naïve to ET (N=181, Mage=37.4, 71.3% female, 72.1% Caucasian) were randomly assigned to (a) an interactive, multimedia online training (OLT), (b) OLT plus a brief, computerized motivational enhancement intervention (OLT+ME), or (c) OLT+ME plus a Web-based learning community (OLT+ME+LC). Assessments were completed at baseline, posttraining, and 6 and 12weeks following training. Outcomes include satisfaction, knowledge, self-efficacy, attitudes, self-reported clinical use, and observer-rated clinical proficiency. ResultsAll three training methods led to large and comparable improvements in self-efficacy and clinical use of ET, indicating that OLT alone was sufficient for improving these outcomes. The addition of the ME intervention did not significantly improve outcomes in comparison to OLT alone. Supplementing the OLT with both the ME intervention and the LC significantly improved attitudes and clinical proficiency in comparison to OLT alone. The OLT+ME+LC condition was superior to both other conditions in increasing knowledge of ET. ConclusionsMulticomponent trainings that address multiple potential barriers to dissemination appear to be most effective in improving clinician outcomes. Technology-based training methods offer a satisfactory, effective, and scalable way to train mental health providers in evidence-based treatments such as ET.

Ontodog: a web-based ontology community view generation tool

Biomedical ontologies are often very large and complex. Only a subset of the ontology may be needed for a specified application or community. For ontology end users, it is desirable to have community-based labels rather than the labels generated by ontology developers. Ontodog is a web-based system that can generate an ontology subset based on Excel input, and support generation of an ontology community view, which is defined as the whole or a subset of the source ontology with user-specified annotations including user-preferred labels. Ontodog allows users to easily generate community views with minimal ontology knowledge and no programming skills or installation required. Currently >100 ontologies including all OBO Foundry ontologies are available to generate the views based on user needs. We demonstrate the application of Ontodog for the generation of community views using the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations as the source ontology.

A hierarchical framework for open access to education and learning

During the last years, several Open Educational Resources OERs initiatives around the world have been developed, which aim to create and share digital educational resources that are openly licensed and available online for everyone to use. These initiatives have contributed in building and sustaining web-based educational communities and communities of best teaching practices. According to the various existing definitions, the term OER is subject to different interpretations, such as open educational content, open courseware and open source software. This means that OERs are not limited only to open educational content and they can be of different granularity and different formats. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical open access framework that considers different hierarchical elements for supporting the main stages of a typical e-learning chain and we present a set of tools that support this framework. In our proposed framework, OERs are treated in a modular manner considering the different levels of granularity, the relationships between the different levels and the different tools and services needed to handle the particularities of each granularity level. This aims to support the main stages of a typical e-learning chain, namely, creation, publication, discovery, acquisition, access, use, re-use and delivery of OERs.

A Schematic Description of the Nature of Video-Conferencing and Internet Exchange

The world is becoming increasingly one multicultural Global village and business and education transnational, which implies that students will need to recognize accept and adjust to cultural differences in communications to succeed in their studies as well as in their future careers. This presentation is fundamentally about a niftier way of intercultural learning and knowledge-acquisition that adapts video-conferencing and Internet technology to build Web-based successful learning communities. Students can meet on interactive camera at least twice per week and thereafter at any time using Google-mail during the semester effectively forming a knowledge community. The learning community can collaborate to develop the capacity to create diffuse and distribute experiential knowledge in boundary-less and Global-campuses in virtual environments. Students from different universities will cohere to understand each other's culture without leaving their own countries. The method is cost-effective as compared to similar costly semester abroad and hiked out-of-state tuition rates. Students can access additional resources to enhance cultural competencies from the virtual libraries and faculty facilitating in the program without leaving their campuses.

A qualitative investigation of factors enabling sustained use of online health communities

The duration of consumers’ use of an online health community directly impacts their health outcomes. However, little is known about factors enabling sustained use. Using survey methods, this study found that referral from trusted others, useful content, and large, diverse, and supportive community environment is associated with continuous use of online health communities. Implications for designing web-based health communities and interventions were discussed.

Stakeholder participation and the use of web technology for MPA management

Stakeholder participation has received increased attention as a key process for enhancing mitigation of conflicts between different interests for the same resources and transparent decision-making in marine protected areas (MPAs). A wide range of advanced web tools is available nowadays that integrate stakeholder participation by generating new information and allow interaction between actors in MPA management. However, such technologies are frequently used without much consideration regarding the complexity of the decision to be made and the heterogeneity of stakeholder preferences and understanding in order to be related to these technologies. In order to understand how technology corresponds to the changing needs of MPA management, we have reviewed a range of different participation strategies adopted by web technology, based on a set of criteria that define a successful participation approach. We start from simple towards more sophisticated tools that have been developed worldwide in order to better inform decisions, and contribute to more effective and efficient MPA management. Finally, we draw a theoretical framework for the development of a community-based web tool with the capacity to incorporate the philosophy of stakeholder participation by generating new and high quality information flow for effective MPA management.

Stakeholder participation and the use of web technology for MPA management

Stakeholder participation has received increased attention as a key process for enhancing mitigation of conflicts between different interests for the same resources and transparent decision-making in marine protected areas (MPAs). A wide range of advanced web tools is available nowadays that integrate stakeholder participation by generating new information and allow interaction between actors in MPA management. However, such technologies are frequently used without much consideration regarding the complexity of the decision to be made and the heterogeneity of stakeholder preferences and understanding in order to be related to these technologies. In order to understand how technology corresponds to the changing needs of MPA management, we have reviewed a range of different participation strategies adopted by web technology, based on a set of criteria that define a successful participation approach. We start from simple towards more sophisticated tools that have been developed worldwide in order to better inform decisions, and contribute to more effective and efficient MPA management. Finally, we draw a theoretical framework for the development of a community-based web tool with the capacity to incorporate the philosophy of stakeholder participation by generating new and high quality information flow for effective MPA management.

The Dynamics of Web-Based Community Safety Groups: Lessons Learned from the Nation of Neighbors [Social Sciences

Online social networks targeted toward national priorities such as disaster planning, crime watch, or food safety are increasingly described in research studies. A central research challenge is to understand the determinants of the successful growth of such communities. The use of a visual analytics tool would guide the community managers to understand their dynamics. To study this, we used data from the Nation of Neighbors (NON) [11], which is a platform for online neighborhood crime watch communities of residents and law enforcement officers to interact over the shared goals of preventing crime and strengthening communities. The members and law enforcement jurisdiction can add their community to NON; report crime or other incidents in their communities; participate in community discussion; share news, photos, or documents; and manage upcoming events. The system sends real-time e-mail or text message alerts to the community members.

Designing interactivity on consumer health websites: PARAFORUM for spinal cord injury

ObjectiveThis paper addresses the issue of interactivity on health consumer websites powered by health organizations, by presenting the design of PARAFORUM, an interactive website in the field of spinal cord injury (SCI). MethodsThe design of PARAFORUM is based on different streams of research in online health communication, web-based communities, open innovation communities and formative evaluation with stakeholders. ResultsPARAFORUM implements a model of diversified interactivity based on individuals with SCI and their families, health professionals, and researchers sharing their expertise in SCI. In addition to traditional health professional/researcher-to-consumer and peer-to-peer interactions, through PARAFORUM consumers, health professionals and researchers can co-design ideas for the enhancement of practice and research on SCI. ConclusionThere is the need to reflect on the conceptualization and operationalization of interactivity on consumer health websites. Interactions between different users can make these websites important platforms for promoting self-management of chronic conditions, organizational innovation, and participatory research. Practice implicationsInteractivity on consumer health websites is a main resource for health communication. Health organizations are invited to build interactive websites, by considering, however, that the exploitation of interactivity require users’ collaboration, processes and standards for managing content, creating and translating knowledge, and conducting internet-based studies.

Guest editorial: social networks and social Web mining

Nowadays the emergence of web-based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites – Facebook, LinkedIn, wikis – Wikipedia, microblogging Twitter and folksonomies – Delicious, Flickr and so on, brings in tremendous freedom of Web autonomy and facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. And along with the interactions between users and computers, social Web is rapidly becoming an important part of our digital experience, ranging from digital textual information to rich multimedia formats. Social networks have played an important role in different domains for about one decade, particularly involved in a broad range of social activities like user interaction, establishing friendship relationships, sharing and recommending resources, suggesting friends, creating groups and communities, commenting friend activities and opinions and so on. Recent years, has witnessed the rapid progress in the study of social networks for diverse applications, such as user profiling in Facebook and group recommendation via Flickr. These aspects and characteristics form the most active and challenging parts of Web 2.0. A large amount of challenges and opportunities have arisen with the propagation and popularity of new applications and technologies. A prominent challenge lies in modeling and mining this vast volume of data to extract, represent and exploit meaningful knowledge, and to leverage structures and dynamics of emerging social networks residing in the social Web, especially social media. Social networks and social Web mining combines data mining with social computing as a promising direction and offers unique opportunities for developing novel algorithms and tools ranging from text and content mining to link mining and community detection and so on. This special issue has gained overwhelming attention and received 52 submissions from researchers and practitioners working on social network analysis and social media mining. After initial examining of all submissions, 42 papers are selected into the regular rigorous review process and each submission has been reviewed by at least three reviewers. After 2–3 World Wide Web (2013) 16:541–544 DOI 10.1007/s11280-013-0254-0

A Community-Based Participatory Research Model and Web Application for Studying Health Professional Shortage Areas in the United States

Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) are still associated with “worse general health status and poor physical health” (Jiexin, 2007) in the United States today. Meanwhile, limitations still exist in HPSA studies for multiple reasons, including limited data resources and availability, lack of efficient way to share and collaborate, and lack of community participation and public awareness. To overcome these limitations, we proposed a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach for HPSA studies that allows researchers to share and collaborate on HPSA related data, and allows the general public to learn about HPSA and participate in survey and discussions that help supplement researchers’ data. Through CBPR, effective and location-appropriate research, planning, and awareness can be achieved (O'Fallon & Dearry, 2002). We then described a Web application, which was designed based on our CBPR model, through the use of Google Fusion Table and Geocoding.

The Use of a Learning Community and Online Evaluation of Utilization for SPECT Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

Resource-sensitive and quality-centered imaging begins with the selection of the appropriate patient and test. Appropriate use criteria have been developed to aid clinicians but are often not available in an easily accessible format. FOCUS (Formation of Optimal Cardiovascular Utilization Strategies), a Web-based community and quality improvement instrument, was developed to increase the feasibility of measuring and improving practice patterns based on the appropriate use criteria. The FOCUS instrument proposed to reduce inappropriate imaging by 15% in 1 year and by 50% within 3 years. Between April 2010 and December 2011, data were voluntarily collected through the FOCUS radionuclide imaging performance improvement module (PIM). Appropriateness rates were compared between phases of the PIM. For the 55 participating sites that had completed the PIM by December 2011, the proportion of inappropriate cases decreased from 10% to 5% (p < 0.0001). These preliminary data from initial participating sites suggest that through the use of a self-directed, quality improvement software and an interactive community, physicians may be able to significantly decrease the proportion of tests not meeting appropriate use criteria.

Navigating an imagined Middle&amp;ndash;earth: Finding and analyzing text&amp;ndash;based and film&amp;ndash;based mental images of Middle&amp;ndash;earth through TheOneRing.net online fan community

The proliferation of social media brings new opportunities to discover the ways in which we receive, process, and disseminate information — even information that seems confined to our imaginations. Mental imagery — those images we create in our imaginations as we read a text or watch a film — is not well understood. Netlytic, a Web-based system for automated text analysis, permitted the capture and analysis of online discussions relating to mental images of J.R.R. Tolkien’s and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings as text and as film adaptation, giving insight to our understanding of mental imagery as a form of human cognition and information processing. Furthermore, this study serves as a starting point for further development of academic research using Web-based text analysis systems and online communities.

Sociability and Support in Online Eating Disorder Communities: Evidence from Personal Networks

We study how people select their social support ties from their broader personal networks, taking into account the interplay of web-based and face-to-face interactions. Focus is on users of websites, blogs and forums on eating disorders, often dubbed 'pro-ana' and 'pro-mia'. Despite widespread fears that they contribute to maintaining and spreading these disorders, these sites may also channel mutual assistance, advice, and psychological and emotional support, with ultimate benefits for health.We use data from an online survey of users of French- and English-language ‘ana-mia’ websites, providing information on the composition and structure of their personal networks both online and face-to-face, and their health-related support networks, for two types of health issues. We find that different health-related needs call for different types of support, which can be accessed from different parts of one’s personal network; specifically, online groups provide distinctive sources of help. To an extent, participation in web-based eating disorder communities compensates for perceived shortcomings in healthcare services, though members do not overwhelmingly reject standard health systems and norms. Web-based groups thus appear as an important element in the understanding of social support, and a potential resource for enhanced public health services provision.