Web-based Communities Research Articles

Abstract P231: A National Initiative to Improve Utilization of Cardiac Imaging: The FOCUS Learning Community and Performance Improvement Module

Background: The growth of medical imaging has placed burdens on healthcare finance and raised questions about quality of care. 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 in an easily accessible format. Objective: FOCUS, a web-based community, quality improvement, and education product, was developed to reduce inappropriate imaging by 15% in one year and by 50% within three years. Methods: Voluntary data collection occurred from April 2010 to January 2011 through the FOCUS Radionuclide Imaging Performance Improvement Module (PIM). The PIM consisted of three stages. In the first stage, participants entered patient cases (prospective or retrospective) to establish a baseline. Appropriate use was measured based on the 2009 RNI Appropriate Use Criteria using a computer based algorithm. Stage 2 featured the development of an action plan and incorporated quality improvement activities to support appropriate use of imaging. Patient cases were entered both at the end of stage 2, to check the participants progress, and in stage 3 (which is currently in progress), to evaluate the intervention period. Appropriate, inappropriate, and uncertain levels were compared between phases of the PIM. Results: For the 23 participating sites that had completed the two stages the proportion of inappropriate cases decreased from 10 %( 75/765) to 5 %( 33/609), for an overall decrease of 50% (p < .01) (See Table) . Conclusions: The data suggests that through the use of a self-directed, quality improvement software and interactive community, such as the FOCUS PIM, physicians can significantly decrease the proportion of tests not meeting appropriate use. This table displays the changes seen in appropriateness between stage 1 and stage 2 Patient Cases Stage 1 Stage 2 % Stage 1 % Stage 2 % Relative Change Appropriate 633 535 83% 88% +6% Innappropriate 75 33 10% 5% -50% Uncertain 57 41 7% 7% No Change TOTAL 765 609 100% 100%

ExoCarta 2012: database of exosomal proteins, RNA and lipids

Exosomes are membraneous nanovesicles of endocytic origin released by most cell types from diverse organisms; they play a critical role in cell–cell communication. ExoCarta (http://www.exocarta.org) is a manually curated database of exosomal proteins, RNA and lipids. The database catalogs information from both published and unpublished exosomal studies. The mode of exosomal purification and characterization, the biophysical and molecular properties are listed in the database aiding biomedical scientists in assessing the quality of the exosomal preparation and the corresponding data obtained. Currently, ExoCarta (Version 3.1) contains information on 11 261 protein entries, 2375 mRNA entries and 764 miRNA entries that were obtained from 134 exosomal studies. In addition to the data update, as a new feature, lipids identified in exosomes are added to ExoCarta. We believe that this free web-based community resource will aid researchers in identifying molecular signatures (proteins/RNA/lipids) that are specific to certain tissue/cell type derived exosomes and trigger new exosomal studies.

“Social”, “Open” and “Participative”? Exploring Personal Experiences and Organisational Effects of Enterprise2.0 Use

Organisations are increasingly adopting Web2.0 technologies such as web-based communities, social networking sites, wikis and blogs to enable users to interact, share information and alter web-based content. In a business/commercial context, the use of such technologies has been termed Enterprise2.0. This paper explores organisational actors’ experiences of this new technology and how the shift to Enterprise2.0 is shaping how people work and organise. We present an in-depth case study of a large multinational telecommunications company that is commonly regarded as one of the leading proponents of Enterprise2.0. Data were collected from three business units each exhibiting different characteristics in terms of the level of Enterprise2.0 experience and employee participation in decision-making. Our findings show that while Enterprise2.0 is claimed to be “social”, “open” and “participative” and has the potential to deliver significant business benefits, the experiences of organisational actors suggest that their expectations regarding Enterprise2.0 use were not met. Paradoxically, employee participation was limited and the monitoring and moderation of certain discussions, together with political use of the technology by leaders, meant that the use of Enterprise2.0 was often thought of as no more “social”, “open” or “participative” than more traditional methods of communication. These results are discussed within the framework of previous research on the management of the introduction of new technology and its use and exploitation within organisations.

Effects of group reflection variations in project-based learning integrated in a Web 2.0 learning space

A Web 2.0 environment that is coupled with emerging multimodal interaction tools can have considerable influence on team learning outcomes. Today, technologies supporting social networking, collective intelligence, emotional interaction, and virtual communication are introducing new forms of collaboration that are profoundly impacting education. In this study, an empirical analysis was conducted on a Web 2.0 learning space designed to promote and support project-based group learning. Three different group reflection (GR) methods (i.e., self-reflection, GR, and instructor-supported reflection) were implemented for a micro community of undergraduate students completing a team project. Findings from this study suggest that promoting and supporting ‘deep learning’ through GR is essential for team project learning in a Web-based community. In addition, effective instructor intervention is a crucial component leading to better group performance. In terms of group learning evaluation rubrics, structural equation modeling revealed that the level of activeness in online contributions may not be as important as the evidence of collective reflection and critical thinking in team learning scenarios.

Use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies for science communication in biomedical sciences: A special reference to blogs

The term Web 2.0 (2004–present) is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centred design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. The advent of blogs and the rapid availability of site building software have made it easy for a single person to reach millions of people in a short period of time. While this was a dream 20 years ago, it has become a reality today. Overall, the use of Web 2.0 techniques in the enterprise promises to have profound and far reaching effect on how organizations work both internally and externally, creating completely new and powerful ways of reaching, selling and supporting customers as communities. Key words: Web 2.0, web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social networking, video-sharing, wikis, blogs, knowledge sharing, virtual communities, video bloggers, vlogs, vloggers, mashups, folksonomies.

Development of a Web-based community cancer survivorship program.

e19573 Background: The rising population of cancer survivors demands more efficient and effective delivery of cancer survivorship care that integrates multiple disciplines and novel communication methods, especially in community settings where eight-five percent of cancer patients receive their cancer care. In response to the diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds of our patients within Northern California Kaiser Permanente, a web-based cancer survivorship program was developed, with educational classes and workshops to reinforce the adherence of cancer survivorship care. Methods: A cancer survivorship program was developed within a comprehensive cancer website of over 500 pages, including: managing short and long-term side effects related to cancer treatment, ways to reduce risk of cancer relapse, management of social and emotional issues, complementary and alternative medicine, as well as palliative care, and others. Each category covers a broad range of issues such as nutrition, vitamins, supplements and food in cancer management and prevention; physical activities and reduction of cancer relapse; smoking and alcohol cessation, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs; cancer prevention, and others. We also developed cancer survivorship workshops to educate cancer patients and their families regarding healthy lifestyles and its importance in cancer prevention and reduction of recurrence. We used the web-based program as a tool to develop additional classes to further promote understanding of medication compliance and palliative care. Results: A steady monthly increase in unique visitors and visits were observed after the launch of the web-based program. In 2010, visits ranged from an initial 550 to a peak of more than 2200 visits per month. In the 12 months after its launch, our cancer survivorship website generated a broad readership with 9089 unique visitors, 16,500 total visits, 62,600 pages viewed, 321,000 hits and much accolade from others who aspire to duplicate this website. Conclusions: A web-based community cancer survivorship program coupled with classes and workshops is a practical and effective method for delivering care to our cancer survivors. The web-based program will be demonstrated during the presentation.

The Spread of Scientific Information: Insights from the Web Usage Statistics in PLoS Article-Level Metrics

The presence of web-based communities is a distinctive signature of Web 2.0. The web-based feature means that information propagation within each community is highly facilitated, promoting complex collective dynamics in view of information exchange. In this work, we focus on a community of scientists and study, in particular, how the awareness of a scientific paper is spread. Our work is based on the web usage statistics obtained from the PLoS Article Level Metrics dataset compiled by PLoS. The cumulative number of HTML views was found to follow a long tail distribution which is reasonably well-fitted by a lognormal one. We modeled the diffusion of information by a random multiplicative process, and thus extracted the rates of information spread at different stages after the publication of a paper. We found that the spread of information displays two distinct decay regimes: a rapid downfall in the first month after publication, and a gradual power law decay afterwards. We identified these two regimes with two distinct driving processes: a short-term behavior driven by the fame of a paper, and a long-term behavior consistent with citation statistics. The patterns of information spread were found to be remarkably similar in data from different journals, but there are intrinsic differences for different types of web usage (HTML views and PDF downloads versus XML). These similarities and differences shed light on the theoretical understanding of different complex systems, as well as a better design of the corresponding web applications that is of high potential marketing impact.

Will they stay or will they go? How network properties of WebICs predict dropout rates of valuable Wikipedians

Summary This paper contributes to our understanding of an increasingly prevalent work system, web-based internet communities (WebICs). We are particularly interested in how WebICs are governed given the fact how different they are compared to more classical forms of organization. We study the governance of a WebIC by studying the structure and dynamics of their edit network. Given the fact that the edit network is a relational structure, social network analysis is key to understanding these work systems. We demonstrate that characteristics of the edit network contribute to predicting the dropout hazard of valuable WebIC members. Since WebICs exist only thanks to the activity of their contributors, predicting drop-outs becomes crucial. The results show that reputation and controversy have different effects for different types of Wikipedians; i.e., an actor’s reputation decreases the dropout hazard of active Wikipedians, while participation on controversial pages decreases the dropout hazard of highly active Wikipedians.

The Effects of Network Delay on Tempo in Musical Performance

Internet-based collaborative networking applications, such as instant messaging, voice-over-IP telephony, and social networking, have displaced traditional communication services and redefined social interaction. The Internet has also transformed the music industry, revolutionizing the way music is distributed and marketed. Yet despite these two powerful trends, the intersection—where collaboration and music meet in online musicmaking—has remained merely a curiosity. Why? Artistically pleasing online audio collaboration requires network delay less than that encountered typically in the Internet. The bandwidth required for high-quality audio exceeds the bandwidth that is generally available on consumer-oriented broadband access (cable and digital subscriber line [DSL]) systems. The emergence of Web 2.0, broadly defined as Web-based communities such as social-networking sites that facilitate sharing of ideas among Web users, has been significant for many existing online communities. One such community, made up of real-time Web-based music collaborators using systems for networked musical performance (NMP), is in its infancy. An online NMP application lets musicians from across the globe play together over the Internet, as if they were together in a studio. With online music-making (either improvisatory or strictly notated), musicians can create ensembles without location bounds, searching for musicians around the world. The quality of the user’s experience is critical to the success of this Web application. However, because performing artists are highly sensitive to delay, network latency affects the quality of the user experience of online music-making. To achieve a good user experience the latency over the network has to be within reasonable bounds. If the delay is excessive, then the musicians will not be

Structuring Professional Development with an Online Community

As part of a multiyear research study on the preparation of educators to use assessment data for instructional improvement, the present study is a pilot test of a research-based professional development intervention for career-technical teachers. Forty-eight educators at nine sites in five states participated in a 1-day workshop followed by several months of mentoring either on site, by teleconference, or website. To extend the professional learning of the workshop, educators were mentored for several months as they developed a plan for instructional improvement. To complement the mentoring, a project-specific website was the focus of a community of practice where the participants could exchange information and create threaded discussions about the process of data-driven instructional improvement. Educators need an orientation to the website features, reinforcement for their online interactions, and specific activities to complete in a timeframe if they are to use web-based professional learning communities to the fullest.

Antecedents Of Successful Web Based Communities For Disabled Citizens

In this period of constrained economic conditions, this study initiates an analysis of the critical success factors in the implementation of World Wide Web-based communities in the non-profit sector, focusing on communities of challenged citizens who have mental health conditions in the City of New York. Non-profit organizations in New York depend ever more upon the technology of the Web to help disabled members in the city, as the disruption from the September 11 disaster continues to impact social services. Though investment in technology is limited in the non-profit sector, the preliminary analysis of this study imputes that implementation of community networks that service rehabilitating members of society is facilitated by distinct enabling success factors of cohesion, effectiveness, help, language, relationship and self-regulation in the innovation of the supporting Web sites. The analysis contributes insight into the dynamics of communities on the Web that is applicable in an international context. This study furnishes a new framework to research Web-based communities in the non-profit sector.

Interaction in web-based communities: a case study of Last.fm

Interaction is omnipresent in the discourse on new communication technologies and social network sites. Although quantitative numeric data on the use of social networking sites is plentiful, present research lacks qualitative data describing how these websites are used and experienced. This article describes research on the online experiences and interactions by Last.fm users. Last.fm is a website combining a music recommendation service, an online community and an online radio. We conducted in-depth face-to-face interviews with Last.fm users and observed their Last.fm profiles. Based on the aggregated data we suggest that most people use Last.fm as a tool, interacting heavily with the website itself, but much less with music. Interaction amongst Last.fm users seems to be sparse and superficial. Nevertheless, some respondents reported a 'sense of community' and referred to Last.fm as a tavern where one can converse about music, suggesting similarities with Ray Oldenburg's 'third places' or 'great good places'.

The evolution of modularity and architectural innovation: web-enabled collective development of a tangible artefact

Can a web-based community of peers autonomously engage in architectural innovation and develop tangible products? We present a theoretical framework that builds upon the idea of product modularisation as a knowledge management tool enabling community collaboration. The framework consists of a community meta-model and a product meta-model; some mechanisms enabling collective innovation are also presented as part of the framework. We then apply the theoretical framework to the real case of a high-performance human powered watercraft showing how the community was able to innovate the artefact evolving its modular architecture.

Personal profiles: enhancing social interaction in learning networks

Nowadays, we can witness a surge of online profiling sites; in them people make their profile available to others with the intention to share it and get in touch with others, find old friends, classmates or colleagues, or look for new opportunities. Given their capacity to encourage members to be connected with other members and their growing popularity, we hold that some lessons can be learned from such profiling sites. In this paper's initial exploration, we analyse some of the most popular profiling sites to spot indications on profile composition and the affordances they use to encourage people to interact and to establish connections with other members. Based on this we discuss the importance of personal profiles depicting the characteristics and support mechanisms needed to enhance social interaction in learning networks. We also present results of a pilot survey of actual use and perception of user profile sites, and comment on the current views and findings about this topic in the Web-Based Communities Conference of 2008.

Planning innovative teaching practices in a community of practice: a case study in the context of the project IPEC

This paper presents an analysis of the contribution of the collaborative work developed by a Portuguese community, involving teachers and researchers, and created in the context of the project |Investigacao e praticas lectivas em Educacao em Ciencia: Dinii¾¢micas de interaccao| (IPEC), to the development of innovative practices in formal education. The community members developed, implemented, and evaluated curricular modules about sustainability, through continued interactions in an online platform and some face-to-face meetings. The case study revealed that the community created challenging innovative practices, since we uncover: a) evidence of 13 of the 14 descriptors of innovative teaching practices taken into account for the analysis; b) disruptive practices when compared to traditional practices, presenting high risk-taking, large scope and complexity. In the final session, we present suggestions concerning design issues for web-based communities, such as the need to combine online interaction with face-to-face meetings.

Sharing best practices through online communities of practice: a case study.

IntroductionThe USAID-funded Capacity Project established the Global Alliance for Pre-Service Education (GAPS) to provide an online forum to discuss issues related to teaching and acquiring competence in family planning, with a focus on developing countries' health related training institutions. The success of the Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery's ongoing web-based community of practice (CoP) provided a strong example of the successful use of this medium to reach many participants in a range of settings.Case descriptionGAPS functioned as a moderated set of forums that were analyzed by a small group of experts in family planning and pre-service education from three organizations. The cost of the program included the effort provided by the moderators and the time to administer responses and conduct the analysis.Discussion and evaluationFamily planning is still considered a minor topic in health related training institutions. Rather than focusing solely on family planning competencies, GAPS members suggested a focus on several professional competencies (e.g. communication, leadership, cultural sensitivity, teamwork and problem solving) that would enhance the resulting health care graduate's ability to operate in a complex health environment. Resources to support competency-based education in the academic setting must be sufficient and appropriately distributed. Where clinical competencies are incorporated into pre-service education, responsible faculty and preceptors must be clinically proficient. The interdisciplinary GAPS memberships allowed for a comparison and contrast of competencies, opportunities, promising practices, documents, lessons learned and key teaching strategies.ConclusionsOnline CoPs are a useful interface for connecting developing country experiences. From CoPs, we may uncover challenges and opportunities that are faced in the absorption of key public health competencies required for decreasing maternal mortality and morbidity. Use of the World Health Organization (WHO) Implementing Best Practices Knowledge Gateway, which requires only a low bandwidth connection, gave educators an opportunity to engage in the discussion even in the most Internet access-restricted places (e.g. Ethiopia). In order to sustain an online CoP, funds must come from an international organization (e.g. WHO regional office) or university that can program the costs long-term. Eventually, the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of GAPS rests on its transfer to the members themselves.

Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies Esther Kim Lee Chair: Esther Kim Lee Committee Members: Jasbir Puar, Cynthia Wu Winner: Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet, by Lisa Nakamura The selection committee found all nominated books excellent and representative of the rich fields of cultural studies and Asian American studies. For the committee, Lisa Nakamura’s Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet stood out as the book that best demonstrates the advancement made in the fields. The book makes an intervention in visual culture studies and digital culture studies by showing how each area cannot be considered in isolation. It also shows the ways in which previous studies of Web-based communities have relied too much on text and too little on visual imagery. Its strength lies in its analysis of a myriad of primary sources that, read apart, would have little to do with one another but when brought into conversation, shed light on race and digital media in fresh ways. It is as much an analysis of the gendered politics of Internet use as it is about the racial politics. Nakamura convincingly establishes a linkage between close readings of so-called niche cultural productions and larger prevailing discussions about gender/race and Internet use, self-fashioning, consumerism, and the international division of labor. Neither uncritically celebratory about the potential of the Internet for people of color nor uniformly condemnatory about the Internet’s disciplining functions, it makes claims that are balanced and well [End Page 389] considered. The selection committee was especially impressed with the author’s use of an Asian Americanist perspective as a central framework to illuminate a wide-ranging number of broader issues related to racial formation, gender politics, neoliberalism, and popular media. Copyright © 2010 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Use and Perceptions of the Internet for Sexual Information and Partners: A Study of Young Men Who Have Sex with Men

The Internet has opened many doors with its accessibility to information, entertainment and web-based communities. For young men who have sex with men (YMSM), the Internet can provide access to information on relevant sexual behavior and health information, stories from other men about relationship issues, and a venue for locating potential sexual and dating partners. Understanding YMSM's motivations for going online for information, advice or sexual relationships, is important as the Internet becomes increasingly used not only as a space to find sexual partners, but also as a venue for HIV and STI interventions. Having an understanding of the risks associated with searching for partners online, and how and why YMSM use the Internet for a variety of purposes, can inform the development of more effective Internet-based risk reduction programs. This article presents qualitative and quantitative data from the Healthy Young Men's Study, a longitudinal study of an ethnically diverse cohort of 526 YMSM. Qualitative interviews (N=24) described not only the prevalence of using the Internet for finding sexual partners and the possible benefits and risks associated with that practice, but also the processes and perceptions of using this mechanism. Our data indicate that YMSM used the Internet to find information related to sex and sexuality, seek friendships, sexual partners as well as "hook-ups" or casual sex. Findings were presented in relation to how YMSM researchers and interventionists can identify how to most effectively reach YMSM through online methods.

Design & Deploy Web 2.0 Enable Services Over Next Generation Network Platform

The Next Generation Networks (NGN) aims to integrate for IP-based telecom infrastructures and provide most advance & high speed emerging value added services. NGN capable to provide higher innovative services, these services will able to integrate communication and Web service into a single platform. IP Multimedia Subsystem, a NGN leading technology, enables a variety of NGN-compliant communications services to interoperate while being accessed through different kinds of access networks, preferably broadband. IMS-NGN services essential by both consumer and corporate users are by now used to access services, even communications services through the web and web-based communities and social networks, It is key for success of IMS-based services to be provided with efficient web access, so users can benefit from those new services by using web-based applications and user interfaces, not only NGN-IMS User Equipments and SIP protocol. Many Service are under planning which provided only under convergence of IMS & Web 2.0. Convergence between Web 2.0 and NGN-IMS creates and serves new invented innovative, entertainment and information appealing as well as user centric services and applications. These services merge features from WWW and Communication worlds. On the one hand, interactivity, ubiquity, social orientation, user participation and content generation, etc. are relevant characteristics coming from Web 2.0 services. Parallel IMS enables services including multimedia telephony, media sharing (video-audio), instant messaging with presence and context, online directory, etc. all of them applicable to mobile, fixed or convergent telecom networks. With this paper, this paper brings out the benefits of adopting web 2.0 technologies for telecom services. As the services are today mainly driven by the user's needs, and proposed the concept of unique customizable service interface.

Feasibility and effectiveness of computer-based therapy in community treatment

Computerized therapy approaches may expand the reach of evidence-based treatment; however, it is unclear how to integrate these therapies into community-based treatment. We conducted a two-phase pilot study to explore (a) whether clients' use of the Therapeutic Education System (TES), a Web-based community reinforcement approach (CRA) learning program, would benefit them in the absence of counselor support and (b) whether counselors and clients would use the TES in the absence of tangible research-based reinforcement. In Phase 1, clients in the TES condition ( n = 14) demonstrated large improvements in knowledge, F(1, 20) = 8.90, p = .007, d = 1.05, and were significantly more likely to select CRA style coping responses, F (1, 20) = 11.95, p = .002, d = 1.16, relative to the treatment-as-usual group ( n = 14). We also detected small, nonsignificant, between-group effects indicating TES decreased cocaine use during treatment. In Phase 2, counselors referred only around 10% of their caseload to the TES, and the modal number of completed modules in the absence of tangible reinforcement was three. Computer-based therapy approaches are viable in community-based treatment but must be integrated with incentive systems to ensure engagement.