WEEK 6 PRESENTATION Sara DeGruttola | Jacqueline Keh | Puja Parakh | Tony Santos

The Article

Applying Common Identity and Common Bond eory to Design of Online Communities Yuqing Ren, Robert Kraut* & Sara Kiesler

*Robert Kraut was the author of last week’s reading, “Applying Social Psychological eory to the Problems of Group Work”

The Journal

Organization Studies (OS)

Publishes peer-reviewed, top quality theoretical and empirical research. e journal’s aim is to publish research promoting the understanding of organizing in and between societies. is article was published in March 2007.

The Authors

Authors have a common interest in understanding the increasing reliance upon groups to get work done with the use of information technologies to support collaboration

Yuquin Ren

Bob Kraut

Sara Kiesler

Research came out of Carnegie Mellon University’s HCII

Designing Online Communities

Online Communities are groups, voluntary associations, organizations and communities.

Dependent on members’ voluntary contributions and repeated visits

Unlike formal work organizations, cannot generally rely upon members to show up and work

Online communities need to be designed to encourage commitment and contributions from members

Attaching to an Online Community

Look at two different ways to develop commitment to online communities – by becoming attached to the community as a whole or by becoming attached to individual members. e authors use two theories to understand and predict important outcomes in online communities.

Common Identity & Common Bond

Images:    h*p://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/  

Common Identity eory To be attached to a group as a whole

•  National Rifle Association •  Open Source Software

Folks feel more attached to their group as a whole and enjoy the association

Common Bond eory To be attached to a group on an individual level

•  BFFs in your book club •  Who’s online in your chat list in IM

Folks feel more attached at an individual level – if your friends leave the club, you will too

Motivation

Understand how design choices influence members’ commitment and contribution to online communities. eories taken from an off-line context and applying them to an online context.

Causes of Common Identity-based Attachments  

•  Social Categorization Objective, subjective or random criteria

•  Interdependence

Joint task, purpose, fate, or reward •  Intergroup Comparisons

In-group/out-group designation

Causes of Bond-based Attachments  •  Social Interaction with Others

Frequency

•  Personal Knowledge of Others Personal information and self-disclosure

•  Interpersonal Attraction to Others rough Similarity

Preferences, attitudes and values

Behavioral Outcomes: Cohesion, Commitment & Evaluation    

Identity-based Attachments Bond-based Attachments

Both increase group cohesion Both result in positive self-group evaluation

Both increase positive feelings toward the group Both increase likelihood of remaining in the group

Behavioral Outcomes: Content of Discussion

Identity-based Attachments: Off-topic discussion is discouraged

Bond-based Attachments: Off-topic discussion is considered acceptable

Behavioral Outcomes: Social Loafing

Identity-based Attachments: Responsibility likely to be shared or assumed

Members compensate for slackers/lurkers

Bond-based Attachments: Less obligation for responsibility More tolerant of slackers/lurkers

Behavioral Outcomes: Group Norms

Identity-based Attachments: Non-conforming

Bond-based Attachments: Conforming

Behavioral Outcomes: Response to Newcomers

Identity-based Attachments: More welcoming, accepting

Bond-based Attachments: More exclusive

Obstacles to newcomers

Behavioral Outcomes: Reciprocity

Identity-based Attachments: Prone to generalized reciprocity (community)

Bond-based Attachments: Prone to direct reciprocity (dyadic)

Behavioral Outcomes: Group Robustness

Identity-based Attachments: Less robust to off-topic discussion Less resilient to member turnover

Bond-based Attachments: More robust against off-topic and

Less resilient toturnover

Implications for Design

What is your online community’s goal? •  Identity-based •  Bond-based •  Dual-purpose

Design  Dimensions

•  Newcomer socialization •  Discussion moderation •  Community size •  Role of core members •  Community goals

Newcomer  Socialization

•  Challenge: How to recruit new members without disrupting the ongoing community – Getting newbies up-to-speed

Discussion  Moderation    

•  Challenge: Keep it real or keep it together? – Should off-topic conversations be allowed?

Community  Size

•  Challenge: How to get more people without losing them. – Managing membership turnover

Role of Core Members

•  Challenge: How to get participation from peripheral members without intimidation by the core group – Growing the participating community

Community  Goals

•  Challenge: How to keep subgroups in-line with the overall community goals – Supporting subgroups within the community

Ren et. al. and Kraut

Computing as a group activity not a solitary one

Ren et. al. and Kraut

Social psychology as an important influence on design decisions in group oriented systems

Ren et. al. and Kraut

Mostly uncharted territory.

Social Psychology and HCI/HCDE

Computing is becoming more group focused, thanks to the internet

Social Psychology and HCI/HCDE

Groups are becoming more distributed thanks to faster internet connections and cheaper

telecommunications platforms

Social Psychology and HCI/HCDE

Social Psychological theories, like Common Identity and Common Bond, already tell us a lot

about how people act in groups

Social Psychology and HCI/HCDE

Future research needs to test these theories at “web scale”

Social Psychology and HCI/HCDE

Future research needs to test design processes informed by these theories