Socialization: Forums Chat Games

Socialization: Forums, Chat, Games

Julita Vassileva
Social Computing Class 2009‐10
Social Computing Class 2009 10
 History
IM, 1965

MUD, 1975
Bulletin Boards, 1975

Usenet Newsgroups,
1979 – 1986 - 1995

IRC, 1988

MMPOG, 1990
Internet Disc.
Chat rooms, 2000
Forums, 2000 -

Social Network Sites, 1985-

Blogs, 2002 -
Chat
 Chat and IRC
Chat and IRC
• Chat systems that enable one person to send 
typed words directly to the screen of another
typed words directly to the screen of another 
person who is logged onto the same system 
date back to the first time‐sharing computers 
of the 1960s. Probably the oldest form of 
f h 1960 b bl h ld f f
CMC, predating electronic mail.
• In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen at the University of 
In 1988 Jarkko Oikarinen at the University of
Oulu, Finland, wrote the original IRC program, 
a multi‐user, synchronous communications 
, y
tool designed to work over Internet.
• Exponential growth in recent years of 
telecommunication technologies has resulted 
l i i h l i h l d
in a new era of interpersonal communication
 Chat rooms and IRC
Chat rooms and IRC
• Unlike mail list and message board, chat room is synchronous. 
People on different physical location communicate at the same 
l d ff h ll h
time
• It can be used for practical to playful communities‐ e.g. class 
rooms, interviews and even meetings
i t i d ti
• When to use it 
– To provide a sense of immediacy and presence unlike message 
board and mailing  list that are good for Q&A
– To hold scheduled events, it could work really well for real 
time scheduled events
– To offer real time support and guidance i.e. from community 
staff
• There are so many ways to incorporate chat into a community 
depending on the needs of the community.
 Types of Chat rooms and IRC
Types of Chat rooms and IRC
• Web‐based chat, they don't require separated download and 
are easy to use
• Free chat services, different IRC could be run on safe, free 
hosted environment.
– The owner of chat wont own the members database and information 
and won't control the application appearance
• Licensed chat ‐ get software from vender and run
– unlike free this gives the owner control over the users databases and 
lik f thi i th t l th d t b d
appearance of the chatting application
• Build your own‐ if you have the talent and resources
– The
The owner controls everything from design to functionality and 
owner controls everything from design to functionality and
appearance of the application
 Chat Communication media
Chat Communication media
• Text based
– mostly used, word based
• Graphics based
– involves use of avatars
involves use of avatars
• Voice based
– It is becoming popular by the day as most computers 
gp p y y p
comes with built‐in audio ports, microphones & video 
camera
– Hearing someone is more revealing than seeing words 
typed on a screen 
– Lack of anonymity is a drawback for voice chat
 Chat theories
Chat theories
• Despite the anonymity and ephemeral nature of their communications, IRC 
habitués become addicted form close friendships fall in love
habitués become addicted, form close friendships, fall in love.
• Note that most attempts to eliminate Spacewar from computer centers failed. 
When administrators shut down Spacewar activities at their centers, they found 
that programmer productivity went down instead of up. Spacewar lived on despite 
bureaucratic opposition because its enthusiasts were also their research projects' 
bureaucratic opposition because its enthusiasts were also their research projects
best programmers.
• IRC does not fit well with conventional theories of human communication because 
CMC technology makes possible something that human communicators could not 
do previously, a geographically dispersed group of people now can use the written 
p y, g g p y p g p p p
word as a conversational medium.
• IRC is essentially a playground. Within its domain people are free to experiment 
with different forms of communication and self‐representation."
Forums
 Message boards
Message boards
• Like
Like mail listing message boards are 
mail listing message boards are
asynchronous. 
• People don
People don'tt need to be in same virtual place 
need to be in same virtual place
to have a same conversation
• Can foster conversations that happen over a 
Can foster conversations that happen over a
long period of time
• Great for asking and answering questions
Great for asking and answering questions
 Types of message boards
Types of message boards
• Thread
– The discussion starts from one topic that breaks 
up into discussion groups
up into discussion groups
• Linear
– This provides separate topic for each conversation 
This provides separate topic for each conversation
group
– This is good for getting in‐depth conversation
This is good for getting in depth conversation
 Power of message board
Power of message board
• Message board is a more powerful tool to build community 
because it:
– provides a sense of gathering place
– can be integrated into a website
g
– offers visible context to the conversation by showing content of 
previous message
– encourages branching and sub grouping hence you can communicate 
with people of you interest group
– There is ability to express emotions by using images
– There is ability record your community evolving history
 Acquiring message board
Acquiring message board 
• Sign up for free
g p
– easy to use services which include some message board
– problem is that members are required to register with the 
service provider
i id
• Get a contract with service providers e.g. RemarQ
– you have control on the appearance and databases
you have control on the appearance and databases
• built your own
 What’ss going on on Forums?
What going on on Forums?
• Hazing
Hazing as a process of boundary maintenance 
as a process of boundary maintenance
– by Courtney Honeycutt 
• http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/honeyc
http://jcmc indiana edu/vol10/issue2/honeyc
utt.html
 Lurker Demographics in Usenet 
Forums: Counting the Silent
• Based on CHI’2000 article by Blair Nonneke and Jenny Preece
• The paper presents a demographic study of lurking in email‐based 
discussion lists (DLs) with an emphasis on health and software‐
support DLs
support DLs. 
• As of July 1999, there were more than 31,000 DLs using Listserv’s® server 
software. The 69,000,000 members of these DLs receive in excess of 
29 000 000 messages per day Lurkers are reported to make up over 90% of
29,000,000 messages per day. Lurkers are reported to make up over 90% of 
several online groups.
• Studied 77 health forums and 21 software forums. Questions: 
– how prevalent is lurking and do health and software‐support DLs differ?
– how do lurking levels vary as the definition is broadened from zero posts in 
12 weeks to 3 or fewer posts in 12 weeks? 
– is there a relationship between lurking and the size of the DL?
– is there a relationship between lurking and traffic level?
 Views on Lurking
Views on  Lurking
• lurkers as free‐riders, i.e., noncontributing, 
resource‐taking members
• lurkers as an audience in the theatre, readers to 
lurkers as an audience in the theatre, readers to
an author, important participant in the “show”
– “Maybe it's a sign of my own mild discomfort around being a lurker, but I 
found it reassuring to recognize myself and my behaviour within the 
continuum you describe, and to see lurking treated seriously, with both 
acceptance and respect. As a lurker, I'm used to observing from the 
sidelines and participating vicariously, and it's strangely gratifying to read 
id li d i i i i i l di ' l if i d
an article that speaks directly to that experience. It's almost like suddenly 
feeling part of an (until‐now) invisible community of lurkers.”

• lurkers as potential customers and /or 
contributors
 How to define lurking?
How to define lurking?
• One
One of the 
of the ‘silent
silent majority
majority’ in a electronic 
in a electronic
forum; one who posts occasionally or not at 
all but is known to read the group'ss postings 
all but is known to read the group postings
regularly. (Online Jargon Dictionary)
• Quantitatively it is hard to define a threshold
Quantitatively it is hard to define a threshold
Results
Lurking levels vary
significantly across
the two forums.

*lurking defined as no posts during

the period of the study
 Results 
Results

No clear correlation between number

Health and software forums behave similar of lurkers versus number of members
when raising the post threshold for lurking, in each DL, both for health and software
Lurking levels increase
 Results

Lurking levels for all DLs were negatively

correlated with traffic (Pearson’s
(Pearson s correlation
coefficient of -.426 is significant at the .01 level).
Figure 5 shows that for a given DL size, lists with
highest traffic levels generally have the
lowest lurking levels.
 Discussion
• Vast majority of members are lurkers. So how 
d f
do forums survive?
i ?
• Lurking is not free‐riding; but a form of participation that is both 
acceptable and beneficial to online groups. Public posting is but one way 
acceptable and beneficial to online groups Public posting is but one way
in which an online group can benefit from its members. Members of a 
group are part of a large social milieu.
• A resource‐constrained model may not apply 
A resource constrained model may not apply to online groups 
to online groups
where the centralized cost of servicing 100 members isn’t much different 
from that of serving 1000, or even 10,000. In large DLs the danger could 
be in not having enough lurkers
be in not having enough lurkers.

• Impact of traffic levels on participation
• Difference
Difference between email‐based forums (DL) here 
between email based forums (DL) here
and internet‐based discussion forums
 Information Overload and Usenet 
Discourse
• Based on Jones, Ravid & Rafaeli “An Empirical Exploration 
of Mass Interaction System Dynamics “ – highlights the 
methodology typically used 
• Hypothesis:
Hypothesis: user information overload causes 
user information overload causes
impact on the discourse structure
– User strategies for coping with Inf. Overload:  
U i f i i hI f O l d
change  the length of responses, the number of 
unattended messages or lead to ending the user’ss 
unattended messages, or lead to ending the user
participation 
– Usability of a computer
Usability of a computer‐mediated
mediated communication 
communication
technologies has to be examined at a group‐level 
rather than just on an individual user level 
Group is not just a sum of 
individuals
 Coping strategies for cognitive 
overload
• Making
Making an increased effort
an increased effort
• Learning new information management 
techniques
• Failing to respond or attend to certain 
messages
• Producing simpler responses;
• Making erroneous responses
• Ending active participation in the group 
Ending active participation in the group
communication
 Methodology
• Collecting
Collecting data from 500 English Usenet 
data from 500 English Usenet
groups
• Processing the data (using text analysis 
Processing the data (using text analysis
techniques) to identify replies to previous 
posts and threads
posts and threads 
– Interesting facts: 90% of responses occurred in the 
first 2 5 days 99% in the first 2 weeks; 78% of 
first 2.5 days, 99% ‐ in the first 2 weeks; 78% of
the study sample messages turned out to be 
replies
 Results
• H1:
H1: Generating Simpler Responses in 
Generating Simpler Responses in
Situations of Overloaded Mass Interaction
– Observed a decrease in complexity of messages 
Observed a decrease in complexity of messages
(word count) as the size of the interactive group 
increases approaching asymptote
pp g y p
– Observed a decrease in complexity of messages 
(word count) as the number of discussion threads 
in the newsgroup increases, but not approaching 
asymptote
 Results
• H2:
H2: Failing to respond or attend to certain 
Failing to respond or attend to certain
messages
– On average, messages that seed discourse are 
On average messages that seed discourse are
shorter than those that fail to seed discourse

• H3: Ending active participation
– The larger the number of individuals involved in 
Th l th b f i di id l i l d i
the discourse, the less stable the population of 
active participants
active participants.
 Implications
• It
It is important to provide tools at a discourse 
is important to provide tools at a discourse
level to help decrease the information 
overload
– Focus attention to a manageable set of posts
• Candidates:
Candidates: 
– Most recent posts?
– Most highly rated posts?
– Posts with most replies/comments? 
– ? 
– How to avoid the “rich get richer” effect? 
Games
• Based on:
ased o :
– “The Life and Death of Online Gaming Communities: A 
Look at Guilds in World of Warcraft”
by Nicolas Ducheneaut, Nicholas Yee, Eric Nickell, Robert 
J. Moore

Background about WoW from 
“Strangers and Friends: Collaborative Play in World of 
g y f
Warcraft” 
by Bonnie Nardi and Justin Harris
 Guilds in WoW
Guilds in WoW
• World of Warcraft ‐ the most popular MPOG in US in 2006
– For description, see paper by Nardi and Harris “Strangers and 
Friends” 
• Guilds ‐ the main social unit in the game:
– in‐game roster showing who is currently logged on 
– a private chat channel
– Allow coordinating a large number of players to overcome obstacles
g g p y
– Membership in a uber‐guild is a badge of honour, with trial period…
– Diverse: small tightly knit guilds and very large ones made of 
strangers with military style of command 
– Fragile
 Study of guilds demographics, 
dynamics
• Highly
Highly skewed distribution of membership
skewed distribution of membership
• Frequency of “ungiuld” actions much higher 
than “switch”
than  switch  actions
actions
• Over time, established guilds attract more and 
more members; those who join – stay.
more members; those who join 
• “The rich get richer” and tend to specialize in 
certain kind of attacks
certain kind of attacks
• Collected a variety of group structure 
measures 
measures
Guilds and individual advancement
Guilds and individual advancement
• Players
Players progress faster through the levels in 
progress faster through the levels in
smaller guilds
• Players progress faster in guilds with larger 
Players progress faster in guilds with larger
subgroups
• In guilds with many small cohesive subunits
I ild i h ll h i b i
• In guilds with good class balance
• In guilds with a wide range of player levels
 Implications
• Small is beautiful
– Dunbar suggested that there is a cognitive limit for 
people to form groups Æ around 150 (village size)
– Allen argued that for online groups to be creative and 
Allen argued that for online groups to be creative and
efficient, the number should be smaller Æ 45
– The authors claim the optimal guild in WOW is 35
– This is due to limitations in online interaction to do 
the necessary “social grooming”
– Unlike Usenet groups, in WoW
g p, it is really hard to find 
y
people with similar interests.
– Making guild roasters visible will help
 Implications (2)
Implications (2)
• Tragedy of commons
Tragedy of commons
– “nothing prevents players from leaving a guild as 
soon as their personal objectives are
soon  as their personal objectives are 
accomplished. To be  sure, high‐level players who 
behave selfishly will tarnish their reputation and 
news travels fast on a WoW server, decreasing 
their chances of finding a new group. Still, no 
mechanisms are in place to build up a player’s 
h i i l b ild l ’
attachment to his/her guild, which probably 
encourages churn ”
encourages churn.
 Implications (3)
Implications (3)
• Guilds entropy
Gu ds e t opy
– “Groups get larger and larger, monopolizing the most‐
needed players and concentrating the game’s most 
coveted rewards in the hands of a few. This has the 
t d d i th h d f f Thi h th
potential to negatively impact playability over time, in 
two opposite ways illustrated by our data: large guilds 
can become “top‐heavy” and susceptible to burn‐out; 
new  players can have a harder time progressing since 
few groups are available to cater to their needs. The
few groups are available to cater to their needs. The 
difficult issue seems to be to encourage “healthy” 
levels of churn that prevent guild stagnation yet do 
not threaten their survival and growth “
not threaten their survival and growth. 
 Results
• Guilds
Guilds with a better class balance survive 
with a better class balance survive
better 
• Wider level spread contributes to survivability
Wider level spread contributes to survivability
• Larger guilds survive better 
• Also: 
– Guilds with smaller subgroup sizes
– Groups that focus on more complex games
– Better connected groups
g p
 Questions
• How
How surprising / or not surprising are these 
surprising / or not surprising are these
results? 
• Can you think of examples in real life 
Can you think of examples in real life
communities or other games where the same 
things happen?
things happen?
 Social Networking:
Study on FaceBook 
Based on Yuan Wang’s presentation
Social Computing Class 2008/09
Social Computing Class 2008/09
 Agenda 
Agenda
• Terminology
Terminology and definition of social 
and definition of social
networking 
• Usages of FaceBook
Usages of FaceBook based on 
based on
Looking at, Looking up or Keeping up with people? 
• Study on Social Networking behavior based on  
S d S i lN ki b h i b d
We’re All Stars Now 
• Privacy issues about FaceBook
Pi i b tF B k
• FaceBook application development 
 Terminology 
Terminology
• Online social network (OSN) 
Online social network (OSN)
• Social networking 
• Social network site (SNS)
Social network site (SNS) 
• Social network service(SNS)
i thi
in this context, all mean the same thing
t t ll th thi

Social Network, in sociology, means  (Wikipedia)
a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which 
are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency such as
are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as 
friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or 
relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
 Definition of social network sites
Definition of social network sites 
• A social network service focuses on buildingg online 
communities of people who share interests and/or activities, 
or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities 
of others Most social network services are web based
of others. Most social network services are web based and 
and
provide a variety of ways for users to interact. (Wikipedia)
• (the networks) provide user with profile, space, facilities for 
uploading content (e.g. photos, music), messaging in various 
forms and the ability to make connections to other people 
(Adam N Joinson)
(Adam N. Joinson)
 History
• The
The WELL (1985), Theglobe.com (1994), Geocities 
WELL (1985), Theglobe.com (1994), Geocities
(1994), Tripod (1995)… 
– focused on chat‐room interaction
– personal homepage publishing tools Æ precursor of Blogs
• Classmates.com (1995), SixDegrees.com(1997)
– focused on representing the links between people –
“friends lists” of email addresses
– allowed creation of profiles, sending messages, searching 
ll d ti f fil di hi
friends of friends, or by interest… 
• Friendster
Friendster (2002), MySpace (2003), Orkut
(2002) MySpace (2003) Orkut
(2004), Facebook (2004), Bebo (2005) MAP
 Some Examples of SNS
Some Examples of SNS 
• Myspace (no longer No.1 ; every band on this 
planet has
l h at least one Myspace
l M page))
• FaceBook (No.1 now, tops 300 million users as 
of Sept, 2009)
• Orkut (Brazil and India)
( )
• 51.com (China), vkontakte.com (former USSR) 
• Bebo (Ireland, NZ),Hi5 (Mexico, Balkans, 
(Ireland NZ) Hi5 (Mexico Balkans
Mongolia), Perfspot (Iran, Vietnam), Friendster 
(Indonesia Malaysia Singapore)
(Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore)
• Last.fm (Yuan’s favorite)
• Now
Now finally making money 
finally making money
to cover operational costs
• Becoming an 
B i
infrastructure 
• Plan on world’s 
domination (Facebook Vs 
Google) 
• Entangled with privacy 
issues. 
 And more
And more

• LinkedIn: 
business‐oriented 

• Twitter: micro‐blogging
 Xiaonei:
Xiaonei: 
a shameless 
knock‐off of 
FaceBook.
FaceBook
Huge number 
of users in China 
( Yuan is one of
( Yuan is one of 
them)
 Motives and Uses of SNS (1/8)
Motives and Uses of SNS (1/8)
• Adam N.Joinson (Univ of Bath,UK)

Object of research: FaceBook

Aims: 
Identifying uses and Gratifications
Content Gratifications
Content Gratifications
Process Gratifications   
 Motives and Uses of SNS (2/8)

According to Cliff Lampe
According to Cliff Lampe’ss studies, the uses of 
studies, the uses of
FaceBook are mainly for:

• Emotional Support and information finding

• Maintaining social ties and  social searching 

• Surveillance function
 Motives and Uses of SNS (3/8)
Motives and Uses of SNS (3/8)
Research divided into 2 studies
Research divided into 2 studies 

1. Study: exploratory stage 
S d l
Asked 137 FaceBook users to describe how 
they used FaceBook.
 (Motives and Uses of SNS( 4/8)
(Motives and Uses of SNS( 4/8)
• Top
Top Results of Uses (1/2):
Results of Uses (1/2):
1. Keeping in touch (maintain social ties)
2
2.Passive contact, social surveillance
i i l ill
3.Re‐acquiring lost contacts (build social ties)
4.Communication (information, maintain 
social ties))
 Motives and Uses of SNS (5/8)
Motives and Uses of SNS (5/8)
• Top Results of Uses (2/2)
Top Results of Uses (2/2)
5. Photographs (information source )
6
6. Making new contacts
ki
7.Design related 
Ease of use 
8 Perpetual contact (surveillance)
8.Perpetual contact (surveillance)
 Motives and Uses of SNS (6/8)
Motives and Uses of SNS (6/8)
• Study 2: Identifying uses and gratifications
Study : de t y g uses a d g at cat o s

241 Facebook
241 Facebook users  asked to rate the importance 
users asked to rate the importance
of the 46 different uses derived from study 1
Analysing
y g the answers w.r.t. factors: 
gender, age, occupation. 
 Motives and Uses of SNS (7/8)
Motives and Uses of SNS (7/8)
• Results:
– Females visit more frequently 
– Younger users spent more time
Younger users spent more time
– Younger users have more friends 
– Users registered for longer time and with more 
U i t df l ti d ith
frequent visits have more friends
The desire to meet new ppl ÅÆ less private 
– The desire to meet new ppl less private
settings
 Motives and Uses of SNS (8/8)
Motives and Uses of SNS (8/8)
• Some
Some conclusions:
conclusions:
1.Different goals for using FaceBook are 
reflected both in the usage patterns and
reflected both in the usage patterns and 
privacy settings. 
2 U
2. Users want to control (restrict) the 
l( i ) h
information they give away, but want to 
survey the information of others.
h i f i f h
 Study on SNS behavior:
W ’
We’re all stars Now (1/3)
ll N (1/3)

Michael A. Stefnaone Dererk Lackaff Dervan Rosen

• Aim:  Test correlation between Real Time TV 
consumption and SNS behaviour:
– time‐spent
time‐spent, 
– number of friends, 
– sharing photographs, 
– not‐known “friends”
 Study on SNS behavior(2/3)
Study on SNS behavior(2/3)
• Methods: online surveys
Methods: online surveys

• Results:  people who watch RTV spend more 
l l h h d
time on SNS, have bigger number of friends, 
h
have more friends they met online, share 
fi d h li h
more photos. 
 Study on SNS behavior(3/3)
Conclusion 
l

If you watch RTV, in SNS, you 
tend to act like …
tend to act like …
 Privacy Concerns about SNS
Privacy Concerns about SNS 
• In
In order to be socially searched by friends,  
order to be socially searched by friends
users are most likely to provide real 
information and loose control on privacy
information, and loose control on privacy. 

• IIn order to allow surveillance, the user has to 
d ll ill h h
allow his or her activities published via News 
and Feed
dF d
 Infamous “Beacon”
Infamous  Beacon  and Privacy 
and Privacy
• Beacon:
Beacon: a market initiative allows FaceBook
a market initiative allows FaceBook to 
to
publish the user’s “outside” activities to their 
FB profile and “News
FB profile and  News and feed
and feed”  

SSo if you buy something at eBay or overstock 
if b hi B k
(a online discount store), the information 
about the transaction and product will be put 
b h i d d ill b
into your FB profile and your friends’ News 
and feed 
df d
FaceBook as Big brother
FaceBook as Big brother
• Some people think FB 
should provide users 
h ld id
with the ability to opt‐
out of data sharing, both 
fd h i b h
at a friends level and 
advertisers
d i
• http://www.theregister.
co.uk/2009/09/23/face
book_beacon_dies/
 FaceBook 3rd party applications 
FaceBook’ss 3 party applications
• Opening APIs for 3rd party applications. 
– Great participation, both by developers and users 
• FB is becoming social network OS
– Facebook Connect  and Open Stream APIs
Connect and Open Stream APIs
– Users don’t need to log into FB to communicate with 
their friends, they can access their network from any of 
10,000 partner sites (including Digg, CitySearch, Gawker, 
TechCrunch, CNN.com …), contributing even more 
valuable data to FB’s servers
valuable data to FB’s servers
– Redefining search – massive amounts shared on private 
FB servers growing “blind
FB servers, growing  blind spot
spot” for Google 
for Google
• Selling targeted ads everywhere (all partner sites)
 Questions
Do you think FaceBook
Do you think FaceBook spies on you ?
spies on you ?
Do you think Facebook will  become the 
operating system for social networks ?
operating system for social networks ? 
Will it redefine the Web? 
Would you rather invest in Google or in 
Facebook? 
‐ for a 5 years term?
‐ for a 10 years term?
for a 10 years term?