I know I haven't written in a while, as things have been ridiculously busy! Not only did I have project 1 to work on (which was turned in yesterday, thank you very much), but it was also the Christmas holidays, recruiting season for international teaching, and I am a mother of two children under 3. 'Nuff said...
In any event, the last several weeks have been dedicated to the creation and documentation of Kidsonthego. Kidsonthego (kidsonthego.wikispaces.com) is my social networking project. It has actually been an idea of mine for quite some time, but I've never had any time to act on it. INF506 gave me that push to indulge in my personal interests, and I'm so glad I did. Doing this pilot project, as small as it is, has allowed me to explore topics that I would never have done otherwise. Most of my studies are related to education, and in this case, I was able to create something that supported personal, non-work-related needs. Hey, we all need this sometimes.
In any event, the last several weeks have been dedicated to the creation and documentation of Kidsonthego. Kidsonthego (kidsonthego.wikispaces.com) is my social networking project. It has actually been an idea of mine for quite some time, but I've never had any time to act on it. INF506 gave me that push to indulge in my personal interests, and I'm so glad I did. Doing this pilot project, as small as it is, has allowed me to explore topics that I would never have done otherwise. Most of my studies are related to education, and in this case, I was able to create something that supported personal, non-work-related needs. Hey, we all need this sometimes.
Kidsonthego is a wiki. It's a place where people who travel with their children can seek out information to plan their trip. People can also visit it mid-trip, or after their journeys to record all the great places they have been. It's not about sharing a traveler's story. It's more about sharing the great places out there to support parents with young children, and encourage their travels.
In any event, I put so much time into this site (and continue to do so) because I genuinely feel it serves a purpose to a group of people. I wanted to do a good job, but also had to meet certain academic requirements, so good things all around.
Some of the things I really took away from this project, in terms of learning about social networking theory, have to do with the use of technology to support communities, as well as the sociology and psychology behind online communities.
I have used many blogs, discussion forums, wikis, platforms like Google docs, and other similar tools for some time. However, I never put formal thought into the way it brings people together, and serve different purposes. It was always somewhat intuitive. My first wiki use was in 2004 (or thereabouts) when a teacher librarian created one so that we could share what resources we were using for certain instructional topics (brilliant and yet so simple). However, it wasn't until I created this project and I investigated the different social media options out there, that I began to understand the capability of the different social media environments. Selfishly, I wanted to search by country, or city, or whatever the destination was, and be able to look at different hotel, restaurant, and activity listings. I've been such a fan (and sometimes contributor) of sites like Tripadvisor, or Cityweekend, that I really just wanted my own version of one of these, but one that was geared toward travel with small children in Asia. While user profiles are a part of these communities, these site are centered more around the information, rather than the users. I discovered that creating something as elaborate as the sites mentioned above would probably take some professional skill and a bit of cash (I was hoping for something free). Wikis were a simple way to do the same--create a community around the content.
I never thought about studying this social direction of technology, but there's a lot out there! I did a lot of reading on wiki technology. and the factors that influence user participation. Not surprisingly, much of the literature mentioned users tendencies to free ride on informational social media sites. Wikis are at the heart of this. Users often browse and explore the information, but contributing is a different story. A great example of this is how whenever I have a technical need (software not working, or maybe I don't know how to do something), I troll the web for websites, blogs, discussion forums, etc. I am usually able to find the answer because someone, somewhere has posted the question, and some else had answered it. Participation in social media. Thank you social media users for helping me get my data connected on my Android phone in China, or teaching me all about locked and unlocked phones and SIM cards in the US and China, or for (and this is a big one) enabling me how to use taobao.com (an online shopping site entirely in Chinese)! I also rely heavily on participants with social media to help me plan my travels (thank you Tripadvisor.com users!).
I am guilty of taking this free ride, quite often. However, I have come to realize that I take so much from online communities, so I should try and give back when I can. Experts in the field refer to this "interest" as reciprocity, and apparently I am not alone. Who knew that this has been studied?! People participate in social media for many reasons. Some studies report that users participate for the social good, and the knowledge that it brings to many. However, some studies do show that personal or individual motivations (e.g. contributing to Wikipedia to practice and improve English) are also a very strong factor.
So my travel wiki, Kidsonthego, is sitting there, being viewed and updated by some. It needs more information and definitely more users. I want to jump in (because I love to share this information, for the greater good of course... and it's just fun to create), but I also have two more papers due in two weeks! I can only hope that Kidsonthego can find some dedicated users (and fewer digital loafers) to create that critical mass needed to keep the wiki alive. I plan to work on that when this term ends in two weeks!
Bibliography:
Gao, Q., Dai, Y., Fan, Z., & Kang, R. (2010). Understanding factors affecting perceived sociability of social software. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1846-1861. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.022
Parra-López, E., Bulchand-Gidumal, J., Gutiérrez-Taño, D., & Díaz-Armas, R. (2011). Intentions to use social media in organizing and taking vacation trips. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 640-654. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.022
Prasarnphanich, P. & Wagner, C. (2011). Explaining the sustainability of digital ecosystems based on the wiki model through critical-mass theory. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 58(6), 2065-2072. doi:10.1109/TIE.2009.2027248
Shu, W., & Chuang, Y. (2011). The behavior of wiki users. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 39(6), 851-864. doi:10.2224/sbp.2011.39.6.851
Utecht, J. (2010). Reach: Building communities and networks for professional development. Retrieved from http://jeffutecht.com.
Wagner, C. & Prasarnphanich, P. (2007). Innovating collaborative content creation: The role of altruism and wiki technology., 2007. 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2007.277
Yu, T., Lu, L., & Liu, T. (2009) Exploring factors that influence knowledge sharing behavior via weblogs. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(1), 32-41. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.08.002
In any event, I put so much time into this site (and continue to do so) because I genuinely feel it serves a purpose to a group of people. I wanted to do a good job, but also had to meet certain academic requirements, so good things all around.
Some of the things I really took away from this project, in terms of learning about social networking theory, have to do with the use of technology to support communities, as well as the sociology and psychology behind online communities.
I have used many blogs, discussion forums, wikis, platforms like Google docs, and other similar tools for some time. However, I never put formal thought into the way it brings people together, and serve different purposes. It was always somewhat intuitive. My first wiki use was in 2004 (or thereabouts) when a teacher librarian created one so that we could share what resources we were using for certain instructional topics (brilliant and yet so simple). However, it wasn't until I created this project and I investigated the different social media options out there, that I began to understand the capability of the different social media environments. Selfishly, I wanted to search by country, or city, or whatever the destination was, and be able to look at different hotel, restaurant, and activity listings. I've been such a fan (and sometimes contributor) of sites like Tripadvisor, or Cityweekend, that I really just wanted my own version of one of these, but one that was geared toward travel with small children in Asia. While user profiles are a part of these communities, these site are centered more around the information, rather than the users. I discovered that creating something as elaborate as the sites mentioned above would probably take some professional skill and a bit of cash (I was hoping for something free). Wikis were a simple way to do the same--create a community around the content.
I never thought about studying this social direction of technology, but there's a lot out there! I did a lot of reading on wiki technology. and the factors that influence user participation. Not surprisingly, much of the literature mentioned users tendencies to free ride on informational social media sites. Wikis are at the heart of this. Users often browse and explore the information, but contributing is a different story. A great example of this is how whenever I have a technical need (software not working, or maybe I don't know how to do something), I troll the web for websites, blogs, discussion forums, etc. I am usually able to find the answer because someone, somewhere has posted the question, and some else had answered it. Participation in social media. Thank you social media users for helping me get my data connected on my Android phone in China, or teaching me all about locked and unlocked phones and SIM cards in the US and China, or for (and this is a big one) enabling me how to use taobao.com (an online shopping site entirely in Chinese)! I also rely heavily on participants with social media to help me plan my travels (thank you Tripadvisor.com users!).
I am guilty of taking this free ride, quite often. However, I have come to realize that I take so much from online communities, so I should try and give back when I can. Experts in the field refer to this "interest" as reciprocity, and apparently I am not alone. Who knew that this has been studied?! People participate in social media for many reasons. Some studies report that users participate for the social good, and the knowledge that it brings to many. However, some studies do show that personal or individual motivations (e.g. contributing to Wikipedia to practice and improve English) are also a very strong factor.
So my travel wiki, Kidsonthego, is sitting there, being viewed and updated by some. It needs more information and definitely more users. I want to jump in (because I love to share this information, for the greater good of course... and it's just fun to create), but I also have two more papers due in two weeks! I can only hope that Kidsonthego can find some dedicated users (and fewer digital loafers) to create that critical mass needed to keep the wiki alive. I plan to work on that when this term ends in two weeks!
Bibliography:
Gao, Q., Dai, Y., Fan, Z., & Kang, R. (2010). Understanding factors affecting perceived sociability of social software. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1846-1861. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.022
Parra-López, E., Bulchand-Gidumal, J., Gutiérrez-Taño, D., & Díaz-Armas, R. (2011). Intentions to use social media in organizing and taking vacation trips. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 640-654. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.022
Prasarnphanich, P. & Wagner, C. (2011). Explaining the sustainability of digital ecosystems based on the wiki model through critical-mass theory. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 58(6), 2065-2072. doi:10.1109/TIE.2009.2027248
Shu, W., & Chuang, Y. (2011). The behavior of wiki users. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 39(6), 851-864. doi:10.2224/sbp.2011.39.6.851
Utecht, J. (2010). Reach: Building communities and networks for professional development. Retrieved from http://jeffutecht.com.
Wagner, C. & Prasarnphanich, P. (2007). Innovating collaborative content creation: The role of altruism and wiki technology., 2007. 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2007.277
Yu, T., Lu, L., & Liu, T. (2009) Exploring factors that influence knowledge sharing behavior via weblogs. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(1), 32-41. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.08.002
