Expressing Social Relationships on the Blog through Links and Comments March 27, 2007 - Boulder, CO International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media Noor Ali-Hasan Microsoft Lada Adamic School of Information University of Michigan

Introduction Keeping a blog continues to be a popular online activity Blogging is an extremely social activity Bloggers receive and leave comments about posts Bloggers list other blogs on their blogrolls Bloggers link to other blogs in their posts ( citations )

Keeping a blog continues to be a popular online activity

Blogging is an extremely social activity

Bloggers receive and leave comments about posts

Bloggers list other blogs on their blogrolls

Bloggers link to other blogs in their posts ( citations )

Research Questions Do blog networks emerge due to blogging or do they represent real life social networks? Do blogs help facilitate the formation of new friendships or do they help preserve existing relationships in the real world? Do blog comments and blogroll links represent different levels of relationship intimacy?

Do blog networks emerge due to blogging or do they represent real life social networks?

Do blogs help facilitate the formation of new friendships or do they help preserve existing relationships in the real world?

Do blog comments and blogroll links represent different levels of relationship intimacy?

Related Work McKenna et al. (2002) observed that close online relationships naturally progress to face-to-face interactions Nardi et al. (2004) found that many start blogging at the urging of friends and continue to blog to avoid disappointing their readers

McKenna et al. (2002) observed that close online relationships naturally progress to face-to-face interactions

Nardi et al. (2004) found that many start blogging at the urging of friends and continue to blog to avoid disappointing their readers

Related Work Adamic and Glance (2005) analyzed network structure of political blogs during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election Herring et al. (2005) studied the interconnectedness of the blogosphere Marlow (2005) conducted a large scale survey of blogs

Adamic and Glance (2005) analyzed network structure of political blogs during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election

Herring et al. (2005) studied the interconnectedness of the blogosphere

Marlow (2005) conducted a large scale survey of blogs

Community Structure

Three Blog Communities image source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ Boulder DFW Blogs Kuwait Blogs UAE Blogs

Data Collection Methods Collected blogroll links by hand Used BlogPulse and Technorati for in-post citations Gathered comments manually over a two week period just for Kuwait Q8 UAE DFW Number of Blogs 152 65 365

Collected blogroll links by hand

Used BlogPulse and Technorati for in-post citations

Gathered comments manually over a two week period just for Kuwait

Link Type Overlap for Kuwait Blogs comment links blogroll links in-post links 664 131 325 143 25 48 98

Density and Centralization Q8 UAE DFW citation 2.08 1.37 0.37 blogroll 6.25 2.65 1.79 comment 5.10 N/A N/A centralization of the combined blogroll and post citations network indegree centralization 0.18 0.30 0.04 outdegree centralization 0.30 0.67 0.55

Within-Community Blogroll and Citation Links DFW UAE Kuwait

Reciprocity Kuwait UAE DFW post citations 19% 16% 26% blogroll links 32% 43% 27% comments 43% N/A N/A

Community Structure Kuwait UAE DFW maximum modularity 0.24 0.22 0.53 number of communities at maximum modularity 7 6 10

Community Boundaries DFW UAE Kuwait

Porosity of Community Boundaries Kuwait UAE DFW internal post citations received 79% 24% 16% internal blogroll links given 47% 22% 9% non-anonymous comments received from bloggers within community 42% N/A N/A

Online and Offline Relationships

Survey Methods Conducted online survey Most notified via email Kuwait Blogs and UAE Blogs blogged about survey on central sites Q8 UAE DFW Number of Respondents 85 38 67 Response Rate 63% 68% 23%

Conducted online survey

Most notified via email

Kuwait Blogs and UAE Blogs blogged about survey on central sites

Motivation Behind Blogging

Motivation Behind Blogging I wish everybody would blog. It's such an easy way of knowing what's up in someone's life and what thoughts are on their mind, important or not. People often think, 'Oh, nobody'd want to read about /my/ boring life,' but really, sometimes just seeing the world from someone else's point of view can be fascinating. DFW Blogs Survey Respondent

I wish everybody would blog. It's such an easy way of knowing what's up in someone's life and what thoughts are on their mind, important or not. People often think, 'Oh, nobody'd want to read about /my/ boring life,' but really, sometimes just seeing the world from someone else's point of view can be fascinating.

DFW Blogs Survey Respondent

Intersection of Blogging and Offline Relationships Q8 UAE DFW Few or none of the comments received are left by people known offline 79% 81% 66% Few or none of the comments left on other blogs are on blogs of people known offline 74% 94% 65%

Using Blogs to Sustain Real-Life Relationships with Non-Bloggers Q8 UAE DFW Few or none of the comments received are left by people who do not blog but whom they know offline 99% 94% 79%

Using Blogs to Maintain and Form Relationships Median number of bloggers listed on blogroll and: Q8 UAE DFW Met in person 5 5 2 Emailed 5 10 12 IM’ed 6 2.5 2

Using Blogs to Maintain and Form Relationships Most of the Kuwaiti bloggers know one another, either directly (friends/relatives) or indirectly (friends of friends, friend's relatives, etc.). If they don't know one another, then they don't remain strangers for long. […] I know of several people who used their blogs to make new friends in Kuwait. Kuwait Blogs Survey Respondent

Most of the Kuwaiti bloggers know one another, either directly (friends/relatives) or indirectly (friends of friends, friend's relatives, etc.). If they don't know one another, then they don't remain strangers for long. […] I know of several people who used their blogs to make new friends in Kuwait.

Kuwait Blogs Survey Respondent

Using Blogs to Maintain and Form Relationships The DFW Blogs community was an incredible social network for me. I had recently moved back to the Dallas area when the group began. Through that group I was able to meet highly intelligent, talented, motivated, and creative people. We all had a common interest - blogs - but we were all so diverse. The group was amazing and I'm so thankful I was apart of it for so many years. DFW Blogs Survey Respondent

The DFW Blogs community was an incredible social network for me. I had recently moved back to the Dallas area when the group began. Through that group I was able to meet highly intelligent, talented, motivated, and creative people. We all had a common interest - blogs - but we were all so diverse. The group was amazing and I'm so thankful I was apart of it for so many years.

DFW Blogs Survey Respondent

Conclusions Blogs enable relationship formation Blog relationships extend to other communication methods and F2F At this time, blogs are not used to sustain real life relationships All three communities show high degrees of reciprocity and cohesion

Blogs enable relationship formation

Blog relationships extend to other communication methods and F2F

At this time, blogs are not used to sustain real life relationships

All three communities show high degrees of reciprocity and cohesion

Questions? For more information: Noor Ali-Hasan Microsoft 1065 La Avenida Street Mountain View, CA 94043 (650) 693-1925 [email_address] http://www.noor.bz/ Lada Adamic School of Information University of Michigan 1085 South University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (734) 615-2132 [email_address] http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ladamic

For more information:

Noor Ali-Hasan

Microsoft

1065 La Avenida Street

Mountain View, CA 94043

(650) 693-1925

[email_address]

http://www.noor.bz/