This document discusses the characteristics and structures of online communities. It defines online communities as groups of people who come together online for a specific purpose. It describes how social networks form the underlying structure of communities, with nodes (people/organizations) connected by relationships and experiencing interactions. It outlines key characteristics of online communities like conversations, presence, democracy, standards of behavior, and levels of participation. It also discusses how ideas and memes spread through communities via opinion leaders and the two-step flow model of communication.

1. Chapter 4
Digital Communities
By: Alma Hasanovic, Alyssa Fields, Raven Whitehead

2. Online Communities
• Online Communities are a group of people who
come together for a specific purpose, who are
guided by community policies, and who are
supported by Internet access that enables virtual
communication
• Examples include MyLife, LiveJournal, Tagged,
LinkedIn, and Buzzfeed.

3. Networks: The Underlying Structure of
Communities
• All of social media is networked
• Social Network is a set of socially relevant nodes
connected by one or more relations.
• Members of a network can be organizations,
articles,countries, departments, or any other definable unit.
• Nodes are members of a network. Nodes in a network
experience interactions and these behaviors based ties
such as talking with each other attending an event together
or working together.

4. • Flows occur between nodes. Flows are exchanges of resources, information, or
influences among members of the network.
• Example: On Facebook you share news, updates about your life, opinions on
favorite books and movies, photos, videos, and notes.
• Flows are not simply two-way or three-way, they ,may be sent toward an entire
community, a list or a group within a network, or several individuals independently.
• While the online community exists within a web space, the flows of communication
may extend to other domains such as emails, text messages, virtual worlds, and
even face to face meet ups where members of an online network arrange to meet
in a physical location.

5. Networks: The Underlying Structure of Communities
• Social Object Theory
suggests that social networks
will be more powerful;
communities if there is a way
to activate relationships among
people and objects.
• In this perspective an object is
something of common interest
and its primary function is to
mediate the interactions
between people.
• Object sociality the extent to
which an object can be shared
in social media and is related
to an audiences unique
interests

6. Characteristics of Online
Communities
• Conversations- Communities thrive on communication among members.
Though social media provides an online space for what are essentially
digital conversations, these conversations are not based on talking or writing
but on a hybrid of the two.
• Presence-refers to the effect that people experience when they interact with
a computer-mediated or computer-generated environment.
• Democracy- Is a descriptive term that refers to rule by the people. Leaders
emerge due to the reputation they earn among the general membership.
• Control over what appears on the platform shifts from a small elite to the
larger mass. Media democratization means that the members of social
communities, not traditional media publishers such as magazines or
newspaper companies, control the creation, delivery, and popularity.

7. Characteristics of Online Communities
• Standards of Behavior-Virtual communities need norms,
or rules that govern behavior, in order to operate.
• Example:If you buy an item on eBay you agree that you
have entered into a legal contract to pay for it.
• 1) Open access sites enable anyone to participate without
registration or identification. This can be valuable for
participation on sensitive topics as well as for ease of use.
• 2) Social contract is the agreement that exists between the
host or governing body and the members. You engage in a
social contract when you indicate agreement to a “terms of
use” clause for a site.

8. • Level of participation-For an online community
to thrive, a significant proportion of its members
must participate. Otherwise the site will fail to
offer fresh material and ultimately traffic will slow.

9. How Ideas Travel in a
Community
• Whether online or offline, a community has a culture that includes
shared knowledge, myths, norms, and language.
• We see evidence of community culture in the memes that evolve
within community. A meme is a snippet of cultural information that
speeds person to person until eventually it enters the general
consciousness. These snippets may include songs phrases,
ideas, slang words, fashion trends, or shared behaviors.
• Memes spread among consumers in a geometric progression, just
as a virus starts off small and steadily infects increasing numbers
of people until it becomes an epidemic. Because of the viral
nature of memes, they typically spread rapidly.

10. Memes

11. Opinion Leaders and Source of Powers
• Opinion Leader - a
person who is frequently
able to influence others
attitudes or behavior.
• They carry more weight
than the other
members.
• They Possess Source of
power.

12. The Two-Step Flow Model
• The two step model helps to explain how
opinion leaders develop and influence
others.
• This model propose that small group of
influences are responsible for
disseminating information to opinion
leaders who then share the information
with larger respective networks.
• This might cause influences to ripple.

14. The Role of Social Capital And
the Ties to the Communities
● Social capital refers to the valuable resource people
individually or in groups have within the context of a
community.
● The capital may be actual or virtual and can include
reputational capital, bonding social capital and maintained
social capital. People’s network always include strong and
weak ties. both have values. Even weak ties can create social
capital for network members.

15. Creating Sources of Power
• Everyone who participates in social media can contribute
content, including their opinions and experience, everyone has
the potential to spread a message to a potentially large group
of people. Though connectors are best able to spread
message, influence impressions can be delivered by anyone

16. Youtube Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5PZ_Bh-M6o

17. Case Study
• http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/18/facebook-reaffirms-
its-commitment-to-stop-cyber-bulling-with-
new-activist-page-partnership-with-the-ad-council/
• https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook/watch-your-
words-steps-to-preventing-cyberbullying/
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