scholarly journals Reputation Description and  Interpretation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ryan Chard

<p>Reputation is an opinion held by others about a particular person, group, organisation, or resource. As a tool, reputation can be used to forecast the reliability of others based on their previous actions, moreover, in some domains it can even be used to estimate trustworthiness. Due to the large scale of virtual communities it is impossible to maintain a meaningful relationship with every member. Reputation systems are designed explicitly to manufacture trust within a virtual community by recording and sharing information regarding past interactions. Reputation systems are becoming increasingly popular and widespread, with the information generated varying considerably between domains. Currently, no formal method to exchange reputation information exists. However, the OpenRep framework, currently under development, is designed to federate reputation information, enabling the transparent exchange of information between reputation systems. This thesis presents a reputation description and interpretation system, designed as a foundation for the OpenRep framework. The description and interpretation system focuses on enabling the consistent and reliable expression and interpretation of reputation information across heterogeneous reputation systems. The description and interpretation system includes a strongly typed language, a verification system to validate usage of the language, and a XML based exchange protocol. In addition to these contributions, three case studies are presented as a means of generating requirements for the description and interpretation system, and evaluating the use of the proposed system in a federated reputation environment. The case studies include an electronic auction, virtual community and social network based relationship management service.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ryan Chard

<p>Reputation is an opinion held by others about a particular person, group, organisation, or resource. As a tool, reputation can be used to forecast the reliability of others based on their previous actions, moreover, in some domains it can even be used to estimate trustworthiness. Due to the large scale of virtual communities it is impossible to maintain a meaningful relationship with every member. Reputation systems are designed explicitly to manufacture trust within a virtual community by recording and sharing information regarding past interactions. Reputation systems are becoming increasingly popular and widespread, with the information generated varying considerably between domains. Currently, no formal method to exchange reputation information exists. However, the OpenRep framework, currently under development, is designed to federate reputation information, enabling the transparent exchange of information between reputation systems. This thesis presents a reputation description and interpretation system, designed as a foundation for the OpenRep framework. The description and interpretation system focuses on enabling the consistent and reliable expression and interpretation of reputation information across heterogeneous reputation systems. The description and interpretation system includes a strongly typed language, a verification system to validate usage of the language, and a XML based exchange protocol. In addition to these contributions, three case studies are presented as a means of generating requirements for the description and interpretation system, and evaluating the use of the proposed system in a federated reputation environment. The case studies include an electronic auction, virtual community and social network based relationship management service.</p>


Author(s):  
Lori N.K. Leonard ◽  
Kiku Jones

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce (ecommerce) is increasing as a means for individuals to buy and sell products (eMarketer, 2007). The majority of research surrounding C2C e-commerce deals with online auctions (Lin, Li, Janamanchi, & Huang, 2006; Melnik & Alm, 2002) or aspects of online auctions such as the reputation systems (Standifird, 2001). However, C2C e-commerce is being conducted in many different venues in addition to online auctions, such as third party listing services and virtual communities (Jones & Leonard, 2006). Consumers can be quite resourceful when identifying one another to buy/sell their products even when a formal structure to conduct such transactions is not provided. However, when C2C e-commerce is conducted outside a formalized venue such as online auctions and third party listing services, the lines of accountability can be blurred. It makes one wonder why a consumer would choose to participate in C2C e-commerce in venues not designed to facilitate this kind of exchange. One such unstructured venue is a virtual community. This article will discuss the possible reasons why consumers are feeling more comfortable transacting with one another in this particular venue.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Syahida Hassan

<p>Although the field of social commerce has gained a lot of attention recently, there are many areas that still remain unexplored. A new phenomenon emerging within virtual communities is a blurring between social and commercial activities. To date, scholars in the social commerce literature have either focused on customers in the community or on medium to large scale businesses. There has been little research on social commerce communities which include micro-businesses despite their rapid growth in South East Asian countries.  This study explores a social commerce community of Malay lifestyle bloggers, who are a subset of the Malaysian blogosphere community. Bloggers begin by using the personal genre, some then move on to set up online businesses using their personal blogs as a platform. The characteristic of blogging’s ease of use means there are low barriers to starting a small business, merging blogging and commerce. This changes the nature of the community by bringing in a new relationship, as well as relationships between bloggers and readers, there are now also relationships between sellers and customers.  This study aims to understand the motivations for both sellers and customers, and how their relationships as bloggers and readers influence their participation in social commerce within the same community. To address the research objective, 20 sellers and 21 customers who also play a role as bloggers or readers were interviewed. In-depth interviews using laddering and semi-structured interview techniques were carried out to explore social commerce behaviour, the perceived consequences, and goals or values of participation. In addition, observation was also conducted on the platform used by the sellers. Data was coded using NVivo whilst the themes arising from the coding process were transformed into an implication matrix and hierarchical value map using Ladderux software.  This study found that strong ties within the community, influenced by homophily and the sense of virtual community, motivated the customers to participate in commercial activities in order to obtain their goals which included a sense of obligation, loyalty, satisfaction and self-esteem. The relationships influenced customers to trust each other, provide social support and made purchasing products more convenient. Sellers were influenced by the convenience of using social media and the social support provided by the customers which helped them to achieve their goals which are profit and business sustainability.  This study contributes to social commerce theory by highlighting an underexplored type of social commerce setting and addressing how trust can be transferred from social to commercial activities. The findings provide a useful insight for businesses, regardless of their size, to build an understanding of the need to create a good relationship with their customers. For macro-businesses, this model can be used to identify what is lacking in their social media marketing strategy.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 1398-1420
Author(s):  
Chenhui (Julian) Guo ◽  
Tae Hun Kim ◽  
Anjana Susarla ◽  
Vallabh Sambamurthy

The virtualization of every aspect of our life does not mean that old ways of social interaction can now be transported to the internet. According to recent research conducted on the influence of mobile apps, we also need to look at how digital spaces enable interactions among individuals. We use large-scale geospatial data analysis to study millions of postings in an app called Waze. We conceptualize a novel factor called virtual crowdedness, which is the density of usage of the app in a specific neighborhood. We find that displaying the density of a user’s “virtual activities” can both encourage and discourage participation by the entire community. We find that participation in virtual settings is akin to what economists describe as a public good, where only a few individuals contribute but create well-being for the entire community. Users’ motivation to participate in virtual settings depends on what is termed “impure altruism” by economists, where participation is heavily influenced by motives of prestige and public recognition. These motivations are reinforced through intensive social interactions among members of such communities. We also find there is a strong bystander effect in these virtual communities. The bystander effect refers to the phenomenon in which an individual’s likelihood of engaging in a helpful act decreases when bystanders are present in a critical situation.


2019 ◽  
pp. 163-180
Author(s):  
Gina DeBenedetti ◽  
Kelly Kuru ◽  
Peter Picton ◽  
Linda Monico ◽  
Tasha Shaw-Verbic

This chapter will provide an overview of InfoCentral, a virtual community platform launched for advancing digital health information in Canada. Developed and hosted by Canada Health Infoway, InfoCentral has become a hub and resource for stakeholders in digital health to discuss, consider, and evaluate common challenges among digital health system compatibility across the country (i.e., interoperability). A synopsis of the role Infoway contributes toward advancing Canadian digital health, the background and considerations for InfoCentral, along with a series of three flourishing virtual community case studies will be examined. Critical success factors and lessons learned in establishing, supporting and growing productive virtual communities conclude this chapter.


Author(s):  
Gina DeBenedetti ◽  
Kelly Kuru ◽  
Peter Picton ◽  
Linda Monico ◽  
Tasha Shaw-Verbic

This chapter will provide an overview of InfoCentral, a virtual community platform launched for advancing digital health information in Canada. Developed and hosted by Canada Health Infoway, InfoCentral has become a hub and resource for stakeholders in digital health to discuss, consider, and evaluate common challenges among digital health system compatibility across the country (i.e., interoperability). A synopsis of the role Infoway contributes toward advancing Canadian digital health, the background and considerations for InfoCentral, along with a series of three flourishing virtual community case studies will be examined. Critical success factors and lessons learned in establishing, supporting and growing productive virtual communities conclude this chapter.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Syahida Hassan

<p>Although the field of social commerce has gained a lot of attention recently, there are many areas that still remain unexplored. A new phenomenon emerging within virtual communities is a blurring between social and commercial activities. To date, scholars in the social commerce literature have either focused on customers in the community or on medium to large scale businesses. There has been little research on social commerce communities which include micro-businesses despite their rapid growth in South East Asian countries.  This study explores a social commerce community of Malay lifestyle bloggers, who are a subset of the Malaysian blogosphere community. Bloggers begin by using the personal genre, some then move on to set up online businesses using their personal blogs as a platform. The characteristic of blogging’s ease of use means there are low barriers to starting a small business, merging blogging and commerce. This changes the nature of the community by bringing in a new relationship, as well as relationships between bloggers and readers, there are now also relationships between sellers and customers.  This study aims to understand the motivations for both sellers and customers, and how their relationships as bloggers and readers influence their participation in social commerce within the same community. To address the research objective, 20 sellers and 21 customers who also play a role as bloggers or readers were interviewed. In-depth interviews using laddering and semi-structured interview techniques were carried out to explore social commerce behaviour, the perceived consequences, and goals or values of participation. In addition, observation was also conducted on the platform used by the sellers. Data was coded using NVivo whilst the themes arising from the coding process were transformed into an implication matrix and hierarchical value map using Ladderux software.  This study found that strong ties within the community, influenced by homophily and the sense of virtual community, motivated the customers to participate in commercial activities in order to obtain their goals which included a sense of obligation, loyalty, satisfaction and self-esteem. The relationships influenced customers to trust each other, provide social support and made purchasing products more convenient. Sellers were influenced by the convenience of using social media and the social support provided by the customers which helped them to achieve their goals which are profit and business sustainability.  This study contributes to social commerce theory by highlighting an underexplored type of social commerce setting and addressing how trust can be transferred from social to commercial activities. The findings provide a useful insight for businesses, regardless of their size, to build an understanding of the need to create a good relationship with their customers. For macro-businesses, this model can be used to identify what is lacking in their social media marketing strategy.</p>


1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Stubbs

This article focuses on the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) during the wars of the Yugoslav succession, through three case studies of particular eMail networks, discussion groups and bulletin boards: zamir; APC/Yugo/Antiwar; and the Soc/Culture/Croatia and Soc/Culture/Yugoslavia newsgroups. The text addresses the relationship between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ communities and looks, in particular, at the role of eMail as a tool for social, political and cultural change. Despite the rhetoric of CMC as an inherently liberating and democratising medium, the suggestion is that power relations remain crucial in understanding all of the case studies. eMail may be most effective when part of a local discourse and practice of social change. The article concludes with a consideration of the link between different kinds of trust, or social capital, within the eMail world.


Author(s):  
Demosthenes Akoumianakis ◽  
Giannis Milolidakis ◽  
George Vellis ◽  
Dimitrios Kotsalis

This chapter concentrates on the development of practice-specific toolkits for managing on-line practices in the context of virtual communities of practice. The authors describe two case studies in different application domains each presenting alternative but complementary insights to the design of computer-mediated practice vocabularies. The first case study describes how established practices in music performance are encapsulated in a suitably augmented music toolkit so as to facilitate the learning objectives of virtual teams engaged in music master classes. The second case study is slightly different in orientation as it seeks to establish a toolkit for engaging in new coordinative practices in the course of building information-based products such as vacation packages for tourists. This time the virtual team is a cross-organization virtual community of practice with members streamlining their efforts by internalizing and performing in accordance with the new practice. Collectively, the case studies provide insight to building novel practice-specific toolkits to either encapsulate existing or support novel practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Rivera-Vargas ◽  
Raquel Miño-Puigcercós

This paper is based on a research project developed in Spain, where we explored how and what young people learn in virtual communities. Although the term virtual community has been broadly used to approach online social interactions, it has generated several academic debates. Nevertheless, it is a useful term to define a social network made up mostly of young people who share an interest and choose to interact online with others to discuss, exchange, show their creations to the world, and promote certain values. As researchers on Sociology and Education, we find this phenomenon especially intriguing. We wonder why young people engage in virtual communities, why they should spend so much time interacting with others online and what benefits they consider they have. Our hypothesis is that it has to do with a shared sense of belonging to a community and the possibilities young people find to create opportunities to learn with and from each other. The results of this article are based on the analysis of seven case studies conducted in virtual communities, and they address two main questions: what leads young people to participate in virtual communities and how is learning and social participation promoted through virtual communities.


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