Achtung - das Bamblog wird seit Mitte Oktober 2007 nicht mehr aktualisiert. Bitte besuchen Sie mein neues Weblog unter http://www.schmidtmitdete.de. Danke! - Please note that this blog is no longer active. You can find my new blog at http://www.schmidtmitdete.de. Thanks for visiting!
Practices of online-based networking – form and consequences of „social software“
Research project at Forschungsstelle “Neue Kommunikationsmedien” (Univ. Bamberg), 01.10.2005 – 30.09.2007
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Project Outline
Social networks are an increasingly important structural principle for both professional and private life. The project “Practices of online-based networking” aims to analyze how individuals use the Internet to build and sustain those social relations by focusing on new applications of computer-mediated communication and interaction which are subsumed by the term “social software”. The conceptual approach looks at online-based networking as communicative practices guided by rules and expectations, through which people adopt social software to complement and expand other networking practices both on- and offline. These practices both produce and reproduce structural elements (rules, networks, software) which frame situative usage episodes.
By contrasting different applications and contexts, similarities and differences of networking practices and their consequences for social capital will be identified. In particular, the project will look at Weblogs and Social Networking Services, comparing their institutionalization in personal and professional contexts. Four case studies are planned, where several methodological approaches will be combined: standardized and open interviews, content analysis, network analysis. Thus, data on technical / software-related characteristics of the applications, users’ personal characteristics, motives and expectations as well as on structural variables can by analysed.
Current state of project
Two fields are researched at the moment:
“Wie ich blogge?!” (”How do I blog?!”) - a general survey of the german-speaking blogosphere was conducted in October 2005. More than 5.200 active bloggers, readers of blogs and ex-bloggers participated. In July/August 2006 a follow-up survey was conducted among about 1.400 participants of the first wave. These two studies gave valuable insights into the state of the german-speaking blogosphere and have been cited in numerous academic presentations and publications, as well as in journalistic descriptions. Several substudies look at particular practices of blogging, e.g. knowledge blogging, political use of blogs (conducted by Matthias Paetzolt, a graduate student), private online-journals, and at the use of and satisfaction with blog software.
In summer 2007, a case study of internal organizational blogs is conducted in cooperation with a major german corporation.
Regarding Social Networking Sites, Florian Renz (a graduate student) did qualitative research on the business networking site openbc.com (now XING) as part of his diploma thesis. He conducted in-depth E-Interviews with ~20 openBC-users to learn more about their online-based networking strategies and the integration of openBC into their professional practices. He also analysed the support forum with respect to the interaction of users and the technical staff of openBC. Lisa Werdnig, another graduate student, has used a similar approach to analyze “pruefungsgeil.de”, a networking platform for students of the Nuremberg region. In addition to the more qualitative instruments, a standardized online survey was conducted to gain insights into usage routines and sociodemographic characteristics of pruefungsgeil.de-members.
Related Papers and Publications
In addition to various german texts, up to now two english papers came out of the project:
- Schmidt, Jan: Social Software: Facilitating information-, identity- and relationship managament. In: Burg, Thomas N. / Jan Schmidt (Eds.): BlogTalks Reloaded. Social Software - Research and Cases. Vienna/Norderstedt: Books on Demand. 2007. 31-49. [pdf]
- Schmidt, Jan / Wilbers, Martin / Paetzolt, Matthias: Use of and satisfaction with blogging software. Empirical findings for the german-speaking blogosphere. Working paper of the Research Centre “New Communication Media” 06-04. 2006. [pdf]