The Social Structure of Online Communities

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-1-108-49913-2
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 338 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 590 g

Reihe: Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences

With great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bainbridge, William Sims

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Forschungsmethodik, Wissenschaftliche Ausstattung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. Facebook; 3. Virtual worlds; 4. Open-source software; 5. Wikis; 6. Citizen social science; 7. Digital government; 8. Cultural science.

Über Autor(innen)

Bainbridge, William Sims
William Sims Bainbridge has written or edited over forty books on culture and technology, most recently Family History Digital Libraries (2018) and Virtual Local Manufacturing Communities (2019). Past books include Star Worlds (2012), Dimensions of Science Fiction (1986), The Virtual Future (2011), The Spaceflight Revolution (1983), and Goals in Space (1991). He currently is a program director at the National Science Foundation.