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***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org ***** Hi Ryan, Jenny Preece, from the University of Maryland, has done a lot of work on lurkers in online communities: Nonnecke, B. & Preece, J. (2003) Silent Participants: Getting to Know Lurkers Better. In C. Leug & D. Fisher (Eds.) From /Usenet to CoWebs: Interacting with Social Information Spaces. /Springer-Verlag: Amsterdam, Holland. (in press) Nonnecke, B. & Preece, J. (2001) Why Lurkers Lurk. AMCIS Conference, Boston, June http://snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/whylurk.pdf Nonnecke, B. and Preece, J. (2000) Lurker Demographics: Counting the Silent. Proceedings of CHI'2000, Hague, The Netherlands, 73-80. cheers, - Fernanda Viegas _ <http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/%7Epreece/fullcv.htm#Refereed%20Conference%20Publications> <http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/%7Epreece/fullcv.htm#Refereed%20Conference%20Publications>_ Ryan Lanham wrote: >***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org ***** > >Has anyone studied "lurkers" in communities or networks? I am reminded >of Erving Goffman's famous front stage/back stage metaphors. What role >do lurkers perform? Are they actors? Is there an audience effect to >discourse on listservs? > >We "publish" to literally (at least etymologically) to make things >public. Of course that is no long the primary purpose of publishing--it >has lost the ends for the means. We publish now to build careers. But >listservs are different. Their immediacy gives an unknown actor--the >lurker--strange powers. What are they? What can be known about >lurkers? > >I see a sort of capacitance issue again. Someone builds up (or doesn't >a charge) and then discharges iff certain events occur. Discourse must >press certainly ontological boundary objects for these discharges to >surface. Or perhaps those happen in people's lives. Assassins strike >when officials are having highly visible portions of their career. In >short, boundary stresses provoke "lurkers" whether they are constructive >or destructive. > >Much is written on democratic participation. Do they know anything >about lurkers in that part of the discourse universe? What about >lurkers in markets in business? What role do they have? There must be >some sort of information theory of this. > >Ryan Lanham > > > >>long time lurker but first time poster to this "community" ;-) >> >>Samer Faraj >> >> > >_____________________________________________________________________ >SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social >network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send >an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line >UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message. > > _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.