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Author: Lars Hansen
E-mail: lars.hansen@gmail.com
Supervisor: John Gøtze
Master Thesis at IT-Universitetet
November 2008

www.enterpriseagility.dk/...Thesis_downloadedition.pdf - Preview

Hansen SOA EA agility pdf

Virtual Community Maintenance with a Collaborative Repository
Derek L. Hansen (corresponding author)
School of Information, University of Michigan, 1075 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2112
shakmatt@gmail.com
Mark S. Ackerman
School of Information, University of Michigan, 1075 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2112
ackerm@umich.edu
Paul J. Resnick
School of Information, University of Michigan, 1075 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2112
presnick@umich.edu
Sean Munson
School of Information, University of Michigan, 1075 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2112
samunson@umich.edu
Virtual communities, like all communities, require ongoing community maintenance activities. This
paper presents an empirical study examining how a wiki repository was used to help overcome some
of the community maintenance challenges common to help-based email list discussions. Specifically,
we found that inclusion of off-topic but related content on the wiki enabled list members to keep the
discussion on-topic while still addressing the needs of members. Offloading of repetitive and
potentially contentious “holy war” debates to the wiki encouraged list members to summarize their
arguments into a meaningful information product. The community’s use of the wiki in helping answer
frequently asked questions helped attract new members and helped them gain the knowledge they
needed to comfortably contribute to the email list. It also helped active participants answer questions
more efficiently and effectively by supporting the reuse of information. Finally, the wiki supported
peripheral participation by new and former members. This study demonstrates that the architecture of
information collections and information flows in an online community has a significant impact on the
social processes related to community maintenance.

www.si.umich.edu/...hansen.pdf - Preview

SN Hansen