Informal Interaction in Virtual Spaces

1999

This paper presents some field results of a study of an on-line community : the cyberians. Backed up by our empirical findings we discuss the concept of community in order to gain a better understanding of the sense of the still problematic notion of virtual community. We suggest a set of issues defining, in our opinion, virtual communities and allowing their empirical study. We follow two main lines of investigation : the construction of Self and the relationship to the Other in the CMC settings and the social structures of the virtual community of the cyberians. This paper 1 discloses the first results of a research on the practices of an active minority : the " cyberians 2 ", Internet users clients of Cyberia, a French access provider. We selected a population who is active on newsgroups and has its own homepage. Five newsgroups are reserved to Cyberia clients, and namely one dedicated to technical help. This newsgroup is quite active : an average of around 200 messages are posted every day, to be compared with the average of 24 messages a day calculated on 500 newsgroups by . We started with an ethnographic account and analysis of productions of cyberians on the net : their homepages and their messages on the newsgroups. Those provide new communication spaces, which are opportunities for relations in public in Goffman's sense (presentation of self, meeting and interacting). Three issues are of concern to us here : the presentation of self, the building of the relations with others, and the construction and social life of Internet communities. We tried to use the classical sociological notions on community, and see to what extent they were useful for the study of " virtual " groups. We hope to contribute to clarify the term " virtual community " and facilitate its empirical description. We use the notion of sociality in Alfred Schutz's (1976, p. 230) sense as " the common intersubjective world of communication and social action ". This definition highlights the founding value of common-sense shared knowledge for the constitution of social groups. The notion of sociality refers here to the social constructs which enable communication and interaction. When studying cyberian everyday life, we tried to see whether there was a specific form of sociality in the situation of CMC 3 (forms of relationship to the Other, shared system of references, etc.). We shall first briefly review the notions of community, classical and virtual, and we shall retain what seems relevant for our problem (section 1). Methodology (section 2) is followed by the analysis of the presentation of self and of relation to other in Internet setting (section 3). Finally, we consider community level, and describe the role structure, the social network, and some components of common knowledge (section 4).

CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2002

The internet has opened a new social space for communication. The present work studies interpersonal relationships in cyberspace using the chat channel as an interaction medium. Data obtained have outlined the sociodemographic and personality profile of internet users who engage in online chats as well as group self-perception, chatters' use habits, motivations to interact online, and the chatters' network of virtual and face-to-face relationships. Results suggests that relationships developed online are healthy and a complement to face-to-face relationships. These data are confirmed by personality studies. The theoretical and methodological implications of data are discussed. 43

Extended Description To what degree can the human exchanges we observe online be called “sociability”? In other words, do these exchanges amount to any meaningful type of social organization? Are they more than the mere froth of collective emotion discharging its energy with a lot of noise but little consequence against the wave breakers of social media? Do the social interactions that take place in virtual space—all those kind or not-so-kind words sent back and forth—suggest the same level of commitment, dedication, morality, passion, or even depravity that we see in everyday life? Or, more succinctly, is sociability online less “social,” less “real” than what we see in everyday life? Tags internet, blogging, social networks, computer, virtual community, social theory, communication technology, online interaction, social groups, research

We often hear and read sentences like: the way people interact is not as before; the multimedia society where we live is changing the nature of the human being; the use of the Internet in the daily life of the individual makes him isolated of the rest of the community; the technological evolution pushes the individual for the ghetto of the techno-cyberculture, without any values. We live imbued and enclosed by an interconnected world. The power of communication lies in the fact to make it in real time, of immediate and simultaneous form, independently of the geographical distance. The technological and social advances allow the birth of a social platform of communication, in which communication is possible in the most varied expressions. This is a exploratory research comparing two groups (16-17 years old), who interact frequently off and on-line (real and virtual world), from an anthropological point of view, using sociometric techniques. The purpose is to verify if their impressions of the other(s) and their behavior, as well, changes while interacting on-line.

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC2010, 2010

This paper presents research based on a current study validating the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process in the context of virtual spaces. A report about teens and social Media (Lenhart, Madden, Rankin Macgill, & Smith, 2007) reveals that 93% of the teens who were interviewed use the Internet as a social meeting place. This, coupled with recent internet usage statistics, establishes ‘digital natives’ as active participants in the design of new media as social collaborative tools. Would these social tools be effective in the e-learning context or will they form part of a wider knowledge management framework? The purpose of this study is to outline the design of the measurement of interaction processes in the virtual spaces used for e-learning.

Scientific Bulletin, 2018

The twentieth century end created the premises for the emergence of a new global space for interaction. The development and normalization of cyberspace enabled redefining the norms of human cohabitation. In the first phase of development, this concept of social interaction has favoured for the first time in history the possibility for people to document and express themselves freely. This could be done under the protection of anonymity without them being afraid of any possible consequences. The subsequent evolution has invalidated the enthusiasm of the “founding fathers” regarding these ideas, but has contributed significantly to the development of trade and technological innovation

The emergence of technology in the information and communication processes has changed the learning paradigm. Due to the widespread global usage of the internet, teachers and learners today are keen to interact through the internet. Hence, their interactions anywhere and anytime are dynamic. As expressed by researchers and internet users, such facility has given a great opportunity for learners to explore and construct their own knowledge. This paper intends to examine the effects of selected components of an online classroom provided by ExamBuddy.com on social interactions in the message board. This study also intends to examine the amount of constructive information spread among the participants. It will report on the study of the types of interactions between students and a teacher in the virtual environment based on a guideline given by Girgensohn and Lee (2002) and Khaslavsky (1998). This study also examines the participants’ behaviours while communicating via message board. Data was collected from students of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam using the survey technique. Preliminary findings indicate that the use of the online message board has encouraged students to construct their own knowledge and helped to improve interactions among the participants.

2003

In 4 different research projects taking place in our department, students, teachers, researchers, policymakers and policemen are communicating and interacting through shared electronic work spaces between face to face meetings. The students interact about their studies in pedagogy. The teachers, researchers and policymakers interact about ICT in higher education. The researchers are from different universities all over Europe and interact between meetings about their collaborative research project. The policemen interact about drugs and new policy issues in the police organisation. The projects have similar theoretical starting points (social constructivism, knowledge building, shared understanding), as well as their differences. One project is focusing on community building. Another on reaching common understanding through grounding. A third is looking at work place learning and a fourth focuses on intercultural understanding and the role of language. Data are mainly the protocols of collaboration. In some projects additional data refer to interviews and video protocols. Apart form the interaction data in the virtual work space, also the face to face interactions are analysed. After an overview of thecontexts and methods of the projects, the paper will present an overview of ways to reach shared understanding and inhibitors of interaction and communication in these various environments.

2010

We often hear and read sentences like: the way people interact is not as before; the multimedia society where we live is changing the nature of the human being; the use of the Internet in the daily life of the individual makes him isolated of the rest of the community; the technological evolution pushes the individual for the ghetto of the techno-cyberculture, without any values. We live imbued and enclosed by an interconnected world. The power of communication lies in the fact to make it in real time, of immediate and simultaneous form, independently of the geographical distance. The technological and social advances allow the birth of a social platform of communication, in which communication is possible in the most varied expressions. This is a exploratory research comparing two groups (16-17 years old), who interact frequently off and on-line (real and virtual world), from an anthropological point of view, using sociometric techniques. The purpose is to verify if their impressio...

Information, Communication & Society, 2005

This paper outlines some of the issues involved in the development of human relationships in cyberspace. Set within the wider context of the internet and society it investigates how geographically distant individuals are coming together on the internet to inhabit new kinds of social spaces or virtual communities. People 'live in' and 'construct' these new spaces in such a way as to suggest that the Internet is not a placeless cyberspace that is distinct and separate from the real world.