HUMAN INTERACTION IN INTERNET COMMUNITIESJerry ChangApril 2008

Studying Human Interaction: Why Should We Care? As users?

Consider the kids growing up in the Internet age - it goes beyond just crime and predators

What about the less technically inclined around us?

As developers? What will users do with the software we

design? Can we reasonably expect that all users will

use our software as intended?

Studying Human Interaction: Why Should We Care? What can we gain?

Data mining behavioral patterns Clustering users (“like-actioned” rather

than “like-minded”) Big Brother and privacy issues

Online Social Networking and Behavior

Sites Designed for Social Networking

MySpace (over 100 million users) Facebook (over 67 million users) Many others

CU2 Study (2006)

Social self-esteem Tone of feedback versus volume “Adolescents who predominantly receive

negative feedback on their profiles may especially be in need of mediation on how to optimize their online self-representation.”

What can we learn from this? Can we think of ways to improve the user

experience?

Facebook Study (2007)

Social capital Real or virtual resources accumulated

through the relationships among people bonding, bridging, maintaining

What can we learn from this? Real world benefits Encouraging, perhaps sponsoring, use in

college and companies

Online Forums

Usenet Widespread Existence on the Web

Business Education Entertainment There is most likely at least one dedicated

forum for any topic of shared interest.

Types of Users in Forums

regular troll sock puppet astroturfer attention seeker malicious users

The Effect of These Users

Stopping malicious users and trolls Limitations on users via software Education

“Law is order, and good law is good order.” – Aristotle Moderators Self-policing

Moderation in Usenet

IRC/Chat Rooms

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) The oldest real-time Internet chat system

(1988), still prominent today Chat Rooms

Not as pervasive as forums, but still very widespread.

Human behavior: 2003 - Brandon Vedas (aka Ripper)

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) Everquest World of Warcraft (over 10 million

subscribers) Second Life (over 10 million claimed,

more like 1 million active) Dozens more, both commercial and free End of 2008 estimate: 30 million

subscribers across all MMORPGs

Human Behavior in MMORPGs Addiction

Everquest paper: discusses player experiences

Not much research in this area: is it merely the result of an addictive personality? The social aspect ?

Some relation to Internet addiction Griefing

Taking advantage of game dynamics to ruin the experience for other players

General Anti-Social Behavior Why do people who behave in “real life”

misbehave in an online medium? Cyber-bullying (flaming, griefing) Dunbar’s number (150)

“the supposed cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable social relationships…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number)

Breakdown and Solutions

Taking away anonymity Privacy? Free speech?

Rules and regulations Education is key

References

Friend Networking Sites and Their Relationship to Adolescents' Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem.

The benefits of Facebook 'friends:' Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites.

Wikipedia: Brandon Vedas EverQuest--It's Just a Computer Game

Right? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Online Gaming Addiction

Anarchy on-line