The Study of Virtual Community - Research Proposal Example

Title: The study of Virtual Community Name Institution Introduction A recent research by the Institute of e-Management, LeBlanc (2005) proposed that virtual community is currently becoming one of the themes of knowledge management particularly in business discourse. According to the co-founders of this concept recognized it as the main tool in changing the implicit knowledge to explicit form (Rheingold, 1993). The ‘virtual Community’’ which is originally credited to Howard Rheingold’s journals is described as a social combination that is built from internet especially when people continue to discuss elements with the same objectives that will later forms tangible human relationship inside the cyberspace. In this paper, the writer (I) recommends a complementary framework of analysing virtual community since it uses the concept of genre in understanding virtual community. Apparently, the concept of genre shift the emphasis from focusing the nature of and extent of online relationship among the ‘community members’ to the aim and purpose of communication, substance regularities, institution in context, social and technological forces that foster the regularities (Stolterman, \AAgren & Croon, 2000). The members of Virtual Community are highly participatory in nature and therefore, to differentiate for instance, the brand producer and the brand customer is blurred. As a result, the texts underlying and within the discourse can be manipulated, renegotiated or reinforced to achieve a particular objective. Community and Genre Community can be defined from different contexts like membership, relationship, shared values and practices, collective goods and duration. What make a community are issues of membership and exclusion. In this case, only those who meet specific requirements like breaking geographical and ethnic boundaries, gander, age or sex makes a community. Members of a community forms personal connection/relationship with each other and have mutual commitment. A community has a common set of issues, goals, values and practices which are distributed among members in a collective way. Above all, a community tend to have long term existence (Schuler, 1996). These reflect the characteristics of a virtual community where the important aspect in the cycle is the communication between members at different geographical location. Genre The perception of genre has noticeably changed with the introduction of new social media networks which allow ease interaction among individuals irrespective of where they are geographically placed globally. In the ancient times, genre was defined from the idea of kind of spoken and written discourse such as elegies and encyclopaedia articles. But recently, many scholars find genre to be defined from the way individuals accomplish social actions putting into consideration the congruent of purpose and audience (Tan, Shi & Mo, 2013). Tracing, for example, the development of business memos, when the organization needed to communicate institutional changes, the message was passed through business letters. The shift has been seen to move from typewriting massages to email memos with the advance in technology. It is therefore found that online interactions have built a great potential to rejuvenate the progress of genre (Stolterman, \AAgren & Croon, 2000). This reflects a briefed concept of genre which at least provides a contextual analysis of virtual community. From this introduction, the paper frames the analysis of virtual community by focusing on three basic elements which include: The reason why individuals join virtual community What are the motivational factors promotes membership of virtual community What is the nature of discourse community, Seek for social support Individuals join virtual community to seek social support that the community may provide. LeBlanc, (2005) described social support as a degree to which individuals’ essential social needs are satisfied when they interact with others. This happens at various capacities where people needs may not be addressed by the present physical social elements. People participate in the virtual community to share opinions, understandings as well as beliefs. For example, the forum created by Samsung Company intending to examine the brand image of its phone brands called a lot of opinion participation of customers from different parts of the world. Indeed, this is practical evidence that online social platforms exchange their personal experience with others in the grid. The eventuality of this interaction perhaps may lead to friendship. The interactivity within the forum may go beyond top chat rooms and other social networks that will facilitate the connection between the two. Friendship in virtual community stands high possibility to offer extra benefits when it comes to information exchange which built up strong social support particularly when there is a consistency of information flow (Rheingold, 1993) Motivational factors to join virtual community Social psychology has found that individuals are subjected to various motivational factors. However, it is a sense of belonging and affiliation that drives people to join virtual community. People perceive that groups provide comprehensive information which will help them achieve their goals and perhaps get recognition through social identity. In this case, it is perceived that individual’s self-identity is crafted from being a member of a particular social group. It may also be considered that the traditional motivations can extend to being motivational factors in virtual community (Stolterman, \AAgren & Croon, 2000). Methods of obtaining data The data collection plan for this research paper comprise of pre-test, pilot test and sampling. This data collection procedure aims at obtaining more than 900 responses in the virtual community within the university. During pre-tests, 10 questionnaires are presented by the researcher to the individuals who spent up to 10 hours in virtual communities. This will help the researcher in rectifying errors that may be found in the questionnaires. Secondly, during pilot test will be conducted on two virtual communities within the university. The two virtual communities (VC) are forum within the university that serves the need of foreign students and bulletin board communities. The first community have about 200 members who have less than 15 members active online every day. The second community has about 1500 members with about 140 members active online each day. The number of online present members will be observed over a period of 3 days. The message is passed and endorsed to be open for discussion in the two categories of virtual community. It will be challenging to get the right number of people who click on the questionnaires therefore, the response from the participants will be hard to be obtained either. Actual data collection Two virtual communities will participate in the study: Tecent community (unique business community) and Xilu Community (sole business community) (Tan, Shi & Mo, 2013). The two communities were chosen since it represents the largest virtual community in China. The individuals in respective communities are invited for interaction (online interaction) and the questionnaires administered to participants identified. Data collection process will be web-based since majority of individuals will be easily reached through online social platforms. To ensure effectiveness data collection process, only questionnaires that carry complete set of questions will be administered to the participants. The success of the data collection process will be rested on the research team. Results Out of 1,260 responses, 95% of the respondent in the two virtual communities were from Hong Kong and Taiwan. 95% of them were of Chinese origin and could comprehend Chinese culture. Most of the respondents in the two VCs were male and single. Their status varied from unemployed to some of them being professionals. In regard to their education, more than 65% were above collage level. There was a significant representation of the respondents on virtual communities with the composition of gender, age, education level and income level. Characteristic of virtual community In most cases, it is free to join virtual community unless the objectives of some online groups are no other than creation of a particular social identity. The technology has supported the nature of the discourse and interaction of individuals within the virtual community. User interface (in this case online social networks) requires the uses to possess specific knowledge such as ability to use computers, phones and other gadgets facilitating the interaction. Perhaps will impose additional constrains such as financial and social to the members virtual community. Integrating all these aspects, there will be the functional nature of the virtual community. The goal of the system in the virtual community is to enhance effective flow of information by supporting online discourse (Schuler, 1996). Also, it is important to note that the discourse medium in the virtual community is persistence and any contribution within the platform is preserved and can be read by who were not present during the time of interaction. The discourse medium in a virtual community has three main properties which include: All individuals within the social grid see the same things, The newcomers in a conversation often see the previous conversation before being engaged in the conversation. In this case, they get to understand the discussion before contributing towards it, and The sequence of events in the platform of discussion is preserved. Therefore, when an opinion is added for instance, it will just appear after the first opinion by the member of the discourse. Conclusion The paper examined how features of discourse medium shapes the conversation in the virtual community. In these two particular cases, it is very important to note that various online platforms supports best the development, maintenance and regularities of conversations. Participatory genre is moulded by the discourse medium existing in virtual communities. It supports many unifying situations like joking and play of words. Perhaps this could support both positive and negative responses within the discourse. With little doubt, social aspects like nature of discourse community as well as institutional factors like policies are very essential when it comes to creation of virtual community. References LeBlanc, T. (2005). “IS THERE A TRANSLATOR IN TEH HOUSE?”: CULTURAL AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF A VIRTUAL SPEECH COMMUNITY ON AN INTERNET MESSAGE BOARD. Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Schuler, D. (1996). New community networks. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Stolterman, E., \AAgren, P., & Croon, A. (2000). Virtual communities: Why and how they are studied.Unpublished Document. Department Of Informatics. Tan, Y., Shi, Y., & Mo, H. (2013). Advances in swarm intelligence. Berlin: Springer. Read More

Tracing, for example, the development of business memos, when the organization needed to communicate institutional changes, the message was passed through business letters. The shift has been seen to move from typewriting massages to email memos with the advance in technology. It is therefore found that online interactions have built a great potential to rejuvenate the progress of genre (Stolterman, \AAgren & Croon, 2000). This reflects a briefed concept of genre which at least provides a contextual analysis of virtual community.

From this introduction, the paper frames the analysis of virtual community by focusing on three basic elements which include: The reason why individuals join virtual community What are the motivational factors promotes membership of virtual community What is the nature of discourse community, Seek for social support Individuals join virtual community to seek social support that the community may provide. LeBlanc, (2005) described social support as a degree to which individuals’ essential social needs are satisfied when they interact with others.

This happens at various capacities where people needs may not be addressed by the present physical social elements. People participate in the virtual community to share opinions, understandings as well as beliefs. For example, the forum created by Samsung Company intending to examine the brand image of its phone brands called a lot of opinion participation of customers from different parts of the world. Indeed, this is practical evidence that online social platforms exchange their personal experience with others in the grid.

The eventuality of this interaction perhaps may lead to friendship. The interactivity within the forum may go beyond top chat rooms and other social networks that will facilitate the connection between the two. Friendship in virtual community stands high possibility to offer extra benefits when it comes to information exchange which built up strong social support particularly when there is a consistency of information flow (Rheingold, 1993) Motivational factors to join virtual community Social psychology has found that individuals are subjected to various motivational factors.

However, it is a sense of belonging and affiliation that drives people to join virtual community. People perceive that groups provide comprehensive information which will help them achieve their goals and perhaps get recognition through social identity. In this case, it is perceived that individual’s self-identity is crafted from being a member of a particular social group. It may also be considered that the traditional motivations can extend to being motivational factors in virtual community (Stolterman, \AAgren & Croon, 2000).

Methods of obtaining data The data collection plan for this research paper comprise of pre-test, pilot test and sampling. This data collection procedure aims at obtaining more than 900 responses in the virtual community within the university. During pre-tests, 10 questionnaires are presented by the researcher to the individuals who spent up to 10 hours in virtual communities. This will help the researcher in rectifying errors that may be found in the questionnaires. Secondly, during pilot test will be conducted on two virtual communities within the university.

The two virtual communities (VC) are forum within the university that serves the need of foreign students and bulletin board communities. The first community have about 200 members who have less than 15 members active online every day. The second community has about 1500 members with about 140 members active online each day. The number of online present members will be observed over a period of 3 days. The message is passed and endorsed to be open for discussion in the two categories of virtual community.

It will be challenging to get the right number of people who click on the questionnaires therefore, the response from the participants will be hard to be obtained either. Actual data collection Two virtual communities will participate in the study: Tecent community (unique business community) and Xilu Community (sole business community) (Tan, Shi & Mo, 2013).

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