A structuration approach to online communities of practice: The case of Q&A communities
| Main Authors: | Shachaf, Pnina, Rosenbaum, Howard |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal PeerReviewed application/pdf |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2010
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://eprints.rclis.org/15528/1/structurationapproach.pdf http://eprints.rclis.org/15528/ |
Daftar Isi:
- This article describes an approach based on structuration theory (Giddens, 1979, 1984; Orlikowski, 1992, 2000) and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) that can be used to guide investigation into the dynamics of online question and answer (Q&A) communities. This approach is useful because most research on Q&A sites has focused attention on information retrieval, information seeking behavior, and information intermediation and has assumed uncritically that the online Q&A community plays an important role in these domains of study. Assuming instead that research on online communities should take into account social, technical, and contextual factors (Kling, Rosenbaum, & Sawyer, 2005), the utility of this approach is demonstrated with an analysis of three online Q&A communities seen as communities of practice. This article makes a theoretical contribution to the study of online Q&A communities and, more generally, to the domain of social reference.