Online communities are among the most obvious manifestations of social networks based on new media technology. Facilitating ad-hoc communication and leveraging collective intelligence by matching similar or related users have become important success factors in almost every successful business plan. Researchers are just beginning to understand virtual communities and collaborations among participants currently proliferating across the world. Virtual Communities, Social Networks and Collaboration covers cutting edge research topics of utmost real-world importance in the specific domain of social networks. This volume focuses on exploring issues relating to the design, development, and outcomes from electronic groups and online communities, including: - The implications of social networking, - Understanding of how and why knowledge is shared among participants, - What leads to participation, effective collaboration, co-creation and innovation, - How organizations can better utilize the potential benefits of communities in both internal operations, marketing, and new product development.

Online communities are among the most obvious manifestations of social networks based on new media technology. Facilitating ad-hoc communication and leveraging collective intelligence by matching similar or related users have become important success factors in almost every successful business plan. Researchers are just beginning to understand virtual communities and collaborations among participants currently proliferating across the world. Virtual Communities, Social Networks and Collaboration covers cutting edge research topics of utmost real-world importance in the specific domain of social networks. This volume focuses on exploring issues relating to the design, development, and outcomes from electronic groups and online communities, including: - The implications of social networking, - Understanding of how and why knowledge is shared among participants, - What leads to participation, effective collaboration, co-creation and innovation, - How organizations can better utilize the potential benefits of communities in both internal operations, marketing, and new product development.

Social networks are a nearly universal element of modern, information-driven societies, one that presents many opportunities and advantages—and challenges and hazards—for organizations as well as individuals. Studies in Virtual Communities, Blogs, and Modern Social Networking: Measurements, Analysis, and Investigations provides a cross-cultural perspective of social networking, including ethical considerations and business implications. Readers will find a detailed treatment of technical, social, and legal issues inherent in online virtual communities, exploring methods of effectively implementing the latest social tools in their everyday practices, both professional and personal, in the interest of improved security and sustainability in digital collaborative environments.

"This encyclopedia of virtual communities and technologies provides a much needed integrated overview of all the critical concepts, technologies and issues in the area of virtual communities"--Provided by publisher.

“Convergence” is defined as the intertwinement of species or technologies. “Tech- logical convergence,” on the other hand, refers to a trend where a single product such as a cell phone, used in the past solely for communication, evolves into a product that functions not only as a communication device but incorporates the distinct function- ities of a number of other technologies, thereby enabling users to take pictures, listen to music, access the Web, send and receive e-mail messages, find their way, and so on, equally successfully. Social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and LinkedIn, where users congregate, discuss certain issues, entertain themselves, and share information in t- tual, audio and video formats, are among the most frequented web sites. Social networks having Web 2. 0 features offer personalized services, allowing users to - corporate their own content easily and describe, organize and share it with others, thereby enriching users’ experience. More often than not, a capable cell phone is all you need to get access to such social networks and carry out all those tasks. Such tools tend to change our private, social and professional lives and blur the boundaries among them. In other words, our private, social and professional lives are converging, too: someone using a cell phone could be communicating with his/her friend(s), accessing information services, taking an exam using a learning management system, or conducting business.

Covers the development, design, and utilization of virtual organizations and communities and the resulting impact of these venues.

The Internet creates a very unique environment where numerous individuals and widely distributed organizations can communicate and even collaborate for common interests. Virtual communities, shared information databases, and online forums are visible examples of the self-organizing social collectivities, which emerge from the many-to-many interactions among voluntary participants. Online social communities exemplified by blogs and social networking sites are getting more and more attention nowadays from the business sector, and companies are eager to find ways to use them for business opportunities. Despite the mushrooming hype regarding the unlimited potentials of virtual community, little is known about its complex nature-how virtual communities are born, sustained, and under what circumstances they collapse. A virtual community is an aggregate of voluntary participants, in which individual behaviors are in conjunction with the behaviors of others. People decide to contribute or free-ride in response to the contributing or free-riding behaviors of others. If many people already are contributing to the community, for example, one may be strongly tempted to free-ride, while this may not be the case if there are very few contributors. Understanding this social interdependence is the key to grasping the collective dynamics underlying virtual communities. This book aims at illuminating the implications of the collective social dynamics in a computer-mediated environment on advertising, business, and communication in general. Along with conceptual discussions, this book shows some experimental findings related to the psychological and social-structural factors affecting individuals' communicative motivations. "This pioneering book should be valuable to read since it is one of the first academic attempts to shed light on how network structures influence the behaviors of individuals on the Internet." - John D. Leckenby, Professor and Everett D. Collier Centennial Chair in Communication, The University of Texas at Austin