EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 1

EMAC6v81: Special Topics – Online Communities

Spring 2011

[Draft as of January 7, 2011 - Subject to Revision]

Course Information

Instructor: Cuihua (Cindy) Shen, Ph.D.

Class location: ATEC1.104
Time: Wednesday 7:00 - 9:45pm
E-mail: cuihua.shen@utdallas.edu
Office Location: ATEC 1.610
Office Hours: T 3:00-3:45pm, W 5:30-6:30pm & by appointment
Course Website: http://elearning.utdallas.edu

All course-related information will be posted on the course website. Students may contact
me via email or in-person. Please begin your email subject heading with “EMAC6v81”
to ensure my prompt attention. I try to respond to student emails within 36 hours Monday
through Friday.

Important course-related information such as announcements and reminders will be

primarily communicated to students via email. Course readings, assignments and updated
course schedule will be posted on the eLearning website. Students are encouraged to
check eLearning at least once a week. (eLearning tutorial:
http://www.utdallas.edu/oee/distance/resources/handouts/webct_tutorials.html).

Course Description

This course is designed for students interested in understanding and creating online
communities using a variety of social media. Students will survey the history, theory,
empirical research of online communities and many of the Web 2.0 applications that are
driving the growth of the social web. During the first half of the semester, students will
read theoretical literature on community and communication from multiple disciplines.
Classes in second half of the semester provide more in-depth examination of topic-
specific online communities including gaming, entertainment, teamwork, and mobile
communities.

Although this course is grounded in theory, it is equally rooted in practice. Throughout

the semester, students will be required to get familiar with various online social media
tools and platforms, including blogs, wikis, social network sites, forums, virtual worlds,
online games, and so on. Students will also work in teams to design and implement a new
online community using simple, readily available software. Therefore, the course will
provide both theoretical and experiential foundations for social media researchers and
practitioners to critically plan, design, implement, analyze, and participate in online
communities.
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 2

Required Texts

Kim, A.J. (2000) Community Building on the Web. This can be purchased as a pdf
at: http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321488911

In addition, various course readings will be posted to eLearning.

Course Requirements

1) Attendance and participation: Class sessions will involve intensive discussions

of assigned readings as well as individual and group activities. Therefore,
participation and active discussion are essential for the success of this class. I
expect you to come to every class prepared and ready to discuss critically about
the readings. Be prepared to defend your position with examples, statistics and
scientific studies.

2) Lead discussion (team): Students sign up to lead discussion of course readings.

Every student would participate in lead discussions at least once during the
semester. Students who sign up for the same week would coordinate among
themselves and organize that week‟s discussion. For example, they can formulate
a list of topics or lead questions, organize a debate based on course readings,
deliver a lecture presentation of the main arguments, etc. I can meet with you to
go over the class plan and to provide guidance such as additional literature.

3) Technology reports (team and individual): Students sign up to deliver a

technology report once during the semester. A technology report is a short
presentation that surveys the latest technologies and platforms in a specific area.
For example, a tech report of online dating communities provides an overview of
the online dating market, including the brief history, major categories of
sites/communities, latest trends, future forecast, as well as the key features and
characteristics of several exemplary online dating sites. The purpose of a tech
report is to bring people up to speed about a specific segment of online
communities.

Technology reports are specified in the “assignments” section. The tech report
team will deliver a 15-minute presentation and/or demonstration. In addition,
every student is also required to complete the assignments and be ready to discuss
their findings in class.

4) Weekly reaction papers (individual): Students are responsible for submitting

short reaction papers on 10 of the weeks‟ readings (300-500words). These short
papers should focus on all of the readings from each week and should consist of
limited summary; focusing on an evaluation of the readings and identifying 2-3
questions for discussion during the class meeting (focus on the papers‟ key issues,
strengths and limitations, and a comparison to previous weeks‟ readings). Each
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 3

paper should be submitted as a message to the designated topic at the eLearning

discussion forum by 11:59pm on the Monday before the class meeting.

5) Design project (team): Students will work in teams of two to three people to
propose, design, implement, and market a new online community throughout the
semester. This project has several deliverables, including a short proposal (2
pages max), a presentation of your proposal (pitch session), the online community
itself (or prototype), and a final presentation.

6) Term paper (individual): A term paper can take two forms. It could be an essay
critically analyzing an existing online community using the concepts and theories
covered in class. It could also take the form of an empirical research paper. The
term paper should be 5 – 7 pages long, double-spaced.

Evaluation of Performance

Attendance and Participation 10%

Lead discussion 10%
Technology reports 10%
Reaction papers 20%
Design project (team) 20%
Term project (individual) 20%

Class Schedule

Week 1 (Jan 12)

Introduction and Overview

Readings
1) Negroponte, N. Being Digital, Chapter 1.
2) Kim, A.J. (2000) Community Building on the Web. Introduction.

Topics
1) Introduction of students and the instructor
2) Overview of syllabus
3) Overview of assignments
4) Lead discussion sign-up
5) Technology report sign-up

Assignment:
Check out at least five different types of online chat and/or messaging services.
Be prepared to discuss your experiences in the next class.
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 4

Week 2 (Jan 19)

History of Communities

Tech report: Online chatting/messaging services

Readings
1) Tönnies, F. (1974). On Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (available online at
http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/courses/GEMEIN.HTML).
2) Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. (1999). Virtual communities as communities: Net-
surfers don't ride alone. In M. Smith & P. Kollock (Eds.), Communities in
cyberspace (pp. 167-194). London: Routledge.
3) Oldenburg, R. (1997). The great good place: Cafés, coffee shops, community
centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts, and how they get you
through the day. New York: Marlowe & Company. Chapter 2.
4) Optional - Katz, J. E., Rice, R. E., Acord, S., Dasgupta, K., & David, K. (2004).
Personal mediated communication and the concept of community in theory and
practice (chapter 9). In P. Kalbfleisch (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 28,
pp. 315-371). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Topics
1) The definition of “community”
2) Place-based vs interest-based
3) Online community vs offline community

Assignment:
Check out the world of online groups, including Usenet (Google Groups),
listservs, message boards, online forums, and groups based on social network sites
(e.g., a facebook group). Observe the language use, conversation flow, and social
dynamics of at least one group from each of these platforms. Be prepared to
discuss their differences and similarities in the next class.

Week 3 (Jan 26)

Computer-Mediated Communication

Tech report: Online groups

Readings
1) Baym, N. (2010). Personal connections in the digital age. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Chapter 2.
2) Meyrowitz, J. (1985). No sense of place: The impact of electronic media on social
behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 3-4
3) Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal,
interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-
43.
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 5

4) Walther, J. (2006) Nonverbal dynamics in computer-mediated communication, or

:( and the net :(„z with you, :) and you :) alone. In V. Manusov & M. Patterson
(Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Nonverbal Communication.
5) Lessig, L. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0, Ch. 1-3

Topics
1) Making sense of new media
2) Social information processing
3) Nonverbal dynamics
4) Face-to-face versus CMC
5) Code is law

Assignment:
Research at least four personal publishing platforms (e.g., blogger, wordpress,
moveabletype) and at least four online tools to manage RSS feeds. Prepare to
share your findings at the next class.

Week 4 (Feb 2)
Social Networks (I)

Tech Report: Personal publishing and RSS

Readings
1) Castells, M. (2004). Why networks matter? In H. McCarthy, P. Miller & P.
Skidmore (Eds.), Network logic: Who governs the interconnected world (pp. 221-
224). London: Demos.
2) Watts, D. J. (2003). Six degrees: The science of a connected age (1st ed.). New
York: Norton. Chapter 1.
3) Granovetter, M. (1983). The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited.
Sociological Theory, 1, 201-233.

Topics
1) The network society
2) Network concepts: density, centrality, depth, breadth
3) Strong vs. weak ties

Assignments:
Go to each of the social network sites mentioned in boyd & Ellison (2007).
Observe their similarities and differences. Imagine that you are hired as a
consultant to provide a strategic plan for a site of your choice. Prepare to share
your plan with the class.

Week 5 (Feb 9) – No Class (International Social Network Conference)

EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 6

Week 6 (Feb 16)

Social Networks (II)

Tech Report: Social Networking Sites

Readings
1) boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, history,
and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
2) Donath, J. (2007). Signals in social supernets. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, 13(1), 231-251.
3) Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of facebook
"Friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online Social Network Sites.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.

Topics
1) Social network sites
2) Technology-mediated social networks
3) Networked individualism

Assignments:
Check out at least four online dating sites: match.com, eharmony, lavalife,
chemistry, etc. Observe others‟ profiles and create your own profile.
Check out at least four auction sites and classifieds: ebay, craigslist, etc. Pay
specific attention to their reputation systems.

Week 7 (Feb 23)

Identity and Reputation

Tech Report: Online Dating and Online Marketplace

Readings
1) Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen : Identity in the age of the Internet. New
York: Simon & Schuster. Chapter 8.
2) Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, New
York: Doubleday. Introduction and Chapter 1.
3) Kim, A. J. (2000). Community building on the web: Secret strategies for
successful online communities. Berkeley, California: Peachpit Press. Chapters 3 &
4.
4) Ellison et al (2006) Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in
the Online Dating Environment. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue2/ellison.html

Topics
1) Identity and impression management
2) Online identity construction
3) Deception
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 7

4) Roles in online communities

Assignments:
Go to Wikipedia, find one article of interest and learn about the major points of
discussion on the “talk” page.
Contribute at least 100 words to this article. Follow closely the development of
this article, especially your edits. Report your experience in the next class.

Week 8 (March 2)
Design and Maintenance

Tech Report: Wikipedia experience

Readings
1) Kim, A. J. (2000). Community building on the web: Secret strategies for
successful online communities. Berkeley, California: Peachpit Press. Chapters 1-5.
2) Rheingold, H. (1999), "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online,"
available at: http://www.rheingold.com/texts/artonlinehost.html
3) Preece, J., Nonnecke, B., & Andrews, D. (2004). The top five reasons for lurking:
Improving community experiences for everyone. Computers in Human Behavior,
20(2), 201-223.
4) Andrews, D. C. (2002). Audience-specific online community design.
Communications of the ACM, 45(4), 64-68.
5) Herring, S., Job-Sluder, K., Scheckler, R., & Barab, S. (2002). Searching for
safety online: Managing "Trolling" In a feminist forum. The Information Society,
18(37), 371-384.

Topics
1) Community design
2) Identifying the audience
3) Trolling
4) Lurkers
5) Member retention
6) Lifecycle

Assignment:
Find at least three genres of user-generated content (e.g., text, songs, music
videos, etc) and bring an example of each genre to the next class.
Check out EFF and Creative Commons.
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 8

Week 9 (March 9)
Peer Production and Governance

Tech Report: Peer production communities; User-generated content

Readings
1) Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks: How social production transforms
markets and freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapters 1 & 4.
2) von Hippel, E., & von Krogh, G. (2003). Open source software and the "Private-
collective" Innovation model: Issues for organization science. Organization
Science, 14(2), 209-223.
3) Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (1998). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic
definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.
4) Optional - Petersen, S. M. (2008). Loser-generated content: From participation to
exploitation. First Monday, 13(3).

Topics
1) Motivations
2) The private-collective model
3) Public goods and free labor

Assignments (Team):
Propose an online community. In your proposal, make sure that you describe the
purpose, design principles, technological tools, target audience and how this
online community fills a market niche. Start to implement your online
community using available technology or to develop a prototype.
Prepare a short presentation to market your community in the next class.

Week 10 (March 16) – No Class (Spring break)

Week 11 (March 23)

Masses and Niches

Pitch session: Pitch your idea of the online community to the class. Show your prototype.
(team)

Readings
1) Jenkins, H. (2006). Fans, bloggers, gamers: Exploring participatory culture. New
York: New York University Press. Chapters 3, 4 & 6
2) Anderson, C. (2004) The long tail (article version:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html)
3) Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital. New York: Vintage Books. Chapter 12-14
4) Optional - The Netflix case:
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/10/why_better_dvd_.html
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 9

Topics
1) Niche markets
2) Convergence culture
3) User-generated content
4) Customization and cyberbalkanization

Assignment:
Find at least four examples of social support groups online.
Find at least four examples of communities that organize offline gatherings. Try
to participate in one “meetup”. Be prepared to share your experience in the next
calss.

Week 12 (March 30)

Social Capital

Tech Report: Social support groups; Offline gatherings

Readings
1) Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of american
community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Chapter 13.
2) Resnick, P. (2001). Beyond bowling together: Sociotechnical capital. In J. Carroll
(Ed.), HCI in the new millennium (pp. 647-672). New York: Addison-Wesley.
3) Barak, A., Boniel-Nissim, M., & Suler, J. (2008). Fostering empowerment in
online support groups, Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 5, 1867-1883.
4) Sessions, L. F. (2010). How offline gatherings affect online communities -- when
virtual community members "Meetup". Information, Communication & Society(3),
375 - 395.

Topics
1) Social Capital: bridging and bonding
2) SocioTechnical Capital
3) Tie strength, bridging and bonding online vs. offline
4) Online social support groups

Assignments:
Spend at least an hour in SecondLife or any other virtual world.
Check out one Massively Multiplayer Online Game (e.g., World of Warcraft) and
at least one social game (e.g, Farmville on Facebook)

Week 13 (April 6)
Gaming and Entertainment

Tech report: Virtual Worlds, MMOs and Social Games

EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 10

Readings
1) Steinkuehler, C. A., & Williams, D. (2006). Where everybody knows your (screen)
name: Online games as "Third places". Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, 11(4), 885-909.
2) Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., & Moore, R. (2006). "Alone together?"
Exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games. In
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factor in computing systems (pp.
407-416). New York, USA: ACM Press.
3) Taylor, T. L. (2006). Play between worlds: Exploring online game culture.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Chapter 6.
4) Ian Bogost. (2010). Cow Clicker: The making of obsession. Retrieved January 7,
2011, from http://www.bogost.com/blog/cow_clicker_1.shtml

Topics
1) Online games as third places
2) Social dynamics in online games
3) Play versus work
4) The casual revolution

Assignments:
Check out at least four types of social applications on mobile phones. Compare
them to their Internet-based counterparts. Think about their strengths and
weaknesses.

Week 14 (April 13)

Smart Mobs

Tech report: Mobile communities

Readings
1) Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart mobs: The next social revolution. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Basic Books. Chapters 1 & 7.
2) Zuckerman, E. (2007). Mobile Phones and Social Activism, available at
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/hardware/page7216.cfm?rss=1
3) Humphreys, L. (2007). Mobile social networks and social practice: A case study
of Dodgeball. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 17.
4) Optional - Castells, M. (2007). Mobile communication and society: A global
perspective. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Chapter 3.

Topics
1) Local versus global
2) Mobile communities
3) Social movement
EMAC6v81-Spring 2011 Cuihua Shen 11

Assignments:
Keep recruiting members and maintain your online community. Prepare a short
presentation to summarize your progress in the final presentation. (team)
Explore at least three consumer communities.
Explore at least three counterculture/cult communities, such as Pirate Bay and
4chan.

Week 15 (April 20)

Counterculture, Consumer Communities, and Other Topics
Tech Report: Counterculture; Consumer communities

Readings
1) Turkle, S. (2007). Can You Hear Me Now? Forbes. Available at:
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/176.html.
2) Kane , G. C., Fichman, R. G., Gallaugher, J., & Glaser, J. (2009). Community
Relations 2.0. Harvard Business Review. Available from
http://hbr.org/2009/11/community-relations-20/ar/1.
3) TBD

Topics
1) Social media and lifestyle changes
2) Marketing and branding through consumer communities
3) Counterculture

Assignment:
Prepare the final presentation of the design project. Talk about the factors that
may have led to the success or failure of your online community. (Team)

Week 16 (April 27)

Final presentation of the design project (Team)

Week 17 (May 4)
Term paper due (Individual)