First, some housekeeping. Overall I was extremely pleased with your blog posts for the last session, but instead of posting comments on your blogs this time, I'm going to take this opportunity to give you some mid-semester feedback. Over the next week I'll send each of you an email containing my session 3 comments and an overall assessment of your blog/comment contributions thus far, so you know where you stand.
A few of you have sent me final project proposals, but since those are a component of this session's assignment, I'll hold off on those comments for now. As a reminder, your final project proposals are due to me via email Monday March 9, and to that end, this session's assignment will be geared as much as possible toward helping you conceptualize your final project.
Session 3's focus on content contributions led to many of you discovering that eliciting participation in an online community requires some knowledge and consideration of the norms, roles and expectations within that community. If you'll forgive an automotive analogy, the horsepower of good content contributions means little without the traction of understanding the community. Three core concepts that have been introduced by researchers in the pre-Web world have been adapted to online communities, and form the core of this session's readings: social role, social capital and trust.
Session 4, Week 1--complete by Sunday, March 1, 11:59pm
After completing the readings, find and compare two online communities that implement different social capital/trust mechanisms. Choose sites you have not visited or blogged about before. Compare the two mechanisms, and include one anecdote and screenshot of an illustrative personal experience you had with each. Suggest improvements to each site's role/capital/trust mechanism, based on the community, the session 4 readings (always important) and your own experience with other sites.
Conclude your post with one or more ideas for a final project, which need not be connected to this session's topics. Phrase it as a question you're interested in exploring, both analytically and empirically. Make some reference to relevant readings, and include some specific ideas on how and where you plan to address the question.
Session 4, Week 2--complete by Sunday, March 8, 11:59pm
Comment on at least five other students' blog posts, and include a reaction to their final project idea(s). You can contribute questions you think they should consider, outside resources you think may be of help, problems/pitfalls you think might arise, or any other contribution that helps them focus and finalize their project proposal.
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