Knowledge Dissemination Mechanism in Virtual Communities: Case Study Based on Complex Network Theory
Ye Teng1(),Han Lichuan1,Xing Chunxiao2,3,Zhang Yan2,3
1Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai 200030, China 2Research Institute of Information Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China 3Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
[Objective] This paper studies the mechanism of knowledge dissemination in virutal communities with the help of a new theoretical model. [Methods] First, we collected data from the virtual community GitHub. Second, we examined these data with social network and regression analysis techniques. Finally, we explored the influence of community member’s online position, physical location as well as attitude towards innovation to the knowledge dissemination speed and scope. [Results] We found that the number of online community members could change the scope of knowledge dissemination. The attitude towards innovation could affect the knowledge dissemination speed. The clustering extent posed negative effects to the knowledge dissemination scope and speed. [Limitations] This study was based on one virtual community. More research is needed to generalize the findings. [Conclusions] This study provides some strategical suggestion to virtual community management as well as members’ knowledge sharing and innovation activities.
叶腾,韩丽川,邢春晓,张妍. 基于复杂网络的虚拟社区创新知识传播机制研究*[J]. 现代图书情报技术, 2016, 32(7-8): 70-77.
Ye Teng,Han Lichuan,Xing Chunxiao,Zhang Yan. Knowledge Dissemination Mechanism in Virtual Communities: Case Study Based on Complex Network Theory. New Technology of Library and Information Service, 2016, 32(7-8): 70-77.
Adamic L A, Glance N.The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 US Election: Divided They Blog [C]. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Link Discovery. ACM, 2005: 36-43.
[2]
Lewis K, Kaufman J, Gonzalez M, et al.Tastes, Ties, and Time: A New Social Network Dataset Using Facebook.com[J]. Social Networks, 2008, 30(4): 330-342.
[3]
Cha M, Mislove A, Gummadi K P.A Measurement-driven Analysis of Information Propagation in the Flickr Social Network [C]. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on World Wide Web. ACM, 2009: 721-730.
[4]
Colizza V, Barrat A, Barthélemy M, et al.Prediction and Predictability of Global Epidemics: The Role of The Airline Transportation Network[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 2005, 103(7): 2015-2020.
[5]
Barabási A L, Albert R.Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks[J]. Science, 1999, 286(5439): 509-512.
[6]
Adamic L A, Huberman B A.Power-law Distribution of the World Wide Web[J]. Science, 2000, 287(5461): 2115.
[7]
Newman M.Applied Mathematics: The Power of Design[J]. Nature, 2000, 405(6785): 412-413.
(Peng Hongbin, Wang Jun.Topology of the Knowledge Communication Network in Virtual Communities — Based on CSDN[J]. New Technology of Library and Information Service, 2009(4): 44-49.)
(Liu Pei, Lin Rupeng.Research on Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination Behavior of Online Q&A Services: Taking Zhihu as an Example[J]. Documentation, Information and Knowledge, 2015(6): 109-119.)
[10]
Newman M E.The Structure of Scientific Collaboration Networks[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2001, 98(2): 404-409.
[11]
Ma M, Agarwal R.Through a Glass Darkly: Information Technology Design, Identity Verification, and Knowledge Contribution in Online Communities[J]. Information Systems Research, 2007, 18(1): 42-67.
[12]
Lerman K, Ghosh R. Information Contagion: An Empirical Study of the Spread of News on Digg and Twitter Social Networks[OL]. arXiv:1003.2664v1.
[13]
Bakshy E, Rosenn I, Marlow C, et al.The Role of Social Networks in Information Diffusion [C]. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on World Wide Web. ACM, 2012: 519-528.
(Zou Ru’nan, Yu Jianrong.Social Network Analysis of Informal Scholarly Commnication Characteristics in Digital Age—Take BBS.BIOON.NET for Example[J]. Information Science, 2015, 33(7): 81-86.)
[15]
Myers S A, Zhu C, Leskovec J.Information Diffusion and External Influence in Networks [C]. In: Proceedings of the 18th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. ACM, 2012: 33-41.
[16]
Gomez-Rodriguez M, Leskovec J, Krause A.Inferring Networks of Diffusion and Influence [C]. In: Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. ACM, 2010: 1019-1028.
[17]
Yang J, Leskovec J.Modeling Information Diffusion in Implicit Networks [C]. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM). IEEE, 2010: 599-608.
[18]
Cannarella J, Spechler J A. Epidemiological Modeling of Online Social Network Dynamics[OL]. arXiv:1401.4208, 2014.
[19]
Zhao L, Wang Q, Cheng J, et al.Rumor Spreading Model with Consideration of Forgetting Mechanism: A Case of Online Blogging Livejournal[J]. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2011, 390: 2619-2625.
[20]
Bettencourt L M, Cintrón-Arias A, Kaiser D I, et al.The Power of a Good Idea: Quantitative Modeling of the Spread of Ideas from Epidemiological Models[J]. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2006, 364: 513-536.
[21]
Gruhl D, Guha R, Liben-Nowell D, et al.Information Diffusion Through Blogspace[C]. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on World Wide Web. ACM, 2004: 491-501.
(Zhang Lifan, Zhao Kai.Study on the Internet Public Opinion Dissemination Model with Discussion Under the Effect of Media[J]. New Technology of Library and Information Service, 2015 (11): 60-67.)
[27]
Stieglitz S, Dang-Xuan L.Political Communication and Influence Through Microblogging-An Empirical Analysis of Sentiment in Twitter Messages and Retweet Behavior [C]. In: Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Science. 2012: 3500-3509.
[28]
Zhang L, Peng T Q, Zhang Y P, et al.Content or Context: Which Matters More in Information Processing on Microblogging Sites[J]. Computers in Human Behavior, 2014, 31: 242-249.
[29]
Huffaker D.Dimensions of Leadership and Social Influence in Online Communities[J]. Human Communication Research, 2010, 36(4): 593-617.
[30]
Castillo C, Mendoza M, Poblete B.Information Credibility on Twitter [C]. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on World Wide Web. ACM, 2011: 675-684.
(Liu Liqun, Song Yongmei.A Study on Motivation and Influencing Factors in the Knowledge Communication of the Virtual Community[J]. Journalism and Communication. 2007, 14(1): 43-51.)
[32]
Wu X, Liu Z.How Community Structure Influences Epidemic Spread in Social Networks[J]. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2008, 387: 623-630.
[33]
Newman M.Networks: An Introduction [M]. Oxford University Press, 2010.