The Connector Website Model New Implications for Social ... - PRWeb

2006, pp. 47-53. Forbes.com has an excellent visual presentation summarizing representative
websites based on niche, embedded in Rachel Rosmarin, “The MySpace Bubble,” Forbes.com,
June 29, 2006: http://www.forbes.com/home/digitalentertainment/2006/06/29/myspace-networkfacebook_cx_rr_0629socialnetwork.html
7 Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier,
(Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993); Laura Garton, Caroline Haythornwaite, and Barry
Wellman, “Studying Online Social Networks,” Journal of Computer Mediated Communications,
Vol. 3, No. 1, (June 1997); Peter Kollock, “Design Principles for Online Communities,” PC
Update, Vol. 15, No. 5 (June 1998), pp. 58-60; Peter Kollock and Marc A. Smith, “Communities
in Cyberspace,” in Communities in Cyberspace, Peter Kollock and Marc A. Smith, eds., (New
York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 3-28; Barry Wellman and Milena Gulia, “Net Surfers Don’t Ride
Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities,” in Communities in Cyberspace, Peter Kollock and
Marc A. Smith, eds., (New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 167-194; Barry Wellman and Keith
Hampton, “Living Networked On and Offline,” Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 28, No. 6
(November 1999), pp. 648-654; Jenny Preece, Online Communities: Designing Usability and
Supporting Sociability, (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000); Robert McArthur and Peter
Bruza, “The ABCs of Online Community,” Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 2198
(2001), pp. 141-147; Lada A. Adamic, Orkut Buyukkokten, and Eytan Adar, “A Social Network
Caught in the Web,” First Monday, Vol. 8, No. 6 (June 2003); Devan Rosen, Joseph Woelfel,
Dean Krikorian, and George A Barnett, “Procedures for Analyses of Online Communities,”
Journal of Computer-Meidated Communication, Vol. 8, No. 4 (July 2003); Jenny Preece, and
Diane Maloney-Krichmar, “Online Communities: Design, Theory, and Practice,” Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 10, No. 4 (July 2005), article 1; Andrea Kavanaugh,
John M. Carroll, Mary Beth Rosson, Than Than Zin, and Debbie Denise Reese, “Community
Networks: Where Offline Communities Meet Online,” Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, Vol. 10, No. 4 (July 2005), article 3. Also see recent work conducted by the
Community Lab, a collaborative project of the University of Minnesota, University of Michigan,
and Carnegie Mellon University: http://www.communitylab.org.
8 John Horrigan, Online Communities: Networks That Nurture Long Distance Relationships and
Local Ties, (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2001); Pew Internet & American Life
Project, Internet: The Mainstreaming of Online Life: Trends 2005, (Pew Internet & American
Life Project, 2005); Center for the Digital Future, Highlights: Digital Future Project 2005, (Los
Angeles: Center for the Digital Future, 2005). Also see the recent report by Jeffrey Boase, John
B. Horrigan, Barry Wellman, and Lee Rainie, The Strength of Internet Ties, (Washington DC:
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2006).
9
See Ronald Coase, “The New Institutional Economics,” The American Economic Review, Vol.
88, No. 2 (May 1998), pp. 72-74.
10 There are non-connector websites that build online communities. Examples are consumer
websites such as Amazon.com and Edmunds.com; lifestyle websites such as iVillage and
Askmen.com; music sharing websites like Napster or BearShare. Under close examination these
sites do not meet the operational definition of the connector website found on pp. 5-6.
This study was restricted to investigating websites that have major social search and/or social
networking web applications. Further research needs to be done regarding three classes of
websites with distinctly different applications: (1) wiki websites (e.g. Wikipedia); (2) fantasy
sports websites (e.g. Yahoo! Fantasy Sports); and (3) gamer websites (e.g. World of Warcraft).
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