<html><head><base href="x-msg://355/"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi Kate,<div><br></div><div>I don't know if this helps, but maybe there is something of interest in a new book described here by Marc Smith, who used to be head of the community technologies group at Microsoft Research and has probably done as much or more in-depth empirical analysis of chat rooms as anyone:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.connectedaction.net/2009/12/13/book-online-deliberation-design-research-and-practice/">http://www.connectedaction.net/2009/12/13/book-online-deliberation-design-research-and-practice/</a></div><div><br></div><div>The chapter I co-authored with him is about network structure of threaded discussion, and some of his previous work looked at the dynamics of discussion networks for support groups--referenced in the bibliography. Perhaps it's worth a look.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>john</div><div><br></div><div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">==============================</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">John Kelly</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Doctoral Program in Communications</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Columbia University</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">==============================</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span>
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<br><div><div>On Dec 2, 2009, at 11:50 PM, Jenkins, Kate wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div ocsi="x"><div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Tahoma">Hi-</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">In a project only tangentially related to the internet, I seem to have come across a gap in the literature, namely the changing use of the Internet regarding chat rooms. All of what I have is marketing research, and most of that is raw numbers (e.g. two million average chat room users per day on AOL in 2002, thirty-thousand average chat room users per day on AOL in 2009, numbers probably off as I'm pulling from memory not text) that lack social context or relevant demographic information. </font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">While I have come across literature that almost secondarily refers to the decline of "anonymous" or "pseudonymous" interactions on the Internet (mostly in reference to the rise of social networking that emulates/replicates/reinforces/etc offline social networks), I haven't really found anything that directly addresses chat rooms or related internet phenomena (usenets, bulletin boards, etc). </font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">For a bit of context, this project relates to social support/self-help type websites, chat rooms, message boards, etc. Basically I've found that for my population, the loss of the chat room(s) has lead to a politicization of the kinds of interactions people can have in relation to their condition, as a neutral space has been taken away, replaced by mostly sponsored message boards, listservs, and hosted chats. However, I would like some context regarding changing internet use. </font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">Any leads are appreciate.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">Thanks in advance!</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma"></font> </div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">Kate Jenkins, M.Phil.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="tahoma">CUNY Graduate Center</font></div>_______________________________________________<br>CITASA mailing list<br><a href="mailto:CITASA@list.citasa.org">CITASA@list.citasa.org</a><br><a href="http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org">http://list.citasa.org/mailman/listinfo/citasa_list.citasa.org</a><br></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>