Hi Jack,

Thanks a lot for your comments!
Talking about "INTER-USER RELATIONSHIP":
Your answer fits perfectly into what I was thinking about. In order  
to extend the scope of this point a bit:
I also want to conduct research in the relationship between the so  
called "passive" users and the contributions of active users. I'd  
like to find out whether feedback given by the "passive" user (for  
example by comments or ratings) influences the productivity of active  
users.
e.g. if I write an article and get a lot of feedback (positive  
replies or replies at all as you mentioned in your comments on point  
1) I'm quite likely to write another article.
I agree that this is a more or less obvious consequence of positive  
feedback, but I would like to test this assumption nevertheless with  
interaction data.

Regarding
> 3. SOME OTHER POINTS IT MIGHT BE INTERESTING TO RESEARCH
>
> I think it would be interesting to research whether users respond more
> readily to contributions from other users than to more 'polished' and
> elaborate content. For example, I suspect that a quickly-written
> reminiscence by a user about a particular topic might receive more  
> response
> than a highly-edited oral history audio clip on the same subject -  
> because
> there is more equal exchange taking place (you can't talk back to  
> an audio
> clip - yet!).
That would be a really interesting point for future research from two  
perspectives:
First as a matter of aesthetics:  Un-polished content might create a  
more authentic appeal (See for example the use of camera shakes/ low  
resolution video/ added noise etc. in contemporary movies and video  
clips)
Second: In terms of user2user services. The concept of content  
originates from the idea of showing a certain piece to a lot of  
people. But as the process of content creation turns into an  
entertaining activity, there is suddenly a tremendous production  
capacity that might lead into the broad scale application of equal  
exchange processes.

> I'd be interested in research into the effectiveness of explicit  
> entreaties
> to users to contribute (for example, peppering your site with  
> appeals to
> 'tell us about this', 'share that', 'join in', 'take part'). This  
> sort of
> language is tempting in the early days of a website, but I haven't  
> seen any
> evidence to suggest it makes any difference. On the other hand, it  
> does seem
> that you need to get the ball rolling by example: users will  
> contribute if
> they can see that someone else has.  Hence we encourage our clients  
> to go
> for 'soft launches', encouraging colleagues, friends and well- 
> wishers to add
> some initial comments and contributions to the site, so that by the  
> time of
> the hard launch it already looks as though the site has a life of  
> its own.
I can totally agree upon that. Currently user contributions are still  
the exception rather than the norm. This might change in the future,  
but we would need to find out more about the "initial steps" that  
lead users to participate as well as means to create a sustainable  
participation (e.g. I published something, but why should I come back  
and publish more?).
 From an experiment I conducted some time ago I can only tell that  
altruistic incentives like "join in", "take part" etc. don't work  
that well. All the users that participated were interviewed and none  
of them participated because they wanted to "help out".
Another problem you mention is the question of "what could/should I  
do?". From a more theoretical point of view I would argue that the  
initial -- seed -- contributions limit or define the scope of future  
contributions. In other words they help to define the focus and  
context of future contributions.  Does your experience give some  
evidenceto this point?


>
> You're welcome to give me a ring if you want more information.
I'll definitely get in touch with you  ;-)

Ciao,
Lars

>



University of Brighton
Lars Wieneke
CHIRON Researcher

Watts Building
Brighton BN2 4GJ

T +44(0)1273 642912
F +44(0)1273 642160
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