A MODEL FOR UNDERSTANDING ONLINE COMMUNITIES

This paper proposes a holistic model for understanding online communities. According to the model, the technological basis of an online community is the community service and external tools, which features are used by members for participating to the community. The activities of participation are organized into two categories called content and people. The content category consists of activities between a community member and digital content. The people category contains interactions between members of the community. The model also defines elements that directly regulate, or more subtly influence participation. Such elements include policy, privacy, trust, motivation, and roles. According to the model, one outcome of participation is the way a member’s identity gets constructed and defined. The model can be used to compose questions for describing, comparing, and analyzing online communities, and as support for community design.