Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
opinion of fellow consumers more than they trust companies and the press.
In fact, 63 percent of online shoppers in North America make purchase deci-
sions following reviews and product recommendations by fellow online
users. This trust is based on connecting with real people whose identities
are verified and who can be related to without suspicion of a hidden agenda,
unlike companies who have the goal of profitability. However, when the trust
is broken on an online social forum, it spells death for the community, par-
ticularly if the source is linked to the moderators. Social web enthusiasts
trust the moderators and we all know what happens when trust is broken.
Typically, the active users of social networks belong to two or more online
forums and if one of the forums happens to disappoint their expectations of
trust, they tend to slip away and focus on the other communities.
Communal
Although the social web involves individuals that exist in clusters on differ-
ent forums, they are innately interlinked through the connections and relation-
ships they share. The social web is a community and therefore its activities
are on a collective rather than on an individual level. Although when we inter-
act with other people on online forums, we are in reality mostly alone with
our computers or mobile phones, the experiences we have are collective and
shared. This is the reason that most active users of social networks with a
large network base complain that when they see their friends in real life, they
lack topics of conversations because everything has already been said online.
Ownership
The social web brings people together on collaborative platforms to connect,
interact, converse, influence and entertain. All these involve exchanging infor-
mation, opinions and other forms of content on a mass scale. These contents
are discussed, debated, lauded, enjoyed, forwarded and shared within and out-
side the online communities. These activities evoke not just a sense of belong-
ing to a group with common interests, but also the feeling of ownership of the
contents and other aspects of the online forum. When people contribute to an
online discussion, they are most often giving their opinion and viewpoints on a
subject and their ownership of this opinion is extended to the entire contents
of the social website. This explains why members of the A Small World social
network have an affinity to the network and many feel like part-owners of
the site.
Interconnectivity
Blogs are interconnected and linked to one another. It is normal to find blogs
in different categories with a directory of other blogs featuring their web
links. The blogosphere is highly networked and blogs depend on other blogs
for their visibility and validation. Since blogs do not exist in an exclusive
