Observational practice in virtual worlds: revisiting and expanding the methodological discussion

Virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, have seen remarkable mainstream uptake in the last decade. Such environments have grown from hosting niche interest groups to providing sites for leisure, business and education for tens of millions of Internet users. Concurrently, a multi-disciplinary research field exploring the application of such spaces has emerged. This article examines in detail one data collection practice – observation in virtual worlds – that has been applied extensively, but without extensive methodological discussion. By revisiting and extending earlier work on this topic, the article presents four key considerations for those conducting observational research in virtual worlds: defining and delimiting field sites, discerning attention, charting actions and attributing intention. It is concluded that researchers must both ward against flawed assumptions about virtual world observation and consider multi-method strategies to overcome limitations in observational data.     

Network domains in social networking sites: expectations,meanings, and social capital

This paper examines why the use of social networking sites (SNSs) leads to different results in cultivating bridging and bonding social capital for different groups of people. Based on in-depth interviews of 45 university students in Hong Kong, I find that Mainland Chinese students studying in Hong Kong actively use SNSs for seeking practical information about offline matters, and they obtain substantial enacted support from other Mainland students of the same university through SNS use. As a result, they accumulate both bridging and bonding social capital. Local Hong Kong students, however, use SNSs mainly for social information seeking and are only able to accrue limited bridging social capital through SNS use. Drawing on the theory of network domains, I argue that the different offline network structures in which students are located – namely, homogeneous and closed networks versus heterogeneous and open networks – explain this difference. Students with closed offline networks have defined expectations of online ties; they think of their online activities as practical and leading to real changes in their status among peers. Those with open networks have indefinite expectations of their online audience; thus, they interpret online activities differently, thinking of them as recreational, and they are playful in their online behaviour. These different outcomes of online activities consequently lead to diverse results in social capital accrual.     

Are We Making the Most of Learning From the Practice Placement?

It is almost universally accepted within social work education that placements are a defining feature of training and ‘… have a more profound and lasting impact than classroom teaching’. Consequently the placement is regarded as the signature pedagogy in social work education. However, it is also asserted that universities pay little attention to this aspect of teaching and concerns about a ‘significant level of disjunction between academic and practice learning’ are expressed.

The development of a new distance learning MA social work programme in which units are studied alongside part-time placements afforded opportunities for innovation in curriculum delivery, alongside increasing connections with learning on placement. Practice educators were invited to respond to an online mixed methods survey exploring their perceptions of the programme and views as to how greater integration of academic and practice learning can be achieved in social work education generally. Analysis of the results identified the important role which supervision with the practice educator can play in integrating learning on placement with the academic curriculum. The paper concludes that a greater focus on learning from practice may offer opportunities to maximise the learning potential of the placement as social work's signature pedagogy.     

Wikipedia in the anti-SOPA protests as a case study of direct,deliberative democracy in cyberspace

This paper contributes to the discussion on deliberative, direct democracy and volunteer mobilization in the Internet era by analyzing the vote participation levels of Wikipedia volunteer editors (Wikipedians). On 18th January 2012 in the ‘first Internet strike’ against the American ‘Stop Online Piracy Act' legislation, over two thousand Wikipedians took part in the vote concerning whether their site should undertake a protest action, with vast majority expressing support for this action. However, the vote participants formed only a tiny fraction of the total number of Wikipedians who number in millions. Although Wikipedia can be seen as an open, democratic forum practicing deliberative, direct democracy, the process of voting on Wikipedia is significantly influenced by participation inequality, with a majority of the vote participation coming from a small group of most active contributors – an effective oligarchy. This paper discusses the intricate dynamics between Wikipedia egalitarian ethos and the creed to discuss project matters deliberately on one hand and the conspicuous lack of promotion and advertisement stemming from a rule against ‘canvassing’ and an overall skepticism regarding the status of majority votes. While voters' passivity and lack of interest play a major role, as expected, another factor emerges as a significant factor responsible for the low levels of participation: an inefficient information distribution system, as the vast majority of Wikipedians were not aware of the ongoing discussions and the vote itself until after their conclusion.     

The Structure of Legal Relations in Online Transactions*

As the civil law expression of internet plus transactions, the legal relations in online trading platform transactions constitute a complex aggregate of legal relationships composed of groups of legal relations. Specifically, they consist of three basic interlinked legal relationships: Contract relations for online trading platform services between the platform provider and the seller or service provider, and between the platform provider and the consumer. This includes the sales or service contract relations between the triad of the seller, the service provider and the consumer. These relations contain five kinds of major content, viz., the provision of transaction space, the publishing of transaction information, price escrow payment, distribution and delivery of the commodity, and transaction credit evaluation. They involve three forms of supplementary legal relations: the supplementary contract relationship between the platform provider and a third party payment institution; between the seller and third party credit reporting agency; and between the seller and a logistics enterprise. The three forms of supplementary contractual legal relations are set up to act on the major contents of the basic legal relationships in online transactions. On the basis of the online trading platform service contract relationships between the platform provider and the triad of the seller, the service provider and the consumer, the flow of the above- mentioned legal relations centers on the contract of sales or service set up between the seller, the service provider and the consumer to accomplish the aim of the online transaction, meet social needs and boost economic development.     

网络购物中的社会诚信问题研究——基于不完美信息动态博弈理论

将一次网络交易抽象为不完美信息动态博弈模型，通过对买卖双方博弈行为的分析，得出网络交易纠纷频发的原因。并通过对模型进一步扩展，分析当前网络交易规则存在的缺陷，针对其中的问题，提出提高市场效率的建议。     

Exploring gaps in the online economic inclusion of persons with disabilities in Korea

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the difference in the online economic activities of people with and without disabilities in Korea. We conducted a multiple regression analysis to investigate the impact of socioeconomic characteristics, internet access, and internet skills on online economic activities. Our sample, based on a 2016 dataset that included 1554 people with disabilities and 6004 people without disabilities, was developed using quota sampling based on gender, age, and residence. We determined that individuals with disabilities were more likely to engage in online economic activities if they had higher levels of education, lived in urban areas, were employed, or had greater internet skills. Individuals without disabilities were more likely to engage in online economic activities if they were women, had higher levels of education, were employed, lived in a two-generation or more household, or had greater internet skills. For both people with and without disabilities, the level of education, employment status, and internet skills positively contribute to online economic activites. We also determined that education level, participation in economic activity, living in a two-generation or more household, and internet skills had a statistically significant influence on online economic activity for people both with and without disabilities. These results highlight the importance of education and internet training for people with disabilities, as well as social support systems that help them learn to use the internet in diverse ways through both formal and informal networks. The study also underscores the importance of information and communications technology that adequately addresses people’s needs.     

Discourses of cultural heritage in times of crisis: The case of the Parthenon Marbles

The paper focuses on the commodification and politicisation of cultural heritage using as a case study the ongoing debate on the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the U.K. to Greece, recently reignited by the press release for the movie The Monuments Men in 2014. Greece has been in the throes of a severe financial crisis for over six years with the ever imminent threat of Grexit constantly disputed. In parallel with this ongoing turmoil, discourses of Greek antiquity have been persistently prominent in the media. In this context, we problematise the complex nexus of relationships between the financial crisis, national identity and cultural heritage. We combine the Discourse‐Historical Approach and Interactional Sociolinguistics drawing data from an online forum, and investigate how the users negotiate pro‐/anti‐return positions and make the financial crisis relevant in the argumentation process. The analysis shows that history, identity, value, and debt are recontextualised in relation to the Parthenon sculptures. The analysis identifies an underlying process of value trade off and brings the current political and economic environment to the fore. We close the paper by foregrounding the implications of our study and provide directions for further research.     

图片信息丰裕度对消费者在线风险决策的影响

以图片标记信息丰裕度对消费者在线风险决策的影响为研究重点,引入详尽可能性模型(ELM),从购买行为发生之前的顾客关注度和购买之后的顾客满意度两个纬度,探索了消费者在线风险决策的影响因素。结果表明:信誉标记图片信息丰裕度中的评价方式种类和商家信用度、服务标记图片信息丰裕度中的保障服务以及商品促销标记,无论对消费者关注度还是消费者满意度均有显著的正向影响;支付服务图片信息丰裕度对消费者关注度影响不显著,但与消费者满意度有显著的正相关关系。另外,店铺动态评分、物流服务标记以及商品描述标记的图片信息丰裕度与消费者关注度及满意度相关性均不显著。研究结果为C2C交易平台以及网上卖家图片标记和信息展示提供了一定的理论指导。     

What Anonymous can tell us about the relationship between virtual community structure and participatory form

As a decentralised virtual community, Anonymous has been characterised by its oppositional tendencies. Helped by a collective persona and horizontal management structure, Anonymous has facilitated a myriad of differentiated agenda. However, we can observe a distinct change in its participatory form over time. So, while Anonymous, more broadly, functions as a virtual community, its means of engagement has shifted from a social movement to a decentralised cell network. This article explores the relationship between these changes, and its evolution as a virtual community. Drawing upon Iriberri and Leroy’s [(2009 Iriberri, A., and G. Leroy. 2009. “A Life-Cycle Perspective on Online Community Success.” ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 41 (2): 1–29. doi: 10.1145/1459352.1459356[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) “A Life-Cycle Perspective on Online Community Success.” ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 41 (2): 1–29] life cycle framework, the article maps Anonymous’ development and identifies the structural changes that have led to this transformation in its modes of participation.