'Dear Friends...' Analysing Socialising Patterns in Online Research Collaboration

Posted: 9 Jul 2009

See all articles by Eleftheria Vasileiadou

Eleftheria Vasileiadou

School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology

Anne-Marie Oostveen

University of Oxford - Oxford Internet Institute

Date Written: May, 29 2009

Abstract

The main theoretical debates on the role of ICTs in distributed teams have been informed by media richness theory: the assumption that ICTs are poor media for a wide range of activities. This paper examines three distributed research teams and focuses on their socialising patterns, addressing whether ICTs "do away with pleasantries", and also what the relationship is between online and offline socialising activities. Using longitudinal real time online data it traces socialising dynamics for a period of more than three years. The results indicate that ICTs played an important role in supporting socialising, which was around a quarter of all team-wide communications. Further, online socialising showed a dynamic independent from face-to-face meetings. The results suggest that recent empirical work is needed to understand the role of ICTs in distributed research teams, as their use matures in some contexts.

Keywords: e-science, socialising, research collaboration, time series analysis, email

Suggested Citation

Vasileiadou, Eleftheria and Oostveen, Anne-Marie, 'Dear Friends...' Analysing Socialising Patterns in Online Research Collaboration (May, 29 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1411771

Eleftheria Vasileiadou (Contact Author)

School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology ( email )

Eindhoven
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/eleftheriavasileiadou/

Anne-Marie Oostveen

University of Oxford - Oxford Internet Institute ( email )

1 St. Giles
University of Oxford
Oxford OX1 3PG Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire OX1 3JS
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.social-informatics.net

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