Virtual Communities and Offline Collaboration: Four Case Studies

Main Article Content

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4044-7205
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5283-5806

Abstract

En este artículo nos centramos en la relación entre las comunidades online, las denominadas comunidades virtuales (VC) y la colaboración offline con el fin de obtener información sobre (1) la relación entre las VC y la colaboración y (2) la relación entre la percepción de virtual / virtualidad y la colaboración. Con base en 49 entrevistas en profundidad con miembros de una VC social (GSCAI), una VC profesional (Diarioclown), una VC sin ánimo de lucro (AZALEA) y una VC comercial (F&G) concluimos que las VC pueden ser una herramienta barata y poderosa para administrar la colaboración offline. Sin embargo, esta eficacia también puede destruir o comprometer un grupo. Desde una perspectiva teórica, nuestro estudio demuestra la aplicabilidad y la utilidad de la tipología de Porter de las comunidades virtuales y sugiere su expansión con una orientación o dimensión online-offline.

Keywords:
Group communication Social media Communication Qualitative analysis Case studies (Source: Thesaurus Unesco)

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Article Details

Author Biographies

, University of Rome

Stefano Agostini holds a degree in Communication Sciences (Bachelor Degree) and graduated in Sociology (BA Honours) in the University of Rome, as well as a PhD in Communication Sciences («UGent” - University of Ghent) and in Theory and Social Research («Sapienza” - University of Rome).

, Universiteit Gent

Peter Mechant is a PhD in Communication Sciences. He defended his PhD, which focused on interactivity in a Web 2.0 context in April 2012. His main research interests include smart cities, big and open data, Web 2.0 and computermediated communication