Research questions

From Technologies of Politics and Control
Revision as of 11:23, 15 February 2010 by Robf (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Some of the questions you might ask as you search for a more narrow set of questions might include:

  • What social norms apply and how are they manifest and enforced?
  • Code is law - how do architectural elements contribute to membership, relationships, interactions and content?
  • Freedom of expression - what topics are permitted, what is removed and who decides.
  • What is the mix of emergent social structure versus hierarchical organization?
  • Is there an explicit mapping on online and offline activity?
  • What role does national law play?
  • Is there an apparent logic to the community structure?
  • Is membership static or dynamic?
  • How are new entrants treated?
  • What are the explicit and implicit policies for dealing with trolls and vandals?
  • What motivations and incentives influence contributors?
  • How are a site's superusers specially empowered, promoted, and regulated?
  • How would you classify the governance system of the community? (oligarchy, dictatorship, democracy, ad-hocracy)
  • Is there evidence of user circumventing the explicit purpose of the community, in an acceptable or unacceptable manner? (Unacceptable: spam. Acceptable: anything on 4chan. Grey-area: 'Griefing' in online games, sex (sexual content on flickr and sexual services on craigslist)