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Capstone project presentation on boards.ie's history and evolution from Masters in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) students at the School of Information and Library Studies (SILS), University College Dublin on 29 July 2011. Research work carried out by Paula MacSweeney, Eva Ryan, Karen Skelly, Kelly Tiernan, Laura Cahill, Ceire Murphy, Amye Quigley, and Roisin Tangney. Supervised by Dr. Norman Su.
Citation preview
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An Evolution
+The Study…
The Research Team
Laura Cahill
Paula MacSweeney
Ceire Murphy
Amye Quigley
Eva RyanKaren Skelly
Roisin Tangney
Kelly Tiernan
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How has Boards.ie evolved from its original inception?
How has this affected its original user base?
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An overview…
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382,212 registered users
Over 700 forums
Over 100,000 visitors per day
Currently ranked 14th website in Ireland
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+Current Competitors…
Askaboutmoney.com
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+New Accounts by Year
0100002000030000400005000060000700008000090000
100000110000120000
New Ac-counts
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+Literature ReviewRelevant literature
+Previous Research
History of discussion forums
Virtual communities
User motivation for posting
The internet in Ireland
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+History of Discussion Forums
Factors contributing to success:
Meeting the needs of distinct communities
Emergence from subcultures
(Rheingold, H. 1994; Turner, F. 2005)
(Notess, G. R. 2009)
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Our Interest:Did the founders and original users
consider themselves a subculture?
If so…How it organised itself? How it regulated itself?
Boards and the history of discussion forums
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+Virtual Communities
A virtual social space where people come together to get and give information...” “
(Preece, J. 2001)
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+Virtual Communities
Like markets and hierarchies, communities are an important source of
knowledge. OCs are open collectives of dispersed individuals with members who are not necessarily known or
identifiable and who share common interests, and these communities
attend to both their individual and their
collective welfare.”
“
(Faraj, S., et al, 2011)
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Studies focus on general workings of online communities
Our Study:Boards.ie focusWhat role does community play?Do community norms exist?
Boards.ie and Virtual Communities
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+User motivation for posting
Information exchange
On-going dialogue and discussions
(McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. 2000)
(Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. 2011)
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+User motivation for posting
Enjoyment of helping others
(Lee, et al. 2006)
Voicing an opinion
(McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. 2000)
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+Internet in Ireland
1998 still poor technological climate
Major increase in internet access between 1996 – 2000 (35%)
(OECD, 2002; Information Society Ireland 1996; 2000)
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+Gap in the research?
No research within an Irish context
Evolution from small subject-specific to very large general forum
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+Grounded Theory
Constructing meaning out of the inter-subjective experience of users
Narrative based on interpretation of history
“ A reaction against the extreme positivism that had permeated most social research” (Suddaby, R.
2006)
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+MethodologyProject Approach
+Deconstructivist Approach to History
(Munslow, 2006) 21
Literature Review
Founders Interviews
First User Interviews
Boards Data Analysis
Archived Message Boards
Group Meetings
Report Writing
01/05/2011 31/05/2011 30/06/2011 30/07/2011 29/08/2011
Start Date Completed 22
+Data
Interviews with founders
Interviews with First Users
Quake Archives
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+Founder Interviews
4 Boards.ie Founders
Semi-structured interviews
Approx. 90 minutes in length
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+First User Interviews
50 first users contacted9 semi-structured
interviews6 interviews to be
conducted in the forthcoming weeks
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+Coding
Code
Quake - Reasons for playing
DescriptionThe informant describes what led them to play the game Quake
Exemplar Quote “I was a student, a visiting student in the States at that 1996 and one of my housemates had it there so that was kind of the first” (F2)“I’ve played games since I was five, so it was just, kind of the next cool game out.” (F2)
“I’ve a friend just mentioned it was an interesting game and I suppose and pieces I’d read about it, that it had been the first online first-person shooter.” (F4) 26
+First Postings on Quake.ie WWWBoard
Archives from February 1998 to July 1998
7290 archived postings analysed and coded
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+Content Analysis Coding Results
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+FindingsResults
+ The Original Vision
FoundersCommunity
Expansion of a Hobby-site
Opportunities for Public debate
Current RealityInformation Sharing Resource
without Community
First UsersUpdated version of
Quake boards
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The Quake connection
+Quake Forum
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+Quake Players
“They just wanted to play Quake. Quake players are pretty hardcore and pretty determined” (F1)
“A lot of people who played Quake were IT professionals” (F2)
Gamers
IT Backgrounds
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Low internet connectivity
Geographical constraints
Quake Players
“It was dreadful. I mean, I couldn’t play when it rained.” (F4)
“The responses that you get from the server is lagged by about 0.2 of a second which makes a huge, huge difference.” (F1)
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+Quake Community
“…as consequence if you were a Quake player and you could play, you were part of this group and… everybody else were norms...” (F1)
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+Quake Beers Offline
“We used to meet in Messer Maguire’s pub in the basement, or a section of the basement where just a bunch of Quake players came together.”
(F4)
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The moveFrom Quake.ie…
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…To Boards.ie
+Boards.ie Founder 1 Vision
A place to talk in Ireland
A platform to discuss issues
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+Boards.ie Founder 2 Vision
I probably wouldn’t have imagined that it would spread to non-tech types.” (F2)“
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+Success
“We have 400 sign ups a day or something crazy ... yeah we often say we don’t want more people. People are our problem...” [F1]
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First User Perspectives
+Quake Community
Small
Common bond
Sub-culture
Large
Many topics
General public
Past Present
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+From Quake to Boards
“It didn’t really register --- I don’t think it was a massive jump in terms of change.” (GK)
“I’ve vague memories of being surprised. So just a bit of a surprise but not a huge one.” (MO)
“It didn’t really affect me at all.” (YM)
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+Early Boards Days
“Initially when the site was
quite small I probably would have glanced at
most of the forums. Now it’s become such a
large entity that people probably stick to a
handful of forums.” (RF)
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+Boards Growth & Community Decline
Growth in population I don’t think that it’s the same
sort of community where people
would have been probably a lot closer when boards started off ... it
was a smaller site and it was very much tailored around those people
doing the same sort of activity.” (RF)
“
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+Boards Growth & Community Decline
Decline in community feeling
“But the old Quake scene slowly declined.” (NS)
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+Boards Growth & Community Decline
“I’m not a huge participant anymore. I suppose maybe it’s reflective of the fact that I’ve gotten older.” (GK)
Change in user lives and interests
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+Boards.ie as a corporate entity?
“One of the problems Boards has now is that its perceived rightly or wrongly to be a corporate entity...” (RF)
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+How do the First Users perceive Boards.ie today?
“Irish Human Google”
Knowledge sharing
Information seeking
Local information
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+Boards as an information source“It’s really matured in the last whatever
ten years. It provides I think a really useful service. A place where people can
exchange information.” (GK)
“If I’m looking for information anything Irish really and you refine your search to
Ireland --- there will be a topic with Boards.ie.” (YM)
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+Community in Boards.ie now?
Sub-communities within Forums
“I think there are definitely communities there because you do have them
within the forums...” (RF)
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+Limitations
+Limitations
Lack of literature about Irish internet history
Interviewing only a small cross section
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+Future Work
Conduct further interviews with First Users
Complete coding and analysis of archive data and interviews
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+Conclusion
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How has Boards.ie evolved from its original inception?
How has this affected its original user base?
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+ The Original Vision
FoundersCommunity
Expansion of a Hobby-site
Opportunities for Public debate
Current RealityInformation Sharing Resource
without Community
First UsersUpdated version of
Quake boards
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+Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Boards.ie for their co-operation & providing us with information.
In particular we would like to thank the founders of boards.ie and the early users who agreed to be interviewed for this project.
Finally we would like to thank our supervisor Dr. Norman Su.
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+
Questions?
+References
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Brown, T. (1987). Ireland: A social and cultural history; 1922-1985. London: Fontana Press.
Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. (2011). Knowledge collaboration in online communities . Organization Science.
Ferriter, D. (2004). The transformation of Ireland. London: Profile.
Lee, M., Cheung, C. K., Lim, K. H., & Choon Ling, S. (2006). Understanding customer knowledge sharing in web-based discussion boards: An exploratory study. Internet Research , 16 (3), 289-303.
McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. (2000). "It is what one does": Why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 9 (2-3), 155-173.
Notess, G. R. (2009). Forget not the forums. Online, 33 (2), 41-43. Preece, J. (2001). Sociability and usability in online communities: determining and measuring success. Behaviour & Information Technology, 20 (5), 347-56. Rheingold, H. (1994). The Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerized World. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications.
Suddaby, R. (2006). From the Editors: What Grounded Theory is Not. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 633-642.
Turner, F. (2005). Where counterculture met the new economy: The WELL and the origins of virtual community. Technology and Culture, 46 (3), 485-512.
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