The management of online communities: a social network perspective

Abstract

Online communities have grown to be an important feature of modern life, and substantial economic assets in their own right. Over the years, organizations that provide them have adopted a range of management practices, or policies. We propose that the choice of policies to manage an online community can be viewed under the lens of mechanism design. Using both empirical data and computer simulations, we investigate how online community providers might decide to put in place and evaluate such mechanisms.