Investigating the Impact of Offline Interactions on Members of Online Communities

Abstract: Members of online communities are increasingly participating in offline meet-up events and offline meet-ups are an increasingly important aspect of participation in many online communities. Prior research has shown these interactions are highly valued by community members, especially in video-sharing communities such as YouTube and online link sharing communities like Reddit. However, little is known about the impact such offline meetings have on the productivity and participation of members within the communities, and what research has been conducted has provided conflicting results.

This research utilizes the lenses of Legitimate Peripheral Participation and Media Synchronicity Theory together to clarify prior inconsistent findings and investigate how offline interactions impact the productivity and participation of members of online communities. This was done through a multi-year process of ethnographic fieldwork including in-person and online participant observation, the collection of a decade of Reddit comment and posting data, 42 semi-structured interviews conducted both online and in-person, and a detailed case study of one YouTube collaboration channel.

Supervisory Committee

Chair: David W. McDonald, Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering, College of Engineering
GSR: Kirsten Foot, Professor, Department of Communication
Member: Katie Davis, Associate Professor, Information School
Member: Charlotte P. Lee, Associate Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering, College of Engineering