DHB: Collaborative Research: Solving Critical Problems in Online Groups

在线团体正变得越来越重要，例如，通过创建运行互联网的软件，建立历史？它是世界上最大的百科全书，为数百万人提供社会支持，并为跨越地理界限的人际关系提供更多机会。无论团队在什么样的环境中运作，要想取得成功，都必须满足三个关键挑战：（1）承诺：通过管理成员对团队的承诺以及他们代表团队努力的动机来获得和留住成员，（2）协调：协调成员的行动以实现集体目标，以及（3）控制：确保成员遵守重要的团队规范。虽然一些在线小组非常成功，但许多其他小组失败了。许多在线团体的典型特征是规模大、人员流动率高、社交网络薄弱和沟通渠道贫乏，这抑制了他们克服这些挑战的能力。 本研究的目标是通过以下方式帮助在线群体实现其巨大的承诺：（1）了解影响在线群体成功的因素;（2）阐明也适用于离线群体的一般群体过程;（3）开发可以帮助在线群体实现其目标的技术干预措施。这项研究将在三个非常受欢迎的领域进行研究。在线健康和技术支持，在线百科全书维基百科，以及历史上最受欢迎的大型多人游戏魔兽世界。调查性研究将使用数据挖掘技术，以时间序列方法研究有关数千个在线群体的丰富档案纵向数据。此外，干预主义研究将在解释性研究之后进行计算干预，以提高在线群体的有效性。这项研究将制定原则来解释影响在线团体和团体成功的因素。网上团体在经济和社会上都很重要，这一点可以从以下事实中看出：按访问量计算的前10个因特网网站中有7个（根据www.alexa.com）主要是网上团体网站。由于在线群体的失败率很高，因此对设计师和管理者来说，了解其有效性的基础因素至关重要。该项目的技术干预措施旨在提高其部署的团体的绩效，并为其他在线团体的后续设计工作提供范例。

Online groups are becoming increasingly important, for example, by creating the software that runs the Internet, building history?s largest encyclopedia, providing social support to millions, and enhancing opportunities for interpersonal relationships that span geographic boundaries. Regardless of the environments in which groups operate, to be successful all must meet three critical challenges: (1) Commitment: gaining and retaining members by managing members' commitment to the group and their motivation to exert effort on its behalf, (2) Coordination: coordinating members' actions to achieve collective goals, and (3) Control: ensuring that members adhere to important group norms. Although some online groups are very successful, many others fail. The large size, high turnover, weak social networks, and impoverished communication channels typical of many online groups inhibit their ability to overcome these challenges. The goal of this research is to help online groups deliver on their tremendous promise by (1) understanding the factors that affect the success of online groups; (2) shedding light on general group processes that also apply to offline groups; and (3) developing technological interventions that can help online groups achieve their objectives. The research will examine groups in three highly popular domains ? online health and technical support, the online-encyclopedia Wikipedia, and the most popular massively multiplayer game in history, World of Warcraft. Investigatory studies will use data-mining techniques to examine rich archival, longitudinal data about thousands of online groups using time-series methods. In addition, interventionist studies will follow up the investigatory research with computational interventions designed to improve the effectiveness of online groups. This research will develop principles to explain the factors that influence the success of online groups and groups more generally. Online groups are economically and socially important, as indicated by the fact that seven of the top ten Internet sites by traffic (according to www.alexa.com) are primarily online group sites. Because online groups have high failure rates, knowledge about the factors that underlie their effectiveness is critical for designers and managers. This project's technological interventions are designed to improve the performance of the groups in which they are deployed and to serve as exemplars for subsequent design efforts in other online groups.