From Know-how to Know-who: Reflexive Management of Interpersonal Knowledge Networks on Social Networking Sites

虽然经济地理学对作为创新和学习工具的人际知识网络表现出越来越大的兴趣，但互联网作为建立和维持关系的工具的作用几乎没有得到系统的认识。到目前为止，基于互联网的通信对个人网络的实践和地理的影响在很大程度上尚未被探索。首先，仅从数量上来看，互联网在建立和维护人际网络方面日益重要的作用仍然被忽视。第二，人际网络向明确的“认识谁”的质的转变尚未得到承认。最值得注意的是，社交网站（SNS）将网络的私人领域从内到外：SNS演变为连接的公开展示和声誉的可见表达。此外，社交网络指南（SNM）和社交网络指南（SNG）提倡对网络的更多反思性看法和更具战略性的方法。因此，社交网络不再是日常商业活动的副产品，而是成为一种商业实践-旨在建立，维护和利用社会资本。本研究项目旨在欣赏这种互联网引起的转变，并试图探索其后果的做法，网络以及结构和地理的人际知识网络。在这样做的过程中，该项目旨在从理论上澄清和实证技术，社会实践和地理如何共同发展。该项目从互联网将人际网络变成一种表演活动的假设开始：社会实践越来越多地与社会网络分析的理论和模型保持一致，从而产生了网络实践的新质量。网络--由基于互联网的算法所增强--日益成为争夺商业联系、资源和信息的竞技场。从经验上讲，研究项目主要集中在两个互联网产业集群：硅谷和柏林的公司创始人环境。这种设置不仅可以比较不同的社会实践在两个不同的地方出现，它也使我们能够设想的互联网产业的全球中心和迅速崛起的欧洲集群之间的扩散和适应的过程。在研究方法上，本研究包含三个模块：（1）以文献分析的方式，找出社交网络、社交网络媒体和社交网络群组的可供性;（2）一个在线调查和探索性的两阶段访谈系列与公司创始人将阐明不断变化的网络行为的做法，以及（3）社会网络分析的定量方法被应用于揭示这些实践对人际知识的结构和地理的影响网络.

Although economic geography has shown increasing interest in interpersonal knowledge networks as vehicles for innovation and learning, the role of the Internet as a tool for establishing and maintaining relations has hardly been appreciated in a systematic fashion. Up until now, the impacts of internet-based communication on the practices and geographies of personal networking are largely unexplored. First, in mere quantitative terms, the increasing role of the Internet in establishing and maintaining interpersonal networks thus remains neglected. Second, the qualitative transformation of interpersonal networks into explicit "know who" has not yet been acknowledged. Most notably, Social Networking Sites (SNS) turn the private sphere of networks inside-out: SNS evolve into a public display of connections and visible expressions of reputation. In addition, Social Networking Metrics (SNM) and Social Networking Guidelines (SNG) advocate more reflexive perceptions of and more strategic approaches to networking. Social networking, then, is no longer a by-product of everyday business activities but becomes a business practice in its own right - aimed at building, maintaining, and harnessing social capital. This research project seeks to appreciate this internet-induced transformation and attempts to explore its consequences for practices of networking as well as the structure and geography of interpersonal knowledge networks. In doing so, the project aims to theoretically clarify and empirically substantiate how technology, social practice and geography co-evolve. The project starts from the assumption that the Internet turns interpersonal networking into a performative activity: Social practice is increasingly aligned with theories and models of social network analysis and thereby gives rise to a new quality of networking practices. Networking - enhanced by internet-based algorithms - increasingly turns into an arena of competition for business contacts, resources and information. Empirically, the research project focuses on the company founder milieus of two clusters of the Internet-Industry: Silicon Valley and Berlin. This setting not only allows to compare the emergence of distinct social practices in two different locations; it also enables us to conceive of the processes of diffusion and adaptation between the global center of the Internet-Industry and a rapidly emerging European cluster. Methodologically, the research project comprises three modules: (1) a document analysis is designed to identify the affordances of SNS, SNM and SNG; (2) an online-survey and explorative two-stage interview-series with company founders will elucidate changing practices of networking behaviour, and (3) quantitative methods of social network analysis are applied to reveal the impact of these practices on the structure and geography of interpersonal knowledge networks.