As a result, the IJoC (International Journal of Communication) dedicated a volume to network theory.

Here are the papers presented in that volume (they are fully accessible in the following links):

Prologue to the Special Section: Network Multidimensionality in the Digital Age by Manuel Castells, Peter Monge, Noshir Contractor

Introduction to the Workshop: The Promise of Network Theory by Manuel Castells

A Network Theory of Power by Manuel Castells

Fuzziness of Inclusion/Exclusion in Networks by Karine Nahon

Networks of Power, Degrees of Freedom by Yochai Benkler

Multidimensional Networks and the Dynamics of Sociomateriality: Bringing Technology Inside the Network by Noshir Contractor, Peter Monge, Paul M. Leonardi

The Flip Side of Metcalfe’s Law: Multiple and Growing Costs of Network Exclusion by Rahul Tongia, Ernest J. Wilson III

The Ever Evolving Web: The Power of Networks by Wendy Hall

Networks, Societies, Spheres: Reflections of an Actor-network Theorist by Bruno Latour

This presentation is based on two academic papers:
1. Political Blogs and Content: Homophily in the Guise of Cross-Linking
2. Fifteen Minutes of Fame: The Place of Blogs in the Life Cycle of Viral Political Information

January 4-7, 2012 - Maui

Papers due June 15, 2011

Additional information about the minitrack and papers presented in previous years may be found at the website of the  social networking and communities minitrack. General information about the conference may be found at the HICSS primary website.

Mini-Track Chairs:
Karine Nahon, University of Washington, karineb@uw.edu [Primary Contact]
Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of British Columbia

Following the success of this minitrack from the past nine HICSS conferences, we invite submissions to the 2012 mini-track on social networking and communities.

This minitrack focuses on social networks and their interrelations with communities in the context work, learning, social and/or personal life. At present, there is tremendous research interest in these topics, driven by the fact that these sociological phenomena are changing the way people work, play and socialize, and how they spend their time and money. Accordingly, billions of dollars are being spent by businesses and consumers on these technologies, and the rate of adoption has been phenomenal, while empirical and theoretical work on social and technical design, and economic and social outcomes lag behind.

We would like to attract papers that address issues of online communities of practice, inquiry and interest created in the interest of political, educational, business, social and/or gaming pursuits, and with attention to how online community building and management contribute to success in the digital economy and society. While the focus is primarily online communities, papers are also welcomed that address the interplay between online and offline means of interaction.

We call for empirical and theoretical papers that add to our understanding of the social, political, and economic landscape of communities and social networks at work, school, home, and play. Examples of the possible interdisciplinary topics of interest in these contexts include, but are not limited to the following:

• Social, political and/or economic impact of social media
• Communities as sociological phenomenon in the digital economy
• Community development and community informatics
• Design, development, and user studies of social media
• Online communities of practice, inquiry or interest
• Business models of Second Life
• E-learning: structures, implementations, and practices
• Serious leisure communities online
• Organizational behavior of communities
• Social network studies and analyses of online communities
• Mobile applications, services and use for and by online communities
• Case studies and topologies of online communities
• Case studies and analyses of the rise and fall of social network sites and online communities
• Theoretical models of virtual worlds
• Advertising in online communities and social networks
• Models for managing behavior in online communities
• Behavior in online gaming communities
• Models and cases of synergies and/or conflicts between real and virtual worlds
• Diffusion and adoption of social networking applications and practices
• Development of social networking applications and practices
• Critical perspectives on social media and local and/or virtual community
• Disruptive strategies of virtual worlds

Important Deadlines

Abstracts: Authors may contact Minitrack Chairs for guidance and indication of appropriate content at anytime.

June 15, 2011: Authors submit Full Papers to the Peer Review System, following the Author Instructions found on the HICSS web site. All papers will be submitted in double column publication format and limited to 10 pages including diagrams and references that conform to HICSS standards. Papers undergo a double-blind review.

August 15, 2011: Acceptance/Rejection notices are sent to Authors via the Peer Review System.

September 15, 2011: Authors submit the Final Version of papers following submission instructions on the Peer Review System website

Gill's motivation to research Twitter is derived from attempt to understand how technology impact society. While  looking at the presentation Twitter in the Classroom she commented that many have Twitter but don't use them. Why? too much noise or they don't care what others do during the day.

This presentation is her introduction to twitter to students: http://wiredpen.com/2009/02/24/intro-to-twitter/

Her insigts from using heavily and teaching Twitter:

1. Twitter is a conversation space not a publication.

2. Disinformation and information can move so rapidly on Twitter, without any easy way to correct it. More problematic the messages ephemeral nature. Since archiving twits is still in its infancy, many of the twits are inaccessible if it is more than two weeks. The case of Iran is interesting - specially the disinformation that came out of Iran and was fed to a large audience according to a specific world view.

3. Twit is not a twit is not a twit - a twit about breakfast is not a twit about a conference or a news item.

4. Twitter has the potential to be a democratizing technology. See her project "The Book" for example. The case of the wineries is a great example to how stakeholders were involved in the discussions.

Politicians: Twitter is a conversation space not a publication

Some of her insights about the elections: in 2008 we came to see politicians who started to use twitter. But there was almost no candidate in 2008 who used twitter as a conversation media, twitted by the politicians. One that she can thing of is Senator Edwards. Once Obama got the nomination, people noticed that twitter exist. But Gill warns that one shouldn't use it like obama. The Obama Twitter was one-side channel with no interaction. His Twitter was all about "he" and "he". Same thing happened with Clinton and McCane. the problem is that John McCanes' twits are all gone now. They deleted all of them. Gill's lesson from that is that therefore we should try to archive it all because the traditional gatekeepers are gone.

I think that when it comes to public figures, we should definitely find mechanisms to be able to archive them. Politicians have to know that when they twit they are not 'off record'. The challenge is what happens ethically when you archive also conversations about people who are not public figures? How can we develop ethical mechanisms to allow eternal transparency and accountability and at the same time maintain privacy of individuals?

Virality of Networks

One of the hottest topics currently under investigation is in the area of virality and campaigns, or the role of the Internet in political campaigns. Here are several articles from a conference titled "You Tube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States" -

Bob Boynton Going Viral

Kevin Wallsten "'Yes We Can': How Online Viewership, Blog Discussion, Campaign Statements and Mainstream Media Coverage Produced a Viral Video Phenomenon

LaChrystal Ricke A New Opportunity for Democratic Engagement: The CNN-YouTube Presidential Candidate Debates

Hillary Savoie YouTube, Community, and Me: The New Media Balance Between Self and Community

You can find the full list of articles and posters here: http://youtubeandthe2008election.jitp2.net/frontpage

An ultra-Orthodox in a cybercafe

Cultured Technology is an article that presents a theoretical framework to understand the relationship between religious fundamentalist communities and the Internet, through addressing four dimensions of tensions and challenges: hierarchy, patriarchy, discipline, and seclusion. Together with Prof. Gad Barzilai, we develop the concept of cultured technology, and analyzed the ways communities reshape technology and make it as part of their culture, while on the other hand allowing this technology to make certain changes in their customary way of life and in their unwritten laws. We also exemplified our theoretical framework through an empirical examination of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel. Our empirical study was based on an original dataset of 686,192 users and 60,346 virtual communities, while also relying on extensive literature review and secondary data. The results show the complexity of interactions between religious fundamentalism and Internet, and invite further discussions of cultured technology as a means to adapt Internet and to be adapted into it in various communities that incline to challenge technological innovations.

Click here for the full text paper in English.

Click here for the full text paper in Hebrew.