LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Spring 2010)

Description: For this assignment, you will examine some aspect of community dynamics; basically the "how" and "why" of participation in one or more social tools. You can examine the participation dynamics of a specific community, how community forms using a specific type of technology, or how some other aspect of online communities (moderation, lurkers, flamewars, etc.) impacts participation.

Topic examples include:

1. Motivations of Wikipedians

2. How community forms in the Blogosphere

3. How community forms in Flickr

4. Building a sense of community in online learning, what works?

5. How different moderation schemes encourage or discourage participation.

6. How flamewars (and how they are handled) impact community participation.

Please feel free to use these topics if you can't come up with anything on your own.

This paper will require research on the web and in quality journals or books.  You can use examples from the literature and from actual communities/tools.

Length: 8-12 pages (not including title page), 12 point font, double-spaced

References: The minimal number of references you should have is five. There is no maximum.

Style: You are free to use whatever style guide you are most comfortable with (APA, MLA, Chicago) for your paper, just remember to use it consistently in every aspect of your paper.

Due Date: Your paper topic must be e-mailed to me for approval by April 3.

The paper itself is due April 25, 11:59 pm PT

To Submit: Upload your paper into Google Docs and make my Google account (mgfarkas@gmail.com) a collaborator so I can add my comments (if you do not use Google Docs, you can submit via email). Also, send me an email with a link to your paper (use the URL in the address bar -- I'll be able to access it as long as you made me a collaborator). Don't depend on GoogleDocs to send me an email from the sharing page because I've had it not work in the past.

Grading Criteria:

1. Quality of information - Does the information support the argument? (5 points)

2. Critical thinking - Is the student reflecting on the topic or just reiterating what s/he read? Is there real insight? (5 points)

3. Use of resources - Does the student reference class readings or outside readings (if applicable)? (3 points)

4. Quality of writing - Is the writing clear and professional in tone? Are there no grammatical and spelling errors? (3 points)

5. Successful completion - Did the student follow the instructions for the paper in terms of topic and length? (4 points)