Navigating a Virtual World: Understanding Online Corporate Social Networks

by Eric K. Clemons

Humans, like other primates, are fundamentally social animals. We congregate at rock concerts, football stadiums, and jazz clubs and through churches, golf clubs, and alumni associations. We've converted broadcast media into meeting places, with reality TV and hosted call-in talk shows. It should be no surprise that the newest medium, networked computing, has become the newest meeting place, whether for online gamers (worldofwarcraft.com), Second Life denizens (secondlife.com), beer enthusiasts (ratebeer.com), photography enthusiasts (flickr.com), travelers wanting to know what they are getting into when booking an unfamiliar property (www.tripadvisor.com), or newly admitted students at the University of Chicago or the University of Pennsylvania.

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Navigating a Virtual World: Understanding Online Corporate Social NetworksThu May 15 08:20:13 CDT 2008