Finding Community In The Comments: The Role Of Reader And Blogger Responses In A Weblog Community Of Practice

摘要

This paper presents a study of the role that comments play in supporting blog-based communities of practice. Through a content analysis of both blog posts and their corresponding comments within a sample of blogs from an established online community of practice, certain characteristics emerge. The bloggers themselves post on topics that are tied to a shared practice among community members, engage in storytelling and reflection and invite comments. Blogs have been established as a safe place for the communal sharing of experiences and ideas. Comments from readers most often serve sharing functions and subsequent comments from the original poster most often are directly responsive to reader comments.