Visualization components for persistent conversations

Abstract

An appropriately designed interface to persistent, threaded conversations could reinforce socially beneficial behavior by prominently featuring how frequently and to what degree each user exhibits such behaviors. Based on the data generated by the Netscan data-mining project [9], we have developed a set of tools for illustrating the structure of discussion threads like those found in Usenet newsgroups and the patterns of participation within the discussions. We describe the benefits and challenges of integrating these tools into a multi-faceted dashboard for navigating and reading discussions in social cyberspaces like Usenet and related interaction media. Visualizations of the structure of online discussions have applications for research into the sociology of online groups as well as possible interface designs for their members.

Designing and evaluating online communities: research speaks to emerging practice

“…Another approach that we advocate is developing tools to make it easy to examine logging data (data mining) like those developed by Smith and his colleagues [13][14][15]. A suite of techniques based on our emergent heuristics and the ethnographically-oriented approach used in our first study, together with data mining and visualisation tools, would empower online community developers to evaluate both usability and sociability more effectively.…”

“…For example, efforts to understand who participates and what they do through visualising results from mining data logs using tools such as Netscan [13][14][15] are impressive. However, these techniques, compelling though they are, speak only of what happens; they tell little about why.…”

Visual Conversation Styles in Web Communities

“…Early community systems and collaboratories supported text, email, or chat for participants whose computing environments could not handle computationally intensive video or audio [1][2][3][4][5]. Studies of mass interaction that distill and visualize large group interaction [6][7][8] are often based on text exchange. Systems built on web technologies can facilitate interaction that may include text, audio, and video.…”

Visualizing the Decision-Making Process in a Face-to-Face Meeting

“…Conversation Space (ConverSpace) [9] is a spatial representation of computer-mediated conversation that supports multithreaded discourse structure and improves oral conversations as well as oral traits of asynchronous text-based discourse. In ConverSpace, the authors [13] presented a set of visualizations to depict different patterns of activity and the structure of discussion threads in social cyberspaces such as Usenet newsgroups.…”