Abstract
We report on preliminary analysis on user engagement in two online medical communities of practice. Despite the communities being independent of each other, and dealing with different domains (field epidemiology and therapeutic prescribing for optometrists), there are some clear similarities in the networks of users, and in patterns of replies to user postings. We also draw some initial conclusions to help maintain user engagement in these and similar sites, and we suggest some future lines of research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lave, J., Wenger, E.: Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1991)
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., Snyder, W.M.: Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, Boston (2002)
Hara, N., Shachaf, P., Stoerger, S.: Online communities of practice typology revisited. Journal of Information Science 35(6), 740–757 (2009)
Mishne, G., Glance, N.: Leave a reply: An analysis of weblog comments, In: Third Annual Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem (part of WWW 2006) (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fowler, D., Szomszor, M., Hammond, S., Lawrenson, J., Kostkova, P. (2012). Engagement in Online Medical Communities of Practice in Healthcare: Analysis of Messages and Social Networks. In: Kostkova, P., Szomszor, M., Fowler, D. (eds) Electronic Healthcare. eHealth 2011. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 91. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29261-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29262-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)