Research Summary

As political scientists and sociologists have pointed out, local community interaction seems to be on the wane compared with earlier decades of this century (e.g., Putnam 1995). At this point some people may be spending more time on-line than participating in real world community interactions (e.g., Kraut et al, 1998) . This research is designed to investigate the proposition that on-line interaction can increase real world interaction. We are building a "community server" for the town of Carlisle MA and will investigate the extent to which (if at all) participation in the community server leads to an increase in real-world participation in community activities. Unlike most town sites and many civic networks, the Carlisle project will not be an information site; it will be an interaction site. Also, it will be a closed site in that only members of the Carlisle community will be able to access it.

Research Methodology

We are building a web-based place with a variety of "rooms" corresponding to Carlisle places and organizations, e.g., the elementary school, the library. We will populate the place with some applications and templates and encourage residents to build more. We will collect base-line and longitudinal data on the quality and intensity of involvement in community activities and in interaction patterns (both ftf and electronic).

Future Directions for My Research

• From interaction to collective action. Is it possible to build on-line communities that support efficacious interaction in the real world?
• Space and community. Do geographic communities impose special requirements that are different from those of virtual communities? Is it important to community members to know that participation is restricted?
• Authentication and community. How important is it to have confidence that an online identity matches an offline identity?
• Clubs vs. Debates. Is the community better served when the online technology supports "low-affect" interactions as with clubs or "high-affect" interactions as with political debate.

Other Important Issues for the Field

• Empowering community participants. How can we make it possible for ordinary people to build their own electronic communities rather than just visit ones built by technologists?
• Reassuring community participants. What will it take for ordinary people to feel comfortable making contributions to an electronic community?
• Achieving critical mass. What forms and level of participation by the members of a community are needed for the electronic community to become self-reinforcing?

Selected Publications

• Kraut, R. E., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukhopadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist 53, (9), 1017-1032.
• Robert Putnam. 1995. Tuning in, tuning out: the strange disappearance of social capital in America. PS: Political Science and Politics, 664-683.
• Lee Sproull and Samer Faraj. 1995. Atheism, sex, and databases: The net as a social technology. In Brian Kahin and James Keller (eds.), Public Access to the Internet, pp. 62-81. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Reprinted in Sara Kiesler (ed.). 1997. Culture of the Internet, pp. 35-52. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Assocs.