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The Phenomenon of Social Computing

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The Phenomenon of Social Computing The Phenomenon of Social Computing A Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Marie D Fernando School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics May 2019 ©Marie D Fernando Dedication To the two most beautiful concepts I know: God above and Family Acknowledgements It is indeed gratifying to realise that I have reached the completion of this arduous but the most fulfilling journey of PhD. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to my Principal Supervisor Professor Athula Ginige. First and foremost for having confidence in me to accept me as a PhD student an investment no students can pay back in a life time. Your intellectual guidance has transformed my plain thought process into a logical one that it frightens me to think or perceive the perceptions otherwise. I have begun to observe causality in simplest natural phenomena the same way I have in the phenomenon of interest of this journey. That impeccable training with unwavering patience, and most of all that universe of knowledge affirms once and again that I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my PhD study. Besides my advisor, my sincerest thanks to my Co-Supervisor Associate Professor Ana Hol. Your academic training with hard questioning has moulded my mind to question my own thinking and writing logically. This has incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. Your insightful comments and ever present encouragement has held me in good stead throughout this PhD journey. I would also like to thank all my lab mates for the stimulating discussions, collaborative work and fun. My heartfelt thanks to all the colleagues at my school – School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics of Western Sydney University. Each one of you has contributed to this journey in one way or the other. My earnest thanks also go out to colleagues at Graduate Research School, Business School, School of Social Sciences and very specially the Library. A special note of thanks go out to my friends from childhood, highschool, uni, corporate life, neigbours, church community and my relations all of whom have influenced this journey in numerous ways. My family, who celebrated every minute milestone of this journey and upheld me when going got tough, couldn’t have done without you. Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. ................................................................................... (Marie D Fernando) ii Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................20 1.1 Observation of a New Phenomenon ..........................................................20 1.2 Research Context ......................................................................................30 1.2.1 Rapid Growth ....................................................................................31 1.2.2 Community Size ................................................................................31 1.2.3 Disruption ..........................................................................................31 1.3 Working Definition for Social Computing ................................................32 1.4 Motivation to Find a Solution to the Observed Phenomenon .....................32 1.5 Definition of a Successful Social Computing Application in the Context of this Study ............................................................................................................35 1.6 Research Gap and Significance of This Study ...........................................35 1.7 Scope of the Research ...............................................................................36 1.8 Research Question ....................................................................................37 1.8.1 What are the Characteristics of Social Computing? ............................38 1.8.2 What is the Structure of Social Computing Applications? ..................38 1.8.3 What is the Relationship between Social Computing and Societal/Business Outcomes? ...........................................................................39 1.8.4 What is the Behaviour of Social Computing? .....................................39 1.8.5 How the process of achieving societal/business outcomes in a non- digital era can be mapped to the digital era? .....................................................40 1.9 Thesis Structure ........................................................................................41 1.9.1 Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................41 1.9.2 Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature ............................................42 1.9.3 Chapter 3: Methodology ....................................................................42 1.9.4 Chapter 4: Taxonomy of Social Computing Characteristics and Structure of a Social Computing Application ...................................................43 1.9.5 Chapter 5: Multistage Causal Model for Social Computing and Societal/Business Outcomes, Behavioural Model for Social Computing and Human Need Fulfilment Model........................................................................43 1.9.6 Chapter 6: Validation of the Generic Models .....................................44 1.9.7 Chapter 7: Overall Interaction and Information Flow Model for Social Computing .......................................................................................................44 iii 1.9.8 Chapter 8: Conclusion and Future Work ............................................45 2 Review of Related Literature ...........................................................................47 2.1 What is a Phenomenon ..............................................................................47 2.1.1 Analogies of Experiences...................................................................48 2.2 Phenomenon of Interest of this Study ........................................................50 2.3 Flow of Relevant Literature within this Chapter ........................................50 2.4 Emerging Disruptive Business Models ......................................................51 2.4.1 Definition of a Business Model ..........................................................52 2.4.2 Key Elements of a Business Model ....................................................55 2.5 Rapid Growth Rate of Social Computing Applications ..............................59 2.6 Definition of Trust ....................................................................................63 2.7 Characteristics of Trust .............................................................................64 2.8 Enabling Technologies of Social Computing .............................................67 2.9 What Existing Research Say about this Phenomenon ................................73 2.10 Scholarly Definitions of Social Computing ...............................................75 2.11 Characteristics of Social Computing .........................................................77 2.12 Lead towards a Heuristic ...........................................................................79 3 Methodology ...................................................................................................81 3.1 Available Data Set ....................................................................................81 3.2 Methodological Decision ..........................................................................89 3.2.1 Design ...............................................................................................91 3.2.2 Unitizing............................................................................................92 3.2.3 Sampling ...........................................................................................93 3.2.4 Coding ...............................................................................................94 3.2.5 Categorizing Codes .......................................................................... 106 3.3 Constructing Causal Chains .................................................................... 108 3.3.1 Aligning Causal Chains ................................................................... 109 3.3.2 Towards Drawing Inferences ........................................................... 111 4 Taxonomy of Social Computing Characteristics and Structural Model for a Social Computing Application .............................................................................. 112 4.1 Categorisation of Extracted Codes .......................................................... 112 4.2 Emergence of Emergent Characteristics (ECH) ....................................... 113 4.3 Application Characteristics (ACH).......................................................... 120 4.3.1 Content Sharing (CS) ....................................................................... 121 iv 4.3.2 User Interaction (UI) ........................................................................ 121 4.3.3 Business Transaction (BT) ............................................................... 123 4.3.4 Aggregated Knowledge (AK) .......................................................... 123 4.4 Taxonomy of Social Computing Characteristics .....................................
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