University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON The Web of Community Trust Amateur Fiction Online: A Case Study in Community Focused Design for the Semantic Web by K. Faith Lawrence A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Electronics and Computer Science March 2008 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE Doctor of Philosophy by K. Faith Lawrence This thesis describes a case study online community: online amateur authors. Taking this case study community as a base, this thesis considers how the concept of community is applied within the Semantic Web domain. Considering the community structures that can be demonstrated through the case study, this thesis makes the case for the recognition of a specific type of social network structure, one that fulfils the traditional definitions of `community'. We argue that this sub-type occupies an important position within social networks and our understanding of them due to the structures required for them to be so defined and that there are assumptions and inferences which can be made about nodes within this type of community group but not others. Having detailed our case study community and the type of network it represents, this thesis goes on to consider how the community could be supported beyond the mailing lists and journalling sites upon which it currently relies. Through our investigation of the community's issues and requirements, we focus on identity and explore this concept within the context of community membership. Further we analyse the community prac- tice of metadata annotation, in comparison to other metadata systems such as tagging, and as it related to the development of the community. We propose a number of onto- logical models which we argue could assist the community and, finally, consider ways in which these models could be made available to the community in keeping with current practice and level of technical knowledge as evidenced by the community. Contents I Introduction 1 1 Introduction 2 1.1 Synopsis . .2 1.2 Hypothesis . .6 1.3 Methodology . .8 1.4 Thesis Overview . .9 II Methodology 13 2 Literature Survey 14 2.1 Personal Identity in the Age of the Internet . 14 2.2 Online Communities and Social Networks . 18 2.2.1 Trust, Communities and the Semantic Web . 22 2.2.2 The Fan Community . 27 2.3 Fandom . 31 2.3.1 Fan Studies . 32 2.4 Community Centred Design . 33 2.5 Tagging and Extending Tagging . 36 2.5.1 Extending Tags through the Tagging of Tags . 40 2.5.2 Extending Tags through Thesauri . 43 2.5.3 Extending Tags through Hyperlinks . 44 2.6 Upper Level Ontologies . 47 2.6.1 Ontology and the Philosphy of Fiction . 47 2.6.2 General Ontologies . 51 2.6.3 Cultural Heritage and Media Ontologies . 55 3 Amateur Writing Online { A Case Study Online Community 60 3.1 Methodology . 62 3.1.1 A Quantative and Qualitative Survey . 62 3.1.2 Bias . 65 3.2 Analysis of the Results . 66 3.2.1 Media Inspired Vs `Original' . 66 3.2.2 Gender . 66 3.2.3 Age . 72 3.2.4 Privacy . 77 3.2.5 Access . 78 ii CONTENTS iii 3.2.6 Metadata Annotation . 79 3.2.7 Technical Knowledge . 85 3.2.8 Commercial Services . 85 3.3 Discussion . 86 4 Visualizing Online Social Networks and Our Case Study Community 88 4.1 Methodology for Visualization . 89 4.2 Analysis of the Results . 92 4.3 Discussion . 102 III Social Modelling 108 5 Describing Identity within the Online Fan Community 109 5.1 Methodology . 109 5.2 Results: The Fan Online Persona Extension to the FOAF Schema . 111 5.3 Discussion . 114 6 Ontology, Tagging and Something in Between 121 6.1 Methodology . 121 6.1.1 Community Metadata . 122 6.2 Analysis of Results . 124 6.2.1 Analysing A Not So Restricted Vocabulary . 124 6.2.2 Archive Folksonomy Analysis . 124 6.2.2.1 Results . 125 6.3 Discussion . 126 6.3.1 Tagging and the Community Folksonomy . 126 6.3.2 Of Data and Metadata . 127 6.3.3 Tagging . 129 6.3.4 Media Content and Reusability . 133 IV Modelling 135 7 Describing the Narrative Content of Media 136 7.1 Methodology . 136 7.1.1 Creating the OntoMedia Ontology . 137 7.1.2 Defining The Problem . 138 7.2 Results: The OntoMedia Ontology . 139 7.2.1 OntoMedia Scope . 139 7.2.2 OntoMedia . 139 7.2.3 Testing and Refining the OntoMedia Ontology . 139 7.2.4 The OntoMedia Model . 141 7.2.4.1 Core - OntoMedia Expression . 143 7.2.4.2 Core - OntoMedia Media . 156 7.2.4.3 Core - OntoMedia Space . 156 7.2.4.4 Extensions/Common - OntoMedia Being . 159 7.2.4.5 Extensions/Common - OntoMedia Trait . 163 CONTENTS iv 7.2.4.6 Extensions/Common - Other . 169 7.2.4.7 Extensions/Detail . 170 7.2.4.8 Extensions/Events - OntoMedia Travel . 173 7.2.4.9 Extensions/Events - Other Events . 175 7.2.4.10 Extensions/Fiction - OntoMedia Character . 178 7.2.4.11 Extensions/Fiction - OntoMedia Fiction . 180 7.2.4.12 Extensions/Media . 181 7.2.4.13 Misc - Dates . 182 7.2.4.14 Misc - Names . 184 7.2.4.15 Misc - Other . 186 7.3 Discussion . 187 7.3.1 OntoMedia Examples . 187 7.3.1.1 Intertextuality . 187 7.3.1.2 Sleeping Beauty . 191 8 Creating a User Interface for the OntoMedia Ontology 200 8.1 Methodology . 200 8.2 Results: A User Interface for Interaction with the OntoMedia Ontology . 201 8.2.1 Using Meditate . 201 8.2.1.1 Meditate: Start Up . 201 8.2.1.2 Meditate: Initial Views . 203 8.2.1.3 Meditate: Names . 204 8.2.1.4 Meditate: Adding Traits . 206 8.2.1.5 Meditate: Trait Options . 206 8.2.1.6 Meditate: Entity Profiles . 208 8.2.1.7 Meditate: Contexts . 208 8.3 Discussion . 210 9 Testing the Meditate Application 214 9.1 Methodology . 214 9.1.1 Initial Responses . 214 9.1.2 Initial User Testing . 215 9.2 Results . 216 9.2.1 Task 1 . 216 9.2.2 Task 2 . 216 9.2.3 Task 3 . 216 9.2.4 Task 4 . 217 9.2.5 Task 5 . 218 9.2.6 Task 6 . 218 9.2.7 Task 7 . 219 9.2.8 Task 8 . 219 9.2.9 Task 9 . 219 9.2.10 Task 10 . 220 9.2.11 Results from the Questionnaire . ..