Social Capital in Virtual Communities

Virtual Communities, such as Facebook, Flickr and MySpace are used by more and more people every day. This new generation of online activity, supported by the Web 2.0 development, has become part of the daily life for many internet users, particularly those of younger age. Developers and researchers have long been asking the following questions: why do people use virtual communities? What makes them participate actively? And is there another reason behind this participation besides the aspect of fun? One theory which attempts to answer some of these questions is Social Capital theory. The author Eva Katharina Köhli gives an overview of the most prevalent theories of social capital and virtual communities, before analyzing the specific case of 3-D Virtual communities by comparing the communities Second Life and Cyworld. With the help of a theoretical model, different sources of social capital are empirically established in the two communities. This book addresses decision makers and operators of virtual communities as well as researchers in the field of social capital, online communities and Web 2.0.