2017SP COMM 4625 SEC01	Office hours	Content
TU/FR 1:35 - 3:15 pm Snell Library 009	Joseph Reagle, Ph.D., <j.reagle> TU appointments starting at 15:30 Comm Studies, 215 Holmes Hall Tip: Enter at 41A Leon St.	Policies
Assignments
Rubric
Resources
Schedule

Course objectives

In the 90s many people drew a line between the online and offline worlds and asked if online communities were “real.” Over time, scholars concluded “yes,” people share enduring identities, activities, and relations online. In the new millennium, this is not only widely accepted as a fact, but as a focus of significant business interest. Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to explain the dynamics of online communities including joining, governance, conflict, and exit. Furthermore, you will have experience with the development and challenges of online communities via hands-on interventions (including contributions to Wikipedia and an experiment with your own online networks). Our orientation will be that of asking how can one design successful online communities? This could be valuable to you as a participant, as a supporter of a social cause, or as part of your employment. As much as possible, scholarly readings will be complemented by contemporary cases.

Successful completion of this course enables one to:

ask complex questions and have a sense of how one might address those questions (e.g., what type of moderation is best?);
recall, compare, and give examples of key theories related to groups and communities (e.g., pro-social norms);
analyze, critique, and design online communities (e.g., a subreddit );
compellingly write in both a short-form online venue and longer-form academic format;
compellingly present your ideas orally (e.g., assignment debrief);
collaborate with one’s peers to improve academic performance;
contribute to Wikipedia.

Policy

Active learning and the Web

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

This is an active learning course meaning that you will be engaged with activities such as class and group discussion, participating in and designing class exercises, collaborative note-taking, and peer assessment.

I also make much use of the Web. For instance, this syllabus is a Web page that I update; I expect you to bookmark it and to follow links. (If you find a broken link or typo, let me know!) You can easily find things on this page with control-f. You can open links in new tabs with control-click. We will also make use of Google Docs. I recommend you use something like Zim, FoldingText, or Evernote to “make information your own.” By the way, in emails I often use markdown conventions and respond below your quoted (‘>’) text.

Academic policies

In short, come to class on time and with the readings and assignments completed; be respectful and willing to collaborate. There are no provisions for missed exams or late assignments.

We sometimes use devices in class as part of an activity, but the default policy is for gadgets to be silenced and put away. (Interestingly, as noted in my tips for note-taking, handwritten notes can lead to better learning.) If you want to use a device throughout classes, email me a device proposal with your intended usage. Device users might also be called upon you to perform tasks such as looking things up or taking collaborative notes. I can also rescind device privileges. Deviations from classroom professionalism and respect may result in dismissal from class and demerits against your grade. See full course policies for more detail.

In general, if you have an issue, such as needing an accommodation for a religious obligation or learning disability, speak with me before it affects your performance. Do not ask for favors; instead, offer proposals that show initiative and a willingness to work.

Academic Integrity is of utmost importance: “The promotion of independent and original scholarship ensures that students derive the most from their educational experience and their pursuit of knowledge.” Violations include cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and participating in or encouraging dishonesty. If you cheat on an exam, you will receive zero credit and be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. If you plagiarize ideas or seven or more words in a row, the same will follow.

Assignments

There are 1000 points at stake over the course of the term. This is converted to letter grades on the basis of thresholds; they are not rounded.

Because this is a upper-level course, I give greater freedom than in introduction classes where I require things like essay proposals and formal peer review. Being prepared and getting good feedback are still essential to doing well, I just don’t make you do it: you have greater freedom to do poorly. Also, because this is a capstone, I’d like for you to have work products you can be proud of. So if you have a creative idea, please let me know!

(200 pts) Class participation

This entails much more than (even perfect) attendance. Note: participation is not an easy “gimme grade”; I probably grade this more severely than anything else, please see the participation rubric for more.
(50 pts) QICs (Question, Insight, Connection)

Ninety minutes prior to class leave a signed Question, Insight, and/or Connection from the readings (250~350 words). Be careful of overwriting others’ edit or losing your own. In this class, we can be more flexible about the format, but you should still consult The Craft of Reading and What Makes a Good Response. You must post a QIC for 13 classes during the semester; you may not add them after the fact. You are welcome to add one in response to someone else’s. However, you don’t want to give the appearance of only reading the most trivial of the readings and then piggy-backing on your peers. Please keep careful count; I recommend numbering your QICs.
(150 pts) Essay on user influence and motivation

Write a ~1500 word essay on a chosen topic related to influence and motivation; follow writing requirements below. I strongly suggest you send me an email with a short proposal at least a week before it is due and that you ask one or more peers to give you feedback before turning it in. Previous topics included: “Influence and Motivation in Reddit,” “The Online Dating Game,” “Persuading Others to Persuade: How Ello.co got so much attention,” “Instagram: Instant Motivation,” “Crowd-funding and Motivation,” and “Getting Healthy with Hashtags.” Exercise class concepts and use a design perspective: how is what we’ve learned about motivation and persuasion used (or not) to build online community?
Projects

Each of the following projects includes a written and debrief component. The ~1500 word written reports must follow the writing requirements and specific instruction below.
- Social media breaching experiment (analysis = 150pts; presentation = 50pts)
  
  Choose one or more breaching experiments that will allow you to discuss and analyze the role of social norms in an online community. Follow the writing requirements of a traditional essay and the ethical requirements associated with a class-only report of a confidential space that you disguise. Hand in your printed assignment in class and “Turn It In” at BlackBoard. On the debrief day you each will be give a 5 minute (maximum) presentation with Q&A at the end of the session. See my tips and rubric for presenting; if you wish to present from my Chromebook, make your deck public—to everyone, not just Northeastern—and link to your slides in the Slides Doc.
- Experiential learning: Wikipedia contribution (article = 100pts; reflection= 150pts)
  
  Reflect upon your contributions to Wikipedia in light of what we’ve learned about online community, especially the management of newcomers, moderation, and community governance. Write this on a subpage of your Wikipedia User page—not your User or Talk page. Although you will be writing in the first person about your experiences, be analytical and engage class concepts, have a thesis (explanation or argument) and structure your reflection accordingly. Follow the ethical requirements associated with a public report of a public space.
  
  Your Wikipedia contribution will be assessed on the basis of Wikipedia’s perfect article criteria, your reflection will be assessed via my writing rubric. Additionally, your reflection should make use of Wikipedia features such as Wikipedia citations and links to article versions and specific contributions (or “diffs.”); see my user page Link section for a demo. Instead of a paper copy and Blackboard version, email me a link to your reflection—and among its links there must be a link to your article. For the debrief, we will discuss rather than have presentations.
- Newcomer campaign (writing = 150pts)
  
  Given what we’ve learned about community design and newcomers, propose a campaign for recruiting, socializing, and retaining newcomers to an online community. You may create your own community or choose an existing one. (See Wikipedia’s list of online communities.) Write up your strategy and analysis using a public Web-based platform (e.g., medium.com). Imagine it is part of a business plan and consider what is working well and what could be improved? That is, write it in a voice intended for the community or its moderators, not the instructor. You must still engage and reference our reading sources but write using the conventions of your chosen platform (e.g., images, block quotes, and using links rather than citations; see these two assignments). Follow the ethical requirements associated with a public report of a public space. Don’t ignore recent readings.
  
  Email me a link to your campaign before the debrief; that day we will have a group discussion in which you’ll each have ~4 minutes to describe your community/platform, what you found of interest, and what you recommended. Include a link or screenshot to your assignment if you want others to be able to get a sense of your community. We’ll then break into subgroups to discuss specific issues.

TRACE

Our college requires all students to complete TRACE evaluations at the end of the semester even if you (anonymously) opt-out of completing the survey.

Writing requirements

Printed assignments must be double-spaced, 12 point font, 1-inch margins. (One page contains approximately 250 words.) Pages must be numbered and stapled together. Citations must be in the APA style.

No APA cover page is required. In fact, so as to avoid bias, I read assignments “blind” without knowing the author until the last page. Hence, your name (and final word count absent bibliography) should only appear on the back side of the final page. That is, I should only know your name by turning the assignment over.

All assignments should be reviewed by two peers and assessed according to the writing rubric. Make use of Hacker’s Pocket Manual and my writing tips handout. On the due date, assignments are due at start of class (print copies must be submitted in class and the electronic version must be submitted via BlackBoard). If you have permission to revise a written assignment for re-assessment, please see these revision instructions.

Grading Rubric

Communication Studies courses are expected, on average, to have a GPA of no more than a 3.3 (B+); this means those receiving an A or A- are in the minority. The course rubric notes that “A” students have all of the following attributes.

show mastery in assignments. Their work demonstrates impressive understanding of readings, discussions, themes and ideas. It is fluid, clear, analytical, well-organized and grammatically polished. Reasoning and logic are well-grounded and examples precise.
have virtually perfect attendance. Their commitment to the class resembles that of the teacher.
are prepared for class. They always read assignments and participate fully. Their attention to detail is such that they occasionally catch the teacher in a mistake.
show interest in the class. They look up or dig out what they don’t understand. They often ask interesting questions or make thoughtful comments.
have retentive minds. They are able to connect past learning with the present.
have a winning attitude. They have the determination, initiative, and self-discipline to succeed.

Resources

Many links to my public wiki are found through-out this syllabus (remember, control-f is your friend), but I’ve gathered some of the most important ones below. As I explain in this video about tracking assignment requirements, I have high expectations and send a lot of information your way, I recommend you use something like Zim, FoldingText, or Evernote to “make information your own.”

Tip: temporarily place requirements and rubrics into your work (e.g., at the top of the reading responses).

Course rubric
- Google Docs
- email list to which we can all send and receive messages.
Northeastern: library resources, writing center, and international tutoring center
Wikipedia WP dashboard.
- Reading QICs: Questions, Insights, Connections
Essays
In class

Readings

Most readings are linked to from this page, if not check this password protected zip file (the password is my dog’s name in lowercase). However, you must acquire the following:

Robert E. Kraut, Paul Resnick, et al. (2012) Building successful online communities: Evidence-based social design.

I also expect you to have a copy of:

Diane Hacker (6th or 7th edition), A Pocket Style Manual. (I’ve seen good used copies for as little as ~$12, but sometimes the price shoots up. You shouldn’t have to pay more than $35—and this will be useful throughout your college career and beyond.)

Like other skills, bibliography is something you learn to do well. Technology can make it easier. NU makes RefWorks and EndNote available to students; you can also use the freely available browser-based Zotero.

Note that for selections, I specify the chapter (ch=) or pages (pp=) to read.

Schedule

Jan 09 Tue - Intro and Wikipedia

We learn each other’s names, review the course objectives, and get started with Wikipedia with the help of guests Amanda Rust and Brooke Williams, Northeastern librarians.

Wikipedia task 1

Before class, start the Wikipedia Essentials and Editing Basics tutorials (35 + 25 = 60 minutes). Upon completion, you will have created an account, made edits in a sandbox, and learned the basic rules of the Wikipedia community. I recommend you add the pages Help:Cheatsheet and Help:Wiki markup as the first (of many to come) bookmarks in a new folder on your browser. If you are in need of quick help, head over to the English Wikipedia chat channel.
“Join course” on our WP dashboard—under “Actions”—using passcode “gcujhmnq”.
On your user page introduce yourself to the community—but you need not disclose personally identifiable information. Make sure to include the following:

    As part of [[User:Reagle]]'s online community class, I will be
    contributing to Wikipedia and reflecting on the experience on a 
    user page here.

Look ahead to the class where you pick a topic and start thinking about what you’d like to write an article about.

Also:

Bring a mnemonic linking your name with something novel about yourself. For instance, I would say: “Imagine Prof. Reagle being chased by beagles.”

Jan 12 Fri - Persuasion

We begin with motivation: What is some of the science behind motivation?

Kraut ch=2 pp=21-40
Robert B. Cialdini, 2001, The science of persuasion, Scientific American

Jan 16 Tue - A/B testing

We make a slight digression to consider one of the dominant means of online design (A/B testing) and in understanding the Wikipedia community. Bring your device.

Brian Christian, 20120425, The A/B test: Inside the technology that’s changing the rules of business, Wired
Wikimedia, 2010, Fundraising 2010/Banner testing,
Joseph Reagle, 2010, Nazis and norms, Good Faith Collaboration, ch=1

Wikipedia task 2

Have you completed the tutorials and sign-up from the earlier task?
Use Talk pages (tabs) to introduce yourself to Prof. Reagle, a classmate, and a Wikipedian helping your class (e.g., librarian or ambassador).
Add your User page and Talk page to your watchlist. You can configure this to notify you when someone edits a page you are watching.
Choose a topic for which you can write or significantly expand an article with 5-10 well sourced paragraphs.
- Northeastern’s library provides topics for which there is no article (red link) or a stub in need of expansion.
- You may choose a topic of your own if you are confident of its notability, can find reliable sources, and edit without a conflict of interest. It is better to choose a notable and well-sourced topic of which you are ignorant than vice versa; feel free to discuss ideas with me.
  - Requested articles includes potential topics—but you still must make sure there are enough reliable and independent sources.
  - Consider interesting scholars or books, under-appreciated locales or history, and recent events or people in the news.
  - Products, businesses, and social media celebrities will be challenged as promotional—be very careful on this front.
  - You can peruse older course pages (linked from my User page) for past topics.
Find at least four reliable sources that are independent of the subject: this can include books, magazines, and newspapers—but not press releases, marketing, PR news wires, blogs, and self-published material.
Find three Wikipedia articles related to your topic so as to: avoid duplication, have an exemplar, find help via their Talk pages or a related WikiProject;
Document your choice, reliable sources, and related Wikipedia articles on the course’s talk page under proposed topics.

Jan 19 Fri - Gaming motivation

What are the types of motivation and to what extent can they be “gamed”?

Kraut ch=2 pp=41-70
Joseph Reagle, 2014, Revenge rating and tweak critique at photo.net

Jan 23 Tue - Wikipedia project start

Note, we will do much of this assignment in class, so bring a device. Before class, make sure you have at least four reliable sources on your topic and experiment with how to make Wikipedia citations on your sandbox subpage. We’ll be working with Amanda Rust and Brooke Williams. No need to write a QIC.

Joseph Reagle, Wikipedia’s citation mess and how to cope
Wikipedia, Help:Referencing for beginners
Amanda Rust, Do the research first!
- Amanda Rust, Citing sources from Northeastern’s archives

Wikipedia task 3

Make sure your preferences are set such that you still have the visual and syntax editor tabs available.
Compile a bibliography of at least four reliable sources.
- Remember, there’s more to the world than that found in a Web search. You could search LexisNexis for news articles and Amazon and Google for books.
Create a sandbox subpage (video tutorial). A sandbox is just a subpage (often a user subpage) with the {{User sandbox}} template included; this creates an easy to use button to move the page into Wikipedia’s article space when you are ready.
Write an outline of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox.
Feel free to use the class email list to share tips or ask for help from classmates. You could also create a wiki-page or Google Doc for this.

Jan 26 Fri - Kohn on motivation

Is it possible for extrinsic motivators to “crowd out” intrinsic motives? Kohn has concerns about the extrinsic motive of rewards. Gittip/Gratipay is a crowd-funding site, like Patreon, focused on supporting open source software developers by way of recurring user contributions.

Alfie Kohn, 1999, “Cutting the interest rate: the fifth reason rewards fail,” ch=4-6, from Punished by Rewards
- Skim chapter 4, read chapter 5, chapter 6 might be interesting to you as a student
Gittip, 201406, About
Chad Whitacre, 2013, Resentment

Jan 30 Tue - Relational commitment

In the next few classes, we will be looking at how to encourage commitment from members towards a community. We begin with what is called “affective” and “bonds-based” commitment.

Kraut ch=3 pp=77-102
Joseph Reagle, 2015, “Introduction”, Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web, ch=1

Wikipedia task 4

Consult the “Help out” section of the Community Portal do one of each:

Fix spelling and grammar
Fix wikilinks

Feb 02 Fri - Needs-based and lock-in

Today, I am asking you to read about normative and needs-based communities. When you think of exemplar communities, what kind are they? I’ve also provided a short readings on why young people are leaving social networks. How easy is it to leave a network? Have you ever been able to migrate your data (e.g., Facebook’s download your info)?

Kraut ch=3 pp=102-115
Felicity Duncan, 2016, So long social media: the kids are opting out of the online public square

Feb 06 Tue - Ethics (interlude)

While I will not be asking you to conduct formal interviews it is still important for us to consider the ethical implications of studying online communities. Do you think Facebook and OkCupid were ethical? Should academics be held to a higher standard?

Amy Bruckman, 2006, Teaching students to study online communities ethically, Journal of Information Ethics
Wikipedia, 2016, Facebook: User influence experiments
Christian Rudder, 2014, We Experiment On Human Beings!

Due: Essay on user influence and motivation

Feb 13 Tue - Norm compliance and breaching

Let’s continue reading about community regulation and norms. Garfinkel is summarized well in the Wikipedia article but I provide the PDF in the zip file for use in your assignment.

Kraut ch=4 pp=151-170 (claims 21-33)
Wikpedia, Breaching experiment
Harold Garfinkel, 1976, Studies in ethnomethodology

Begin your social breaching experiment.

Feb 16 Fri - Community and collaboration

In one reading we look at Wikipedia’s collaborative culture and ask if there is something there that contributes to its success? In the other, we look at a study of feedback at Wikipedia.

Joseph Reagle, 2010, “Good faith collaboration,” Good Faith Collaboration, ch=3
Haiyi Zhu, Amy Zhang, Jiping He, Robert E. Kraut, Aniket Kittur, 2013, “Effects of peer feedback on contribution: A field experiment in Wikipedia”

Wikipedia task 5

Your sandbox article should now be roughly complete, with a good structure, 4-6 paragraphs of content, and references.
- When you think your draft is ready for review, let me know (on Wikipedia or via email).
- After I’ve had a look, and when you are ready do one of the following.
  - If this is a new article, click the “Submit your draft for review!” button at the top of your page.
  - If this is an extension, start copying your revised and new sections over to the existing article and create a section on the Talk page inviting feedback.
On our WP dashboard, assign yourself your article and sign up for two reviews; try to select one without reviews—you don’t need to start reviewing yet.
Respond to any feedback you get toward making it a perfect article.

Feb 20 Tue - Moderation

What options are available for the moderation of online communities?

James Grimmelmann, 2015, “The virtues of moderation.” (You may skip section IV “Lessons for Law.”)

Feb 23 Fri - Governance and banning

Let’s focus specifically on questions of governance, specifically: how are decisions made? Also, what kind of sanctions and decision making processes are available to censure users?

Joseph Reagle, 2010, The challenges of consensus, ch=5
Brendan Maher, 2016, Can a video game company tame toxic behaviour?
Wikipedia, 2014, Wikipedia:Banning policy

Feb 27 Tue - Newcomer gateways

In many regards, having newcomers to a community is a good problem to have. Nonetheless, it can be a problem. How do successful communities keep and integrate newcomers into their fold? I’ve also asked you to read about a particular gateway to new membership in the Debian community and a humorous take on Wikipedia socialization.

Bring your device for editing Wikipedia.

Kraut ch=5 pp=179-205 (claims 1-16)
Debian
- 2013, Debian New Members Corner
- 2014, Debian: Step 3: Philosophy and Procedures
Wikipedia, 2015, Wikipedia:Seven Ages of Wikipedians

Mar 02 Fri - Newcomer initiation

Why do people sometimes feel such an affinity for groups that abuse them?

Kraut ch=5 pp=205-223 (claims 17-25)
Elliot Aronson, Judson Mills, 1959, “The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology

Wikipedia task 6

Peer review two of your classmates’ articles using the criteria of a perfect article.
- Big changes could be suggested or done (and documented) on the article talk page.
- Be bold and directly copy-edit smaller changes in the two reviewed articles.

Mar 06 Tue - NO CLASS

Mar 09 Fri - NO CLASS

Mar 13 Tue - FOMO

We again focus on that sense that if one doesn’t join a community soon, one might be left behind. Is this something online communities and marketers should take advantage of? Or do you think it unethical? Bring your device for a class activity.

Joseph Reagle, 2015, Following the Joneses: FOMO and Conspicuous Sociality
Chrintine Miranda, 2011, Fear of missing out

Mar 20 Tue - Gratitude

Today we will consider the role of gratitude within a community.

Airi Lampinen, Vilma Lehtinen, Coye Cheshire, Emmi Suhonen, 2013, Presentation of Indebtedness and Reciprocity in Local Online Exchange; also skim the full paper and read the last section “Design Implications”
Nathan Matias, 2014, Gratitude and its Dangers in Social Technologies
Howie Fung, 2011, WikiLove: An experiment in appreciation
StackOverflow, 2014, What should I do when someone answers my question?

Due: Wikipedia task 7

Give at least one Wikipedian who is not associated with our class some Wikilove. Of course, you can also share as much Wikilove as you wish, in or out of class. (You can also thank contributors for specific edits.)

Mar 23 Fri - RTFM

Newcomers are sometimes explicitly (or implicitly) expected to learn rudimentary knowledge before joining the community. But is it alienating to ask them to first “read the fucking manual”? Can you find an example of a “FAQ slap” in which someone is told to RTFM?

Joseph Reagle, 2014, The obligation to know: From FAQ to Feminism 101
Know Your Meme, 2014, RTFM

Mar 27 Tue - Bootstrapping a niche and Winner-Take-All

The final chapter from Kraut et al. asks that if one is starting a new community, how best to bootstrap it? What connections can you draw between online communities and the winner-take-all society?

Kraut ch=6 pp=231-248 (claims 1-17)
Robert H. Frank, Philip J. Cook, 1995, The winner-take-all society, pp=1-26

Mar 30 Fri - Bootstrapping and critical mass

Let’s consider additional bootstrapping tactics; do you think Uber will win the day?

Kraut ch=6 pp=248-276 (claims 18-48)
Chris Kluesener, 2014, Uber-competitive: The ride-sharing platform war gets aggressive

We’ll also be joined librarians Amanda Rust and Brooke Williams. Bring your device for our final Wikipedia editing session.

Apr 03 Tue - Reddit’s challenges

As you read the short essays, think about what makes reddit work? What is it good at and what are some of the challenges it faces as an online community?

Eric Gilbert, 2013, Widespread Underprovision on Reddit
Yoni Appelbaum, 2012, How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit, The Atlantic
Wikipedia, 2017, “Controversial Reddit communities”
Reddit, 2013, “Reddiquette”

Apr 06 Fri - Debrief: Wikipedia

What do we think of the Wikipedia community and experience?

Due: Wikipedia task 8

Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. Has anyone seen your page?
Write a reflective essay (see Assignments) on your Wikipedia contributions on a user page.
Prepare for an in-class discussion about your Wikipedia editing experience relative to our discussions on how to design for a successful community. Don’t ramble, but tell us in about 4 minutes:
- what would you recommend Wikipedia do to:
  - welcome newcomers
  - persuade people to contribute and donate
  - increase motivation
  - regulate vandals
- what surprised you?
- what annoyed you?

Apr 10 Tue - 4chan & community content analysis

4chan is a controversial online community. How can it be studied and what can we learn—including about its effects on other communities? Make sure you bring your annotated copy of the reading (print or digital) for class discussion. Don’t worry about the fancy math, focus on what conclusions we can draw about this difficult to understand community.

Wikipedia, 2017, 4chan (skim as background)
Hine et al., 2016, Kek, cucks, and God Emperor Trump: A longitudinal measurement study of 4chan’s politically incorrect forum and its effect on the Web
William Hicks, 2017, 4chan is inventing hate symbols faster than liberals can get offended by them

Apr 13 Fri - Infocide

Although many scholars and practitioners focus on recruiting and retaining community members, what about exit? Beyond the celebrities who quit Twitter, consider why people leave. Check out some of the user pages that use Template:Retired.

Bring your device for a class activity.

Joseph Reagle, 2012, 410 gone - Infocide in Open Content Communities
Wikipedia, 2016, Wikipedia:Wikibreak
Wikipedia, 2016, Pages that link to “Template:Retired”

Apr 17 Tue - Debrief: Newcomer campaign

Due: Newcomer campaign and debrief. Come to class prepared to briefly describe your campaign.

For the debrief, don’t ramble, I will ask you to answer:
- what was your community/platform?
- what are you proposing?
- do you really think it would work?