This thesis advances an explicit, consequent, and wholesome ethnomethodological perspective on brand community. It recognizes brand community as a social problem ? something to be continuously solved and achieved. The two main perceivably stable features of the Nikonian community are (1) practical usefulness and (2) the social link. The authors suggest that both features are constantly accomplished through three types of aggregate behaviour (1) lurking, (2) ordinary membership, and (3) community citizenship behaviour (CCB).

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the discourse within a gothic Online community and examine how they use significant symbols to create themselves as goths and being part of a community. In order to achive this aim, eleven different forum threads were examined to amalyze how the goths created their significant symbols within the Online community and through interaction with each other. The results implies that the discourse within the community describes the goths as either true or false goths and that it is important to maintain this boundary.

Our study illustrates the nature and characteristics of the virtual world Second Life. We have identified that the Online community aims to satisfy hedonistic needs through social and conspicuous consumption, for online use only, concentrating on socially accepted identity construction..

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka grupp- och kommunikationsprocesser i en Online community där den gemensamma nämnaren mellan medlemmarna var intresset för spelet World of Warcraft. Undersökningen utfördes med hjälp av en egenkonstruerad enkät samt observationer vars syfte var att undersöka deltagarnas grupptillhörighet, vänskap, konflikthantering och kommunikation online, samt deras beteenden gentemot varandra. Syftet var även att undersöka om sociala anpassningsstrategier, standardroller och in-och utomgruppsfavoritism var applicerbara på en virtuell grupp. Undersökningsresultaten pekar på att många av de teorier gällande grupptillhörighet och vänskap även är applicerbara på grupper formade online samt att kommunikationshjälpmedel såsom smileys underlättar konversationer i skriven form. Resultaten pekar även på att de sociala anpassningsstrategierna och standardrollerna är applicerbara på en virtuell grupp, dock anses urvalet för litet och observationstiden för kort för att med säkerhet säga att dessa återfinns.

Thesis purpose: The main purpose of this study is to empirically verify the applicability of Kozinets´ model on an interest, activity or lifestyle based Online community, in order to develop an adaptive segmentation approach for segmenting online communities. Methodology: This research is deductive by nature, cross-sectional by design and undertakes a quantitative approach using self-completion questionnaire as a part of a web survey to collect the empirical data needed. Theoretical perspective: The main theories guiding our work and supporting the findings of this study include: market segmentation (descriptive and behavioural) and communities (consumer communities and online communities). Empirical data: A web survey with self-completion questionnaire used to gather empirical data from members of interest, activity or lifestyle based online communities. Conclusions: This study took the specific characteristics of online communities into more consideration than previous research and literature has done and also recognized that an adaptive segmentation approach is needed, depending on the communities of study.

Communities är ett hett ämne som idag ständigt diskuteras i media. Människor blir mer och mer benägna att interagera online och mängden med online communities ökar i takt med detta. I Sverige finns en community som heter Lunarstorm som har blivit ett fenomen som inte har skådats någon annanstans. Med sina 1,3 miljoner användare är det absolut störst i Sverige idag. Jag har i min uppsats tagit fram ett antal faktorer ur litteraturen som är avgörande för ett online communities framgång.

Bakgrund och problemformulering - Vi har valt att studera och analysera i vilket avseende det sker user innovation på ett forum skapat av företaget Salesforce. Forumet är ett brand community för användare som utvecklar Salesforce tjänster. Frågeställningarna behandlar om det sker olika typer av user innovation och vad det är som driver användarna till att innovera på det forum vi har valt att studera. Vår studie syftar till att bidra med en bredare kunskap och förståelse kring ämnet då det finns begränsad forskning kring user innovation inom online brand communities idag.Teori - Begreppet brand communities förklaras utifrån Muniz och O?Guinns (2001) synsätt som innebär att ett online brand community är en samlingsplats på internet dedikerat till ett specifikt varumärke.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the virtual world that people are part of on online dating sites. To do this we have investigated two different research questions, which are the following: What functions do the online dating sites provide? Why and how are the online dating sites being used by their members? In order to gather information about these matters, we have used a qualitative method consisting of participating observation, scrutinizing and single person interviews. Our results indicate that people have different goals with their usage of online dating sites; some are looking for love, a long-term relationship while others are looking for sexual contact. There are many different online dating sites to choose from depending on the users? objective.

Ragnarök Online en plats på nätet, ett online-spel, där människor från hela världen möts och samverkar. Det är i detta möte personer emellan som den virtuella miljön Ragnarök Online skapas. Målet med denna uppsats är att visa på hur människor interagerar i, och skapar denna plats på nätet. Varför spenderar folk tid i virtuella miljöer? Är det annorlunda att agera i en virtuell miljö? Dessa är några av de frågor vi kommer att möta i texten.

This study explores how online television works and how it is integrated with social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Through three qualitative interviews with representants from different fields of work regarding online television, we have concluded how online television is being used in Sweden today and concludes with examples of what the future of online television could look like. Representatives from the following companies have been interviewed: SBS Media Group Sweden, Strix Television and Mediamätning i Skandinavien. The use of social media for marketing of online television is a fact for the companies in this study. However, the result of the study shows that theres room for development in the integration between online television and social media.

This study aims to research how upper secondary pupils interact while playing online games, how the English language is used within each game and what attitudes these pupils have towards language in school and online gaming respectively. Online gaming sessions have been recorded to analyze the methods of interaction by which people communicate with each other while playing online games. Furthermore, the text-based communication occuring in online gaming is analyzed on a lexical level to find words not defined in legitimate English dictionaries. Interviews with students have been conducted to understand the attitudes held by students towards language in school and online games..

This study explores the relatively new phenomenon of online poker. More specifically, it elaborates on who the online poker player is, why s/he plays online poker, what the fascination of the game is, why s/he continues to play, and what the experience is. The study is delimited to focus on individuals who mainly play Texas hold?em online. The empirical material is based on semi-structured interviews with active online poker players, as well as on secondary data such as articles and literature.

Purpose/aim: The purpose is to get increased knowledge about how the communication had developed from the first contact online to the first meeting in real life and even after when it had turned into a real relationship. I also wanted to know why the eight women I interviewed experienced that the Internet is a good venue to meet and develop a real relationship at and if there existed any differences between those four women who were a bit older and those four women who were young.Material/method: When the purpose with this survey stood clear I decided to use interviews as the method to find out more about my subject. I decided to do eight interviews and I contacted eight women who all found their partners online that were willing to help me and answer my interview questions. I did six of the total eight interviews through MSN Messenger and the other two through the telephone.Main results: I found out that three of the older women had used e-mail and telephone and sometimes SMS communication to find out more about their soon to be partner and after that decided to meet the other person in real life. One of the older women and all four of the younger ones had used a Community and Instant Messenger to communicate with their soon to be partner, they also used the telephone and SMS to communicate with each other but Instant Messenger was the medium that dominated in their wish to communicate.

Abstrakt Titel: Affärsmodellen kring ett Community Författare: Gezim Pirku & Kreshnik Goga Handledare: Gunnar Ågren Institution: Managementhögskolan, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Kurs: Kandidatarbete i företagsekonomi, 10 poäng Syfte: Syftet med vårt arbete är först och främst att undersöka vad aktuell teori säger om affärsmodeller för traditionella respektive Community företag. Sedan skall vi bestämma om teorier av ett Community företag stämmer med ett verkligt Community. Metod: Kvalitativ datainsamling för den teoretiska delen och frågeformulär för den empiriska undersökningen. Slutsats: Vi fann att skillnaderna i vad teorierna säger om Communitys och ett riktigt Community inte är stora utan man tar till sig de strategier som teorierna beskriver..

The popularity of video games has been boosted by the rise of user-generated live streaming platforms, and the biggest of them all is Twitch. The popularity depends on Twitch alignment of live streamed video games. The stream is created by a player who broadcast and streams the video game online. The video game can then be watched by a viewer that is interested in the video game. In every stream there is an implemented live chat that allows the viewer to interact with the streamer while the stream is online.