Building Social Capital for Online Youths

1. Building Social Capital for Online Youths • A Singapore Case Study • Kevin Lim • http://theory.isthereason.com • School of Informatics • Dept. of Communication • University at Buffalo

2. Why this study? • Three trends on Singaporean Youths: • Government emphasis on involving youths in community & national affairs • Emergence of Social Capital as useful conceptual tool to examine communities • Rise of Internet adoption & use among Singaporean youths

3. What is Social Capital? Social capital refers to: • connections among individuals • norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that come from social networks • three dimensions - bonding, bridging, linking (Putnam, 2000)

4. The Origin • Lyda Judson Hanifan's (1920) work on rural school community centers where: • “those tangible substances [that] count for most in the daily lives of people” • That is, the cultivation of good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse

5. Contexts & Concepts • Jane Jacobs (1961) - on urban life and neighbourliness • Pierre Bourdieu (1983) - on social theory • James Coleman (1988) - social context of education • The World Bank (1999) - an organizing idea “increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies” • Cohen & Prusak (2001) - for organizational maintenance and development

6. Different Forms of Social Capital Source: Borgatti, Jones & Everett (1998)

7. Online Social Capital • The Internet can act as enabling technology for: • Direct participatory democracy (Bonchak, 1996) • Information distribution aspect of online social networks facilitates communication (Wellman, Carrington, & Hall, 1988) • Virtual communities for communication and community building (Rheingold, 2000) • The Internet may also be utilized for grass roots organizing and advocacy to prompt civic engagement (Naughton, 2001) • Studies have identified multiple applications of information technology in the non-profit sector for: • improving management control and accountability (Nitterhouse, 1999) • supporting volunteers (Mcduff et al., 2001) • promoting “e-advocacy” (Krehely & Montilla, 2001) • improving organizational effectiveness (Pollak & Lampkin, 2001) • enhancing service provision (Creaturo, 2001)

8. Social Contact Civic Engagement Social Capital Social Capital in Action Interpersonal communication patterns, including email, phone calls, forum discussions Degree of community involvement, through activities such as joining sports clubs & volunteering

9. Community Development Provision of Information Interactive Facilities Web Analysis • Analysis for three social capital-related features on web sites:

10. Sample for Web Analysis

12. Provision of Information

13. Interactive Facilities

14. Community Development

15. Social Contact Civic Engagement Social Capital Best Practices Girl Guide Movement Web Site Yayasan Mendaki Web Site

17. Best Practices Social Contact • Girl Guide Movement web site: • Comprehensive, user-friendly contact list • Free Pen-Pal matching service • Online message board for instructors, Girl Guide members, and their parents

20. Best Practices Civic Engagement • Yayasan Mendaki web site: • Attractive listing of volunteer programs to choose from • Special Youth Development Program called “YOUTH !n @ction”: interactive learning mini-site • Take action through web polls, discussion forums, mailing list and via online donations

21. Summary • Results show that most web sites are: • Consistently high on information provision • Diverse in terms of interactive facilities and community development • Best Practices show a holistic approach to developing integrated community-oriented web site

22. Measuring Effectiveness Standard Cohesion Measures for "Box C" Social Capital Source: Borgatti, Jones, and Everett (1998)

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