Mobilizing Support through Facebook

Speaker
Cliff Lampe
Associate Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

In this talk, Cliff Lampe will review an effort to understand the sociotechnical processes underlying how people can use Facebook to mobilize their network to gather resources. Using a lens of social capital, Lampe and colleagues have spent the past several years studying both the conditions under which people turn to Facebook for help from the networks, and the outcomes of those efforts. Currently, this work is being conducted in coordination with researchers at Facebook, allowing for a new perspective on these processes. Lampe will discuss the social capital implications of mobilization of resources on Facebook, the prevalence of these activities, and the outcomes for people who use Facebook for Q&A and other help activities.

Speaker's Bio

Cliff Lampe is an Associate Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Previously, he was also in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University. In his research, he focuses on how social and technical systems interact to enable people to collaborate, particularly around collective action efforts. In his research, he has worked with sites like Slashdot, Wilkipedia, Everything2, SourceForge and Facebook. In addition, he has done work creating online communities in coordination with public sector groups.

Speaker's Website
http://clifflampe.org/

Host
Steven Dow and Kurt Luther