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Interaction in web-based communities: a case study of Last.fm

2011; Inderscience Publishers; Volume: 7; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1504/ijwbc.2011.039513

1741-8216

Peter Mechant, Tom Evens,

Digital Communication and Language

Interaction is omnipresent in the discourse on new communication technologies and social network sites. Although quantitative numeric data on the use of social networking sites is plentiful, present research lacks qualitative data describing how these websites are used and experienced. This article describes research on the online experiences and interactions by Last.fm users. Last.fm is a website combining a music recommendation service, an online community and an online radio. We conducted in-depth face-to-face interviews with Last.fm users and observed their Last.fm profiles. Based on the aggregated data we suggest that most people use Last.fm as a tool, interacting heavily with the website itself, but much less with music. Interaction amongst Last.fm users seems to be sparse and superficial. Nevertheless, some respondents reported a 'sense of community' and referred to Last.fm as a tavern where one can converse about music, suggesting similarities with Ray Oldenburg's 'third places' or 'great good places'.