How to Analyze and Enhance Participation in Electronic Networks of Practice

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Characteristics of the five clusters (Source: Authors’ own research)

Cluster	# Messages	# Participants	Degree	Duration (days)	Messaging time interval (days)	Message length (characters)
1	10	4.6	7.9	12	1.8	106
2	30.5	10.1	14.9	1.4	0.06	190.8
3	16.8	5.6	22.5	0.6	0.04	113.6
4	3.6	2.1	16.6	0.8	0.4	226.1
5	5.6	2.4	6.5	0.3	0.07	119.4

Proposed conversation measures (Source: Authors’ own research)

Measure	Description
Initiator field	Professional field of the initiator
Initiator city	---
Initiator country	---
Holiday?	If the start date of the conversation is a weekend/holiday or not
Date and time of the last message of the conversation	Data and time of the last message in a conversation
The time interval from the previous conversation	The difference between the start dates/times of one conversation and the previous one
The time interval from the next conversation	The difference between the start dates/times of one conversation and the next

Conversation Categories (Source: Own elaboration)

Conversation Category	Label	Messaging pattern and structure
Monologue	Dead conversations
Dialogue	Quiet conversations
Polylogue	Medium conversations
Discussion	Crowded conversations

Participation measures (Source: Authors’ own research)

Measure	Description	Modified from
No. of messages	The number of messages in a conversation	Guan, et al., 2018
No. of participants	The number of users (specialists) who participate in a conversation	de Laat, 2002
Average message length	The average number of characters in a message per conversation	Hafeez, et al., 2019
Messaging average time interval	The average time interval between messages per conversation	Anderson, et al., 2012
Duration of a conversation	The time difference between the first and last message of a conversation	Hafeez, et al., 2019

Border signs identified in the BCMG (Source: Authors’ own research)

Conversation Border signs	Sample
Initiation words	“Hi colleagues,” “Dear colleagues,” “Please look at the files,” “Good day,” “Please consider my patient case,” “A patient…”
Files	Photos containing MRI and CT scans or files with laboratory and pathology reports
Content	Messages referring to treatment, diagnosis, or screening
Messages’ connections	Replies and references to the previous messages of the conversation
Closure words	“Like,” “thank you,” emoji

Social network analysis results for 25% of the most active participants (Source: Authors’ own research)

Participant	Degree	Closeness	Betweenness	Size	Indegree	Outdegree	Eigenvector	Reach	Reach-efficiency	MICMAC
1	63	0.64	0.42	35	63	63	0.12	0.82	0.02	0.66
2	25	0.53	0.15	19	25	25	0.07	0.76	0.04	0.95
3	18	0.47	0.02	11	18	18	0.06	0.72	0.07	0.86
4	15	0.48	0.03	11	15	15	0.05	0.77	0.07	0.89
5	8	0.41	0.00	6	8	8	0.04	0.56	0.09	0.77
6	1	0.31	0.00	2	1	1	0.00	0.19	0.09	0.92
7	21	0.52	0.05	19	21	21	0.05	0.70	0.04	0.82
8	17	0.44	0.05	14	17	17	0.03	0.42	0.03	0.86
9	17	0.49	0.09	15	17	17	0.03	0.68	0.05	0.84
10	16	0.47	0.05	13	16	16	0.04	0.65	0.05	0.89
11	24	0.53	0.15	19	24	24	0.06	0.75	0.04	0.79
12	9	0.45	0.01	9	9	9	0.02	0.67	0.07	0.86
13	6	0.42	0.04	7	6	6	0.01	0.53	0.08	0.97
14	3	0.36	0.00	4	3	3	0.01	0.35	0.09	0.67
15	5	0.42	0.03	6	5	5	0.01	0.61	0.10	0.75
16	7	0.44	0.00	7	7	7	0.02	0.67	0.10	0.72
17	6	0.39	0.02	7	6	6	0.01	0.43	0.06	0.82
18	8	0.41	0.04	6	8	8	0.03	0.53	0.09	0.72

Conversation possible border signs (Source: Authors’ own research)

Conversation Border signs	Explanation	Sample
Initiation words	Words with which a conversation begins	“Hello,” “Dear,” “Please look at the files,” “Good day”
Files	The inclusion of files can indicate a new topic	---
Content	Changing the topic	---
Messages’ connections	Replies and references to previous messages in another conversation (It shows this message is a part of the other conversation and in the border of that conversation.)	The connection between the first message of participant III and the second message of participant V in Figure 7.
Closure words	Acknowledgment and feedback	“like,” “thank you,” emoji

Conversation measures (Source: Authors’ own research)

Measure	Description	Modified from
Initiator rank in order of previous experience/participation	The initiator’s rank with respect to others based on the total number of messages posted in a network	Wasko and Faraj, 2005
Initiator role	The initiator’s role in a network, i.e., admin or member	Hafeez, et al., 2019
Initiator total no. of messages	The total number of messages the initiator has sent	Pudipeddi, Akoglu and Tong, 2014
Initiator total no. of conversations	The total number of conversations in which the initiator has been involved
Initiator gender	---	Dror, et al., 2012
Time from the first message in the network	The time interval between an initiator’s first message in a network and the last	Hafeez, et al., 2019
Date and time of the first message of the conversation	Date and time of the initiator’s first message in a conversation	Dror, et al., 2012
Topic	The topic of conversation	Hafeez, et al., 2019
Question or statement?	Indicates whether the first message in a conversation is stated as a question or not	Campbell and Mayer, 2009
Question word	Indicates the type of question posted in the first message in a conversation	Zaib, et al., 2021
Completeness and clearance	The extent to which the information provided by the initiator to explain the question is clear and complete (based on text, references, attachments, and/or pictures)	Arguello, et al., 2006
Formal or informal	The formality of the first message of a conversation	Joyce and Kraut, 2006
Calling-out	Indicates whether the initiator specifically invites or names individuals to participate in a conversation	Wilen, 1991
Acknowledgment and feedback	Indicates acknowledgments and feedback in conversation messages, e.g., “like,” “thank you,” emoji	Bornfeld and Rafaeli, 2019