Blogging has become the newest communication medium for creating a virtual community, a set of blogs linking back and forth to one another’s postings, while discussing common topics. In this paper, we examine how communities can be discovered through interconnected blogs as a form of social hypertext [14]. We propose a method and model that detects structures of community in the social network of blogs by integrating McMillan and Chavis ’ sense of community [26] along with network analysis [8, 11]. From the model, we measure community in the blogs by aligning centrality measures from social network analysis [17] with measures of sense of community obtained using behavioural surveys. We then illustrate the use of this approach with a case study built around an independent music blog. The strength of community measures were found to be well aligned with the network structure, based on centrality measures. Even though the sample size from the case study was small, once the structure and measure of communities are calibrated according to our social hypertext model, communities can be automatically found and measured for other blogs without the need for behavioural surveys.

Abstract: Language learners have a need to complement their classroom learning activities with experiences outside of the classroom and to interact with other speakers and learners of the language to practice the language. Communities play a major role in supporting language learners. A class of university students studying French is as such a community of language learners. A mobile community blog has been used to establish and to support a sense of community among the students in the classroom as well as outside, in particular when some of the students travel to France as a part of their studies. The blog was intended to facilitate active participation, social interaction and collaboration among the members of the community. This paper evaluates the use of the blog and analyses the results to identify issues that are important in supporting a community of mobile language learners.