TY - CONF T1 - Contribution, Commercialization & Audience: Understanding Participation in an Online Creative Community T2 - ACM Group 2009 Y1 - 2009 A1 - Eric Cook A1 - Stephanie D. Teasley A1 - Mark S. Ackerman KW - amateurs KW - audiences KW - commercialization KW - community of practice KW - creativity KW - learning KW - online communities KW - online community KW - professionals KW - social computing KW - user-generated content AB -

This paper presents a qualitative study of attitudes towards participation and contribution in an online creative community. The setting of the work is an online community of practice focused on the use and development of a user-customizable music software package called Reaktor. Findings from the study highlight four emergent topics in the discourse related to user contributions to the community: contribution assessment, support for learning, perceptions of audience and tensions about commercialization. Our analysis of these topics frames discussion about the value and challenges of attending to amateur and professional users in online creative communities.

JF - ACM Group 2009 UR - Complete ER -