A Systems Approach to Communication Process: Case Study within an Online Community

This study focuses on an on-line community, built on the base of sharing the same scientific interest in a particular field among its members. The unit of analysis is the communication process as it emerges from an electronic mailing list, which represents a forum of discussions and announcements related to the topic of the list. The network analysis and content analysis delineate the methodological space of this research allowing us to capture the main features of the communication process. This level of analysis enabled us to get an insight of the community infrastructure in terms of its members’ roles and positions together with their set of interests and values, which motivate participation