Information values, sharing, and cultural memory: interactions with ICT use in an online immigrant community

Information-centric online communities have become popular sources for users, including for information sharing among immigrants that provides both informational and social support. Such communities encourage greater information sharing when users share the same judgment on what information is of value, sharing that often leads to the creation or invocation of cultural memories. There has been little research on immigrants’ negotiation of information values, creation and invocation of cultural memory, and information sharing within and across the boundaries of online communities, with particular emphasis needed on their use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in information sharing. This poster presents qualitative, multi-method research in its early stages that will examine how the ICTs used by members of Expat Forum, an online immigrant community, interact with the information values and information sharing of community members and the cultural memory established by the community