Virtual Patient Communities: Types of Actors and Forms of Participation (Based on Community of People with Schizophrenia)

Two communities of people with schizophrenia are described in my work. The most of communication in these communities takes place on forum, communities have similar technical structure. Methods that I used are interview and online observation. I described norms in these communities, main types of participation and typologized it’s participants. The foundation of typology is motivation (individual, social and economic) of participants. Some people participate there in order to communicate and receive and give the support, while others use these communities as a platform where they can enhance their informal status or find new friends (for communication outside the platform). There are also some participants who prefer to write messages in single topic and do not wish to answer other’s messages. Users with economic motivation stay on the site during the short period of time, moderators always delete their messages. The most of long-stay participants have communicated in both communities for at least short period of time.