Brandtzæg, Petter Bae, and Jan Heim. "Explaining participation in online communities." Virtual Communities: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. IGI Global, 2011. 26-41.

This chapter delves into the growth dynamics of online communities like MySpace and Facebook, emphasizing the critical role of enhancing social interaction and participation for these platforms' survival and expansion. By integrating socio-technical and human-computer interaction perspectives, the study, conducted in 2007, investigates participation patterns within various new online communities in Norway. Through both qualitative and quantitative analyses based on questionnaire responses from five sample groups—including four prominent online communities and a national sample of Internet users—the research uncovers that online communities predominantly attract individuals with similar interests. However, the intensity and form of participation significantly vary across different user types and community attributes. The study highlights that, despite the availability of diverse media, text remains the predominant form of user-generated content (UGC), with comparatively minimal contribution in audio-visual formats. The findings suggest directions for future research and offer insights into socio-technical design considerations to foster more active and diverse forms of participation in online communities.