Virtanen, Tytti, and Sanna Malinen. "Supporting the sense of locality with online communities." Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Entertainment and media in the ubiquitous era. 2008.

This study explores the role of online communities in fostering social interactions both globally and within local geographic communities. Through a survey of Finnish Facebook users and interviews with users of a local community service in Helsinki, the research investigates how these platforms are utilized for maintaining existing friendships versus facilitating local activities and new connections. Findings reveal that Facebook is predominantly used for sustaining current relationships rather than organizing local events or meeting new people, offering insights for enhancing sociability in location-based online communities.