Developing a User Typology for the Analysis of Participation in Enterprise Collaboration Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a user typology for Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS). We draw on and extend findings from previous research in the area of CSCW and Social Collaboration Analytics. The proposed typology includes: (1) a definition of user types, (2) dimensions of ECS use and (3) a classification of action (event) types. The typology contains the following user types: creator, contributor, lurker, inactive and non-user. These types are characterized by differences in the following dimensions: type of use, frequency of use, variety of use, choice of content type and platform preferences. The definition of user types along these dimensions facilitates the implementation of database queries (scripts) for Social Collaboration Analytics (SCA), with the aim of determining the dis-tribution of types of users in an Enterprise Collaboration System. We present selected results of such SCA for an integrated collaboration platform and discuss the findings. We successfully demonstrate that our classification of user types allows us to draw conclusions on (1) the form and degree of participation of users in the ECS and, derived from that, (2) the likely purpose of the examined communities.