Non-participating members of an online group

from：http://newmiddle-earth.blogspot.com/2009/04/working-with-online-learning.html
One behaviour in online groups that has been extensively studied is that of the non-participating members, termed the ‘lurkers’. Etienne Wenger[2] calls them Legitimate Peripheral Participants.

Lurkers are widely known to be among the majority of defined members and they have been found to make up over 90% of most online groups. They are perhaps the most important members in view of their potential to contribute to online groups.

Blair Nonnecke and Jennifer Preece have studied the ‘silent participants’ of discussion forums and have extensively researched[3] many of the reasons why lurking occurs. Though these have implications for the expected success of collaborative learning, it would appear that lurkers are not necessarily non-learners.

Takahashi et al have found that intentional learning seems to occur with so-called active lurkers[4]. If lurkers can be identified, it is found that some of them can be enticed to become active participants. Non-active lurkers are apt to be members with online capability but who do not log on. Though proportions vary from group to group, non-active lurkers tend to make up the largest proportion of all members in an online group.