近年來隨著虛擬社群的興起、帶動實踐社群的發展,其中也越來越多以女性為主要成員所組成的社群,過去文獻研究指出,在線上社群中兩性成員間的互動、溝通研究中,發現以女性組成的線上社群,無論是基於興趣、情感或專業技術上的討論交流空間,都有增加的趨勢,過去的研究較少探討由單一性別成員所組成之社群之相關研究,又因隨著線上社群的變化,發展出較為成熟的社群型態如實踐性社群,其社群組成的具有一定的目標或專業性質,故本研究試圖探討,(1)隨著社群成員組成的不同與社群類型的演變,是否以女性為主要的社群中,是否能為女性建立一個非正式的關係與管道?(2)透過其中的非正式交流與互動,是否能發展出與一般實踐性社群有所差異的的社會資本? (3)其所建立的社會資本中的網絡規模、網絡連結強度,是否會造成與其他社群在知識分享上的差異? 本研究以台灣女子自由軟體社群中的參與者為研究對象,並以其同時參與其他自由軟體社群作為對照組樣本,研究方法部分則是以量化研究方法設計問卷並發放,整理成統計數據作為研究結果之準則。研究結果發現,女性實踐社群的信任關係高於參與其他社群時的所培養信任關係;再者女性實踐社群在網絡構面中的規模、密度與頻率與參與其他社群的情況無顯著差異;但是女性實踐社群中的網絡規模對於外顯知識分享達到顯著的影響,意味著在女性社群中培養越豐富的人脈,越有機會接觸到社群中的外顯知識,也更願意將個人的知識外化,提供給社群的其他成員使用,由此可見人脈的拓展在女性實踐社群中扮演著分享知識的關鍵因素。而從整體實踐性社群來看,不論女性身處在哪種性別為主的社群,網絡規模的大小顯著影響著不同程度的知識分享行為,也就是說,無論在何種實踐社群中,掌握越多的人脈資源,皆有益於學習或分享外顯知識以及需要他人經驗傳授的內隱知識,本研究提供了實踐社群中所促進知識分享行為的目標的實質建議,應該將社群成員的交流與互動、促進彼此結識視為活絡社群內的知識交流、社群發展的重點。
As the virtual communities blossom in recent years, it also drives the Community of Practice flourishing in various communities, for example the booming of female-organized communities. Previous studies on virtual community were lack of research on female-organized, technology-oriented Community of Practice. This study aims at exploring (1) whether members in the female-organized Community of Practice will develop different informal relationships and interaction within the group in compared to the other communities. (2) Will female-organized Community of Practice show a higher degree of knit and dense social network than the other communities? (3) Will those high knit and dense female-organized Community of Practice also show higher degree of knowledge sharing than the other groups? A total of 19 female respondents were interviewed and surveyed. These respondents joined both the female-organized (WoFOSS) and gender-unspecified common Free and Open Source Software Communities of Practice. Their social networks and knowledge sharing behaviors in each of the group were compared. First of all, the result of this study suggested respondents who participated in female-organized Community of Practice did show a higher trust within group when compared to their joins in the other communities. Secondly, the findings indicate that members in female-organized Community of Practice show no significant difference in size, density, frequency of social networks in compared to their participation in the other groups. Finally, overall effects of social network on the knowledge sharing were found across two communities. More specifically, high degree of social networks in female-organized Community of Practice had significant and positive effect on sharing of explicit knowledge.