The Virtual Community Blog: From lurking to posting – a community participation framework

Opinions are divided on whether lurkers are beneficial or detrimental to a community? Does it make sense to try to convert lurkers into participants or is it just a waste of time and of resources that would be better allocated e.g. in taking care of new members?  While interventions targeted at delurking aren’t outright useless, current research shows that much can be done bysetting the right framework for participation.