Algorithmically-Generated Communities: Case Study

Does algorithmically-generated groups identify themselves as communities?

This research project started from the question "Can a community formed by an algorithm thrive?". If it does, we were interested to see its impact.
the100.io is a gaming website that groups 100 people arbitrarily based on the users' demographic such as their age, marital status etc. At C-CIL at Purdue University, we case-studied this website and different groups of users that were sorted by the website's algorithm.

My role in this project:

• 1. Create qualitative themes for groups in the100.io and assign created themes to each group in order to find patterns
• 2. Interview users of the website and generate qualitative themes
• 3. Participate in writing the publication

Some of the findings includes:

• 1. The presence of shared identity development as a group
• 2. Conversations on community atmosphere
• 3. The willingness of a few group members to set up external tools

More information about this research can be found in this link:
Link to Publication