Online Communication in Apartment Buildings

Abstract

In this paper we explore main patterns of communication and cooperation in online groups created by residents of apartment buildings in St.Petersburg on the VK social networking site (SNS). Using word-frequency analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), we discovered main discussion topics in online groups. We have also found that communication between neighbors in these groups is predominantly connected with material needs and directed at solving common problems, e.g. related to building improvement, houseowner associations (HOA) and in-fill constructions near their house. Based on online observations of city activists, we suggest that dynamic nature of SNS creates online communities that initially are dedicated to resolving particular problems, however the connections that get established between users during this process prevent such groups from falling apart even after the resolution of the original issues.