Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities : Bayesian Belief Network Approaches

Throughout history, the permeation of new technologies have assisted communities in their aim to collectively work together in addressing shared problems for the attainment of specific goals and outcomes. Social Capital Modeling in Virtual Communities: Bayesian Belief Network Approaches broadly examines what constitutes social capital in geographical communities and offers an in-depth description of its potential in virtual communities. Providing the latest findings for advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers and academicians involved with virtual communities and social capital, this book draws upon insights from interdisciplinary fields such as artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, educational technology, and economics and sociology.

Ben K. Daniel is a researcher and an interim manager for Research and Innovation with the Office of the Associate Vice President Research-Health (University of Saskatchewan)/Vice President of Research and Innovation at Saskatoon Health Region (Saskatoon, Canada). Dr. Daniel also lectures on statistics, research methods and communication technologies at the University of Saskatchewan Canada. Dr. Daniel is an eclectic scholar with a vast array of training and experiences drawn from many disciplines, some of which include graduate training in computer science, educational and training systems design, philosophy, statistics and communications technologies.

Dr. Daniel has extensively published over fifty peer-reviewed conference papers, six international and national journal articles and 10 book chapters on variety of topics in advanced learning technologies. He reviews for half a dozen international conferences and journals on advanced learning technologies and knowledge management. His research has won two major national and international awards and was nominated for a couple of international awards. In the past, he held numerous undergraduate and graduate fellowships, awards and was a Dutch NUFFIC University Fellow at the University of Twente, Enshede, the Netherlands. Dr. Daniel has recently developed curiosity in e-health systems. He is interested in exploring new techniques and opportunities for extending virtual communities and social networking systems to the domain of e-health.