The Development of a Virtual Community of Practices Using Electronic Mail and Communicative Genres

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 2003

The Development of a Virtual Community of Practices Using Electronic Mail and Communicative Genres

Cristina Zucchermaglio Sapienza University of Rome ; Alessandra Talamo Sapienza University of Rome

Abstract

This article uses the notion of genre repertoire to examine electronic-mail communication exchanged in a period of three years by an interorganizational community of software developers (727 e-mail messages in total). It analyzes the development of this virtual work community by considering the use of communicative genres with respect to (1) the resources offered by the electronic-mail system, (2) the temporal development of the project in which the participants were engaged, and (3) the developing relationship between community members. The study shows that the community organized its communicative interactions mainly as informal exchanges between peers rather than as formal exchanges that followed the structure of an interorganizational project. The messages were strongly affected by the use of a system of electronic mail and changed as the community members' relationships developed.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2003-07-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651903017003001
Open Access: Closed
Topics: affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

Rawlins et al. (2014)

Agency and Interactive Data Displays: Internet Graphics as Co-Created Rhetorica…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Popham et al. (2008)

A Structural Analysis of Coherence in Electronic Charts in Juvenile Mental Health

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Thomas et al. (2006)

Reconceptualizing E-Mail Overload

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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