Polyvore Collaboration: Innovation in Informal Online Affiliation Networks

Online communities engaged in collaborative exchange exhibit characteristics of spontaneous communitas as defined by Victor Turner (1982). Interactions taking place in these communities also correspond to Harrison White's (2008) concept of network formation as a tension between identity and control. A social network analysis of activities in the Polyvore community maps the behavior of members as they oscillate between liminoid transactions and structured integration; between creativity and conformity. An affiliation network is a two-mode network consisting of a set of actors and a set of events. This paper studies an affiliation network as it develops within the Polyvore community.