Relações nas redes sociais: geração de conteúdo, criação de networking e projeção das relações virtuais nas comunidades do ORKUT

Social networks are a Web 2.0 relevant tool. They allow individual expression through creation of a public profile, development of networking and interaction, which leads to collective construction and sharing of contents. This article aims to identify factors which are relevant to the interaction in ORKUT communities and to analyze the relations among them. We have run a survey in six ORKUT communities and, based on the factor analysis, we've found seven latent dimensions which concern to: user's pro-activity, content creation, relevance of the contents for daily life and professional life, projection of relations from virtual to face to face environment, web site assessment and networking creation. Structural equation modeling (PLS) found significant relations among the factors. It showed that the more involved user is in community interactions, better is their perception about: content creation in online communication, the importance of these contents, the probability of creating networking, the intensity of their projection of virtual relations to real life environment and their assessment of social network's functions.