Webster, Andrew, and Julita Vassileva. "Visualizing personal relations in online communities." International conference on adaptive hypermedia and adaptive web-based systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2006.

This study introduces a novel mechanism to boost participation in interest-based online communities by engaging lurkers through the visualization of asymmetrical relationships formed from interactions such as reading, evaluating, or commenting on others' contributions. Utilizing open user modeling concepts and a new notion of "community energy," this approach involves rating contributions and displaying their rankings on the community interface to motivate increased member activity.