Journal articles
- Castronova, E., Williams, D., Huang, Y., Shen, C., Keegan, B., Ratan, R., Xiong, L., Contractor, N. (2009). As real as real? Macroeconomic behavior in a large-scale virtual world. New Media & Society, 11(5), 685-707 ( Available at DmitriWilliams.com)
- Williams, D., Caplan, S., & Xiong, L. (2007). Can You Hear Me Now? The Impact of Voice in Online Communities. Human Communication Research, 33(4), 427-449 ( Available at DmitriWilliams.com)
- Williams, D., Ducheneaut, N., Xiong, L., Zhang, Y., Yee, N., & Nickell, E. (2006). From tree house to barracks: The social life of guilds in World of Warcraft. Games & Culture, 1(4), 338-361 ( Available at DmitriWilliams.com)
Book chapters
- Xiong, L., Ratan, R., & Williams, D. (2009). Location-based mobile games: A theoretical framework for research. In A. de Souza e Silva & D. Sutko (Eds.), Hybrid Reality and location-based games: Reconfiguring social and urban networks via locative media. New York, NY: Peter Lang ( Amazon.com).
- Williams, D., & Xiong, L. (2009). Herding Cats Online: Challenges in Deriving a Sample from Online Communities. In E. Hargittai (Ed.), Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press ( Amazon.com).
In prepation
- Xiong, L. , Pilny, A., Mahapatra, A. The Behavioral Manifestation of Extraversion in an MMO. To be submitted to Media Psychology. (4,312 words as of 1/2012)
- Xiong, L., Poole, M. S., Williams, D., Ahmad, M. The Effects of Group Structure on Group Behavior and Outcomes in an Online Gaming Environment. To be submitted to Small Group Research. (8,232 words as of 1/2012)
- Xiong, L. The Structure of Sharing in a Mobile Social Network. To be submitted to Human Communication Research. (6,711 words as of 1/2012)
- Kim, Y. J., Xiong, L., Hollingshead, A. Web Credibility 2.0: Source Credibility and Online Reviews. To be submitted to Journal of Communication. (7,239 words as of 1/2012)
Peer-reviewed conference papers
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Xiong, L. (May, 2011). How Communication Technologies Facilitate Knowledge Sharing: An Overview and Critique.
Paper presented at the 61st Annual Conference of the International Communication Boston, MA.
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Xiong, L. & Hollingshead, A. (June, 2010). Evaluating Restaurant Reviews and Reviewers on Yelp.com.
Paper presented at the 60th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Singapore.
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Xiong, L., Poole, M. S., Williams, D., Ahmad, M. (July, 2009). The Effects of Group Structure on Group Behavior and Outcomes in an Online Gaming Environment.
Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research Annual Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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Xiong, L. (December, 2008). The Diffusion of an Online Social Networking Application.
Paper accepted at the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Manoa, Hawaii.
- Xiong, L. (December, 2008). The Structure and Impact of the Mobile Social Media Industry.
Paper accepted at the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Manoa, Hawaii.
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Xiong, L. (May, 2008). A Preliminary Study of the Interfirm Network of Wireless Mobile Media Business in the U.S.
Paper presented at the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada.
- Xiong, L. (May, 2008). Imagining the Medium of the Mobile game: Technical, Commercial, and Social issues. Paper presented at the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Montreal, Canada.
My research philosophy
I conduct theory-driven inquiries of social processes in people's use of digital media, and I come up with data-driven solutions to real world problems. I am interested in the theories of collective actions, communities of practice, reciprocity and social capital. These theories are key to understanding change in people's access of information and interaction with others with new media tools.
I like to design and build technologies that can be tweaked and used for field experiments. This way I can more clearly see if and how the emergent practices of using these features challenge the existing theories. Building, running and studying a social network is much more fun than just studying it. And it helps me making a stronger case about how technologies work, too, because I designed them. Build, ship, test. Isn't it how theories work too?
I also believe in interdisciplinarity. Innovation happens when one gets out of her comfort zone and learn something she doesn't know before. I work with ethnographers, computer scientists and psychologists to tell engaging stories of people's social experiences of digital media. And frankly, it makes better grant proposals, too.