Gathering information in online communities: what is the key to success?

When investigating information sharing activities in online travel communities we found that the benefit of querying topically related online communities as part of the search process may go well beyond the provision of up-to-date or "complete" information. In particular, we argue that one of the main benefits of approaching an online community for information is the resulting <i>interactive</i> process that helps the user <i>clarify</i> his or her information needs. Conceptualizing this process as mediated interaction rather than traditional information retrieval suggests to investigate further the specific characteristics of such processes and to explore ways to enable, sustain and support them.