Description of the Questionnaire

The Internet Social Capital Scale (ISCS-20) was developed by Dmitri Williams (2006) and is a validated tool for measuring social capital both online and offline. It distinguishes two main forms of social capital: bridging, which refers to weak ties, acquaintance with different people, and access to new information and opportunities, and bonding, which refers to strong ties, emotional support, trust, and mutual assistance. The questionnaire consists of forty questions, divided into four subscales: Online Bridging, Online Bonding, Offline Bridging, and Offline Bonding.

Objective

The objective of the questionnaire is to measure the level of social capital created through online interactions, the level of social capital created through offline interactions, as well as the differences between bridging and bonding social capital, both online and offline.

Calibration

Responses are given on a five-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neither agree nor disagree, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly agree). Each subscale consists of ten questions and produces a score ranging from ten to fifty. A higher score indicates greater social capital in the respective dimension.

Analysis and Use of Data

Scores are calculated separately for each subscale (Online Bridging, Online Bonding, Offline Bridging, Offline Bonding). High scores in bonding social capital indicate strong ties and high support, while high scores in bridging social capital indicate openness to different networks and access to new opportunities. Results can be compared between online and offline contexts to identify differences in the creation of social capital.

Bibliography

Williams, D. (2006). On and Off the ’Net: Scales for Social Capital in an Online Era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), 593–628. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00029.x