Online communities are an opportunity for people all over the world to get together and become part of a “virtual community” as Rheingold would say. There is the inevitable stereotype of a community being towns and villages meeting once a week to discuss the goings on within the neighbourhood, but online communication allows this to be furthered, where geographical state doesn’t need to necessarily be an issue. Being online has advanced us from associating a community with solely where we are in the world, it can be “talk of groups with common interests, shared goals, activities and governance.” (Preece, 2001, 9) These factors described by Preece can be applied to online communities. I do agree with Levy in that an online community “offers nothing less than the rebirth of the social bond through real time direct relationships among all people.” (Lecture) Therefore traditional communities can continue to exist.
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A question raised in the lecture is that … is technology creating the ability for online communities to exist, or have we created them to help assist us in our lives? Have we allowed ourselves to continue the social bond in communities into online interaction?
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Here is a quote that I found quite interesting by Winston Churchill, which also links in with last week’s topic of the ‘open architecture’ of the internet…
“There is no doubt about the influence of architecture and structure upon human character and action. We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”
I think this shows how techno-determinism has affected us in that social-determinism is now playing more of a role in how we use the internet to create online communities connecting more people which isn’t possible in real life.
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Hi cara, do you think that these online communities are restricting what usually happens IRL communities? They don't seem to have an actual representation of real life, like it shows in Blanchards writing, most of the people posting were females who were 38 year olds, this lack of representation of the rest of society may have an affect on whether it can be shown as a real community. Communities can involve all people of ages, ethnicities, sexuality etc.
ReplyDeleteP.S i like the quote, it fits very well!
I do see your point, but with reference to Blanchard, I personally wouldn't class the julie/julia project as a community. I would say it's more of a group online, therefore there are going to be users participating of the same gender and around the same age. However, I do agree that online commnities do find it harder to mirror a real life community when its unknown about "age, ethnicity and social class." (Lister)
ReplyDeleteYeah, but then if you look at one of the characteristicss of a community, one of them says the 'sense of belonging' and the people on the julia/julie website must feel like the belong as they have built up relationships on it! Online communities can just be seen as a development of IRL ones, like how posting has turned to emails, community meetings in halls have now turned online :)
ReplyDeleteBut surely in a community there should be more elements of communication/interaction between the users? Can it really be a community if the majority of the users are lurkers? To me that can sort of constitute for an online soap opera. I know there is a fine line between what can be a community and a group, but interaction does have to play a part in the constuction and continuation of an online commmunity.
ReplyDeleteI for one thought the lecture was quite interesting! I agree with your point that it can't be a real 'community' if everyone there just lurks behind the scenes, that's just rude! It's all about contribution. If you think about a real-life community, do you think it matters whether people contribute at all, or whether it's okay just for them to turn up to the annual village fete every so often? Is it the same online?
ReplyDeleteOnline allows for lurkers, whereas I don't think in real life communities people would attend meetings and not say anything. Communities in real life in my opinion are formed by people who have something to say, and are willing to contribute. However, there will be people contributing more than others.
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ReplyDeleteCrikey! excellent thread everyone!
ReplyDeleteI think that if Blanchard's chosen 'virtual settlement' isn't a virtual community -then most research claiming to deal with v.c.s aren't either. However, I tend towards the notion that 'belonging' to a community isn't guaranteed by typing regularly even -it's about caring for others and putting up with irritation for the good of the whole. That might occur online, but it's much more likely to be firmed up by meeting IRL?