For our Online Community class, I’m asking for one last blog post from each of you, one that answers three core questions:
First, another stab at defining community, our third attempt. As with the previous attempts, try not to refer back to earlier definitions. Just you and the screen, informed by our class experience.
Second question: Is community possible online, purely online? Yes or no, and why or why not? So we’re not talking here about FaceBook, which we agreed is a Web site that primarily facilitates offline community. It is not meant to create or enable community only online.
Third question: Is social networking online — Web 2.0 — part of the problem, or is it part of the solution? Include in your answer what the problem is, and what might be its solution. If you’re having trouble with this one, think of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone.
Post these prior to our last session together, Thursday, April 26, 12:30 p.m. We will discuss our responses then.
Before our next session, Tuesday, April 24, 12:30 p.m., at Schroeder’s Restaurant, could you please review our course objectives for course evaluations? They are (or were):
• Develop an understanding of how community is enabled, nurtured, eroded and destroyed.
• Understand how trust, reputation and social capital are established, embedded, manifest, exchanged and lost online.
• Better understand how crowd-sourcing works by applying networking theory and emergence theory, including the power of weak ties.
• Appreciate how the once-clear divisions between message producer and consumer, sender and receiver are blurring.
• Understand how the architecture of the Internet and of Web sites affect the nature of community, communication, sharing and transacting.
• Develop research skills, including online search skills.
Any questions on any of this, just leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you.
April 25, 2007 at 12:42 pm |
Community: A group of individuals who are in regular communion with each other. The group members communicate consistently. The group (the community) can rely and depend on each other freely. Community is rare.
Community in its purest form could potentially happen online, but I have yet to see it. Generally. Facebook, MySpace, and Secondlife serve as communication tools and provide a way for people to express themselves in ways that they may be afraid to do face to face. There may be people who have found community through these mediums, but it not likely. To have community online, one would have to spend real quality time expressing themselves and in a way living along side of people.
Social networking online should be part of the solution. These social networks should provide more of a means to online community and stand as a low cost way to facilitate relationships. We have a greater chance of finding people we can connect with online because it is global. The Internet could be a really influential part of community; we just have to figure out how to use it correctly. I think social networks are a good first step into the world of online community.