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Virtual (Online) Communities

Virtual (Online) Communities. March 19. Virtual Communities: Definitional Issues. What is a community? Dictionary definition relies on geography

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Virtual (Online) Communities

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  1. Virtual (Online) Communities March 19

  2. Virtual Communities: Definitional Issues • What is a community? Dictionary definition relies on geography • Rheingold: VCs are “social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships.” • Dystopian and Utopian views on VCs • But: “community” term often used as symbolic device to signal togetherness & agreement, with a utopian subtext • The term itself is value-laden (communities are always good)

  3. Thinking about virtual communities • Perhaps online communication can create new communities & can re-invigorate traditional communities • Need to move away from dichotomous thinking (either online community OR offline community) and look for hybrid examples (such as Facebook)

  4. Community • No agreed upon definition of community • But: common components include • Sufficient time to form relationships • Develop shared culture, norms • Give shared history to newcomers

  5. Other possible components • Honest and open communication among members • Interdependence and mutual support • Shared interests • Ability to provide someone useful to members

  6. Online Communities: Real or Imagined? • Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft • Oldenberg, The Great, Good Place: The Third Place • Rheingold: The Internet as Third Place?

  7. “The Third Place” from Oldenberg (1999), The Great, Good Place • “Oldenburg (1999) documents the decline in brick-and-mortar "third places" in America where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond the workplace and home. The effects are negative for both individuals and communities: "The essential group experience is being replaced by the exaggerated self-consciousness of individuals. American lifestyles, for all the material acquisition and the seeking after comforts and pleasures, are plagued by boredom, loneliness, alienation" (Oldenburg, 1999, p. 13). Recent national survey data appear to corroborate this assertion, with census data indicating that television claims more than half of American leisure time, while only three-quarters of an hour per day is spent socializing in or outside of the home (Longley, 2004). ” • From http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/steinkuehler.html

  8. “The Third Place” from Oldenberg (1999), The Great, Good Place • Characteristics of third places: • Neutral Ground • Leveler • Conversation is Main Activity • Accessibility & Accommodation • The Regulars • A Low Profile • The Mood is Playful • A Home Away from Home

  9. Some examples of VCs • Older online communities • WELL • LambdaMOO • Tele-Garden • More recent online communities: • World of Warcraft and other MMOs • Others? • Geographically based communities • Seattle Community Network: scn.org • Facebook, myspace

  10. The TeleGarden: An Online Community • Community evidenced among small group of “top hitters” but not entire population • Indications of community: development of norms & rituals, standards of conduct, social hierarchy, pursuit of interpersonal relationships, and commitment.

  11. Concerns about VC • Ability to disengage with no consequences; no need to work through differences • John Perry Barlow: online communities aren’t “real” communities because they lack adversity. That is: in real communities, we have to learn how to get along with our neighbors because we have no choice. • No accountability for behavior • Only know a few dimensions of one another • Personalization (Internet as an echo chamber)

  12. Dystopian Views of VCs “Where does the need come from to inhabit these alternative spaces?... To escape the problems and issues of the real world” (Slouka, 1995) “Electronic communication is an instantaneous and illusory contact that creates a sense of intimacy without the emotional investment that leads to close friendships” (Stoll, 1995) Common arguments: Neil Postman argues VCs lack the common obligations shared by members of a “real” community. VCs take energy away from “real” communities CMC isn’t as authentic as F2F

  13. Utopian Approaches to VCs • “we are now one people united together” • The internet is “the most transforming technological event since the capture of fire” (Barlow, 1995) • “CMC liberates interpersonal relations from the confines of physical locality and thus creates opportunities for new, but genuine… communities” (Rheingold)

  14. Virtual Communities online social networks • Little agreement about definition of community, much less “virtual” community • Scholars moving away from community term because it is evaluative and difficult to define • Moving towards “social networks” approach

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