Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Either search online for a community which interest you or choose one of the provided online communities to investigate. Make sure your selected a community that comprises some form of online forum, discussion page or chat room. You may also wish to see if your community has a Wikipedia entry.

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

www.myspace.com
Name of community is my space.

What is the brief or focus of this community

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

This is an online community which is kind of like blogger and bebo. People have their own sites and post things on and other people can look at them. The site is very interactive and you can put anything you want on your site, post comments to other people, chat and online, which videos and movies. You can also listen to music. People contribute these ways.

The service provides:

Friends who want to talk Online, Single people who want to meet other Singles, Matchmakers who want to connect their friends with other friends, Families who want to keep in touch--map your Family Tree, Business people and co-workers interested in networking , Classmates and study partners and Anyone looking for long lost friends.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

For all the reason the service provides is the reasons people use my space. Such has meeting up with friends and find along lost friends. These reasons we discuss in class also its gives people more opportunities to be more social and met and make friends.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).

Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

People shacking identities, then using the as their own.
Lack of privacy!
People knowing exactly where you live eg the town/city. This could be very unsafe.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity

You can communicate all over the world. For example be on the top of the Southern Alps and be online and posting comments, chatting to people in other parts of the world. It is faster then sending a letter and opens up options to people in very remote places. Its also away of letting people know all is well and every thing is fine.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

You can’t talk face to face, as you can’t see the person, unless you have access to a camera. You can’t talk verbally to a person. But this opens up options for people to my be non-verbal as they can type (chat) on line.