Its Over? April 26, 2007

What is community?

Community- this is such a broad yet narrow term.  At its most basic level community is a group of people that communicate on a regular basis.  The people in this community must share a common goal or interest.  In a community there must be an exchange of some sort between its members.  In a community it is not necessary for all ties to be strong ties, but a community cannot be made up of all weak ties, I believe that a mixture of types of ties are what make a community work.  Trust in one another is required for  community to exist.

 Can a community be strictly online?

I am still not entirely sure how I feel about this.  I think that if a community can exist purely online, the members must work harder than members in a physical community.  There are cases in which the communication between two members of a community can be smiling as you walk down the street.  This frequent and simple form of interaction can be what makes two people a part of oneanothers community.  This cannot happen in a virtual community; therefore it is important to make conscious effort to communicate with members frequently through whatever means is customary for your chosen community.  I think that purely online communities are possible if there is a high mutual interest and frequent communication.  It is also important to take more time to build trust and, therefore, create a community in a virtual world.

 Is web 2.0 fixing or furthering the problem?

Easily stated both.  It is according to the extent to which the user relies on the Internet for communication.  There is a point to which online communication may take over, and while you can have meaningful relationships online, it is important to have relationships in the physical world as well.  In terms of online communities, such as Facebook, where online relationships are usually extensions of physical relationships, an online means of communication is very useful.  Online communication gives people an alternative to the telephone.  Now friends in different geographic locations can communicate easily.  Facebook also allows users to invite multiple people to an event, allows for a medium in which to share with one another and others, and reminds you of when your friends are having a birthday.  Other types of online communities can be just as helpful to relationships, as long as the user knows how to use them appropriately. 

MySpace Solutions March 27, 2007

1. Make myspace less overwhelming for people. Especially when they sign up.  Begin by having a mentor type system that goes more in depth than the current system.  Then they should make the site easier to navigate by supplying a users manual of sorts, something that would walk someone through anything they wanted to do on the site.  This would be available to everyone so even if they have been on myspace for a while they can still go back to it if they ever need assitance. 

 2.  Remove the clutter.  Even if user pages are still customizable for each person the overall look of myspace could be cleaner.  The forum, group and other pages run by myspace could be streamlined.  This might inspire users to unclutter their own pages, making myspace look better overall.

3. Boost security.  There are various aspects where this needs to be done.  First they should make people more aware there there are ways to protect themselves by putting up limits on who can see their profile.  Another way to boost security is to find a better way to verify that kids joining really are of age.  Another aspect of security is how easy it is for people to hack into others myspace accounts.  I don’t know how to fix this, but it needs to be remedied.

Community redefined… kind of. March 6, 2007

Even after all of our discussion on community I think that I would still define communtity the same way I did at the beginning of class.  Of course now I realize that there are an unlimited number of purposes for people to come together and tons of ways that they can work together towards achieveing their goal. 

I still think that being in contact is a very important part of a community.  In the physical realm I don’t think that means that you have to even actually speak with one another, but just have the means to be in contact.  But I am still unsure if the same goes for online communities.  Are lurkers just as much a part of an online community as someone who posts to that site every day? That is still a question I am trying to answer.

Community and Social Capital January 24, 2007

What is community?

This is such an interesting and difficult question to answer. To me a community is a group of people with a common purpose. Each person brings their own resources into this group in order to make progress towards achieving thier purpose. The people in the group must somehow be in contact in order for it to be a community.

What is social capital?

Your social capital is what you have to offer the groups you are a part of. This can be your time, your money, your intelligence, and even your contacts with other people.

As a part of a community we are all asked to invest ourselves with the understanding that the other members of the group will invest themselves as well.  We all do this because being a part of the community somehow serves our own self-interest.