online communities

Online Communities: The Socializing Powers of Internet Technology

Mariam BedraouiMaster Student

Moroccan American StudiesHassan II University, Casablanca

Online Communities: OutlineA. Defining Online Communities

1. Key Componentsa. Participantsb. Goalsc. Platformsd. Mediume. Criteria

2. Examples

B. Influence Areas1. A Research Web2. Online Learning Communities3. Impact on Politics

Defining Online Communities

What are Online Communities?

Howard Rheingold defines online communities as:

“Social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough with sufficient human feelings, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.”

http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html

Participants:• Social

aggregations Platforms/

Medium• Net• cyberspace

Goal Discussion Webs of personal

relationship

Online Communities: Key Components

Participants

Goals Platforms Medium Criteria

Geographically dispersed

Interest/goal oriented

Heterogeneous

Free- willed


Participants


•Information exchange about a topic

•Social support and sharing Communiti

es of Interest

•Pursuing educational courses•Participation in the realization of collective projectsLearners’

Communities

•Professional practice development through sharing knowledge among members of professional communities.

Communities of

Practice


Participants


Forums and discussion boardsVideo- sharingPhoto- sharingNetworks of blogsSocial taggingVirtual worldsWikis


Participants


The supporting technologies have been extensively developed over the last thirty years.

1. Asynchronous Communication Technologies:

• Email: one to one messages• List servers• Bulletin boards

2. Synchronous Communication Technologies:

• Chat rooms• Conferencing systems• Multiuser domains


Participants


Not every interaction spot on the Internet is a labelled a community.

Researchers have devised different criteria to include or exclude the communities from study.

Preece (2001) specifies a set of criteria to check online communities.Sociability Usability

Number of participantsNumber of messages per a participantLevels of policy

Speed of learning the systemProductivityUser satisfactionRetention of participants

Examples: Advogato

Examples: BabyCenter Community

Influence Areas

How online communities used by many business organisations to develop and maintain a viable online marketplace.

How online communities help people improve their health care decision-making.

How can one’ s national and ethnic culture background influence his activities on online communities.

How online communities can alter notions of identity.

How reading and understanding others’ meaning from a text leads to emotional contagion and patterned responses.

More Communities, More Research on

More Communities, More Research: Limitations

Online communities based research abounds in topics and perspectives, but the field seems not to come of age yet. There is still a need for unifying research trends that can accumulate to the level of forming grounded theories.

Online Learning CommunitiesChallenges Discussion

1. The web technologies made it possible for learning to take place independently from time and place

2. Successful online learning experiences require a set of technical and cognitive skills.

3. Online learning is highly is self- initiated and goal oriented.

1. This demands a high level of moderation on the part of the instructor and a strong commitment on the part of learners.

2. Traditional learning environment may not prepare learners to develop a predisposition to online learning.

3. The learner may feel distracted and unmotivated.

Online Communities’ Impact on Politics

Achievements Discussion

1. OC are celebrated for introducing post- national identity politics.

2. OC are inducing political changes.

3. OC are helping direct democracy.

1. Territorial nationalism is giving way to a cultural sense of belonging to a nation.

2. Power relations in the real world are shaping the virtual scene.

3. Politics in OC is pursued by those who are already engaged in practical politics.

References Dasgupta, S. (2006). Encyclopedia of virtual communities and technologies. Hershey,

PA: Idea Group Reference. Koh, J., Kim, Y.-G., Butler, B., & Bock, G.-W. (2007). Encouraging Participation in Virtual

Communities. Communications of the ACM. 50 (2), 68. Memmi, D. (2006). The nature of virtual communities. AI & Society. 20 (3), 288-300. Preece, J. (2001). Sociability and usability in online communities: determining and

measuring success. Behaviour & Information Technology, 20(5), 347-356 Wilcox, A. (2007). Virtual Communities. Epidemiology. 18 (2), 185. http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/ http://www.webjunction.org/technology/web-tools/articles/content/438203 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community http://www.babycenter.com/ http://www.advogato.org/ http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi