Technical description six

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.facebook.com

What is the brief or focus of this community To help it’s members keep in touch with their friends, or make new ones. Shows others their interests and what’s important to them, photos help old friends see what’s been happening since they last saw each other.

What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute? Members have a profile with optional information about them and their interests. Can make photo albums and ‘tag’ the people in them. ( If a friend is tagged, that picture is them put onto their page as photos of ___) There are many applications for music, picture grids for your friends, doing various quizzes. Friends can leave comments on your page and photos. Members can make new pages for groups and invite friends to join and or become moderators of the page for the group. Some primary applications are free gifs that you can send to friends such as hugs or flowers, and ‘superpokes’ where you can ‘dance, poke, hi-5, throw a sheep at’ etc with or at any of your friends making the connections more personal than just comments.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking? Facebook lets its members connect with old and new friends. Comments and gives them a sense of belonging.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt). hellooo! thank you for your groovy birthday tune! tho you were a little out of tune... a ha ha ha... ok not funny... i see you have been enjoying some snow! looks like fun! make sure my sister behaves herself in chchchch! Xox – anon.

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. Privacy is better on facebook than say, bebo, as you can’t view someone’s profile unless they have accepted you as a friend. However, with the tagging of photos etc, they are being posted around on many peoples pages without their consent. Putting information on your profile and accepting people you don’t know allows people to track you easily and communicate to you in other ways than facebook.

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 -Members can talk to there friends all over the world so easily and keep in contact. -Making friends from all over the world without leaving the house - Ability to express yourself through personalising your page - Excitement of getting new comments or ‘superpokes’ or gifts.

Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can. -Members don’t have face to face contact unless they live in your area. -Messages are often misinterpreted -People often use these online communities instead of socialising within their own real community.