Online Community
Jonathan, Xian, Ximin, Bryan, Mahfudz, Thara
COM125B
Community
Ray Oldenburg
• states in The Great Good Place that people
need three places:
– Home
– Workplace
– Community hangout or gathering place
Community vs. Society
• “Community" is perceived to be a tighter and
more cohesive social entity within the context of
the larger society
• Due to the presence of a "unity of will“
(Ferdinand,1887)
Social Capital
• "the collective value of all social networks (who
people know) and the inclinations that arise from
these networks to do things for each other
(norms of reciprocity).”
by Robert D. Putnam
The Fall of Public Man by Richard Sennett,
• Community commonly refers to a set of
social relationships that operate within
specified boundaries or locales
• Community has an ideological component
as well, in that it refers to a sense of
common character, identity or interests
Community Aspects
• Place
• Interest
• Communion
Sense of Community
• Membership
• Influence
• Integration fulfillment of needs
• Shared emotional connection
McMillan and Chavis (1986)
Computer Mediated Communication
• Email, Bulletin boards, real time chat services
• Interpersonal, one to one, one to many, many to
many form of mass communication
Online/Virtual Community
• What is it?
– Interaction in a virtual environment
– Have a purpose
– Guided by norms and policies
(Preece, 2000)
Characteristics of an Online Community
• Social interactions
• Policies, sociability
• Software design
Online/Virtual Communities
Evolution of Technologies
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First came E-mail in ARPANET, 1971.
Listservers, invented in 1975.
First emoticon, “ -) ”, invented in 1979.
Improved graphical user interfaces, late 1980s.
Bulletin Boards appeared roughly at same time.
Moderated newsgroups introduced on Usenet in 1984.
First widely recognized non-technical online community,
WELL established in 1985.
• Internet Relay Chat (IRC) developed in 1988.
• Instant messaging, ICQ, invented in 1996.
• World Wide Web released in 1991.
Evolution of Technologies
• Early 1990s, highly sophisticated gaming worlds
emerged; Doom, Quake and Everquest.
• Graphical, three-dimensional environments appeared in
1995.
• Open-source movement and MP3 formats came about
as well.
• Other tech includes Internet phones, streaming video,
photos, sound, voice, webcams, blogs and wikis.
Brief History of Online Gaming Communities
Brief History of Online Gaming
Communities
• First appeared in MUDs.
• Tribes, released in 1997, raised the bar for
future game development.
• Total Annihilation, Warcraft and Starcraft
appeared next.
• Next leap was Ultima Online’s persistent world.
• Experienced players became ‘guides’, later
moderators and SysOps.
• Players carried online games into the real world.
• The Sims attracted non-traditional gamers.
Examples of Online Games with
Communities
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World of Warcraft
Starcraft
Furcadia
Second Life
Warcraft
Examples of Communities in
Games
Generally are known as ‘Clans’. However can
sometimes be called other names dependant on
the genre or game:
• Squads (First Person Shooters)
• Guilds (Role Playing Games)
• Alliances (EVE Online)
• Linkshells (Final Fantasy XI)
Gaming Community Websites
Some sites contain items to improve one’s online
gaming experiences. Some examples are:
• Gamefaqs
• Gamewinners
• Fileplanet
Famous Online Gaming Personalities
Some famous personalities include:
• Anshe Chung (Second Life)
• Leeroy Jenkins (WOW)Vid
Commercial Impact of Gaming
Communities
Due to the competitive nature and need for
distinction between gamers in communities,
some businesses have emerged.
• Professional gold farmers
• Property in Second Life
• Characters made for sale
Mods & Maps
Sometimes the community creates stuff to help
improve the game or to lengthen the playability
of a game. These include:
• Gameplay Mods (Gary’s Mod for Half-Life 2)
• Character Skins
• Multiplayer Maps
Real Life to Virtual
Sometimes events in real life take place in the
virtual world:
• Virtual Wedding
• WOW Funeral
• World of Offline Gaming
Segmentation of online communities
• Online communities now cater to everyone and
their mother
• Young and old, male or female, geek or nongeek
• Literally for anybody and everybody
Internet Users worldwide
How much of Singapore is online?
Fig. 6 Computer Users
Fig. 7 Internet Users
Who’s in charge here anyway?
• Administrators
From Wikipedia:
A forum administrator is a user who manages
the operational aspects of an Internet forum,
ranking above, and appointing, the forum
moderators. The owner of a forum is usually an
administrator.
Who’s in charge here anyway?
• Moderators
Also from Wikipedia:
A forum moderator, or Mod, is someone granted
special powers to enforce the rules (or, as the
case may be, their personal whim; the title refers
to the powers more than the intent) of an
Internet forum
Identity and Trust
• What is the cornerstone of any community?
• Linked to Online Identity
Real and Virtual: How does it compare?
• Is an online community really that different from
a “real” one?
• After all, segmentation here and segmentation
there is the same
• Identity and trust work the same way
Legal and Policy Issues
Legal and Policy Issues
• Net Neutrality
• Safety and Privacy
• Copyright
Net Neutrality Video
Safety and Privacy Issues
• Flaming
• Cyber Bullying
• Cyber stalking on the internet
– What is Cyber stalking?
– Some examples of Cyber stalking
– Here the privacy and anonymity aspect of the
internet helps the cyber stalkers
– Is this a “real” problem ? Evidence suggests
cyber stalking is a growing problem
(http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/cyberstal
king.htm)
– How can it be avoided?
Uses/Types of Virtual Communities
Gender based Virtual Communities
• 2 major theories
• Online communication is more equal, that
women are able to participate and complete
thoughts, in effect "softening social barriers."
(Shapiro 1999)
• online interaction is merely a reflection of
real world conversation where men dominate.
• Are women-only communities the only way to
give women a voice?
Cyber Activism
• Use communication technologies for faster
communications by citizen movements and
deliver a message to a large audience.
• Internet technologies used for cause-related
fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, community
building, and organizing.
• Growth- Peoples Global Action, Battle of Seattle,
U.S. election campaigns
• Tech Presidents
Cyber Activism-Criticisms
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_activism)
• Marginalizing minorities and elderly citizens
due to lack of access to or confidence in
emerging technologies
• Online political discussions lead to
"cyberbalkanization“- polarization rather than
consensus
• Make public feel involved rather than to
advance actual participation
• Impression of being part of a much larger
network than is necessarily the case.
Marketing through Virtual
Communities
• Community marketing creates communities
around products
• Able to engage your customer base in a natural
setting
• Ease of interaction allows for discussions
prohibited by barriers of traditional research
• Can strengthen bond between company and
consumer - create loyalty through personal
investment
• Can tighten the feedback loop
• Can can be used to reinforce, or manipulate
brand image
• Can be used as a "test group" to gauge new
products or advertising campaigns
Implications on Traditional Communities?
• Many claim offline interpersonal relationships
are affected-No longer know how to
communicate in face to face situations.
• More people looking for partners online rather
than in bars or cafes or through offline
friends.
• Claims that marriages are destroyed due to
online affairs through communities
• Claims that virtual communities are an
escape from real world problems.
• More people stay at home rather than to go
out and socialize - Meetup.com tries to fix
that!
Four Realms Of Online Community
How online communities are
utilized
• Social
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Four Realms Of Online
Community
Social interaction
Solidarity
Individual & Institutional relations
Friendster, MySpace, Livejournal
• Political
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Four Realms Of Online
Community
Collective formation of goals
Implementation of policy
online voting
online campaigning
online political activism
singaporegovt.blogspot.com, MPs using blogs
• Economic
Four Realms Of Online
Community
– Production, distribution & consumption of
goods and services
– company blogs (promote branding, image)
– online stores
– netizens sell things online (community: a
small word-of-mouth-built fanbase)
– price comparisons
– Acid Crue, Caliroots, ebay
• Cultural
Four Realms Of Online
Community
– Examines shared values & symbol systems
– gathering of people based on common themes,
lifestyles
– religious communities, art communities, music
communities
– IRC
• Different Cultures, Different Channels
Nine Rules For Making Online Communities
Work
Nine Rules For Making Online
Communities Work
1. Define the purpose of the community
2. Create Distinct gathering places
3. Create member profiles that evolve
over time
4. Create member profiles that evolve
over time
Nine Rules For Making Online
Communities Work
5. Promote effective leadership
6. Define a clear, yet flexible, code of
conduct
7. Organize and promote cyclic events
8. Provide range of roles that couple
power with responsibility
9. Provide range of roles that couple
power with responsibility
Netiquette
The 10 Commandments
of how to behave on the
Internet
Netiquette
• Rule 1: Remember the Human
• Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of
behavior online that you follow in real life
• Rule 3: Know where you are in
cyberspace
• Rule 4: Respect other people’s time and
bandwidth
• Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
Netiquette
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Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
Rule 8: Respect other people’s privacy
Rule 9: Don’t abuse your power
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people’s mistakes
Function of Community
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Vital for any individual
need to commune with society
social interaction beyond family and friends
stimulation and cohesiveness of society
Breakdown in Traditional Communities
• consequence of shift from industrial to postindustrial society
• (Cooke, 1990) community defined by industrial
society
• progression of concept of community
Role of Online Communities
• internet becoming more relevant and pervasive
• increase in number of communities
• rich enough? why do people use communites?
Information
• communities based on specialised shared
interests
• rich and varied source
• more helpful (Wellman & Gulia)
Social
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overcomes geographical and social distances
hides social cues
can close personal relationships develop?
development from interaction based on interests
to personal involvement
Are Online Communities Replacing "Reallife" Communication?
• underestimates validity of online
communication
• complementary to offline interaction
• use of online comm. to facilitate broader
interaction offline