Musings about my online community
The online community that I have chosen to look at is this class. This is primarily because I am interested in the use of Social Software (in particular blogs) and how they can used to enhance the learning of the material being taught in the class. This places me in a rather unique postion:
- I am a student of the class who is part of the learning community and contributes to the class' thoughts on what contributes to sustained interaction and involvement in a virtual community.
- I am also an observerof the class who has to distance to distance himself from the ongoing interactions in order to propose recommendations/features that would improve the community processes of the class.
This somewhat postmodern proposition of studying the class while at the same time participating in it is not new. The practice of being a participant-observer has already been raised in our readings on ethical issues. I think that here, being a participant-observer carries with it the responsibility that one should not only study but also contribute to the community. This I think is the key distinction to make when studying virtual communities; being a lurker researcher conveys the impression that one is present in the community to prey on the contributions of the members; being a contributor to the community while at the same time studying it might generate the impression that one is willing to contribute to forwarding the causes of the community.
On another note, a discussion I had with a faculty member today raised the question of whether virtual communities were possible if there did not exist its physical counterpart (or at least a core group) that had face-to-face interaction in the real world. There is much that has been said about the need for some form of physical interaction between members of a group before it can function successfully virtually. For instance, Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders, is about the most virtual community that I can think of. However, they too have found a need to have an annual meeting of at least the committee that administers the virtual community. I think that this relates to thoughts about design for online communities, where the design should take into account the need for some form of physical interaction as well.
- I am a student of the class who is part of the learning community and contributes to the class' thoughts on what contributes to sustained interaction and involvement in a virtual community.
- I am also an observerof the class who has to distance to distance himself from the ongoing interactions in order to propose recommendations/features that would improve the community processes of the class.
This somewhat postmodern proposition of studying the class while at the same time participating in it is not new. The practice of being a participant-observer has already been raised in our readings on ethical issues. I think that here, being a participant-observer carries with it the responsibility that one should not only study but also contribute to the community. This I think is the key distinction to make when studying virtual communities; being a lurker researcher conveys the impression that one is present in the community to prey on the contributions of the members; being a contributor to the community while at the same time studying it might generate the impression that one is willing to contribute to forwarding the causes of the community.
On another note, a discussion I had with a faculty member today raised the question of whether virtual communities were possible if there did not exist its physical counterpart (or at least a core group) that had face-to-face interaction in the real world. There is much that has been said about the need for some form of physical interaction between members of a group before it can function successfully virtually. For instance, Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders, is about the most virtual community that I can think of. However, they too have found a need to have an annual meeting of at least the committee that administers the virtual community. I think that this relates to thoughts about design for online communities, where the design should take into account the need for some form of physical interaction as well.
posted by jude at 5:05 AM
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