ESTELITA V. L. , LMTA

La Salle Green Hills

Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Virtual Communit

y

Community

How do we define community?

Community is comprised of places where we know and interact with real people.

Community is also a group of people who enjoy the same things, or engage in the same activities, such as a club, team, or school.

The Cyber CommunityCyberspace, the Internet, can also be thought of as a community called the cyber community. It is comprised of places (websites) in which real people interact.

Community Travel Facts

Traveling in the Cyber Community is a lot like traveling in the community you live in.

Since the Internet community is made up of real people and real places, it’s important to think about the safety issues it presents.

Both communities contain inappropriate, as well as appropriate places to visit. Just like in the real community, inappropriate places in the Cyber community are unsafe, and should be avoided.

Ray Oldenburg

• states in The Great Good Place that people need three places: – Home – Workplace– Community hangout or gathering place

The Concentric Circles

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

Entertwined Subjects

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

Social Media (Soc Med)

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

• 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• World of Warcraft• Starcraft• Furcadia• Second Life• Warcraft

Examples of Communities in

GamesGenerally 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 non-geek

• Literally for anybody and everybody

Internet Users worldwide

How much of Singapore is online?

Fig. 7 Internet UsersFig. 6 Computer 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

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/cyberstalking.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

Four Realms Of Online Community• Social

– Social interaction– Solidarity– Individual & Institutional relations– Friendster, MySpace, Livejournal before 2006

now FB, Twitter, Viber, WeChat, KIK, Skype, Yahoo, Google+ etc

Four Realms Of Online Community• Political

– Collective formation of goals– Implementation of policy– online voting– online campaigning– online political activism– singaporegovt.blogspot.com, MPs using blogs

Four Realms Of Online Community• Economic

– 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

Four Realms Of Online Community• Cultural

– 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 leadership6. Define a clear, yet flexible, code of

conduct7. Organize and promote cyclic events8. Provide range of roles that couple

power with responsibility9. Provide range of roles that couple

power with responsibility

NetiquetteThe 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• 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

• 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 post-industrial 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 • 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 "Real-life"

Communication? • underestimates validity of online

communication• complementary to offline interaction• use of online comm. to facilitate broader

interaction offline