It is well over 20 years since The WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) was created, and Howard Rheingold coined the phrase the “Virtual Community”.
What was established in those early years of online community? What were the early users striving towards? What was their purpose in creating these forums?
Wild Parties!
Looking back at these often awkward IRL (In Real Life) meetings of the WELL community back in 1989, it is perhaps strange to think these, by their own admission, “introverted”, “intelligent misfits” would be responsible for the social networking phenomena!
Howard Rheingold, speaking in the above footage said: “The WELL is a place that you can drop in on while you’re sitting their on your computer, anytime.”
His draw, back in 1989, was the loneliness he associated with being a writer: “you find a lot of writers in bars”
Even back then, he succinctly described the WELL as “a big stream of information”, a “tremendous tool” and a “great place to hang out”!
One man interviewed in the above footage, saw the WELL as: “not doing what it is doing with any given purpose”
He did, however, note that: “One of the problems in the world is there are no more neighbourhoods in the city”
This “relatively small section of society” created the early Virtual Communities; their desire, to find people with a similar thirst for knowledge
Virtual Communities as Communities
Jump forward to the late 1990s - Wellman and Gulia’s fantastic paper: Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities As Communities.
The concerns of the internet being the “ultimate transformer” in destroying the old world view of community were examined. They identified that communities at the time were based more on “shared interests” than “shared social characteristics”.
Their challenge in writing this paper was the “limited evidence available” at the time.
Wellman & Gulia state: “Unfortunately, there have been few detailed ethnographic studies of virtual communities, no surveys of who is connected to whom and about what, and no time-budget accounts of how many people spend what amount of hours virtually communing”
Historically, this paper was generated in 1997, prior to the explosion in social networking sites such as Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Furnished with the information now available, is it possible that their concept of virtual community interaction would differ? Certainly Facebook appears to bring together people with “shared social characteristics”.
They do conclude, however: “The answers have not yet been found. The questions are just starting to be formulated”
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/netsurfers/netsurfers.pdf
These questions have subsequently started to be explored; Matt Hartnell, writing on his blog entitled: Real Community is Enhanced with Technology states: “I would even suggest, as many have done before me, that community should build relationships and relationships should change lives. Social networking should ultimately lead to a real in-person uniting where people can actually meet each other.”
http://blog.memberhub.com/real-community-is-enhanced-with-technology/
Dark Side / Consequence
One of the consequences of virtual community, is the ability to find connections with people who “share” interests/thoughts/deviances etc. One recently high profile story reflects all these fears and concerns. Vanessa George, Angela Allen & Colin Blanchard met through a social networking site. Barbara Ellen, writing for The Observer: “the sheer ease of the internet has created new, less obvious kinds” of deviance. Perhaps, she concludes, they may not have actively abused if they had not found like minded people?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/04/vanessa-george-paedophiles-barbara-ellen
In my previous blog, “Power to the Digital Youth?”, I briefly posed the question: “is target marketing the biggest challenge to the youth movement?” This is indeed another consequence of Virtual Community – personal information is often available through social networking, and with so many applications merely a tick-box and a button click away, people do not often consider the potential consequences of freely providing details to the “community”.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/facebook%20data%20protection%20row/1060467
I was drawn to the paper “Internet Use, Interpersonal Relations and Sociability” by Elissa Kranzler’s blog
http://www.mysocialnetwork.net/blog09/566/GR3/2009/02/the-dangers-of-technology.html
The paper looks at the dangers of displacement in face to face interaction. Another consequence of the vision of Virtual Community?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13550867/Nie-and-Hillygus-Internet-Use-on-Sociability
Following on from this point, Micah, writing on his “Learn to Duck” blog says: “Suddenly, social networks and networking became solely focused on the ability to market oneself, and much like standard ‘real world’ social groups began to value participants based on their connections rather than the value brought to the group itself. ‘Followers’ and ‘Friends’ have become currency.”
He does conclude, however that good: “Communities have one characteristic that cannot be manufactured: Trust.”
http://learntoduck.com/socialmedia/death.community
Future Community / Positive Consequence?
Mark H. Leichliter, asks: “Can Cyber Social Networks Help Rebuild Real Community?”. He looks at the opportunity to harness contacts on a global scale through education. A fantastic vision for the future: creating a new generation of Global Citizens through virtual community.
http://globalization.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_age_globalization
Perhaps some communities are gradually dying out too? Second Life’s popularity is dwindling – does the community aspect make or break technological trends?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8367957.stm
I conclude with the wise words of “future” Rheingold:
“We need to live in community”, but there is “a certain magic that happens with people, physically, together”
I’ve included the below link as it’s a site I’m going to explore. It’s a picture mosaic world map of 1001 Web 2.0 applications. Hope it maybe of interest to you?
http://www.appappeal.com/web-2-0-application-world-mosaic/
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