“The notion of community has been at the heart of the internet since its inception” Online communities are a social network with a common interest, idea, task or goal that interact in a virtual society across time, and organizational boundaries and is able to develop personal relationships.
The role of online communities is a partial answer to how we as individuals can deal with an abundance of information that we are now faced with in the 21st century. Online communities help us to make sense of what is out there and it helps us as individuals be a part of online communities. Online simply means expressing yourself through participations. According to Terry Flew there is an element, “found in online community networks the scope to develop new forms of community, based upon the core principles of: an inclusive, supportive and convivial culture; education for citizenship and active learning; strong democracy and active citizenship; community-based health and well-being; economic equity, opportunity and sustainability; and freely available information and participatory media” (Flew, 2004) .
With online communities you are able to be someone who you are not entirely in real life. This is the point of online communities that I personally find the most interesting and the most disturbing. You could for example in real every day, be disabled however when you are online and in a virtual community you are able to construct new forms of identity and that is one of the most attractive qualities of online communities. Most people join or are a part of an online community so they can be seen in a different aspect of life. It is quite a disturbing notion as well.. As how well do people who are a part of an online community really know each other? If someone were disabled and a part of an online community would they make that point open to everyone or would they hide it and pretend that they really are normal just like everyone else? Or does it even matter that much when you are a part of an online community and do people just like you for you and your persona which comes across virtually? The questions I have are endless on this notion of online communities.
A major advantage and the best case scenario according to Axel Burns of an online community are active communities that share an understanding of information and interests. This is implying that all individuals within online communities are a part of that community because they all share a common interest or understanding. This best case scenario for me could potentially be a major problem. Some individuals join online communities for social aspects however joining an online community with a common interest and understanding an idea could have major problems for the entire universe. Take hate groups for example there could be an entire online community centred around a hate group and this in turn could produce a major hazard for the entire universe, as online they are able to organise events and plan without other people knowing.
So when it comes down to it Online Communities can be seen as step forward in technological and virtual advances. There are some aspects to me which are a bit freakish however in the end if it helps someone feel better about themselves and they can pretend to be someone there not for a few hours or minutes a day I say embrace it as i am sure there is still much more to come in the world of online communites.
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Interesting blog. I really found the point regarding not being who you really are in real life, interesting. This is a fact that has become a serious issue in some aspects of online community, for example you could look at the trust issues at play with online communities such as with the couchsurfing phenomena, where fake personas cause quite a problem and the safety of either parties involved in the community could become severely compromised and possibly create a criminal incident. However you could also look at this ability to change yourself as a more positive change where an individual may feel more at home being who they really are when becoming involved with an interest group. An example of this is a group I discussed in my own blog called Feeders- a group of people who get turned on by people or themselves putting on weight! I discovered this group by listening to Triple J one day where an interviewee discussed just how embarrassed they were to be part of this group but felt so at home as part of the online community. I think that this is one of the best but at the same time one of the worst characteristics of the online community- members are not necessarily who they are as part of physical world, whether they are themselves as part of an online community or in the physical local community.
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